What Percentage of Market Value Do Dealers Pay?

Nobody pays 100%, and any buyer who says they do is quietly moving the number somewhere else. Here is what the percentages actually are, why they scale, and how to check whether an offer is fair.

Why the number is never 100%

When a dealer buys your card they are not acquiring cash, they are acquiring inventory. That card now has to be graded for condition, priced, photographed, listed, stored, insured, packed and shipped — and it has to actually sell, which some cards do not, for months or ever.

Against the eventual sale price there is roughly 13% in marketplace fees, the postage, the packing materials, the labor, and the losses on cards that turn out worse than they looked or that come back as a claim. The buy percentage has to absorb all of that before anything is left.

What you are actually buying with that gap is certainty and time: one payment, today, with no fees on your side, no listings to write, no packages to mail, and no returns to handle. Whether that trade is worth it depends entirely on how much you value your own evenings.

Why the percentage scales with value

The percentage should go up as the card gets more valuable. If it does not, ask why.

The handling cost of a card barely changes with its price. Grading the condition, photographing it, listing it, packing it and shipping it costs about the same whether the card is worth $4 or $400. On a $4 card that fixed cost is most of the margin; on a $400 card it is a rounding error.

That is why any buy ladder that is honestly constructed has to rise steeply with value, and why a flat percentage across a whole collection is a warning sign. Here is ours, published in full:

Item valueCashStore credit
Singles under $10070%80%
Singles $100 – $49980%90%
Singles $500 – $99985%95%
Anything $1,000 and up90%100%
Sealed under $10080%90%
Sealed $100 – $49983%93%
Sealed $500 – $99986%96%
Unsorted English bulk, by weight$1.50 / lb$2.50 / lb

Graded slabs follow the singles ladder from $100 up and are not accepted below $100. Sealed sits above singles at every tier because it moves faster and carries no condition risk. All rates are then adjusted for condition. The full 13-category bulk table is on the Sell / Trade page.

Selling it yourself: the honest comparison

Say you have a card with a $200 market value. Here is the same card, both ways.

  • Sell it yourself: $200 sale, minus roughly 13% marketplace fees ($26), minus shipping and packing (call it $5), minus the time to photograph, list, answer questions, pack and post it. You net about $169, in whatever number of weeks it takes to sell, and you carry the return risk.
  • Sell it to us: $160 cash today at the $100–$499 tier, or $180 in credit. No fees, no shipping on your side, no listing, no returns.

On one $200 card the self-sale wins by about $9 and costs you an hour. Reasonable people go either way on that. Now multiply it: on 40 cards the self-sale wins by $360 and costs you forty listings, forty packages and several weeks of evenings. On 900 cards, most of them worth under $10 each, the fixed cost per sale swamps the difference entirely and selling them individually is simply not rational.

That is the actual decision. It is not “dealer versus market” — it is how many cards, how valuable, and how much is your time worth. For a handful of expensive cards, sell them yourself; we will tell you so. For a collection, take the offer.

How to check an offer is fair

  • Ask for the itemization. Which cards were priced individually, at what values, at what condition, at what rate. A buyer who will not show this is hiding something.
  • Check the values against sold data, not listings. Completed sales only. If the buyer’s values match recent sold comps, the values are not the problem.
  • Check the percentage scales. One flat rate applied to a $5 card and a $900 card is either generous on one end or robbery on the other.
  • Check the condition calls. This is where offers get quietly reduced. If several cards you believe are Near Mint came back as Moderately Played, ask which flaw drove that.
  • Get a second offer. Always. And tell both buyers you are doing it.

Common questions

Why don't dealers pay full market value? +
Because a dealer is buying an asset they then have to sell, over months, at their own cost and risk. The gap between what they pay and what the card sells for covers marketplace fees, shipping, labor, the cards that turn out to be in worse condition than they looked, and the ones that never sell.
What is a fair percentage? +
It scales with the value of the card. On cheap singles, 60-70% of market is normal because the handling cost per card is nearly the same whether the card is worth $3 or $300. On four-figure cards the percentage should be much higher — we pay 85% cash and 95% in credit at $1,000 and up.
Would I make more selling the cards myself? +
On paper, yes, and honestly for some collections that is the right answer. What it costs you is roughly 13% in marketplace fees, packing and postage on every sale, the hours to photograph and list, and the risk on returns and claims. On a handful of high-value cards that work pays. On 900 cards it usually does not.
Why is store credit worth more than cash? +
Because credit stays in the business. It costs us less to give you $100 of credit than $100 of cash, so we can afford to give you more of it. On our ladder credit runs about ten points above cash.
Do dealers pay more at a show than online? +
Not on our ladder — the rates are the same in person and by mail. What changes at a show is speed: you get looked at and paid the same day.

Where to go from here