Terms of Service

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Benjamin Clarke, operating as The ATC Hub ("the Hub", "we", "us"), based in Ontario, Canada. They apply to our website, the waitlist, and the Hub platform at app.theatchub.com (together, the "Services").

By creating an account or using the Services, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle personal information. If you don't agree, please don't use the Services. Our FAQ explains how each feature works in more detail; if the FAQ and these Terms ever differ, these Terms apply.

Nothing in these Terms takes away rights you have under consumer protection laws that can't be waived, including Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002, Quebec's Consumer Protection Act, and the consumer laws of the province or state where you live.

2. Who can use the Hub

• You must be at least 18, or the age of majority where you live if that's higher.
• You must live in Canada or the United States and have a mailing address there.
• You may have one account. Accounts that share a device or address are treated as linked, and linked accounts don't earn bonus credits or milestones from trading with each other.
• You can't use the Hub if we've banned you, and you can't create a new account to get around a ban.

3. Your account

• Accurate information: give us a working email address and a real mailing address, and keep them up to date. You must verify your email address to use some features, such as receiving welcome credits or selling ACEOs to us.
• Your username is public. It can't impersonate anyone, including the Hub or our team, and it can't contain profanity, slurs or anything sexual.
• Security: keep your password private and don't share your account. You're responsible for what happens on your account unless it was used without your permission and you told us promptly. If you think someone else has access, change your password and email us.
• Your profile (photo and bio) is public and must follow our community rules (section 14).

4. Trading ATCs

How trades work

Trades on the Hub are between two traders. Every trade is exactly one card for one card, with no money, bundles, top-ups or extra cards. We provide the platform, the records and the trade guarantee; we never take possession of traded ATCs and we aren't a party to the exchange itself.

Listing a card

When you list an ATC, you confirm that:

• you physically hold the card and are free to trade it;
• it is genuine art made by a real artist, standard ATC size (2.5" × 3.5"), with the artist's name on the back;
• it is not AI-generated;
• your photos are of that exact card, taken by you, and its title, medium, condition and description are accurate;
• if you name yourself as the artist, it is your own original work and you've accepted the artist agreement; and
• if another artist made it, the artist credit you give is accurate.

ACEOs bought from our shop can't be listed for trade.

Offers

An offer is a commitment: if it's accepted, you must complete the trade. You can withdraw an offer at any time before it's accepted. An offer that isn't answered within 2 business days expires. Once an offer is accepted, both traders are bound to mail their cards as described in section 5.

Ownership

When a trade completes, each card belongs to its new owner, and the Hub's records show the change. The artist credit stays with the card however many times it's traded.

5. Shipping a trade

• Mail your card within 3 business days of the trade being accepted, and mark it as sent with the three proof-of-posting photos the Hub asks for: the card with your trade code before sealing, the sealed and addressed envelope, and a receipt or the envelope going into a mailbox.
• Send exactly the card you listed, in the condition shown, and package it with reasonable care. Each trader pays their own postage. Tracking is never required.
• Customs: for mail between Canada and the United States, you complete any customs form yourself, including the card's value. Customs declarations must be truthful.
• Confirm honestly: confirm a card has arrived only once it's in your hands and matches its listing. If it doesn't, report a problem instead (section 10).
• Your partner's address is shared with you only to complete the trade. Using it for anything else, or sharing it, is a serious breach of these Terms.
• If your partner doesn't send their card within 3 business days and you haven't sent yours, you can cancel the trade. Both trade fees are refunded and your partner's account receives a warning.

6. Fees and trade packs

• Joining, browsing, listing and making offers are free. Each accepted trade costs a flat $1 per trader, paid with one trade from your trade pack when the trade is accepted. Making an offer needs a trade in your pack, which the offer holds until it's answered. Sometimes trading is free, for example during a promotion: everyone who joined our waitlist pays no trade fees on trades accepted from November 1 to 30, 2026. While trading is free for you, a trade doesn't use one from your pack, and you don't need one to make or accept an offer.
• Every amount on the Hub is the same number in Canadian and US dollars: $1 means C$1 in Canada and US$1 in the United States.
• If a trade is cancelled because a card was never sent, or reversed in a dispute, both traders' trades go back into their packs.
• Trade packs are 10 trades at $1 a trade, 25 at 95¢, 50 at 90¢ or 100 at 85¢, paid in advance. Pack trades never expire, cover only your own trade fees, and can't be transferred, spent in the shop or exchanged for cash. Unused pack trades you paid for are refunded to your original payment method on request, at the price you paid for each trade. Free trades we give you as a gift work the same way but can't be refunded, since nothing was paid for them.
• Payments are processed by PayPal, with a PayPal account or a debit or credit card, and are also subject to PayPal's terms. We never see or store your card number.

