How CollectIQ values cards

There is a real difference between what a seller is asking and what a buyer actually paid. Every observation we store is filed into one of these categories, and the category is always shown next to the number:

• Active listings — cards currently for sale (eBay Browse API). Asking prices only.
• Verified sales & auction results — completed transactions supplied by our licensed aggregated-data providers, where their coverage reaches the card.
• Price-guide / index values — aggregated market indices (JustTCG, TCGplayer via the Pokémon TCG API). Useful as a sanity check, not a transaction.
• User-imported comps — sales you upload yourself. Always labelled as user-provided and never shared with other users.
• Graded population — census counts per grade. Not currently populated (see providers below), so population panels stay hidden rather than showing zeros.

We never present an active listing as a sale, a “last sold,” or a completed transaction, and a verified-comp count is only shown when those rows exist.

Asking prices systematically overstate value on illiquid cards, so an active listing never enters a valuation at face value. Active observations are discounted before they contribute, and the discount widens when the listing has been sitting unsold, when the spread between listings is wide, and when there are few of them. Verified sales, when available, always outrank discounted asks.

Every observation is matched against the card’s core identifiers:

• Card name (including native and English variants)
• Set name and set year
• Card number — required, not optional
• Parallel / variant (holo, 1st Edition, shadowless, reverse, etc.)
• Grader and grade tier — PSA 10 ≠ BGS 10 ≠ BGS 10 Black Label; CGC 10 ≠ CGC 10 Pristine
• Language and printing (WOTC vs. Celebrations reprint, etc.)

Each observation gets a match tier — Exact, Likely, Partial, Weak, or Excluded — with a plain-language reason such as “same set, card number, parallel, grader, and grade.”Excluded comps are visible but never priced in.

Every valuation carries one of four confidence tiers:

• High — several exact-match verified sales, recent, agreeing on a tight range.
• Moderate — some relevant data, but mostly discounted asks or index values, fewer verified sales, or a wider spread.
• Low — few relevant comps, stale data, or comps that disagree meaningfully. Shown as a range, not a precise number.
• Insufficient data — we cannot responsibly value this card. We show “—” instead of a number.

With no verified sales, confidence is capped at Moderate — we will not display High confidence based purely on asking prices.

We would rather show nothing than show something misleading. We suppress:

• Point estimates when confidence is Low or Insufficient — a range or “—” is shown instead.
• Directional recommendations when there is not enough verified data behind them.
• The CollectIQ Score entirely when too many required inputs are missing; when only some are missing, the score is labelled Provisional and lists which factors were unavailable.
• Insufficient-data cards from set totals, Movers, rankings, and scanner results.
• Movers with a missing, zero, or unreliable starting price — those read “Insufficient price history.”

We identify and down-weight or exclude observations that skew results — bulk lots, damaged copies, misgraded slabs, reprint parallels sold as originals, and listings priced far outside the recent distribution. We also run grade-ladder checks: we do not assume a higher grade must be worth more, but extreme inconsistencies between neighbouring grades are flagged for review rather than published as fact.

The exact weighting that combines match quality, recency, sample size, verified-vs-active mix, and momentum into the CollectIQ Score is proprietary. This page documents the categories of inputs and the guardrails around them.

This table is generated from our provider registry, so it reflects what is actually connected — not what we hope to connect.

• eBay Browse APIACTIVE

  Current asking prices for listings that are still for sale. These are never presented as sales.

  ACTIVE LISTINGS

• JustTCGACTIVE

  Bulk market-price index used for raw and graded price coverage across the catalog.

  PRICE-GUIDE INDEX

• CardSightACTIVE

  Licensed aggregated sales data used for graded pricing where coverage exists.

  VERIFIED SALES · AUCTION RESULTS · PRICE-GUIDE INDEX

• Card HedgeACTIVE

  Licensed aggregated market data, including the top-movers feed behind the Movers page.

  VERIFIED SALES · AUCTION RESULTS · PRICE-GUIDE INDEX

• Pokémon TCG API + TCGdexACTIVE

  Card catalog, set checklists, imagery, and TCGplayer-sourced market index values.

  CATALOG & IMAGERY · PRICE-GUIDE INDEX

• PSA Population ReportPLANNED

  Integration is built but is not currently populating data; population figures are hidden until it is.

  GRADED POPULATION

• Card LadderUNDER EVALUATION

  Not connected. Under commercial evaluation as an additional sold-sales source.

  VERIFIED SALES

• PriceCharting / SportsCardsProUNDER EVALUATION

  Not connected. Under commercial evaluation.

  VERIFIED SALES · PRICE-GUIDE INDEX

• Your own imported salesUSER IMPORT ONLY

  CSV transactions and comps you upload. Always labelled as user-provided and never shown to other users.

  USER-IMPORTED COMPS