TCG Card Central Research

How we calculate card values

TCG Card Central combines TCGPlayer market data, eBay sold comps, and marketplace listings into one transparent price view. This page documents our methodology for collectors, vendors, and search engines evaluating our data.

Data sources

TCGPlayer market prices via tcgcsv.com daily snapshots and live resolver APIs (TCGdex, pokemontcg.io, JustTCG, OPTCG, and PokeTrace where configured).
eBay sold comps from filtered recent sales with outlier removal for variant mismatches.
TCG Card Central marketplace listings for real supply and asking prices on our platform.

Price history & trends

Daily snapshots are stored in card_prices keyed by game + card identifier (set, number, name).
Public card pages show 1D, 7D, and 30D percent change from the nearest prior snapshot in range.
Legacy bad snapshots that deviate more than 10× from the live market anchor are filtered out before charts render.

Update cadence

TCGPlayer-aligned prices refresh on scan, collection refresh, and scheduled sync jobs.
eBay comps cache expires on a rolling TTL; stale rows are replaced on the next lookup.
Set-level top movers and completion value estimates use the latest 30 days of stored snapshots.

Trust & limitations

Prices reflect market data, not buy offers. Graded, foreign, and mislabeled listings may differ from NM English raw values.
Thinly traded cards may show limited history until more sales sync.
We publish sources and timestamps on card pages so collectors can verify freshness before buying or selling.