2026 Restoration Challenge

🏆 2026 Cardboard Alchemists Restoration Challenge

Buy a beat-up card for $300 or less. Restore it. Sell it. Turn lead into gold.

Entry is open now. Everything is due January 31, 2027 — 11:59 PM PT.

Winners announced live, early February 2027. Prize pool: $3,725 in cards across 13 categories.

🜛 Register on Discord → Join the Patreon

Sponsored by Cardboard Alchemists · Poke Master Center · Gem Card Care

This page is the official rulebook for the 2026 Cardboard Alchemists Restoration Challenge (#CBA2026). The challenge is free to enter, open to everyone, and built around one simple idea: find a damaged card cheap, fix it with legitimate conservation work, sell it, and show us the numbers. Registration and submissions happen in the Card Conservation Discord.

At a Glance

Item	Details
Entry fee	Free. No cap — enter as many cards as you want. One prize per person.
Card budget	$300 maximum purchase price, before tax and fees.
Purchase window	Bought on or after August 1, 2026. Any card, raw or graded, bought anywhere.
Registration	Post your card in the Discord within 7 days of buying it and before you touch it.
Banned techniques	Coloring, trimming, re-backing. Instant disqualification.
Who does the work	You. No professional restoration services.
Deadline	January 31, 2027 — 11:59 PM Pacific. Card sold, sale proof posted, final submission posted.
Winners announced	Live, early February 2027.
Bio requirement	Our Patreon or Discord link in your social bio from registration through the February announcement.
Prize pool	$3,725 in Pokemon cards across 13 categories, plus runner-ups.
Hashtag	#CBA2026

How It Works

1. Buy

Find a damaged card for $300 or less on or after Aug 1, 2026. Keep your proof of purchase.

2. Register

Within 7 days post photos, a handwritten note, proof of purchase, and your bio screenshot in the Discord. Before any work.

3. Restore

Clean, soak, press, reduce creases, remove tape and stains. No coloring, trimming, or re-backing. Film it.

4. Sell

Sell it anywhere by Jan 31, 2027 and post proof of the deal. Raw or graded. Not to anyone connected to you.

5. Submit

Post the final submission template with your video, before/after pair, write-up, and sale proof.

🜍 The Card

$300 max, before tax and fees.
Raw or graded when you buy it. Either is fine.
Any card, bought anywhere: eBay, card shows, local shops, Facebook groups, live streams, garage sales. Pokemon, sports, other TCGs, vintage non-sports, whatever you want.
Bought on or after August 1, 2026. Cards you already owned before that date are not eligible.
Purchase price is honor system. Post whatever proof you have: a screenshot of the deal, a photo of the card next to the cash, a listing link, a receipt, a payment app screenshot. We are taking your word for it. Obvious cheating is an instant disqualification.

Tip: Not sure what to buy? Start with Finding Restoration Candidates for the damage types that respond best to conservation work, and Buying on eBay for search tricks that surface underpriced damaged cards. Surface grime, light bends, dings, and pressable creases are the classic targets. Heavy coloring, missing paper, and torn corners are usually a trap.

🜛 Register Before You Touch It

Unregistered cards can't win. Within 7 days of buying the card, and before doing any work on it, post a registration in the Discord challenge channel with all of the following:

Front and back photos of the card in its as-bought condition.
A photo of the card next to a handwritten note showing your Discord name, the date, and #CBA2026.
Proof of purchase (screenshot of the deal, photo of the card with the cash, listing link, receipt, etc.).
A screenshot of your social media bio showing our Patreon or Discord link.

WARNING: Do not clean, soak, press, or otherwise touch the card before your registration post is up. The registration photos are your "before" evidence. If the card has already changed by the time you register, there is no way to verify the starting condition.

Registration Post Template

Copy this into the Discord challenge channel and attach your photos.

