The rate that is usually out of reach
Most people meeting this errand for the first time read the two published figures and assume the lower one is a discount they cannot have. For personal records that is true. A registration record is different, because the sender is nearly always the company that holds the mark, and the cheaper line is written for exactly that sender rather than for the document.
The sheet has to come from the granting body
The certifying office works from the signature and seal on the paper in front of it, which is why the version that travels has to be the one the granting body issued. Nothing produced on an office printer carries those marks, however faithful the layout looks, and a sheet without them gives the desk nothing to act on.
That also sets the real starting point of the timetable. Obtaining a properly issued record from the body that granted it happens before any of this begins, and it is the stage most likely to be forgotten when a deadline has already been agreed with somebody on the other side of a deal.
Which rate applies, and what it covers
The apostille cost for a trademark in Cardiff is a national figure rather than a local one: £45 per document by standard post, or £40 per document on the next-day line for registered businesses. Both cover the certifying act alone. Getting the papers there and back is a separate arrangement, and on a commercial file that leg is usually the one worth spending on.
Papers that travel as a set
Company records rarely go abroad on their own. A registration record generally moves with other corporate papers assembled for one purpose, and the whole set tends to be read together by whoever receives it. Since each sheet is certified and charged in its own right, the useful discipline is deciding early which of them genuinely has to be certified and which is simply useful to enclose.