Custom labels

Custom Graded Card Labels, Color Matched to Your Card

Every other grading company gives you the same white label. MPE designs a custom slab label for each individual card — the palette pulled from the card's own artwork — and seals it inside a real, serialized, tamper-evident slab. Add it to any submission for $3 a card.

Three label styles, one add-on

Every MPE slab ships with a label carrying the year, set, player, grade and a unique serial you can check any time with our cert lookup. The only question is how that label looks. The +$3 custom label add-on covers both custom styles — you tell us which one you want, per card or across the whole submission.

MPE standard graded card label

Standard label

Included with every grade. Crisp set, player, grade and serial on the classic MPE layout.

MPE color matched graded card label

Color Match — +$3/card

The same clean layout, repainted in two colors taken from the card itself.

MPE Custom Series AI-designed slab label

MPE Custom Series — +$3/card

Full original artwork generated behind the label, so the slab reads as one piece.

Color Match and MPE Custom Series are the same $3 add-on — pick a style at checkout. See live examples of both.

Color Match vs Custom Series — what's the difference?

Both are custom labels and both cost the same. The difference is how much of the label they change.

  Color Match MPE Custom Series
What changes The label's two colors The entire label background
Where it comes from Colors read off the card — jersey, parallel, border Original artwork generated for that one card
Layout Identical to the standard MPE label Art runs full-bleed behind the text
Best for Team sets and parallel runs you want to look uniform A single hit you want to stand out on the shelf
Price +$3/card +$3/card

What "color matched" actually means

Color Match keeps the MPE layout exactly as it is and swaps the palette. Before your card is encapsulated it is photographed at high resolution, and our label engine reads that scan to pull two colors from it — the player's jersey, the parallel's foil tone, the border. Those two colors become the label's background, with the darker one carrying the grade.

Because the colors are read off your particular card rather than picked from a dropdown, two copies of the same card in different parallels come back with different labels. Where the engine recognises the team, it uses that club's real colors instead of an approximation, so a Dodgers card gets Dodger blue rather than "a blue".

What the MPE Custom Series is

The Custom Series goes further than a recolor. Instead of tinting the existing label, we generate original artwork for that single card and run it full-bleed behind the text — the set, player, grade and serial sit on top of a piece of art that exists for one slab only.

Most "custom slab labels" on the market are a handful of fixed templates: you pick a background from a dropdown and your name gets dropped on it. Ours are generated per card from its own scan, so no two come out the same.

How to create a custom grading card label

You don't design or print anything yourself. A label has to go inside a sealed, tamper-evident slab to be worth anything, so custom labels happen as part of grading:

  1. Start a submission and choose a service level — Standard $5, Premium $7, Express $9 or Diamond $15 per card.
  2. Tick "Custom Color Matching Labels" (+$3/card) and pick your style — Color Match or MPE Custom Series. Apply it to a single card or to the whole submission.
  3. Ship your cards in. Each one is scanned at high resolution on arrival.
  4. We build the label from that scan — colors pulled for Color Match, original art generated for Custom Series — and lay the set, player, grade and serial over it.
  5. Grade, seal and ship back — your card comes home in a premium slab behind a label that exists for it alone.

What custom labels cost

Both custom styles are a flat +$3 per card on top of whichever grading tier you pick. There is no minimum order, no separate design fee, and no price difference between Color Match and the Custom Series.

Standard grading + custom label $5 grading, 90-day turnaround, plus $3 custom label art.
$8/card
Express grading + custom label $9 grading, 10-day turnaround, plus $3 custom label art.
$12/card

For context, the cheapest label from a legacy grader is a plain white one that costs more than an MPE card with custom art on it. See how the numbers line up on MPE vs PSA, MPE vs SGC and MPE vs Beckett.

Custom label FAQ

What is a custom graded card label?

A custom graded card label replaces the plain white label at the top of a slab with a design made for that specific card. MPE offers two styles: Color Match, which repaints the standard label in colors read off the card, and the MPE Custom Series, which puts original artwork behind the whole label. Either way it still carries set, year, player, grade and a unique serial number you can verify online.

What's the difference between Color Match and the MPE Custom Series?

Color Match keeps the standard MPE layout and changes only its two colors, taken from your card's jersey, parallel or border — it looks deliberate across a whole team set. The Custom Series replaces the label background entirely with original artwork generated for that one card. Both are the same $3 per card add-on; you pick the style when you submit.

How do I create a grading card label?

You don't have to design or print anything. Add the Custom Color Matching Labels option to your submission for $3 per card, choose Color Match or Custom Series, and the label is built from your card's own scan during grading, then printed and sealed inside the slab. A home-printed label can't be inserted into a sealed, tamper-evident slab — which is why custom labels are done as part of grading rather than from a template you download.

How much do custom slab labels cost?

$3 per card on top of your grading tier, which starts at $5 per card. A graded card with a custom label starts at $8 all in. Color Match and the Custom Series are the same price.

What does color matched mean?

The label's palette is pulled from the card sitting underneath it rather than picked from a short list of fixed backgrounds. A teal parallel gets a teal label; a red-bordered rookie gets a red one. Where we recognise the team, the label uses that club's real colors.

Can I put a custom label on a card that's already graded?

Yes. Send the slab in and we'll crack, re-grade and re-encapsulate it with your custom label. It's priced as a normal submission plus the $3 add-on.

Are custom labels available on every service level?

Yes — Standard, Premium, Express and Diamond. You can apply them to a single card or to an entire submission run.

Does a custom label affect the grade?

No. Grading and label design are separate steps. Your card is graded on centering, corners, edges and surface exactly the same way whether it gets a standard or a custom label.