What do the different price points on TCGplayer.com mean?
Harnessing the power of hundreds of brick and mortar stores, online stores and individual sellers, TCGplayer puts together the most comprehensive Price Guide available anywhere.
We serve up over four million pages of pricing data each day through our popular marketplace and via partner websites and mobile applications.
TCGplayer has APIs available for use on your website/app so you can use pricing data in a variety of ways. And best of all, TCGplayer provides commission payments for all newly referred sales that you send our way.
TCG Market Price: This price point is compiled from recent sales completed on TCGplayer.com. TCG Market Price is updated as transactions complete and reflects the best suggested retail price of a product.
Buylist Market Price: This price point is based on recently processed and completed purchases of cards through the TCGplayer Buylist. Because this metric reflects the price at which a store can purchase, receive, process, and sell cards for a profit, it reflects the best wholesale price of a card.
Listed Median: This is the median from all listed prices for a product based on listed prices only. Because of this, especially on older products with lower quantities, it can vary significantly from the actual price that people are paying for the card (see TCG Market Price). We continue supporting this price point, but lower our emphasis on it, as it’s valuable data to many traders and store owners and is extremely reliable on cards from the Modern era.
Example:
Let’s look at a scenario. We'll see what the true value of the Magic: The Gathering card Moat from the Legends set is, assuming the following sample price data:
- TCG Market Price: $354.66
- Buylist Market Price: $290.02
- Listed Median: $654.72
What is the value of Moat given these data points? Some sellers have it listed (as per the Listed Median) for over $600, so isn’t that its price? No. The TCG Market Price reflects the recent sales of Moat to be $354.66. Stores are currently paying $290.02 to immediately purchase the card from players, so the true value falls somewhere in between these two data points.
Let's discuss the Listed Median price more. Moat has a Listed Median of $654.72, almost double what actual sales (TCG Market Price) are showing. This is because only a few sellers still have this card listed. What you are not seeing is that every time a new seller lists a Moat at a price near the TCG Market Price, it sells, leaving behind cards with listed prices far above what the card will sell for.