Pricing With Comps

Turn a pile of recent sales into one defensible number, and explain it to the person across the counter.

A customer sets a slabbed rookie on the counter, holds up their phone, and says, "There's one listed on eBay for $400, so that's what it's worth." Your job is to answer with what the card actually sells for, and to show them how you got there. In the hobby, those recent sales are called comps (comparables).

Rule zero: sold, not asking

An active listing is a hope. A sold listing is a fact. One recent pricing guide puts asking prices at 30–50% above what cards actually sell for, and says to work only from sold data.[1] It's the same at a Pokémon show: the sticker on a vendor's Charizard is the opening bid in a conversation, not its value.

One wrinkle: when an eBay seller accepts a Best Offer, the public sold view shows the crossed-out asking price, not the price the buyer paid.[3] If you comp off that crossed-out number, you're comping off an asking price again.

Your tools

If you already sell on eBay, Product Research in Seller Hub shows three years of sales at "the actual price that the item sold for, even if a Best Offer was accepted."[8] For a free start, 130point plus the eBay Price Guide covers most counter questions.

The four-step comp

Why the median? One fake $400 sale among a handful of $100 sales drags the average way up, but barely moves the median (the middle value when you sort them). Try it: the box below is pre-filled with six made-up sales. Delete the 110 and watch the average move while the median barely does.

The calculator flags sales more than 40% from the median. That's a rule of thumb from one guide, not a standard; Sports Card Investor only drops a sale when there's evidence it wasn't real.[9] Look at a flagged sale before you throw it out.

Two places comps get slippery

Raw vs. graded

Comp graded cards against the same grade from the same company. Comp raw cards against raw sales. A raw card's condition is unknown until it's graded, so never quote a raw card at PSA 10 money. If you only have graded comps for a raw card, you're guessing at its grade (that's Lesson 4).[1]

Thin markets and pop reports

A /10 parallel might sell twice a year. When you can't find 3+ recent sales, widen the window, look at the nearest parallels and grades, and give a range and say it's thin. Don't treat one old sale as gospel.

The population report (PSA's is at psacard.com/pop) counts how many copies a grader has slabbed at each grade.[10] It's useful context, with limits: it covers one grader only, it ignores raw copies, and a low number can just mean nobody bothered to grade a cheap card. It's "a record of what one grading company has certified," not a count of what exists.[11]

Practice

Answer from what you just read, without scrolling back up. Options are shuffled each time you load the page.

Questions 1–3 use this table. These sales are made up for practice; they are illustrative, not real market data. The customer's card is a 2025 Topps Chrome rookie Refractor, PSA 10.

Something unclear, or want to argue with an answer? Ask me in the terminal. I'm your teacher for this, and questions like "how do I comp a card with an auto and a patch?" or "why does Card Ladder show a different number than 130point?" are exactly what to bring.

Up next: Lesson 4, pre-grading a raw card (centering, corners, edges, surface, and whether grading is worth it).
Reference: Pricing Workflow cheat sheet · All lessons

Sources: [1] The Card Shop Finder: pricing guide · [2] Vendoo: eBay sold items · [3] Cubbby: What is 130point · [4] eBay Price Guide · [5] Sports Collectors Digest · [6] Card Ladder Pro · [7] Market Movers · [8] eBay Help: Product research · [9] Sports Card Investor: Cards Under Comps · [10] The Card Shop Finder: pop reports · [11] Otia: what pop reports can't tell you