Card prices

Card prices are an integral part of ManaBox. It has multiple price providers; here is a quick summary of them.

Price providers

Marketplaces

A marketplace is a platform where multiple sellers can list cards at their own prices. Prices are determined by active listings or completed sales. More info here.
ManaBox supports:

• TCGplayer

  TCGplayer is the largest marketplace in the US for card games. Individuals or stores around the world can list their own products.

  TCGplayer provides a few computed prices based on listings and sales on their website. You can see an explanation here: TCGplayer website

• Cardmarket

  Cardmarket is the largest marketplace in Europe for card games. Individuals or stores around the world can list their own products.

  Cardmarket provides a few computed prices based on listings and sales on their website. You can see an explanation in their FAQ, in the section “What are the price suggestions that Cardmarket uses?”: Cardmarket FAQ

  The AVG (average) reference price we use from Cardmarket is based on sales and listings over the last 30 days.

• Mana Pool

  Mana Pool is an independent US-based marketplace for Magic: The Gathering, providing a platform to buy and sell both individual cards and sealed products.

How are prices calculated in marketplaces?

They are calculated in two main ways, which work differently:

• Based on listings (such as LOW and MID on TCGplayer, LP+ and NM in Mana Pool, or LOW and AVG on Cardmarket) are calculated from active listings on these marketplaces, where sellers can set any price they choose. Because of this, listed-price values can fluctuate significantly, especially when a card has few active listings. In extreme cases, a single unusually high or low listing can dominate the reference price, temporarily showing unrealistic values, even if that listing is later removed.

  For example, if a card normally sells for $0.02 and only one copy is listed for $15000, that listing could make the listed prices appear much higher than the card’s true market value, showing unrealistic values.

• Based on sales (such as MARKET on TCGplayer and Mana Pool, or TREND on Cardmarket) are calculated from completed sales and usually provide a more stable and realistic view of a card’s value.

Always consider this when selecting a reference price to ensure your collection reflects realistic market values.

Stores

Stores are individual retailers that sell cards directly to customers. Prices are set by the store itself.

• Card Kingdom

  Card Kingdom is an independent store based in the US specialising in Magic: the Gathering. On top of selling, they also provide services for bulk buying.

• Star City Games

  Star City Games is a US-based independent TCG store offering both retail and bulk purchasing options.

Magic Online

• Cardhoarder (MTGO)

  Cardhoarder provides marketplace services for cards in the Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO) game. MTGO uses a different currency called “TIX”, which are the Event Tickets that you can buy in the MTGO store.

Why do some cards don’t have a price?

If the card is from a set that just released, it’s very likely that the reason is that the store doesn’t have an “accurate” price for this card yet.

Another reason a card doesn’t show a price is if we haven’t properly linked it. In these situations the app shows No prices found for this card. If you encounter this, and the card has a page in the corresponding store, you can report it to us.

Why doesn’t the app show different prices for card condition, language, or location?

Unfortunately, the app cannot currently take these factors into account. Our pricing providers only supply a few global values per card on all available listings and sales. Since we don’t have access to more detailed data, pricing based on location, condition, or language cannot be supported.

How often are prices updated?

Prices are updated every few hours for each store.

Can you add support for X store?

Some frequently asked stores are LigaMagic and Face to Face Games, unfortunately, as far as we know, these stores don’t provide ways for third parties to access prices.

We invest a lot of time making sure that each card (different versions, foil, etc) points to the correct link in each of the stores, so adding new markets is a big endeavour for us. While we appreciate requests for new stores, we may not be able to add them to the app.