🜛 CBA 2026 — REGISTRATION

Discord name:
Card:
Purchase price: $ (before tax/fees)
Purchase date:
Bought from (eBay / show / shop / other):
Purchase proof (screenshot, photo, or link):

What's wrong with it:
Plan of attack (optional):

ATTACHED:
[ ] Front photo (as bought)
[ ] Back photo (as bought)
[ ] Card next to handwritten note: Discord name + date + #CBA2026
[ ] Proof of purchase
[ ] Screenshot of my bio showing the Patreon or Discord link

⛔ No Dark Arts

Unsafe: Instant disqualification: No coloring. No trimming. No re-backing. These are alterations, not conservation. They are also exactly what grading companies flag as altered, and they are the reason the hobby distrusts "restored" cards. See Altered Flags for how graders detect all three and Rebacking for why re-backing is off the table.

Everything else is fair game. Legitimate conservation work includes:

Technique	Wiki Guide
Surface cleaning (dry and wet)	Cleaning Techniques
Soaking, hydration, and controlled drying	Hydration and Drying, Heat Press Drying
Pressing and flattening bends and warps	Pressing and Flattening, Heat Press
Crease reduction	Crease Removal
Indent and dent reduction	Indent Removal
Tape and adhesive residue removal	Cleaning Techniques, Surface Repair
Stain removal	Cleaning Techniques: Stain Removal
Scratch reduction and polishing	Scratch Removal, Polishing
Edge and corner work (without adding material)	Edge and Corner Work
Cracking a slab to work on a graded card	Slab Cracking Guide

Safe: Do the work yourself. No professional restoration services, no sending the card to a friend who "knows a guy". This challenge is about your hands and your process. Getting advice in the Discord is encouraged. Outsourcing the work is not.

Caution: Don't sleeve it wet. The most common way a clean restoration gets popped as "altered" has nothing to do with the work itself. Sleeving a card too soon after cleaning, polishing, or soaking traps the evaporating product against the penny sleeve, and the sleeve goes wavy or cloudy. Graders know new sleeves do not do that on their own. It is a dead giveaway that a foreign substance was used. Let the card air out completely, then sleeve it fresh as the very last step. See Altered Flags: Wavy Penny Sleeves.

Caution: Grey area? Ask in the Discord before you do it, not after. If a technique adds material to the card, changes its dimensions, or changes the printed image, it is on the wrong side of the line. Standards of Practice and Safety Guidelines cover where conservation ends and alteration begins.

🎬 Show Your Work

A before-and-after photo alone is not enough. Your final submission needs:

Video of the restoration. Phone footage is fine. Show the actual work: the soak, the press, the cleaning, the tape coming off. It does not need to be edited or narrated, but a clear process video highly increases your odds of winning and is required to compete for The Alchemist's Reel.
A before/after pair. Same lighting, same orientation, same background, same distance. Front and back. Judges need to compare like with like.
A short write-up. What was wrong with the card, what you did, what you would do differently. The final submission template has the fields.

Tip: Documentation tips that win. Shoot the before photos at registration, then keep the same setup for the after photos. Take in-progress shots at each stage (after cleaning, after pressing, after drying). Note the products, temperatures, times, and pressures you used. If you have ever written up an experiment for Community Research, the same discipline applies. See Experiment Guidelines for the level of detail that earns The Grimoire.

💰 The Sale

Sell it by January 31, 2027. eBay, a card show, a local shop, a Facebook group, wherever. Auction or Buy It Now, your call.
Post proof of the sale. Same as the purchase: a screenshot of the deal, a photo of the card and the cash on the table, a sold listing, a payment app screenshot. Whatever you have.
Sold at a card show? Get the vendor's banner or name in the photo if you can. It makes verification easy if a result is ever questioned.
Raw or graded, your call. If you grade it, the grading turnaround counts against your deadline, so plan ahead.
No selling to: other entrants, community members, family, or anyone you have traded with in the last year. Sales to connected buyers are disqualified.

WARNING: Honor system, with teeth. We are going on your word for both the purchase price and the sale price. We are not going to audit every entry. But anything that looks like a fake sale, a friend "buying" the card, a doctored screenshot, or an inflated number is an instant disqualification from every category. If a result is questioned, judges may ask for more detail, and an entrant who cannot back up their numbers forfeits the placement.

Tip: Selling on eBay covers fees, auction versus Buy It Now timing, listing photography, and pricing research. Grading Preparation and What Graders Look For help you decide whether grading is worth the time and cost for your card.

📊 Scoring

Only two numbers go into the math: what you paid and what it sold for.

