Rip Station vs Courtyard (2026)

ADMIN

Oct 14, 20265 min read

The Pack Report is published by Rip Station. We say so on every page so you can weigh what we write accordingly. Figures are quoted from the sources linked, with the date we read them. Terms change; check the operator before you rely on a number.

Last read October 14, 2026.

Courtyard is the incumbent: founded 2021, $37.5 million raised, Brink's custody, Polygon, and categories from Pokemon to watches. Rip Station is Pokemon-only on Sui with a smaller footprint and a different idea of transparency.

Where Courtyard is ahead

Custody you can name. Brink's, with free vaulting and insurance. Rip Station's custodian is unnamed.
Headline buyback. 90 percent of fair market value on every pack, against 83 percent. One October 2026 review reports a 6 percent fee on the Courtyard transaction, which would narrow the gap to about 84.6 against 83; Courtyard does not publish that fee or the window.
Marketplace. 0 percent seller fee and vault-in from eBay, PWCC and PSA, which makes it the better place to hold and resell a collection.
Breadth and an app. Sports, comics, watches; an iOS app. Rip Station is web-only and Pokemon-only.
Track record. Five years and 898 Trustpilot reviews, a 3.7 average. Rip Station has no review profile.

Where Rip Station is ahead

What the number means. Rip Station publishes per-machine EV, odds by value band and the valuation basis with a timestamp. Courtyard shows per-card odds but does not publish how it sets fair market value, the buyback window, or the fee.
Shipping cost and speed. Carrier rate plus $5 per card, same-day dispatch, about $11 for a US slab. Courtyard passes FedEx through at cost, and 'expensive shipping' is the most common Trustpilot complaint.
A stated window. Seven days to decide. Courtyard's is not published.

Call it

Courtyard for holding and reselling a broad collection with a named vault behind it. Rip Station for ripping Pokemon with the arithmetic in front of you and the slab in the mail the same day. Neither publishes a verifiable-randomness mechanism. Rip Station publishes this site.

Side by side

	Rip Station	Courtyard
Operator	Byzantine Port Technologies Inc. (Panama), subsidiary of Byzantion Inc. (Delaware); Panama City address published ³	Courtyard (Y Combinator); CEO Nicolas le Jeune; founded 2021; $37.5M raised incl. $30M Series A led by Forerunner, July 2025 ¹⁴
Blockchain	Sui; on-chain object per vaulted card and for balances ¹	Polygon (migrated from Ethereum, 2023); NFT per vaulted card; platform pays gas; embedded wallets ¹³
What is in the packs	Graded Pokemon only ⁴	Pokemon, baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, Marvel, One Piece, VeeFriends, CGC comics, watches ¹²
Formats	Random packs, marketplace, 24-hour auctions ⁴	Random packs ('vending machine'), marketplace, vault-in from eBay, PWCC and PSA ¹²
Pack prices	$25, $50, $60, $100, $150, $200, $250, $500 machines ²	Most series start at $25; comic packs $50 to $500; top of range not published ¹⁵
Graders	PSA, BGS, CGC ⁴	PSA, CGC, BGS ¹⁵
Custody	Third-party professional vault and grading facilities; custodian not named; insured subject to policy limits; Rip Station is a custodial agent, not an insurer ¹	Brink's vault; vaulting and insurance free; carrier and limits not published ¹³
Instant buyback	83% of current estimated market value (90% on the Max Buyback pack); optional ¹	90% of fair market value on every pack; one October 2026 review reports a 6% transaction fee on top, for a net of about 84.6% ¹⁶
Buyback window	7 days after each rip ¹	not published ¹⁵
Net EV (EV x buyback, as % of price)	87% to 91% on its own estimates ($25: 109% EV x 83% = 91%; $50: 105% x 83% = 87%; $100 to $500: 88% to 89%); 96% on the Max Buyback pack (107% x 90%) ⁵¹	90% on its own averages ($25 Starter: 100% x 90%), 86% on the $50 Pro (96% x 90%); about 85% and 81% after the 6% buyback fee reported by a reviewer ⁵³
Who sets the value	Rip Station's estimated market value from public comps, timestamped ²	Courtyard's fair market value; method not published ¹⁵
Marketplace fee	Not published for marketplace; auctions carry a 3% buyer premium ⁴	0% seller fee; no sales tax on vaulted-to-vaulted trades ¹⁵
Shipping	Worldwide except sanctioned jurisdictions; carrier rate plus $5 per card; a single US card averages about $11; optional insurance at 1% of declared value; same-business-day dispatch ¹	Carrier rate passed through 'at cost' (FedEx); reviewers cite high per-card costs; countries not published ¹⁵
Payments	Credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, USDC balance; email sign-in without a wallet ¹	Credit card (Stripe), USDC on Polygon ¹⁸
Identity checks	Veriff once before first shipment ¹	Identity verification reported by reviewers; policy not published ¹⁵
Odds and EV published	Odds by value band and EV published per machine from live vault composition, with a timestamp; also in llms.txt and a public API ²	Per-card odds shown on each pack; every pull recorded on-chain ¹⁴
Verifiable randomness	No commit-reveal or VRF claimed ⁴	No commit-reveal or VRF published; on-chain recording is not the same thing ¹⁵
App	Web only ¹	iOS app ¹⁹
Regions and age	18+ or age of majority; sanctioned jurisdictions excluded ¹	not published ¹²
Trust signals	No Trustpilot profile found; shutdown terms published (30 days to claim cards, no payout fund) ¹	Trustpilot 3.7/5 from 898 reviews (53% five-star, 22% one-star); replies to about 6% of negative reviews ¹⁷
Scale (self-reported)	not published ⁴	$78M+ monthly trading volume reported for August 2025; 50,000+ daily trades on many days in 2026 ¹⁸

How we compared

We read each platform's own pages first (FAQ, docs, terms, help centre) on the date above and quoted what they say. Where a site could not be read without a browser, or published nothing, we fell back to dated third-party reviews and marked them. Percentages are not interchangeable across rows: a buyback quoted against "insured value" set by the platform, against "fair market value" from an undisclosed method, and against a timestamped estimate from public comps are three different promises. Every cell carries a numbered source. If a platform changes a term, the number here is wrong until we re-read it; check the operator before relying on it.

See the full twelve-platform comparison.

Sources

All read on October 14, 2026. Items marked (affiliate) are third-party review sites that earn commissions from the platforms they review; we use them only where a primary page was unreadable, and say so.

Frequently asked questions

Which has the higher buyback, Rip Station or Courtyard?

Rip Station: 83% of current estimated market value (90% on the Max Buyback pack); optional. Courtyard: 90% of fair market value on every pack; one October 2026 review reports a 6% transaction fee on top, for a net of about 84.6%. The basis and window differ; see the table.

Which one ships internationally?

Rip Station: Worldwide except sanctioned jurisdictions; carrier rate plus $5 per card; a single US card averages about $11; optional insurance at 1% of declared value; same-business-day dispatch. Courtyard: Carrier rate passed through 'at cost' (FedEx); reviewers cite high per-card costs; countries not published

Which one lets you verify the draw?

Rip Station: No commit-reveal or VRF claimed. Courtyard: No commit-reveal or VRF published; on-chain recording is not the same thing

SHARE ON X