This chapter will take you through the different options for checking the value of a card - with both free and paid options.
The number one question new members of the hobby have is “how do I know how much my cards are worth?” or “how much should I pay for this card?”. Luckily there are a number of tools you can use to check the value of your card - some are free while others charge a membership fee to use their service.
eBay sold listings - Free
Since eBay has the largest volume of sports card sales - it is the main source for pricing a card. You can view the past sales for a card by:
- Searching for the card on eBay, specifically by - Player name + Year + Manufacturer + Set + Parallel/variant. For example “Patrick Mahomes 2017 Panini Prizm Base”.
- In the filter section, select to show only “Sold Items”.
- This will show you all listings sold for the search term.
Using the past sales results you should be able to estimate a relative price for a card. If there are limited or no results for the search term, you can try:
- Searching for a different player of similar value for the same year, manufacturer and parallel/variant.
- Searching for a similar year card for the same player, manufacturer and parallel/variant.
- Searching for a similar manufacturer’s card for the same player, year or similar parallel/variant.
- Searching for a similar parallel/variant for the same player, year and manufacturer.
130point.com - Free
130point.com is a site for checking past eBay and marketplace (Goldin, Heritage Auctions, PWCC) sales data.
The advantage of the marketplace search is it will show sales beyond the historic limit of eBay results.
PicClick.com - Free
PicClick.com is a site for checking current eBay listings and displaying the results in a visual format. It is intended to help users search eBay faster by displaying search results in a large gallery rather than a list of results as found on eBay.
Card Ladder - Paid
Card Ladder is a site for checking the prices of trading cards - including additional data such as market and player index data. Although it requires a membership fee to access, Card Ladder will show card sales history beyond the historic eBay limit.
It’s important to bear in mind past sales are not the only indicator of price - you must also consider the condition of your card compared to others sold in the past. Ultimately, a card is only worth what someone is WILLING TO PAY FOR IT or WHAT YOU ARE WILLING TO SELL IT FOR.