A new card grading company emerged earlier this month with promises to provide cheap and transparent grading using artificial intelligence and machine-learning technology.
But two weeks after its launch, Zeagley Grading Services has already halted submissions, aired public spats on its website and avoided providing any substantial insight into its grading process or ownership structure.
Less than 40 minutes after ending a call with cllct Tuesday, the company’s website had disappeared. It returned Thursday with only the popular gif of former professional wrestler The Undertaker rising from a coffin, floating against a background image of Freddie Freeman's walk-off grand slam from Game 1 of the 2024 World Series.
On Friday, Zeagley’s website had been updated to show a photoshopped variation of the Freeman image with a countdown clock ending July 29. The National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago takes place July 30 to Aug. 3.
Zeagley made a quiet debut via press release June 13, saying its team of former Amazon, Google and Meta engineers could deliver the “next-generation sports card grading platform powered entirely by artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
Zeagley said it would have a booth at Fanatics Fest 2025 in New York to demonstrate its technology firsthand by grading cards “in less than one second.”
The company has “already attracted early attention from major names, including DraftKings,” the release said.
In the days following its launch, Zeagley faced scrutiny from hobbyists, with many calling for additional transparency into its grading process and the company founders.
The first public hurdle for Zeagley came June 17 when the company said it had received a cease-and-desist letter from Collectors, the parent company of grading giant PSA.
The letter, portions of which were obtained by cllct and also posted to Zeagley’s website, demanded Zeagley halt use of its label, which Collectors claimed violated PSA’s trademark and trade dress. In the letter, Collectors also requested Zeagley destroy any remaining stock of labels.
After this story originally published Friday, PSA confirmed it did send the cease-and-desist letter.
Following the alleged cease-and-desist request, cllct attempted to discover who was behind the launch of Zeagley and learn what makes the company different from the industry’s current offerings.
On June 18, cllct was provided with a Google Voice number to schedule an interview with a member of the company. Rather than speak with a founding member, cllct would be connected with a spokesperson it was told it could refer to as “Ace.”
Cllct spoke with “Ace” on June 19 for 75 minutes.
During the call, “Ace” provided a basic overview of the company’s AI and machine-learning technology that it uses to grade cards.
“We don’t want to give too much away, but at a high level, we’re getting thousands of data points on every card,” the spokesperson told cllct. “And from that, our software can do anything. It’s not just cards, we’ve scraped everything from the web.”
According to “Ace,” Zeagley initially began to form roughly two years ago from a group of card collectors with engineering backgrounds. Public records show Zeagley LLC was officially formed March 17, 2025.
"Ace" told cllct the company had analyzed more than 1,000 cards over the last year that had been graded by other companies to test for accuracy and consistency. He said Zeagley believed 80% of those cards were graded incorrectly.
“Over the last year, I would say we’ve graded cards at several different companies and the data we have, if we were to release it — we would be sued into oblivion,” “Ace” said. “So it’s shocking what we found.”
Additional details provided for the grading process were vague.
According to “Ace,” the label was made using AI, and Zeagley was adamant for it to have a QR code on the front. The company would be working with a graphic designer to create a new label. Whether it would be a standard label or have custom designs was still being researched.
The grading process itself is extremely simple, with human hands still being used to place cards before and after scanning. Little insight was given into the holdering process.
“It’s pretty much all automated,” the spokesperson said. “We don't really have to tell it to start to scan. We don’t really have to tell any of the hardware to turn on. We don’t have to tell the software to run. We pretty much place the card and pick the card back up.”
According to “Ace,” the company doesn’t employ any former graders, but its members do have card backgrounds. When asked what safety nets or processes are in place to correct mistakes or improve the software, “Ace” said Zeagley hadn’t run into any issues.
“That’s kind of all baked into the system’ right? Not to get too technical, but you basically are looking at sort of an ‘if-else,’” they said. “If the condition is 'true,' do this, else do that. So that’s all sort of baked into the software. There’s logging, and we get errors if the software has issues, but ultimately our [quality assurance] has been going on for over a year. We haven’t had a problem at all.”
“Ace” then explained the proposed software to cllct further.
“Think of the model as a human. The model is continuously learning. The model is not done. The model is always learning,” they said. “The model knows more than any human on this planet ever will.
“The model knows more than just sports cards. The model has crawled all over the web, and we've trained it for probably over a year on exactly how we want the model to behave and fine-tuned to the point that we think we're ready.”
When questioned by cllct about his role with the company a second time, “Ace” said he was acting as Zeagley’s CEO in addition to its spokesperson.
When asked about the company’s use of PSA’s trademark, “Ace” told cllct Zeagley would likely comply with the cease-and-desist. He also denied claims made by individual hobbyists on social media that the entire holder pictured — not just the label — was a visually-altered PSA slab.
During cllct’s call June 19, Zeagley posted an update to its website saying submissions would be paused, and the company would no longer be demonstrating its service at Fanatics Fest. “Ace” said the company had received about 1,000 orders prior to pausing service and those customers would be refunded.
It’s currently unclear if any cards were mailed to Zeagley for grading.
With Zeagley’s technology still largely unclear, cllct made repeated attempts to learn about the company infrastructure, its founders and funding.
The company was largely made up of engineers who were impacted by tech layoffs, “Ace” told cllct. Who these engineers were, exactly, he wouldn’t say. Zeagley was operating “pretty lean” at the moment, but had between 50 and 100 paid employees, he said.
“Ace” wouldn’t offer up additional details on the founders. Cllct agreed not to publish names of individuals if it could independently confirm the engineers had the background Zeagley claimed they did.