7. Loyalty credits

• What they are: a thank-you for trading. Each credit is worth 1 cent (100 credits = $1) toward ACEOs in our shop. Credits have no cash value: they can't be bought, sold, transferred to another account, or exchanged for money, and they aren't a deposit or a stored-value account.
• How they're earned: through completed trades, trade milestones, the founding trader welcome gift, community codes, and occasional gifts from our team, as described in the FAQ. Credits from a trade become available to spend once you've rated that trade.
• Corrections: if a trade is reversed, the credits and any milestone bonus it earned are withdrawn. We may also correct credits added by mistake, and remove credits obtained through fraud, linked accounts or other abuse of these Terms.
• Changes to earning rules: we may change how credits are earned in the future, with notice on the platform. Changes don't reduce credits already in your account, except for the corrections above.
• No expiry while your account is open. If your account is closed, or banned and the ban isn't overturned on appeal, any unspent credits end with it.
• Founding traders and community codes: the founding welcome gift goes to people who joined our waitlist between October 1 and 31, 2026 (Ontario time). It's added once, to the account created with that same email address, after the email is confirmed; the same applies to the extra credits for joining the waitlist through a partner community's invite link. Each account can receive the founding welcome gift once and use one community code once. We may end a community code at any time; anyone who already joined with it keeps the credits they were promised.

8. Hub values

A card's Hub value is our automated estimate of what it's worth, calculated from demand for the artist's work on the Hub. It's used to calculate loyalty credits and the trade guarantee, and only the card's owner can see it. Hub values are estimates for those purposes, not appraisals or a promise of what a card would sell for. You can ask a person to review your card's value from its page.

9. The trade guarantee

If a card you're owed in a trade is genuinely lost in the mail, despite proof that it was sent, we compensate you with loyalty credits equal to the card's Hub value, up to the coverage of your trust tier at the time of the trade. In particular:

• A card can be reported missing once 20 business days have passed (30 for mail between Canada and the United States), counted from when it was marked as sent, or from when the trade was accepted if it never was.
• The guarantee relies on the sender's proof-of-posting photos and our review. It covers loss in the mail, not cards that arrive damaged or not as described; those are handled as disputes (section 10).
• The guarantee is paid in loyalty credits only. It isn't insurance and doesn't cover any other loss.
• If we find that a card was never actually sent, the sender may receive a strike or a ban, and we may withdraw anything paid out because of it.

10. Disputes, strikes and appeals

Reporting a problem

If a card hasn't arrived, arrives damaged, or doesn't match its listing, report a problem from the trade instead of confirming it. You can do this while the trade is in the mail, or up to 5 business days after it completes. Include photos of what you received.

How we decide

Opening a dispute puts the trade on hold. A member of our team reviews it within 2 business days and decides within 3 business days, based on the listing, the proof-of-posting photos, the messages between you, and anything else either trader provides. The decision is either that the trade goes ahead, or that it's reversed: both fees are refunded, credits from the trade are withdrawn, and each card is recorded as belonging to its original owner again. If a trade is reversed, we may ask each of you to return the card you received.

Strikes

If a dispute is decided against a trader who was at fault, for example for sending a card that doesn't match its photos, they may receive a strike. A first strike lowers their trust tier, a second returns them to Rank 1, and a third results in a permanent ban.

Appeals

Either trader can appeal a dispute decision once, within 5 business days. A different member of our team reviews it and decides within 3 business days. Strikes and bans can also be appealed. Our decisions on disputes concern the Hub's records, credits and fees; they don't stop you from pursuing any other legal rights you have against the other trader.

