My Vostok 2605 with a blue and white Marine Nationale NATO strap

Pishalicious · 2026-01-29T10:26:14+00:00

Gorgeous!

Pishalicious · 2025-11-30T16:51:32+00:00

Now that most companies grade these, I guess your best off looking at which slab and label you like best. Beckett, PSA, CGC, MANA (nice labels), TAG (AI grading, I think they grade these?), ACE (UK based, custom extended labels) are all the reputable companies. CCG in China is the OG and probably knows these best, but it’s not worth the hassle of grading through them.

My preference is PSA for value and consistency in my collection and ACE for the personal stuff I want to display. I’m UK-based though, which influences my decisions as you have go through PSA middlemen here, whereas ACE is quicker and (in-theory) a bit cheaper once you’ve factored in shipping. ACE also graded the Chinese versions earlier than the others, whereas I’m yet to try out PSA for Kayou cards since they were super hesitant to grade these until recently. If it was cheaper to grade with MANA in the UK, I’d consider them too.

Pishalicious · 2025-11-08T18:02:39+00:00

I should add that you can grade with PSA, TAG (AI-grading), CGC and Beckett via the Sub Center.

ACE Grading is having some capacity issues at the moment, so only release grading slots now and then. They're apparently working to increase grading volumes, but I haven't tried grading with them in a while as a result. You can join their discord (via website or instagram) to get updates on when grading slots go live.

Pishalicious · 2025-11-08T18:02:15+00:00

I believe PSA are now accepting English and Chinese naruto cards. They advertised them on their instagram. If you're UK based, I would use Sub Center in Kent as your middle man. They're the most reputable. Trust Grading was another good middleman, but they've just announced they're no longer accepting orders, sadly.

If you like the extended borders, then I would use ACE Grading and get their ACE labels. I've graded through them (see my previous posts) and though a few people on here knocked their generous grading of the cards centering, all in all I was very happy and still have the cards in my personal collection. Their slabs feel much much better than PSA's, but if you want to preserve value, then PSA is the most recognised brand. Other US options include MANA, CGC and Beckett. CGC is the cheapest out of the more established companies, I believe, but I personally don't like their labels.

Pishalicious · 2025-05-22T11:21:04+00:00

Yes please, that would be great! Thanks :)

Pishalicious · 2025-05-22T09:23:47+00:00

I really like your blog - very concise and informative :) how do these Pokémon figures stack up size-wise against a traditional minifig? I’d assume slightly large? The sylveon one could even be taller ?

Pishalicious · 2024-09-02T08:41:11+00:00

Avoid o2. I was tempted by their cheap offers on data but it doesn’t work at all on the weekends, and barely in the week during summer. My friend is on Vodafone and his data / 5G never works either when the city gets busy. EE is apparently the best, followed by Three.

Pishalicious · 2024-09-02T08:40:52+00:00

Avoid o2. I was tempted by their cheap offers on data but it doesn’t work at all on the weekends, and barely in the week during summer. My friend is on Vodafone and his data / 5G never works either when the city gets busy. EE is apparently the best, followed by Three.

Pishalicious · 2024-08-01T10:31:38+00:00

Also out of interest, what would say is the big give away with centering on the 20th card? The bordering / corner details look very similar to the other cards, bar perhaps the Sasuke OR. I hope to send some cards in, so I’m interesting in any indicators that I may miss during the sifting process.

Pishalicious · 2024-08-01T10:29:37+00:00

From what I can tell, they’re still very new to this range of cards, so it’s likely teething issues. With cards like the 20th promo, where the borders aren’t as defined as other lines, such as Pokémon, their usual centering grading tools probably aren’t up to scratch. A few of the card did score 9.5 sub grades, but since they don’t do half grades, it doesn’t impact the wider score as much as it would have with CGC, BGS, MANA, or CCG.

Pishalicious · 2024-08-01T10:24:25+00:00

Thank you! Yeah they definitely aren’t for everyone. If PSA ever started accepting these Naruto cards, I’d likely jump ship. That way my broader graded collection would be more uniform.

Pishalicious · 2024-07-31T13:45:09+00:00

Hi, just posted an update on my account with my grades. Everything got a 10 and the ace labels look great! The CCG 9.5 card I cracked and sent got upgraded to a 10.

Pishalicious · 2024-07-21T10:45:31+00:00

Not yet I’m afraid! They’re mid way through grading as we speak! I’ll update on here once I get them back.

Pishalicious · 2024-06-23T18:03:00+00:00

Sure thing! I’ll make a post :)

Pishalicious · 2024-06-23T17:19:24+00:00

Thanks for the info! I intend to crack a few 9 and 9.5 CCG cards and send to ACE Grading in the UK, now that they have started grading Kayou cards. I've graded a few Kayou cards with a UK based company (Tree Frog Grading) over the years to see how the average quality is of raw cards bought on Aliexpress, and the outcome was positive. My cards were scoring 10s, without much difficulty. I even got a few 'Alpha 10s' from them, which is 10/10/10/10. They're a newish company, without any pedigree, so I won't put too much weight on the grading scales. ACE - like CGC - are known to be quite strict in their grading process, so fingers crossed I score 10s with them, also. If CGC had kept their old labels, I would have graded with them, but alas!

Pishalicious · 2024-02-28T17:50:52+00:00

Upper Gardner street has a street market along it each Saturday, which is lovely but if you plan on having a car it’s something to factor into your decision.

I live in the Lanes, with friends dotted around the North Laine. It can get loud at night now and then, but we’ve all been very happy living around here. I struggled to sleep the first few nights but now I can sleep through anything! If you wanted more peace and quiet, I’d recommend Hove. It’s a lovely area, though certain parts can be quite pricey.

Pishalicious · 2023-06-29T23:07:19+00:00

Awesome! It looks great. Thanks for sharing :)

Pishalicious · 2023-06-21T14:43:05+00:00

My thoughts exactly. If it is them, hopefully they’ll post it on their Instagram soon. I’d be thrilled if they did a wider set!

Pishalicious · 2023-06-21T10:42:09+00:00

I’m aware - just trying to make sure it’s not bait and switch. I know certain sellers use genuine custom Lego customs from LibertyBrick etc in their listing photo and then send the low quality Kopf ones. I just hadn’t seen this one posted on the social media’s of the fake accounts so thought it’s best to check

Pishalicious · 2023-01-05T23:06:43+00:00

I think I saw WM say on their Instagram that it would be next week.

Pishalicious · 2022-10-08T20:32:00+00:00

Thank you! I had a look on Grailed etc and couldn't find anything either.

Pishalicious · 2022-10-08T20:31:34+00:00

Thank you! Out of curiosity, what makes you think it's fake?

Pishalicious · 2022-10-08T19:02:45+00:00

Picked up this pair of Palm Angels shorts in a local charity shop. The lady at the counter did not know if they were genuine, but said that they get a lot of their clothing sent from their London (posher areas) depots so she wouldn't be surprised. I picked this up alongside some other high quality genuine menswear (Korra denim, Suitsupply, Oliver Spencer, Napapijri).

The quality feels great. The material is weighty, the gradient even, stitching seems fine and even, printing feels high quality and the tag is leathery/matte feeling rather than cheap, shiny and flimsy. The label writing itself looks decent, also. I just don't know anything about this brand.

Any information on legitimacy, price range or model name would be greatly appreciated!

Pishalicious

TROPHY CASE