Cheat sheet
Pricing Workflow
Sold, not asking → Match → Recent → Median → Explain
The five steps
| Step | Do | Trap |
|---|---|---|
| 0 · Sold only | Use completed sales. Get the real accepted Best Offer price. | Active listings and crossed-out Best Offer prices are asking prices |
| 1 · Match exactly | Year, set, card #, parallel, serial #, grade and grading company | Keyword searches mix in BGS 9.5s, other parallels, raw copies |
| 2 · Recent | ~5–10 sales, ~30–90 days (for $100+ cards) | One old sale is not a market |
| 3 · Median | Sort, drop clear outliers, take the middle value | Shill bids (zero-feedback buyers) inflate averages |
| 4 · Trend | Falling: lean low. Rising: median or above. | Last month's price in a moving market |
Tools
| Tool | Best for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| eBay Sold Items filter | Quick look, last ~90 days | Free |
| 130point | Accepted Best Offer prices; app adds Goldin, Heritage, MySlabs | Web free |
| eBay Price Guide (scan in app) | 2 yrs of eBay sales, median uses accepted offers, PSA/CGC pop | Free |
| eBay Product Research (Seller Hub) | 3 yrs of sales, actual Best Offer prices | Free for Seller Hub sellers |
| Card Ladder | Charts, multi-marketplace history | Pro $20/mo or $200/yr* |
| Market Movers | Comps, alerts, collection tracking | $9.99–$49.99/mo* |
*Last published prices; check the sites before quoting.
Rules of thumb
| Raw vs. graded | Raw comps for raw cards; same grade + same company for slabs. Never quote raw at PSA 10 money. |
| Outliers | One guide drops sales 40%+ from the median; others drop only with evidence of a fake sale. Look before you drop. |
| Thin market | <3 recent sales: widen window, check nearest parallels/grades, give a range, say it's thin. |
| Pop report | One grader's slab count by grade. Excludes raw copies and other graders. Low pop on a cheap card often just means few submissions. |
Say it to the customer
"Here are the last [N] sales of this exact card in this grade, from $[low] to $[high]. I left out [sale] because [reason]. The middle of the real sales is about $[median]."
Median in 10 seconds
Sort the clean sales. Odd count: the middle one. Even count: average the two middle ones. 112, 118, 125, 130 → (118 + 125) ÷ 2 = $121.50.
Sources: The Card Shop Finder · Cubbby · eBay Price Guide · eBay Help · Vendoo · Card Ladder · Market Movers · Sports Card Investor · Otia