Cllct’s requests were repeatedly declined
Zeagley offered little insight into the company’s funding.
“The long and short is it’s a little bit of private and a little bit of public money,” they said, “but I think this weekend will change that.”
On June 18, Zeagley’s website featured a prominent “DraftKings” logo next to an advertisement for additional funding. “Want to invest?” the ad read. “Contact us for our next series of funding and join in with our existing partners.”
The advertisement and DraftKings logo were eventually removed from Zeagley’s website during one of the company updates written directly onto the homepage.
A DraftKings spokesperson later told cllct the company has no official relationship with Zeagley.
Additional requests to independently vet engineers and founders of the company were repeatedly declined by “Ace.”
“We’re not in a typical scenario,” he said. “We’re involved with lawyers, and there’s a lot of money at stake. I’m closing dealers tomorrow, and I don’t need the distraction.”
Instead, “Ace” offered to meet cllct in New York during Fanatics Fest from June 20-22. He clarified Zeagley never had a booth booked at the event, but there was intent to set up a “pop-up” tent outside of the venue to demonstrate the company’s ability to take initial scans in “about a millisecond.”
Cllct set a tentative window to meet midday on Friday, June 20.
Early that day, Zeagley’s website confirmed it would comply with PSA’s cease-and-desist request and had halted submissions.
“We complied with the cease and desist — not because we agree, but because we’d rather innovate than fight in court,” the note read. “Our new label is underway, and we’re committed to doing things the Zeagley way: with innovation, not intimidation. At Zeagley, we’re focused on building a grading system that collectors deserve.”
A text message from cllct to the Google Voice number used by “Ace” at 1:38 p.m. ET on June 20 wasn’t returned.
“Sorry got swamped, update on the site now,” read a text message from the Google Voice number used by “Ace” to cllct on June 22 at 9:49 p.m. ET.
The update on Zeagley’s homepage wrote of a meeting with Fanatics Live CEO Nick Bell on Saturday as well as a “total accident” meeting in an elevator with two employees from Mantel, a popular social media website dedicated to cards, collectibles and memorabilia.
“We gave them a quick, on-the-fly demo, and now we’re scheduled to talk again soon,” Zeagley’s update read.
Fanatics declined cllct’s request for confirmation Bell met with Zeagley representatives in any capacity.
A source for Mantel confirmed to cllct two employees ran into a Zeagley representative in an elevator during the event, but an official meeting was never set, and the reported demo of the company’s services were screenshots rather than video.
The source confirmed to cllct Mantel has no relationship with Zeagley. According to a Mantel source, the Zeagley representative introduced himself as “Kyle,” but didn’t provide a last name.
Two addresses are listed in Zeagley’s filings, including one that directs to Northwest Registered Agent. According to Northwest’s website, registered agent services are a way to “keep your sensitive personal data private and out of your company’s public information.”
The second address listed in Zeagley’s filings is a mailing address that directs to a post office in Seattle. “Ace” told cllct Zeagley planned to use that address to pick up cards that were mailed in for grading.
According to a Mantel source, the Google Voice number given to the team by “Kyle” is the same number cllct has used to communicate with “Ace.”
After a text message by cllct to the number provided for “Kyle” and “Ace” wasn’t returned Monday, the employee cllct had previously spoken to agreed to a second interview Tuesday.
When reached by cllct, “Ace” said he had personally shown Mantel employees a demo of Zeagley’s service at the Bleecker Trading booth during Fanatics Fest.
According to “Ace,” the company had been considering all paths forward. Following concerns about trustworthy suppliers that could provide the plastic holders need to grade cards at scale, the company was considering white-labeling its technology.
“Ace” said the meetings so far had largely involved Zeagley’s AI and machine-learning technology rather than its grading services. Zeagley would also be shifting its focus from accepting investments to partnerships.
Additional requests by cllct to confirm identities and backgrounds of founders at the company were repeatedly denied. The person speaking as “Ace” declined cllct’s request to confirm whether “Ace” and “Kyle” were the same employee working for Zeagley.
After originally taking credit for showing Mantel employees a demo in New York, the person speaking as “Ace” claimed he was never at Fanatics Fest, and “Kyle” was a different employee.
“Ace” then denied multiple cllct requests for any additional transparency.
“The people we want to know who we are, know who we are,” they said. ”We don't care what the public thinks. The public is not writing checks and not doing deals.”
One of cllct’s final questions to “Ace” was whether Zeagley felt customers should know the backgrounds of the founders before sending cards or money to the company.
“We're not even a grading company anymore,” he said. “Who knows what we are anymore? Maybe we dissolve tomorrow. Like I said, maybe we're acquired tomorrow, and Zeagley never even existed. I really don't even know what's going to happen.”
The second call between cllct and “Ace” on Tuesday lasted 55 minutes and ended at 4:18 p.m. ET.
An attempt to reach Zeagley’s website by cllct at 4:58 p.m. ET that day was met with an error.
By early Thursday, the website, which has a listed owner of Domains By Proxy, LLC, had returned with the Freeman photograph and spinning GIF of The Undertaker.
An online search for “Zeagley” on Thursday listed the company as an online auction marketplace rather than a grading company.
“This online marketplace facilitates secure local auctions for buyers and sellers,” a preview for the company read. “Sellers list items and set a starting bid, while buyers compete to offer the best price. The platform prioritizes speed and convenience, allowing for quick sales and competitive bidding.”
A text message to the Google Voice number previously used by “Ace” and “Kyle” asking for clarity on a possible company pivot wasn’t immediately returned Thursday afternoon.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.