How we calculate value

Real sales, one at a time

We pull individual verified sold transactions — the actual completed sale, with its date, price, title and a link back to where it happened. We do not run a secret formula, we do not blend in asking prices, and we never invent a number to fill a gap. When a card has no sales behind it, we say "awaiting comps" instead of guessing.

Sales are gathered through The Card API, which collects results from eBay, Goldin, Lelands, SCP, Hakes, REA, TCGplayer.

What each figure means

Estimated value

The middle sale price (the median) of the matching sales we found — graded sales for a graded card, raw sales for a raw one. The middle price is used so one wild result can't drag the number around.

Pending confirmation

The sale was reported but the final price hasn't been confirmed by the source yet — best offers, auction settlements and cancelled deals can still change it. We label these instead of hiding them, and they carry less weight in your read of the market.

Momentum

A comparison of the most recent sales window against the window before it: how the average price moved and how many cards changed hands. Tap any momentum badge to see both figures and the sale counts behind them.

Grade ladder

The same card's real sales sorted by assigned grade, so you can see what each grade actually fetched. Grading opinions are opinions only — no guarantee of an outcome.

Other versions

When a card has no sales of its own, we may show sibling parallels — always the same player, year, set and card number, only a different colour or print run. These are shown for context and are never saved as your card's value.

What the sale price includes

eBay

The all-in price the buyer paid. Shipping is recorded separately where the source reports it.

Auction houses

Goldin and the other auction houses report the hammer price only. The winning bidder also pays a buyer's premium on top — around 22% today, closer to 20% on sales before 2022 — so the real cost of an auction-house sale is higher than the figure shown.

Best offers

We use the genuinely negotiated price, not the asking price the seller had posted.

Sale type and currency

Every sale is marked as an auction, a fixed price or an accepted offer. Prices are reported in US dollars. Some sales only carry a date, not a time of day, so two sales on the same day may appear in either order.

Graded, raw and coverage

Graded means the card was graded

A slab that only authenticates a signature (PSA/DNA, JSA, BAS) counts as raw here, because the card's condition was never graded. Graded sales price graded cards and raw sales price raw cards — the two are never mixed.

Confirmed prices

Most sales arrive with a confirmed final price. A few land as a fast first read and firm up within minutes — those are the ones labelled pending confirmation.

How far back the record goes

New sales reach us from roughly the past week. Card Ace saves every sale it finds, so a card's history here gets deeper the longer you own it and the more often you pull comps — the older sales you see are ones we captured while they were fresh.

Why a card can show no sales

The record is deep on eBay and still filling in on the auction houses, and an older or thinly traded card may simply not have sold this week. That is a gap in the record, not a value of zero — so we leave the value blank instead of inventing one.

Opening a sold listing

eBay sometimes redirects a signed-in visitor from a sold listing to a general product page. Open the link in a private or incognito window to see the original sale exactly as it closed.