11. Buying from the ACEO shop

The ACEOs in our shop are original pieces we've bought from artists and sell directly to you. Every piece is one of a kind.

• Prices are set by us and shown on each piece. You can pay through PayPal, with loyalty credits, or a combination. Shipping is free when you pay entirely on PayPal or entirely in credits, and a flat $5 when you combine them. If sales tax applies to your order, it's shown at checkout before you pay. You see the full total before placing your order. When part of an order is paid on PayPal, we hold the piece for you for 10 minutes while you pay, and the order is placed once PayPal confirms your payment. If you cancel or don't finish in time, the piece goes back in the shop, any credits you applied are returned, and nothing is charged.
• Availability: if two people check out the same piece at the same moment, only the first order goes through, and nobody is charged for a piece they don't receive. We may occasionally pause orders to a US state for sales-tax reasons.
• Shipping: we mail your ACEO to the address in your settings. Pieces priced at $100 or more are sent with tracking.
• If your order doesn't arrive within 20 business days of being mailed (30 between Canada and the United States), tell us and we'll refund it in full, after checking with the carrier if it was tracked.
• If it arrives damaged or not as described, tell us within 14 days of delivery, with photos, and we'll refund it in full, including any shipping fee. We may ask you to send it back, at our cost.
• Change-of-mind returns: because every piece is one of a kind, we don't accept returns for a change of mind, except where the law gives you a right to cancel.
• Refunds go back the way you paid: PayPal payments through PayPal, to your PayPal account or card, and credits as credits.
• ACEOs bought from the shop are yours to keep, but can't be listed for trade on the Hub. Buying one gives you the physical piece; the copyright stays with the artist.

12. Selling ACEOs to the Hub

This section applies if you apply to sell ACEOs to us.

• Applications: any artist in Canada or the United States can apply. We choose the artists we work with at our discretion, and you can update your application and apply again.
• Commissions: once you're approved, we may offer you commissions, or you can ask for one. A commission sets how many ACEOs you'll make and what we'll pay for each. You can accept or decline every offer, and nothing is binding until you accept.
• Our blank cards: for each commission you accept, we mail you our custom-backed blank cards free of charge, one per ACEO plus a spare. Every ACEO you sell us must be made on one of them, and the cards are for that purpose only.
• Delivery and payment: you mail your finished ACEOs to us, and you pay the postage. When they arrive, we check each one is made on our blank card and is your own original work, and pay you the pay agreed for the commission by PayPal, to the PayPal address you give us, within 2 business days. The pay agreed in a commission doesn't change. A card that isn't made on our blank card, or isn't your own original work, isn't bought, and we return it to you. Our published pay rates and tiers apply.
• Your promises: each ACEO you sell us is entirely your own original work; it isn't AI-generated, fan art of other people's characters, or a copy of anyone else's work; and selling it to us doesn't infringe anyone's rights.
• Copyright: you keep the copyright to your art, always. We buy the physical card only. You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to photograph the piece and use those photos, with credit to you, to list and sell it and to promote the Hub and our shop, including after it's sold.
• About the artist: once you're approved, the public details from your application (your statement, experience, mediums, subjects, craft details and, if you gave it, where you're based) appear with your ACEOs in our shop.
• Taxes: you're responsible for any income tax on what we pay you. US artists may be asked for tax information (a W-9) so we can meet reporting requirements.
• If something was misrepresented: if an ACEO we bought turns out to be AI-generated or not your original work, we may remove it from the shop, refund anyone who bought it, end our arrangement with you, and ask you to repay what we paid for it.

13. Your content

You own what you post: card photos, descriptions, your profile photo and bio, messages and the rest ("your content"). You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, resize, crop, display and share your content as needed to run, secure and promote the Services. This includes making 3D card images from your photos, featuring cards you've listed for trade, with their artist credit, in showcases across the Hub (such as the rotating cards on the banners of the trading feed and the ACEO shop), and keeping the record of completed trades. The licence ends when your content is deleted, except for trade records other traders rely on, copies in routine backups for the period they're kept, and anything we must keep by law.

You confirm that you have the right to post your content and that it doesn't break the law or anyone else's rights. If you believe something on the Hub infringes your copyright, email us with the details and we'll review it promptly.

