Vault-Backed Platforms Compared — Courtyard to Beezie
Four platforms currently sell tokenized trading cards backed by vaulted physical stock. They look identical in marketing copy — token trades instantly, card sits in a vault, redeem when you want — but they differ on chain, custody details, and the fee mechanics that decide what a trade actually costs. This comparison uses only what each platform documents publicly and what we maintain in our dated registry records; fees change without notice, so treat every number here as a snapshot and re-check before you buy.
The four, side by side#
| Courtyard | Phygitals | Collector Crypt | Beezie | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Courtyard (Y Combinator W22) | Phygitals | Collector Crypt | Beezie |
| Chain | Polygon | Solana | Solana | Base; Flow (Solana announced) |
| Custody | Own vault (US); cards insured free per docs | US vault partners Alt, PSA and Fanatics; insurance via each partner’s policy | Third-party vault (PWCC-designated, Oregon, per ToS §6.1); insured per docs | Brink’s-operated third-party facilities; insured at deposit market value per docs; vault country unstated |
| Redemption | Worldwide; shipping charged (18+ or contract-capable per ToS; one-time KYC before first redemption) | On request; stays vaulted until redeemed | Redeemable; insured storage | Up to 30 items per claim; optional insurance; 150+ countries via Brink’s (US-residents 18+ per ToS; 16–17 via parent account) |
| Fee snapshot (Sep 2026) | 0% marketplace fee advertised; card purchases + vaulting fees apply | Submission, digitisation and storage free; marketplace fee deducted from seller proceeds (rate shown at listing — no listing fee or buyer premium); eligible post-pull buyback offers use an 85%-of-FMV standard rate in USDC (30-min/3-day/7-day windows; enhanced rates can vary) | 2% seller fee per official FAQ, no storage/insurance carrying cost; redemption deducts shipping + insurance + vault-withdrawal fee | $5/asset redemption + shipping + US sales tax; vaulting free ≥$1,000 domestic value ($5 under); international vaulting excludes shipping |
| Wallet | Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
Custody sources (verified Sep 2026): Courtyard vault & insurance · Phygitals vault & storage · Collector Crypt (ToS §6.1; PWCC facility per Magic Eden partner doc) · Beezie docs — all carried on the linked registry records.
How to read the differences#
Chain tells you where the exit is. Polygon (Courtyard) and Base (Beezie’s primary chain) are EVM (Ethereum-compatible) chains — if you ever take a token out of platform custody (move it into your own wallet), MetaMask-family wallets cover both. Solana (Phygitals, Collector Crypt) means a Phantom-family wallet. Beezie is the multi-chain outlier: its original items live on Flow — a separate ecosystem needing a Flow-compatible wallet, not MetaMask — and Solana is announced, not confirmed live. Check which chain your Beezie item sits on before assuming any wallet covers it. If you intend to self-custody — hold the token in your own wallet rather than the platform’s — pick a chain your wallet already speaks; see custody models explained.
“Redeemable” hides two different promises. Every platform here advertises redemption, but the mechanics differ: Courtyard charges shipping per redemption — to eligible users (its ToS requires 18+ or the capacity to form a binding contract, with a one-time KYC before the first redemption), and Beezie charges a flat $5 per asset plus shipping and US sales tax but ships to 150+ countries through Brink’s logistics — a delivery term for eligible users, since its Terms of Use restrict the platform to US residents 18+ (16–17 via a parent/guardian account). Collector Crypt documents a redemption fee stack — shipping, insurance and a vault-withdrawal fee deducted at checkout — while Phygitals states the redemption right without publishing the same level of shipping detail — each restricted to eligible users per its ToS (Phygitals: 18+ or the age of majority in your jurisdiction; Collector Crypt: under-18 account use is a violation). For Australian collectors the shipping line is the difference between a real exit and a theoretical one — verify AU delivery and cost in writing before buying, as covered in redeeming a physical card in Australia.
Custody is the risk you’re actually taking. All four keep the physical card in platform-controlled vaults — your token is only as good as the platform’s solvency and audit trail. The most fully documented setups are Courtyard’s own insured US vault, Collector Crypt’s insured third-party storage (a PWCC-designated facility in Oregon per its ToS §6.1), and Phygitals’ custodial-agent model — owner retains title while cards sit in climate-controlled US facilities run via partners Alt, PSA and Fanatics, with insurance through each partner’s policy. Beezie’s setup is third-party too — Brink’s operates the facilities, and its storage doc (Sep 2026) states items are insured at market value at time of deposit; vault country isn’t stated publicly, and the optional insurance it sells at redemption covers shipping, separate from storage cover. Treat unstated fields as open questions, not assumptions. None of this removes the shutdown question — and only two of the four platforms compared here put an asset-return answer in writing (Courtyard’s three-month window, Phygitals’ custodial-agent + ~30-day termination terms); see what happens if a platform shuts down for how custody terms play out when a platform exits.
Fee pages are the moving part. Courtyard advertises 0% marketplace fees on vaulted trades, but card purchases and vaulting carry their own charges, and its user-submitted “Vault Your Cards” intake is paused per official docs (and US-only when it reopens — a separate limit worth knowing if you’re outside the US). Check current status before shipping anything. Beezie publishes the most explicit schedule of the four. Phygitals now publishes its fee surfaces (free submission/storage, a seller-deducted marketplace fee shown at listing, and the 85%-FMV buyback windows), and Collector Crypt publishes its 2% sell-side FAQ plus the redemption deduction stack — but schedules still change, so write down what you saw, dated.
What this table deliberately leaves out#
Price floors, pack EVs, and volume — all speculation-adjacent and all perishable. And it excludes non-vaulted platforms entirely: Sorare and NBA Top Shot are digital-only (no physical redemption exists to compare), and NFL All Day is a documented sunset, not a live option. Ready-to-ship mystery-pack products where wagering or investment returns are the primary pitch (Ready Cards and similar) sit outside our registry scope — that’s a positioning boundary, not a chance-mechanics one: randomised formats exist on these four too. When a product is randomised — a pack or pull like Beezie’s ‘Claw’ — the item you receive is chance-based, so read the platform’s odds or pricing disclosure before paying and don’t treat ‘expected value’ talk as a return figure.
Per-platform start-collecting guides: Courtyard · Phygitals · Collector Crypt · Beezie.
Bottom line: all four platforms deliver the same headline promise and differ in the fine print that decides cost and exit. Re-verify the three moving parts — fees, shipping scope, intake status — on the platform’s own docs on the day you trade. Before committing, run the full platform evaluation checklist, then read how to buy a vault-backed card safely.