Where to sell Pokémon cards, and what you actually keep

The price a card sells for is not the money you keep. Between the two sits a fee stack that is published, predictable and larger than most sellers estimate — and a per-order component that turns cheap cards into losses no matter how the listing performs.

This page uses the fee structure TCGplayer publishes, read on 21 August 2026, because it is the marketplace where Pokémon singles are actually priced and the only one of the big two that shows its numbers without a login.

The fee stack on a marketplace sale#

For a standard Level 1–4 marketplace seller, TCGplayer charges a commission of 10.75% of the order subtotal, capped at $75 per product sold, plus a transaction fee of 2.5% and $0.30 on the order total including shipping and tax. Pro sellers pay 9.25% commission plus a 2.5% Pro fee; Direct sellers pay 8.95% plus item-based Direct fees.

The selling fee calculator runs that arithmetic on your own numbers, including postage and packaging, which are the lines most sellers forget.

Two structural details matter more than the headline percentage. The commission cap means the percentage stops growing above roughly $700 of subtotal on a single product, which quietly makes expensive singles cheaper to sell than they look. And the transaction fee applies to shipping and tax as well as the card, so inflating postage to protect a price does not work.

The trap at the bottom of the market#

Fixed fees do not scale down. On a two-dollar card, thirty cents is fifteen per cent before anyone takes a percentage.

TCGplayer’s Direct programme makes this explicit: a card valued under $2.49 is charged 50% of its value as the Direct fee, with the other fees waived, while a card above that threshold is charged $1.12 per card plus the standard fees. Whatever else those numbers say, they price the handling of a cheap card honestly — it costs about as much to pick, pack and ship a fifty-cent common as a fifty-dollar holo.

The practical rule that falls out of it: cards below a couple of dollars are not products, they are inventory. They sell in lots, by weight or by set, or they sit.

Which band sells where#

Marketplace, shop or consignment#

None of the three is wrong. What is wrong is using the first one for bulk and the second one for a card whose graded comparables sell for four figures.

What we could not verify#

eBay is the other half of this market, and its fee table sits behind bot protection that we do not attempt to bypass. So this page quotes no eBay percentage. Check the rate for your category inside your own account or on eBay’s published selling-fees help page before you list — category-specific rates and per-order fees both exist there, and a figure copied from a blog is not a substitute.

That gap is worth stating plainly rather than filling with a number we did not read. The same rule governs every figure on this site: sources with the date we read them, or no figure at all.

Before you list anything#

1. Step 1

   Identify the exact printing

   Set symbol and collector number decide which card you are selling. A listing under the wrong printing either does not sell or sells for the wrong price.

2. Step 2

   Grade the condition harshly

   Take the lowest tier any single flaw allows. Sellers who round up get returns, and returns cost the fee twice.

3. Step 3

   Photograph the actual card

   Front, back and any flaw, under one light source. Stock images on a raw card invite disputes about condition you could have avoided in ninety seconds.

4. Step 4

   Price against completed sales

   Not active listings. What buyers paid last week is the only number that predicts what the next one will pay.

5. Step 5

   Subtract the fees before deciding

   If the take-home on a card is under a few dollars, put it in a lot instead. That decision is arithmetic, not sentiment.

Where selling meets everything else#

Pricing starts with what actually decides card value, and the condition tier you list under is defined by the marketplace’s own standard rather than by your judgement of the card. If you are weighing whether to sell raw or send the card away first, is it worth grading has the break-even, and the collection list is what stops you selling a card twice or losing track of what you paid for it.

TCG Valuer is an independent site and app. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, PSA, Beckett, CGC or SGC. Product names are used descriptively to identify the cards and services being discussed.