How the numbers work
Trust is the product. This page is the whole recipe — where every price comes from, what we flag, what we subtract, and how we grade ourselves.
WHERE PRICES COME FROM
Prices are TCGplayer's own daily market figures, captured once per day for every product and printing (Normal / Holofoil / Reverse Holofoil / editions). Marketis TCGplayer's trailing blend of actual sales — a fair value estimate, not an executable quote. Lowis the lowest current ask, which a single troll listing can distort on a thin book. Our archive runs back to February 2024 — one snapshot per card per day, no gaps we don't heal.
Charts default to a 7-day rolling median to cut single-day noise; RAW is one tap away on every chart.
THE HONESTY FLAGS
⚠ THIN — very few listings or sales back this move; the price may hinge on a single stale or troll listing. Treat with suspicion.
⚠ SOLO — only this printing of the card moved while its sibling variants were flat. Often a repricing artifact rather than real demand: real demand lifts every printing of a card.
We flag rather than hide — an honest board with warnings beats a quiet board that lies by omission.
FEE-ADJUSTED MATH
Every "net" figure subtracts real selling costs — the number you would actually bank, not the sticker:
eBay net = price − 13.25% final value fee − $0.30/order − shipping TCGplayer net = price − 10.25% commission − 2.5% + $0.30 processing − shipping shipping = $1.00 plain-white-envelope default for single cards
Rates are the common single-card seller case (eBay trading-cards tier ≤ $7,500), not every edge case.
ARTIST PREMIUM MODEL
An artist's premium compares their cards' prices against cards of the same rarity and series — a 1.40x premium means collectors pay 40% more when that artist illustrates the card, holding the cohort constant. Artists appear on the leaderboard once they have enough tracked cards for the comparison to mean something.
COVERAGE, HONESTLY
We track 32,000+ TCGplayer products daily. About 79% of singles are crosswalked to full catalog metadata (artist, Pokédex, types) — the gap is mostly World Championship decks, jumbos, and brand-new sets until the upstream catalog catches up. Prices are product-level; condition-level pricing (NM vs played) is not something the source data provides, and we won't pretend otherwise.
THE SCOREBOARD PROMISE
Every insight we publish — every mover we highlight, every call in the daily brief — is recorded with its entry price the moment it goes out, then scored at 7, 30, and 90 days. The results live on the public scoreboard, wins and losses alike. Check our track record before you trust a word we say. Nothing here is financial advice.