How we source values & data

Collectible “values” are slippery. The same card can sell for very different prices depending on condition, grade, grading company, venue, timing and luck. So we don’t publish a single magic number. We publish what was observed, where, and when, and we show you how to check it yourself.

The rules we always follow

1. Every figure has a source and a date. Where possible, a figure links to the sale, listing or report it came from, along with the date we observed it.
2. We never invent numbers. That means no made-up sale prices, auction results, population counts, print runs or “rarity” claims. If we can’t verify something, we say “unknown” or “not enough data”.
3. An estimate is labeled as an estimate. It’s never presented as an exact market value.
4. No predictions. We don’t say a card “will go up” or call it a good investment. Collectibles can lose value.
5. Affiliate relationships don’t touch the data. See our Affiliate Disclosure.

Key distinctions we always make

Sold vs. asking

• Sold means a completed transaction: an auction’s final price, an accepted Buy It Now, or a disclosed accepted offer. Only sold prices count toward an observed value range.
• Asking means a listing that hasn’t sold. We may show asking prices as “currently listed from $X”, but an asking price is not a value.
• Accepted Best Offers on eBay often hide the final price. When the accepted amount isn’t disclosed by a reliable source, we treat the sale as price unknown and leave it out of ranges.
• Marketplace reference prices, such as TCGplayer’s “Market Price” or aggregator estimates like PriceCharting’s, are labeled with their name and source. We describe them as that site’s figure, not as a sale.

Raw vs. graded

• Raw (ungraded) cards are grouped only when the condition is reasonably clear from photos or a description. Otherwise we say the condition is unclear.
• Graded cards are reported by grading company and exact grade (e.g., “PSA 8”, “CGC 9”, “BGS 9.5”, “SGC 7”). We don’t treat grades from different companies as interchangeable, and we don’t mix raw and graded sales in one range.
• Qualifiers and special labels (e.g., “OC”, “MK”, “Authentic/Altered”, half grades, or the “Pristine” or “Black Label” style labels some graders use) are kept separate.

Dated ranges, not single numbers

When we show values, they look like this:

Observed sold range (PSA 8): $A–$B · n = 7 sales · Jul 3 – Sep 28, 2026 · Sources: eBay (5), Heritage (1), Goldin (1) · Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026

• Minimum evidence. We need at least 3 comparable sales in the window. With fewer, we list the individual sales (date, venue, price) or say “not enough recent sales”.
• Time window. By default, the last 90 days. For thinly traded vintage cards, up to 24 months, labeled clearly.
• Freshness. A range not reviewed in more than 90 days is marked “stale”.
• Outliers. We exclude sales that look misidentified, damaged, cancelled, or far outside the rest of the evidence, and we say how many were excluded. We don’t remove a sale just because it’s inconvenient.
• Prices are in USD, as shown by the venue. Unless stated, they exclude shipping, tax and buyer’s premium. Where a venue’s price includes a buyer’s premium (common at auction houses), we say so.

Population (grading census) data

• Population counts come only from the grading company’s official report (or a clearly attributed aggregator). They are always dated and attributed: e.g., “PSA Population Report, accessed Oct 7, 2026”.
• Pop counts change daily and include resubmissions and crossovers, so they are a rough indicator, not a precise count of surviving copies.
• We never invent or estimate population figures. If a grader’s online report is unavailable, we say so and link to it rather than substituting numbers.
• “Low pop” doesn’t automatically mean valuable, and we won’t call a card “rare” without a sourced basis.

Where our data comes from

• Public sales records: eBay completed/sold listings, auction-house archives (e.g., Heritage, Goldin and other public results pages), and grader-hosted sales databases such as PSA’s Auction Prices Realized.
• Reference data: grading-company population reports; manufacturer checklists; established checklist databases (cited, not copied); primary sources like original wrappers, card backs and period advertising.
• Marketplace reference prices: TCGplayer and aggregators, always labeled as such.

We gather data by reading public pages and recording individual observations, with no bulk scraping against any site’s terms. We don’t republish other sites’ databases.

Check it yourself

Every value section includes “How to check today’s value” links to live sold-listing searches and official reports, so you can see the newest evidence before you buy, sell or grade. Some of these links are affiliate links (disclosed).

Limits and honesty

• Our observations are a sample, not every sale that ever happened. Private sales, shows and unrecorded transactions are invisible to us.
• Condition matters enormously, and photos can mislead.
• Nothing on this site is financial, investment, tax or legal advice.

Spotted an error? See our Corrections Policy.

How checklist rows are verified

A checklist row or fact is marked ✓ Cross-checked when at least two published sources agree on it after normalisation (for example, ignoring the order names are listed in). Facts from one source are labelled Single source. When sources conflict, we show ⚠ Sources disagree with each source’s claim and don’t pick a winner until we can check a primary source such as the card itself or a manufacturer record. Some reference checklists may share contributors, so agreement is strong evidence but not proof. We note this where we know it.

Confidence labels

• ● High confidence: key facts checked against multiple reliable sources, or a primary source.
• ● Medium confidence: well sourced overall, but some details rest on a single source.
• ● Low confidence: limited sourcing. Treat it as a starting point.

Every page shows its last-updated date and lists its sources at the bottom.

Images

We only use images we own, have permission to use, that are licensed or in the public domain, or that we created. We don’t lift photos from listings or other sites.

Corrections

Found an error? See the corrections policy for how to report it and how fixes are shown.