Effective date: 2026-10-04
GrailSociety is a place to catalog collectibles, create a showcase, meet other collectors, and contribute to a shared reference catalog. These Terms govern your use of the service operated by GrailSociety LLC, a limited liability company with its principal address at 4030 Wake Forest Road, Ste 349, Raleigh, NC 27609, US ("GrailSociety," "we," "us," or "our"). They cover our website, account services, capture tools, and applications that link to these Terms (the "Service"). Get in touch: hello@grailsociety.co, or reach the operator through our Legal & Privacy contact page.
1. Your agreement and eligibility
When you affirmatively accept these Terms, you agree to them. Our Privacy Policy explains how we process personal information; acknowledging that notice does not waive your privacy rights or substitute for consent where separate consent is required. The Catalog Contribution License applies only to contributions you expressly submit under that license.
The current beta is for people who are at least 18 and legally able to enter this agreement. An invitation does not waive these requirements. If you act for an organization, you confirm that you can bind it. You may not use the Service if doing so would violate applicable law or an existing restriction on your account.
These Terms do not retroactively grant new rights in material submitted before you accepted them. We will obtain additional permission before applying a broader content license to an earlier submission where the original permission does not cover the use.
2. Accounts, invitations, and the waitlist
Provide accurate account information, keep your credentials and recovery key secure, and tell us about suspected unauthorized access. Do not impersonate someone, misrepresent your affiliation, or create accounts to evade restrictions. You are responsible for activity you authorize through your account. We may reclaim a deceptive or infringing handle and restrict compromised accounts while investigating.
Joining the waitlist expresses interest; it does not create a collector account, reserve a guaranteed launch date, or guarantee admission. Sharing and legitimate referrals may affect priority, but we can adjust the ordering and remove duplicate, automated, self-referred, purchased, or misleading entries. You choose whether to post a share message through a social platform. We do not post on your behalf merely because you join the waitlist.
3. Your content and your rights
"Your Content" includes photos, videos where supported, descriptions, profile materials, comments, messages, collection information, and other material you submit. You retain any intellectual property rights you own in Your Content. Uploading does not transfer ownership of your physical collectible or your photo copyrights to us.
You must own or have permission to grant the rights you give us. Do not upload someone else's product photography, a restricted catalog export, or confidential material without appropriate permission. Get any permissions needed from people depicted in your content. Your statements about authorship, item identity, possession, condition, provenance, and grading must be honest. Do not conceal edits that could mislead others about an item's identity or condition.
A photo of a collectible can contain artwork, trademarks, a person's likeness, or other rights held by third parties. Neither owning the item nor granting us rights in your photography transfers those underlying rights. We obtain only rights you own or are authorized to license, and we remain responsible for using material within the permissions and legal grounds available to us.
4. Permission to operate the Service
You grant us a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, process, transmit, format, crop, resize, improve presentation, and otherwise adapt Your Content as needed to provide, secure, maintain, and improve the Service you use. This includes creating image derivatives, reading labels, matching items to catalog records, syncing your linked devices, moderating abuse, and retaining the records described in our Privacy Policy. We may authorize service providers to perform these activities for us.
We may display and distribute content according to your publication choices. Private collection content, private original photo files, draft batches, private messages, and verification evidence are not made public under this operational license. Authorized staff and processors may access them for service delivery, support, review, safety, or legal needs. Private messages are not end-to-end encrypted.
Except for separately licensed catalog contributions and necessary retention described below, this operational license ends when the content is removed from our systems. We may maintain limited copies for backups, security, legal duties, disputes, or preserving a communication already delivered to another person, subject to applicable law. Such retained private copies are not a new source of marketing or catalog material.
5. Public content and promotion
For Your Content that you choose to make public, you also grant us a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to reproduce, edit for presentation, display, distribute, and feature it in operating and promoting GrailSociety. This includes our website, social channels, advertising, newsletters, presentations, and communications about the Service. We may display the public handle or display name associated with that content for attribution and context, subject to applicable publicity and privacy law.
This permission lets us show what the community collects. It does not let us falsely suggest you endorse an unrelated business or product. It does not cover private originals, messages, verification evidence, or content whose visibility you have restricted. Ordinary public profile content is not automatically licensed to third parties as a standalone commercial image library; catalog licensing requires Section 6.
If you delete public content or make it private, we will stop selecting it for new promotional uses and remove it from promotional surfaces we control within a reasonable period, subject to technical and legal constraints. We need not recall materials already printed or distributed, and cannot guarantee removal of copies independently made by others. Valid legal removal obligations still apply. A separately accepted Catalog Contribution License has different duration rules, explained before you contribute.
