Trading Card Games

How to sell trading cards on Metzee

Centring, edges, surface and corners. Live is where a raw card can actually be judged.

buying

Buying trading cards in a live auction

Ask for the tilt, the corners and the back. Three requests that tell you most of what a grade would.

Pricing trading cards for a live auction

Lot the commons, auction the ones worth a conversation, and let the grade do the pricing when there is one.

delivery

Packing and posting trading cards

Sleeve, toploader, tape it so it cannot slide, rigid outer. And keep it out of the heat.

How trading card condition is described

The four factors, the common 1-to-10 scales, and what "raw" commits you to.

What are your trading cards worth?

Print run, edition and centring — and the gap between a raw card and the same card graded.

Photographing trading cards

Tilt it under side light. A card shot flat has not been shown.

delivery

Delivering trading cards: courier, local or collection

The lightest thing you will ever post, and the one where rate rules matter most.

buying

Questions to ask before bidding on trading cards

Back, tilt, corners. Three requests that turn a photograph into a card you have actually seen.

How trading cards are graded

Four things assessed, a ten-point scale, and the difference between a grade and a guess.

Storing and caring for trading cards

Humidity sticks a card to its sleeve. Heat curves it. Both happen quietly.

Starting a trading card collection

Buy one set in commons until you can see centring without thinking about it.

Common mistakes selling trading cards

A predicted grade in the title, and a card photographed flat.

trust

How to spot fake trading cards

What to ask a seller to do with a card on camera, and why "out of the sleeve" is the request that matters.