14. Community rules

To keep the Hub safe and friendly, you must not:

• list, sell or submit AI-generated art, or misrepresent who made a card;
• list a card you don't hold, misdescribe a card's condition, or send a different card from the one you listed;
• harass, threaten, or abuse anyone, or post hate speech, slurs, sexual content, or anything illegal, in messages, profiles, listings or anywhere else;
• ask for or arrange payments, extra cards or other deals outside the Hub, or use the Hub to promote unrelated businesses or spam;
• use another trader's address or personal information for anything other than completing your trade;
• create multiple accounts, use linked accounts to earn credits or influence Hub values, or leave fake ratings;
• file false reports or disputes;
• impersonate anyone, including the Hub or our team; or
• interfere with the Services: hacking, probing for weaknesses, scraping or copying other people's listings, overloading the site, or getting around its limits and safeguards.

Messages are private between the two traders in a conversation. To keep them friendly, strong language is masked automatically and messages with hate speech can't be sent. Our team reads messages only to investigate a report, a dispute, or a suspected breach of these Terms, or when the law requires it.

15. Warnings, suspensions and bans

If you break these Terms, we may remove content, cancel offers, withhold or remove credits, issue a warning or strike, limit what you can do, or suspend or ban your account. We act in proportion to what happened. For example, listing AI art as your own work leads to an immediate ban, while trading someone else's card that turns out to be AI-generated leads to the card's removal and a warning.

Bans are decided by a person, never automatically, and every ban can be appealed from the page you're shown when you sign in. While banned, you can sign in only to see the reason and to appeal; your cards are removed from the feed and open offers are cancelled. If you have a trade in progress when you're banned, we may still require you to complete it or return the card you received.

16. Our name and materials

The ATC Hub name and logo, the design of the Services, our custom card backs, and the text and graphics we create belong to us. You may link to the Hub and share your own listings, but please don't copy our materials or use our name in a way that suggests we endorse you.

17. Changes to the Hub

We're a small, independent service and we're always improving it. We may add, change or remove features, and the Services may sometimes be unavailable for maintenance or reasons outside our control. If we ever close the Hub, we'll give you at least 30 days' notice, let open trades finish, and refund any unused trade-pack trades you paid for.

18. Disclaimers

We provide the Services "as is" and "as available". We work to keep them accurate, secure and running, but we can't promise they'll always be uninterrupted or error-free. We don't inspect traded ATCs, and other traders are responsible for their own listings, conduct and shipping; apart from the trade guarantee and our dispute process, we aren't responsible for what another trader does. Hub values are estimates. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim implied warranties, except any that consumer protection laws don't allow us to exclude.

19. Limits on our liability

To the extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, or for lost profits or data, arising from your use of the Services. Our total liability to you for any claim relating to the Services is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

These limits don't apply to liability that can't be limited by law, such as for our own fraud or gross negligence, and they don't reduce your rights as a consumer under the laws of Ontario, Quebec, or the province or state where you live. If you're a consumer in Quebec, the exclusions in sections 18 and 19 apply only to the extent Quebec law permits.

20. Governing law and disputes with us

These Terms are governed by the laws of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. If you have a concern about the Hub, please email us first; most problems can be solved quickly. If we can't resolve it, either of us may bring a claim in the courts of Ontario. If you're a consumer who lives elsewhere in Canada or in the United States, you also keep any right your local law gives you to bring a claim where you live and to rely on its consumer protections.

21. Closing your account

You can close your account at any time by emailing us. If you have a trade, dispute or order in progress, we'll finish it first. When your account closes, unspent loyalty credits end, unused trade-pack trades you paid for are refunded on request, and your information is handled as described in our Privacy Policy. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should continue after closing (such as the content licence for trade records, disclaimers, limits on liability and governing law) continue to apply.

22. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms as the Hub grows. We'll post the new version here with a new date, and if a change is significant, we'll tell you by email or on the platform at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you keep using the Services after a change takes effect, the new Terms apply; if you don't agree, you can close your account before then. Changes never apply to a trade or order already in progress.

23. Contact us

Benjamin Clarke, operating as The ATC Hub
Ontario, Canada
Email: [email protected]