6. Shared catalog contributions and commercial licensing
Building the catalog together. GrailSociety's catalog comes from several sources, including what members share. Using the Service, you help build it: while Help build the catalog is on (Settings → Privacy; it is on unless you turn it off), the card facts of your public cards (category, franchise, manufacturer, set, year, card number and subject) and the cleaned, cropped image of the card that we make from the photo of a public, ungraded card may be added to the shared catalog. We never use private pieces, a private profile, the original photo with its background, photos of graded slabs, reference or verification images, or your name, and we remove photo metadata such as EXIF and location. A catalog photo added this way is credited "Photo from a collector". For those card facts and cleaned card images you grant us the same rights, subject to the same limits, that the Catalog Contribution License describes for contributions you select, and nothing broader; that license's other provisions apply to them in the same way. Turning the setting off stops future use of your cards; anything already added to the catalog stays, as other catalog contributions do.
You can keep a collection without adding its photos to the reference catalog: turn Help build the catalog off, or keep pieces private. You can also choose further images or information to contribute yourself. When you select particular images or information and expressly accept the Catalog Contribution License, you grant the additional rights described there for those identified contributions.
Those rights expressly include maintaining and commercializing the catalog; creating edited reference images and enriched records; displaying, distributing, syndicating, and licensing contributions through paid or free APIs, datasets, feeds, image libraries, and partner products; promoting these services; and transferring or sublicensing those rights through multiple tiers. They include developing collectible recognition, catalog matching, search, and related catalog tools as specified in that license. We may charge for these products without owing you royalties unless we separately agree otherwise in writing.
The catalog grant is intended to continue after account or collection deletion, for the duration of the rights licensed, and not be revocable merely because you stop using the Service. It remains subject to mandatory law, valid rights claims, privacy obligations, and any express restrictions accepted with the contribution. It does not make restricted third-party material available for unrestricted resale.
Our acceptance of a contribution, award of points, or display of a photo is not a guarantee of rights clearance. We may decline, correct, suppress, or remove contributions and revoke associated rewards. The specific Catalog Contribution License controls over these Terms if their content-license provisions conflict.
7. Ownership and protection of the GrailSociety database
As between you and us, we retain rights in the software, brand assets, original editorial content, taxonomy, organization, selection and arrangement of the catalog, proprietary matching systems, and other original materials created by or assigned to us, to the extent protected by law. We reserve applicable database rights. User materials and third-party materials remain owned by their respective owners and are used under applicable licenses or other lawful grounds.
We may combine lawfully obtained facts, our original work, and licensed contributions into databases and commercial products. Contributing does not give you an equity interest, ownership share, accounting right, or royalty in the resulting Service or database. These Terms do not create exclusive copyright ownership in facts such as a card's year, player, set, or number, or in someone else's underlying work.
You receive a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable permission to use the Service's provided features, including sharing links and managing your own inventory. Except through an authorized feature, separate agreement, or a right provided by law, do not bulk extract, scrape, republish, resell, sublicense, or build a competing database from our protected materials or licensed content. Do not bypass access controls, download limits, or attribution restrictions. Nothing here prevents lawful use of independently obtained facts, your own content, or statutory rights that cannot be limited by contract. A commercial API or data license requires separate terms.
8. Collecting, verification, scores, and automated suggestions
Catalog suggestions, label reading, image processing, prices, rankings, ownership indicators, and other results may be incomplete or mistaken. Review the exact edition, parallel, grade, and certificate details before relying on them. A source image or successful certificate lookup does not establish that a particular user owns the photographed item.
Possession reviews concern the evidence and date reviewed. They do not guarantee legal title, authenticity, condition, value, or that an item was not borrowed. We may require additional evidence, restrict eligibility, expire reviews, and correct or revoke badges, ranks, awards, and collector scores. Human review and automated checks may both be used; no claim of universal automated authentication is made.
Points, badges, ranks, and waitlist priority are participation features, not money, investments, ownership interests, or a promise of future benefits. Do not buy, sell, trade, manipulate, or automate them. We may change their rules and reverse rewards associated with fraud, duplicate evidence, deleted or rejected contributions, or error. We will consider good-faith correction requests.
9. Community standards
Do not use the Service to:
- Misrepresent ownership, submit stolen photos or false certificates, conceal counterfeit items, or fabricate provenance or sales.
- Spam, mass-message, purchase fake engagement, run coordinated voting or referral schemes, or use bots to inflate progress or rankings.
- Harass, threaten, discriminate, exploit minors, share sexual exploitation material, or post unlawful or abusive material.
- Disclose private addresses, contact information, identification documents, or other people's personal information without permission.
- Infringe copyright, trademarks, publicity rights, confidentiality obligations, or applicable law.
- Distribute malware, attack the Service, evade moderation, access another person's account, or interfere with other users.
