Questions, answered straight

A virtual card shop: a real trading-card store that lives online. You buy booster packs and rip them here. Every card you pull is a virtual card (a digital collectible) you own in your vault. Keep it, sell it back to the shop instantly, or redeem it to have the real card shipped to your door. Boxes are cryptographically committed before they sell, so the odds are provable, not promised.

PackLab is a virtual card shop. Every pack always delivers its full, disclosed count of virtual cards at live market value, each one redeemable for the real card — the same product a hobby shop sells, opened online. Box structure and headliner odds are published before you buy and cryptographically verifiable after. Any card converts back to Sparks instantly at a flat 85%, or ships to your door, and Sparks are closed-loop store credit with no cash-out — value leaves only as real cards. It's a shop, built and run as one. Full wording in the Terms.

Sparks () are our store credits. Every value on the site is shown and paid in them. 100 Sparks per dollar when you buy them, so 500 costs $5.00. Your first qualifying deposit includes one free booster pack (it applies to the Sparks packages, not custom amounts — the deposit page marks exactly which tiers qualify): the bigger that first deposit, the pricier the pack, up to vintage packs on the biggest tiers (the exact pack tracks live market prices; one per account). Packages from $100 always add +10% bonus Sparks, +15% at $2,500 and up. Card values in Sparks track live market data from marketplaces like TCGplayer, so they're what the card is worth here, not a cash balance.

Once you've verified your email but haven't deposited yet, you may see a one-time offer to boost your first deposit with bonus Sparks (currently a 100% match — double it — up to a capped amount shown on the offer) right as you're about to leave. It appears once: take it then, or it's gone. It stacks on top of the normal first-deposit free pack rather than replacing it, and—like every bonus here—the Sparks are closed-loop store credit with no cash value. Full wording in the Terms.

No. Sparks have no cash value and can't be withdrawn, exchanged for cash or gift cards, or sent to other users. They only spend here, on packs and fees. Value leaves the site as real cards shipped to your door. That's the deal, stated up front; the full rules are in Terms §3.

Save a card once and you can add Sparks in a single tap — no re-entering card details and no full-page redirect. You pick an amount, a small confirmation shows exactly what you'll be charged and the Sparks (plus any bonus) you'll get, and after you confirm the card is charged and the Sparks land right away. It only ever charges when you tap to buy — no subscription and no automatic charges — and you can remove the card anytime. On our mobile apps, purchases keep going through the secure external checkout instead.

Your card is stored by Stripe, a PCI-compliant payment processor — the card fields you type go straight to Stripe inside their own secure frame. PackLab never receives or stores your full card number: we keep only the brand, last four digits, and expiry to show you which card it is. Remove a saved card (or close your account) and we detach it from Stripe and delete those stored details. See Privacy §1 and Terms §3c.

Yes — when your device and browser offer them, Apple Pay and Google Pay show up automatically as ways to pay and to save a card for one-tap top-ups. They're handled by Stripe like any other card; your card number never reaches PackLab.

A one-tap top-up is a Sparks purchase like any other: final and non-refundable once the Sparks are credited, to the fullest extent the law allows — but your Sparks stay spendable, never expire while your account is active, and every card sells back for Sparks. You always confirm the amount before you're charged. There's no daily deposit limit; the only cap is a very high ⚡25,000,000 ($250,000) balance ceiling almost no one will reach. Full terms: Refund Policy.

Every set sells packs from a real, small box (36 packs for current sets) whose complete contents are locked by a published cryptographic fingerprint before the first rip. Buy as many packs as you want; they sit sealed on your shelf and only claim a spot in the box when you actually open them. Packs open front-to-back exactly like the real product, rare at the back, code card last.

Some sets have collectible extras. Overlays are special foil patterns (Master Ball, Poké Ball) stamped on a reverse-holo card. A Master Ball copy is worth more and sells back and ships as its own market print. Demigod Packs upgrade several slots to hits, and God Packs make every slot a hit, both extremely rare. Each set's exact overlay odds are on its product page. God and Demigod odds have no official source, so we show community estimates clearly labeled as estimates, only on sets documented to have them. All of these are locked in the box fingerprint and re-verifiable on the Verify page, and their value is folded into the pack price so every box of a set costs the same.

For products whose real Elite Trainer Box ships a promo, yes: you get that exact Black Star promo, minted into your vault at market value. For older ETBs that officially include no promo (the standard Sun & Moon and Sword & Shield boxes), we add our own pick, a popular card from that set, clearly labeled on the product page as our take, not the official ETB promo. Either way it's minted at its live market value and you can keep, ship, or sell it back like any card.

Three options, per card: keep it in your vault, sell it back instantly for 85% of its live market value in Sparks (VIP tiers earn more), or redeem it to have the real card shipped to you for a flat 499 per card. Cards worth $100+ (10,000+) ship fully insured & signature-required after a quick review, and carry a 5% insurance & handling fee on the card's value on top of the flat 499 (details).

A Mystery Pack is a sealed pack you split open for a dynamic price starting at 1,000, or free from a referral reward. It awards you a real booster of a random live set, which you then rip like any other pack, so you always get a real pack, never nothing. The set is picked provably fairly and weighted by value: cheaper boosters are common, and the big vintage sets are rare. Most opens land under the price and the huge ones are a genuine rarity, so like every pack it's for the fun, not a way to make money. The exact live odds for every value tier and the average return are shown on the Mystery Pack page before you open, and every result is verifiable. It works on the same drand system as boxes, and the odds table itself is fingerprinted before your roll so it can't be changed.