Metric	Formula	Decides
Net Gain	Sale Price − Purchase Price	Grand Prize (The Philosopher's Stone)
Return Multiple	Sale Price ÷ Purchase Price	Transmutation

Worked example: You buy a creased card for $120 and sell it for $520 after restoration.

Net Gain = $520 − $120 = $400
Return Multiple = $520 ÷ $120 = 4.33×

A $40 card that sells for $200 has a smaller net gain ($160) but a bigger return multiple (5.0×). The two headline prizes reward different strategies. Big-ticket cards chase the Philosopher's Stone; cheap cards with huge upside chase Transmutation and Lead Into Gold.

All other categories are judged. Judges weigh the restoration itself, the documentation, and how well you told the story.

🏆 The Prizes

Thirteen prize categories. One prize per person. Runner-ups across the board.

	Prize	Awarded For	The Card	Value
🥇	The Philosopher's Stone Grand Prize	Biggest Net Gain in dollars	Umbreon #86 — Undaunted	$1,600
🜚	Transmutation	Highest Return Multiple	Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex #231 — Destined Rivals, NM	$500
👑	The Crowd's Verdict	Audience vote, live at the announcement	Pikachu & Zekrom GX #SM168 — Promo	$300
🜂	Modern Alchemy	Best restoration of a modern card (1980 or later)	Mega Charizard X ex #130 — Phantasmal Flames, NM	$275
🜔	The Master's Hand	Best craftsmanship	Cool Porygon #15 — Promo, CGC 10	$260
🜏	The Crucible	Boldest swing, win or lose	Jessie & James #68 — Hidden Fates, PSA 10	$235
🜄	Relic Revival	Best restoration of a vintage card (pre-1980)	Porygon #39 — Base Set, PSA 10	$200
🜛	The Resurrection	Hardest save	Giovanni's Exile #67 — Hidden Fates, CGC Pristine 10	$100
🎬	The Alchemist's Reel	Best process video	Mew V #251 — Fusion Strike, NM	$100
🜍	Lead Into Gold	Best card bought for under $50	Sabrina's Porygon [1st Edition] #98 — Gym Challenge, CGC 10	$90
📜	The Grimoire	Best documentation	Boss's Orders #154 — Rebel Clash, PSA 10	$50
🜋	The Apprentice	Best first-time restorer	Porygon [1st Edition] #48 — Team Rocket, NM	$10
💀	Fool's Gold	Most spectacular disaster	The Boss's Way #73 — Team Rocket, NM	$5
Total prize pool				$3,725

Tip: You do not have to succeed to win something. The Crucible rewards the boldest attempt whether or not it paid off, and Fool's Gold goes to the most spectacular failure. Document your disasters as carefully as your wins.

✅ How to Enter

Free. No entry fee, no Patreon tier required.
No cap. Enter as many cards as you want. Each card needs its own registration post.
Bio requirement. Our Patreon or Discord link must be in your social media bio from the moment you register through the February 2027 announcement. Screenshot it at registration.
One prize per person. If you place in more than one category, you take the higher prize and the next entrant moves up.

📈 Want Better Odds?

Shout out the Card Conservation Discord or the Cardboard Alchemists podcast in your posts, streams, or videos while you work on your card. It counts as a plus in every judged category and breaks ties in your favor. Note where you promoted them in your final submission.

📅 Timeline

Date	Milestone
August 1, 2026	Earliest eligible purchase date.
Now	Entry is open. Buy, then register within 7 days.
Rolling	Restore, document, list, sell. Post updates in the Discord as you go.
January 31, 2027 — 11:59 PM PT	Hard deadline. Card sold, sale proof posted, final submission posted.
Early February 2027	Winners announced live, including The Crowd's Verdict audience vote.

Caution: Grading takes time. If you plan to sell the card graded, count backwards from January 31: grading turnaround, shipping both ways, and enough listing time to actually sell. A card stuck at a grader on deadline day is a card that cannot win.

📋 Final Submission Template

Copy this into the Discord when your card sells. Attach everything on the checklist.

