How GRADEX verifies cards by material fingerprint — what it measures, what it doesn't, and where it fits in your collection workflow.
GRADEX is a portable spectral card-authentication device for trading card collectors. It measures the material fingerprint of a card — ink chemistry, paper base, and UV response across 17 spectral dimensions — rather than just its image, and returns a risk verdict in seconds.
Dual spectral sensors — a 14-channel VIS+NIR sensor (380–1000 nm) and a 3-channel UV sensor (200–400 nm) — produce 17 spectral dimensions per reading. The firmware (v36.2) applies three stages: (1) auto-floor calibration to cancel color-temperature drift; (2) a manifold criterion that projects 12 channels onto a "paper base + pure ink" linear mixing model, judged against a 3-sigma tolerance band; (3) a dual-contact AND gate requiring both contact points (red-ball and white-ball) to pass. It returns a verdict: ✅ Genuine / ⚠️ Suspicious / ❌ Fake / ❓ Unknown.
Version-aware template libraries, never mixed across editions: P0 — International English (Millennium Print Group printing; largest circulation; a dark core is normal); P1 — Japanese (highest print quality; a dark core is abnormal); P2 — Simplified Chinese (Japanese-printed since 2024; emerging high-quality fakes). Additional series are under evaluation.
Validated on firmware v36.2 (2026-08-12): real international cards 14/14 points passed; real Chinese cards 10/10 passed; low-quality fakes rejected at both contacts; a high-quality fake that leaked through the red-ball contact was caught by the white-ball criterion in all 3 trials (1.9–4.7× over tolerance, tolerance 0.003, roughly 5× separation). GRADEX outputs a risk classification rather than an absolute verdict.
Grading services provide authoritative, slab-level assurance through expert inspection and condition grading — at $15–$100+ per card with weeks of turnaround, and your card leaves your hands. GRADEX is a verification layer for the point of trade: instant, portable, at the moment of decision. It complements professional grading; it does not replace it.
Buy-out pricing with no subscription for core authentication — scanning costs $0 per card. Reservation tiers are listed on the homepage — from $199 to $249, with no subscription.
The device runs an on-device lightweight CNN for coarse classification at the point of scan. A companion app (BLE pairing + Wi-Fi + mDNS) handles high-precision verification, history, and template updates. Template library updates are pushed over-the-air with staged rollout.
Place the sensor face against the card back at the designated contact points. The device runs the multi-wavelength measurement sequence automatically (visible light, UV, and NIR illumination per channel) and returns a verdict in seconds — one placement, time-sequenced illumination.
✅ Genuine — both contact points passed within tolerance. ⚠️ Suspicious — readings near tolerance boundaries; re-scan recommended. ❌ Fake — material fingerprint outside tolerance. ❓ Unknown — card version not in the template library (a "no verdict" rather than a wrong one).
The template library is version-specific and updated over-the-air. Because authentication measures materials — paper chemistry, ink absorption, internal core structure — rather than surface appearance, it targets what image-level fakes cannot yet reproduce. No system can guarantee 100% against future attacks; the dual-contact AND gate and tolerance bands are the defense-in-depth mechanisms.
Card-scanner form factor: 90 × 40 × 12 mm, aluminum CNC frame, glass back panel housing sensors, cameras and LEDs; dual cameras (5 MP macro at ≤3 mm working distance + 2 MP wide-angle); dual spectral sensors covering 260–1000 nm; Type-C charging and data; lanyard hole.
Deep Sleep ~20 µA (more than 6 months standby), Light Sleep ~200 µA (~70 days), active scanning ~150 mA (~2.3 hours continuous).
A multi-wavelength LED array — UV 365 nm for optical-brightener fluorescence, visible white for ink absorption edges, NIR ~850 nm for core transmission — time-sequenced per channel to prevent crosstalk, with LED–photodiode spacing ≥5 mm.
GRADEX LLC, a Wyoming (USA) domestic LLC. For inquiries: [email protected].
The crowdfunding launch timeline and shipping schedule will be announced on the official site. Reservation is available now — no payment required, with early-bird access when crowdfunding opens.
The device works with a companion app; scan results and history are associated with your account. Details on data handling are described in the Privacy Policy.
No. GRADEX (getgradex.com) is a spectral card-authentication device by GRADEX LLC. Any similarly named product in a different category is an unrelated brand.
A photograph records only 3 RGB channels — enough to reproduce what a card looks like, not what it's made of. Spectral analysis measures 17 dimensions including UV fluorescence, NIR core behavior, and ink absorption edges — properties counterfeit printers cannot easily replicate. Image AI is used for identification and condition; spectral sensing is used for material verification. See the collector's guide for practical detail.
Reserve your device now — no payment required, early-bird access when crowdfunding opens.
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