CGC Cards APIcgccards.com ↗
Retrieve CGC trading card certification details by cert number. Returns grade, card identity, set, language, variants, and front/back image URLs.
What is the CGC Cards API?
The CGC Cards API gives developers access to certification data from CGC's trading card grading registry via a single endpoint, lookup_cert. One call returns 10 structured fields per certificate, including the assigned grade, card name, game, set, card number, language, up to two variant descriptors, release year, and obverse/reverse image URLs — everything needed to verify or display a graded card's official record.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/79a64119-68da-456c-a5da-449146b5eda6/lookup_cert?cert_number=4260601133' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Typed, relational, agent-ready
A generated client with real types, enums, and the links between objects — the structure a flat JSON response can't carry. Autocompletes in your editor and reads cleanly to coding agents.
- Fully typed · autocompletes
- Objects link to objects
- Typed errors & pagination
Typed Python client. Set up the SDK in your uv project, then pull this API’s typed client:
uv add parse-sdk uv run parse init uv run parse add --marketplace cgccards-com-api
uv run parse add --marketplace pulls a pinned snapshot of this canonical API — it won’t change underneath you. To customize it, subscribe and swap to your own copy.
"""Walkthrough: CGC Cards SDK — look up graded trading card certifications."""
from parse_apis.cgccards_com_api import CGCCards, CertificateNotFound
client = CGCCards()
# Look up a certificate by number
cert = client.certificates.get(cert_number="4260601133")
print(cert.card_name, cert.game, cert.grade)
print(cert.card_set, cert.card_number)
# Access images
for img in cert.images:
print(img.title, img.url)
# Handle a not-found cert gracefully
try:
missing = client.certificates.get(cert_number="9999999999")
print(missing.card_name)
except CertificateNotFound as e:
print(f"Certificate not found: {e.cert_number}")
print("exercised: certificates.get")
Retrieve grading details for a CGC-certified trading card by its certification number. Returns card identity (name, game, set, number, variants), the assigned grade, grader notes, and front/back image URLs when available. A single round-trip per cert; no pagination.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| cert_numberrequired | string | CGC certification number, 10–13 digits (e.g. 4260601133). |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"game": "Game the card belongs to (e.g. Pokémon)",
"year": "Year of the card release",
"grade": "CGC grade assigned (e.g. PERFECT 10, GEM MINT 10)",
"images": "Array of image objects with url and title (Obverse/Reverse)",
"card_set": "Card set name",
"language": "Language of the card",
"card_name": "Name of the card",
"variant_1": "First variant descriptor, if any",
"variant_2": "Second variant descriptor, if any",
"card_number": "Card number within the set",
"cert_number": "CGC certification number",
"grader_notes": "Notes from the grader, or Unavailable"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"game": "Pokémon",
"year": "2019",
"grade": "PERFECT 10",
"images": [
{
"url": "https://ccg-imaging-cgc-tradingcards-production.s3.amazonaws.com/a4795f1e-fc0a-4aa8-92f9-256ba7ed6e66/CGC4260601-133_OBV.jpg",
"title": "Obverse"
},
{
"url": "https://ccg-imaging-cgc-tradingcards-production.s3.amazonaws.com/a4795f1e-fc0a-4aa8-92f9-256ba7ed6e66/CGC4260601-133_REV.jpg",
"title": "Reverse"
}
],
"card_set": "Dream League",
"language": "Japanese",
"card_name": "Gallade",
"variant_1": "Character Rare",
"variant_2": "Holo",
"card_number": "057/049",
"cert_number": "4260601133",
"grader_notes": "Unavailable"
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the CGC Cards API
What the API Returns
The lookup_cert endpoint accepts a single required parameter, cert_number, which is the 10–13 digit certification number printed on every CGC-graded card slab. The response includes the card's card_name, game (e.g., Pokémon), card_set, card_number within that set, year of release, and language. Two optional variant_1 and variant_2 fields capture descriptors like holo, reverse holo, or promo designations when the card carries them.
Grade and Images
The grade field returns the full CGC grade string as it appears on the label — for example, PERFECT 10 or GEM MINT 10. The images array contains objects with a url and a title (typically Obverse for the front and Reverse for the back), letting you render both sides of the slab scan directly without any additional requests.
Scope and Behavior
Each call resolves one certificate number and returns a flat response with no pagination. If the cert number is not found in CGC's registry, the endpoint returns an empty or error response rather than partial data. There is no batch endpoint; callers looking up multiple certs need to issue one request per cert number. Certification numbers must be 10–13 digits — shorter or malformed inputs will not match.
The CGC Cards API is a managed, monitored endpoint for cgccards.com — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when cgccards.com changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official cgccards.com API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Verify a CGC cert number before completing a trading card purchase or sale.
- Display graded card details and slab images in a portfolio tracker app.
- Populate a collection database with official grade, set, and variant data for slabbed cards.
- Build a price guide that cross-references CGC grades with market sales data.
- Automate inventory labeling for a card shop by pulling cert details at intake.
- Detect discrepancies between a listed cert number and the actual card name or grade.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 100 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.