🜛 CBA 2026 — FINAL SUBMISSION

Card:
Purchase price: $
Sale price: $
NET GAIN: $
Purchase proof (screenshot, photo, or link):
Sale proof (screenshot, photo, or link):
Purchase date:
Sale date:
Where it sold (eBay / show / local / other):
Sold raw or graded:

What was wrong with it:
What I did (video link? social post?):
What I'd do differently:

Where I promoted the Discord / podcast:

ATTACHED:
[ ] In-progress photos or video
[ ] Before/after pair (same lighting & orientation)
[ ] Screenshots/photos of purchase and sale

I confirm:
[ ] No coloring, no trimming, no re-backing
[ ] All work done by me
[ ] Bought on or after Aug 1 2026 for $300 or less
[ ] Buyer isn't an entrant, member, family, or recent trade partner
[ ] My purchase and sale proof is real and the numbers are accurate
[ ] Patreon or Discord link in my bio since registration

❓ FAQ

Do I need to be a Patreon member to enter?
No. Entry is free. You do need our Patreon or Discord link in your social bio for the duration of the challenge.

Can I enter more than one card?
Yes, as many as you want. Register each one separately. You can only take home one prize.

Can I buy a graded card and crack it?
Yes. Raw or graded at purchase is fine. See the Slab Cracking Guide before you do it.

Does the $300 limit include shipping, tax, or eBay fees?
No. The limit is the purchase price before tax and fees.

What counts as proof of purchase?
Whatever you have. A screenshot of the deal, a photo of the card with the cash, a listing link, a receipt, or a payment app screenshot all work. It is honor system, so post what you can. Obvious cheating is an instant disqualification.

I bought a card but forgot to register within 7 days. Can I still enter it?
No. Unregistered cards cannot win. Buy another card and register it on time.

Can I get help from a professional restorer?
No. All work must be done by you. Asking for advice in the Discord is fine and encouraged.

Can I use a heat press, humidity chamber, or other equipment?
Yes. Equipment is fine. The only banned techniques are coloring, trimming, and re-backing.

What about tape, stickers, and adhesive residue?
Removing them is fair game.

Can I sell the card graded?
Yes. Raw or graded is your call, but the card must be sold and the sale proof posted by January 31, 2027.

Do I have to sell on eBay?
No. Sell it wherever you want: eBay, a card show, a local shop, a Facebook group, a live stream. Just post proof of the sale, the same way you did for the purchase. A screenshot of the deal or a photo of the card with the cash is enough.

What counts as proof of sale?
Same as proof of purchase. A screenshot of the transaction, a photo of the card and the cash together, a sold listing link, or a payment app screenshot. At a show, get the vendor's banner or name in the shot if you can. We are going on your word, so keep it honest. Anything that looks fabricated gets the whole entry thrown out.

Who am I not allowed to sell to?
Other entrants, community members, family, or anyone you have traded with in the last year.

What counts as "modern" and "vintage"?
Modern Alchemy is for cards from 1980 onward. Relic Revival is for cards printed before 1980.

What if my restoration goes badly?
Submit it anyway. The Crucible rewards the boldest attempt regardless of outcome, and Fool's Gold goes to the most spectacular disaster.

Is the video mandatory?
The rules call for video of the restoration, not just a before and after. Video also dramatically increases your odds in the judged categories.

Where do I post?
In the challenge channel of the Card Conservation Discord. The registration and final submission templates are pinned there and reproduced on this page.

Restoration Resources

Everything you need to compete is on this wiki. Start here:

Start Here — orientation for first-time restorers (free)
Safety Guidelines — read before touching solvents, heat, or pressure (free)
Essential Tools — build a kit without overspending (free)
Finding Restoration Candidates — what damage is fixable and what to avoid
Buying on eBay — search tactics for underpriced damaged cards
Cleaning Techniques — dry and wet cleaning, stain removal
Hydration and Drying — the foundation of soaking and pressing work (free)
Pressing and Flattening · Crease Removal · Indent Removal — structural work
Edge and Corner Work · Scratch Removal · Surface Repair — finishing work
Altered Flags — what graders look for, so you stay on the right side of the line
Grading Preparation · What Graders Look For — if you plan to sell graded
Selling on eBay — listing, pricing, and timing your sale
Experiment Guidelines — the documentation standard that wins The Grimoire
Free Resources — everything readable without a login