Skip the rip and grab the exact card you want. On the Marketplace you buy a specific virtual card outright with Sparks, priced at its live market value plus a small store markup, shown before you confirm. It lands in your vault with the same rights as anything you pull: keep it, ship it home, or sell it back at 85% anytime. Single purchases are final at checkout.

The more cash you spend on Sparks in a calendar month, the higher your VIP tier. Higher tiers pay you a better sell-back rate, a bigger daily Sparks claim, and a one-time reward when you first reach them. Your tier tracks the cash you pay for Sparks each month. Tiers are house-funded perks with no cash value, and, as shown up front, your monthly progress resets on the 1st. Anything you've already earned or qualified for is honored; we never claw back rewards. See it live on the Rewards page.

A free daily bonus: a fixed amount of Sparks, the same every day. Once your email is verified, you've made a qualifying Sparks purchase within the active window (shown on your wallet page), and your account is more than a day old, you can claim one bonus per day(the amount is shown on your wallet page). It's a promotional credit: closed-loop Sparks with no cash value, never redeemable for cash.

Sometimes, yes. You can earn Sparks by completing offers or surveys from our third-party partner (Lootably): a fixed, disclosed amount credited when the partner confirms you finished — the same reward every time, with no draw and no random outcome. It's a loyalty reward, not a deposit. Earned Sparks are closed-loop store credit with no cash value, and because they aren't a purchase they don't unlock the first-deposit free pack, VIP progress, or other purchase-only perks. Signed-in adults 18+ only, subject to per-person daily and lifetime limits; if the offer network later reverses a completion, the matching Sparks are removed. Full wording in Terms §3a.

Give a pack, get a pack: share your personal invite link (on the Invite page or in your wallet). When your friend joins through it and makes their first Sparks purchase of $9.99+, you BOTH get a free Mystery Pack open — a real booster of a random live set (you also need a qualifying Sparks purchase of your own to earn your side). One reward per side, per invited friend, with a daily fairness cap. And the daily bonus: once your email is verified, you've made a qualifying Sparks purchase within the active window, and your account is a day old, you can claim a free, fixed Sparks bonus every day.

We source on redemption: when you ship a card, we get that exact card — sometimes buying it from a major marketplace such as TCGplayer for direct shipment, sometimes ordering it in to us or filling it locally — and mail it to you, usually with tracking. Sourcing typically takes 1–14 days depending on the method and the card's rarity, then about 2–7 days in the mail. When we bring a card in to us first, that leg is about 3–12 days and we ship it out to you within 48 hours of it arriving; any tracking number is for that final shipment to you, not for a card's movement to us. High-value cards ($100+) always ship fully insured, tracked, and signature-required. We ship the best condition we can find — usually Near Mint. Because our catalog is huge, some older sets are hard to source in top condition; when Near Mint isn't available we ship the best available grade (often Lightly or Moderately Played, and occasionally Heavily Played) rather than cancelling. If a card is purchasable there, it's shippable here. If we ever can't source it in any condition, you get 100% of its live value in Sparks plus your fee back.

Modern packs include the set's online code card. Redeem it and we email you the actual code for a 249 processing fee; the physical code card is never mailed. Availability is automatic: whenever TCGplayer stocks that set's code cards (we re-check daily), yours can be redeemed, and we buy the code fresh for every redemption. Or just sell it back like any card.

Before a box sells a single pack we publish SHA-256 fingerprints of its full ordered card list and our secret seed, plus a pointer to a future drand public-randomness round. The shuffle is fixed by data that didn't exist when the box was sealed, and when the last pack rips, everything is published and your own browser re-verifies it. No one, including us, can see a live box's remaining contents.

Yes. Once a box completes (its last pack is ripped), we publish the secret seed, the drand beacon value, and the full ordered card list. Head to the Verify page, pull up that box, and your own browser recomputes both fingerprints, re-derives the shuffle, and replays every pack, including yours, from the public data. If any of it had been altered, the hashes wouldn't match. You never have to trust us; the math checks itself.

Card prices move around the clock, so a box waiting on deck can be withdrawn and re-sealed at a freshly solved price if the market moves sharply before it opens. No pack is ever drawn from a withdrawn box, packs you already bought keep their price, and a live box's contents never change, though its pack price tracks the live market up or down as it sells. Repricing uses only published card prices, never a box's hidden contents, so it can't filter out strong boxes.

Unopened packs can be refunded in Sparks at the price paid via support (at our discretion). Opened packs are final, but every card sells back instantly at published rates, so you're never stuck. Unspent Sparks may be refunded to your original payment method at our discretion or where the law requires. Details in the Refund Policy.

Treat it as entertainment, not investing. A pack is priced at a margin over the market value of its contents (each set's odds and pack price are published on the odds page), and card prices swing and selling cards back returns 85%, so opening packs to turn a profit loses over time. The guaranteed box structure and full odds are on every product page, so you can see exactly what you're buying. Rip for the fun and the collection. If it stops being fun, sell your vault back and step away.

The bell in the top nav keeps you posted on things that happen to your account: a box you ripped from completing (so you can verify it), a shipment update, a rank-up, and more. Each one deep-links straight to where it happened, and opening the bell marks them read. These notifications are in-app only — we don't email you about every one. Separately, we email you about your account (receipts, shipping, password resets) and occasionally about offers and new sets; every promotional email has a one-click unsubscribe, and opting out never affects your account emails.

Adults 18+, in jurisdictions where the service is offered. Age is self-certified at signup, and you'll need a valid U.S. or Canadian shipping address to have cards mailed to you.

Signed in, open Messages in your account for a back-and-forth conversation you can follow, and you'll get a notification when we reply. Prefer email? Write support@packlab.gg. Either way, a real person reads every message and we usually reply within 24 hours.