We may investigate reports, preserve relevant evidence, use automated abuse signals, and have authorized reviewers examine content. We may remove or limit content, reduce distribution, restrict features, suspend accounts, or terminate access when reasonably needed for safety, legal compliance, enforcement, or service integrity. Where appropriate, we will explain the reason and allow a review request through the contact below. We may act without advance notice when notice would undermine safety, an investigation, or a legal obligation.
10. Transactions, events, and outside services
Collection listings, wanted posts, messages, offers, reservations, archive links, and event attendance help people connect. Unless a separate feature expressly provides otherwise under additional terms, GrailSociety is not the seller, buyer, broker, appraiser, insurer, escrow provider, payment processor, shipper, or organizer. An accepted proposal in the app does not execute payment or establish a legally verified ownership transfer. You and the other participants are responsible for your arrangements, taxes, legal compliance, identity checks, and safety.
We do not guarantee attendance, event safety, completion of a deal, or another user's conduct. NFT or digital-collectible listings do not convey underlying intellectual property, and wallet ownership verification is not currently provided. Content and estimates are informational, not financial, investment, legal, tax, or authentication advice.
External catalogs, graders, marketplaces, linked websites, and social services have their own terms and privacy practices. Their availability and data can change. They may own or restrict their images and records even when displayed here. GrailSociety is not affiliated with or endorsed by a brand, athlete, team, grader, or marketplace merely because their name or item appears in the Service.
11. Copyright and other rights complaints
Use our Legal & Privacy contact page to report infringement or other rights concerns. Identify your work or right, the specific GrailSociety URL or item involved, your contact information, and why you believe the use is unauthorized. For a formal U.S. copyright notice, include an authorized signature, statements of good-faith belief and accuracy, and a statement under penalty of perjury that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner.
We may restrict material while evaluating a notice, request supporting information, notify the contributor, and process a counter-notice where applicable. We may terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. Misrepresentations in legal notices can have consequences. This section does not represent that a designated copyright agent has been registered or that any particular statutory protection automatically applies.
12. Beta availability, charges, and termination
The Service is evolving. Features, sources, storage limits, and availability may change, and beta data or functionality may be interrupted or lost. Keep your own copies of important photographs and records. We will disclose any future paid feature, price, billing arrangement, and applicable cancellation terms before charging you; these Terms do not authorize an undisclosed charge.
You can stop using the Service and request account deletion. We may suspend or end access as described above or discontinue the Service with reasonable notice where feasible. Sections intended to continue, including valid catalog licenses, platform ownership, necessary retention, outstanding responsibilities, and dispute-related provisions, survive termination as applicable. Deleting an account does not by itself revoke a separately granted enduring catalog license.
13. Disclaimers and responsibility for claims
To the extent permitted by applicable law, the beta Service is provided as available without guarantees of uninterrupted operation, error-free results, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. We do not warrant third-party content, market prices, photo recognition, or user claims. This does not exclude warranties or responsibilities that cannot legally be excluded.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, consequential, special, or punitive losses, lost profits, lost opportunities, or loss of goodwill arising from use of the Service. Our aggregate liability arising from these Terms or the Service is limited to the greater of US $100 and amounts you paid us for the Service during the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limitations do not apply where prohibited, or to our fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, or other liability that cannot lawfully be limited. Your mandatory consumer rights remain intact.
To the extent permitted by law, you are responsible for reasonable third-party claim costs resulting from your unlawful content, knowing infringement, fraud, or material breach of these Terms, to the extent caused by you. This does not require you to reimburse losses caused by our own unlawful conduct or breach. We will give reasonable notice of a claim and will not settle it with obligations imposed on you without your consent, not to be unreasonably withheld.
14. Changes, business transfers, and disputes
We may update these Terms with the revised date and notice proportionate to the change. Material changes to content permissions require affirmative acceptance where appropriate; posting revised wording alone does not silently enlarge rights in old uploads. If you disagree with a change, you may stop using affected features and retain any rights the law gives you.
We may assign this agreement and transfer or sublicense the rights granted to us to an entity formed to operate GrailSociety or in a financing, reorganization, merger, acquisition, or sale of the Service or relevant assets. The successor must honor applicable privacy commitments, existing license limitations, and mandatory user rights. We will provide notice of an operator change as required by law. You may not transfer an account or this agreement without our consent, except as permitted by law.
Contact us first if you have a dispute so we can try to resolve it. These Terms do not impose mandatory arbitration, a class-action waiver, or an exclusive court location. Applicable law determines governing law and available courts, including any mandatory protections where you live. An unenforceable provision does not invalidate the remainder. A failure to enforce a term is not a waiver. No third-party rights are created except as expressly stated or required by law.
15. Contact
Service operator: GrailSociety LLC
Principal address: 4030 Wake Forest Road, Ste 349, Raleigh, NC 27609, US
Get in touch: hello@grailsociety.co
Legal and privacy requests: Contact GrailSociety. You do not need an account to submit a request.