We recently sold a big vintage collection and collected a lot of data to answer common questions about selling Magic cards.
Buy list prices and condition markdown rates vary a lot by each vendor. A lot of people dislike the uncertainty of “Is this card going to be worth $1.00 at NM or $0.50 at Lightly Played?”.
So, I’ve done the experiment to figure out who is the best, how often:
- split up a lot of cards many vendors
- calculate the average condition haircut per vendor
- adjust advertised buylist prices by the haircut
TLDR. Even with the heaviest condition markdown of 12.2%, Card Kingdom has the best price for about half the time (53%) for cards on each for the 4 buylists tested. For cards that only appear on 2 of the 4 buylists (i.e. Card Kingdom and one other), Card Kingdom is the best for 62% of them. However, there is a cost to being lazy: you’ll make at least 12% more if you split up the buylist across multiple vendors.
Here’s the full analysis for the curious:
=== SUMMARY (Markdown-Adjusted) ===
Total Value (optimized with condition markdowns): $9394.26
Total Cards: 5604
Vendors Tested: Card Kingdom, Abu games, Star City Games, Strike Zone Online=== INDIVIDUAL VENDOR STATS (Markdown-Adjusted) ===
Card Kingdom [12.2% markdown]:
Total Value: $8379.36
Card Count: 5460
Star City Games [6.9% markdown]:
Total Value: $5963.01
Card Count: 2850
Strike Zone Online [0.68% markdown]:
Total Value: $4122.72
Card Count: 1256
ABU Games [0.44% markdown]:
Total Value: $3546.84
Card Count: 1496=== VENDOR COMBINATION ANALYSIS ===
--- 4 Vendors ---
1. cardkingdom + abugames + starcitygames + strikezone
Value: $9394.26
Percent of Total: 100.0%
Cards: 5604
--- 3 Vendors ---
1. cardkingdom + abugames + starcitygames
Value: $9280.17
Percent of Total: 98.8%
Cards: 5688
2. cardkingdom + starcitygames + strikezone
Value: $9260.35
Percent of Total: 98.6%
Cards: 5557
3. cardkingdom + abugames + strikezone
Value: $9189.57
Percent of Total: 97.8%
Cards: 5606
4. abugames + starcitygames + strikezone
Value: $6946.67
Percent of Total: 73.9%
Cards: 3040
--- 2 Vendors ---
1. cardkingdom + starcitygames
Value: $9123.24
Percent of Total: 97.1%
Cards: 5650
2. cardkingdom + abugames
Value: $8881.12
Percent of Total: 94.5%
Cards: 5657
3. cardkingdom + strikezone
Value: $8860.64
Percent of Total: 94.3%
Cards: 5449
4. abugames + starcitygames
Value: $6598.18
Percent of Total: 70.2%
Cards: 3152
(2 more combinations not shown)
--- 1 Vendor ---
1. cardkingdom
Value: $8379.36
Percent of Total: 89.2%
Cards: 5460
2. starcitygames
Value: $5963.01
Percent of Total: 63.5%
Cards: 2849
3. strikezone
Value: $4122.72
Percent of Total: 43.9%
Cards: 1256
4. abugames
Value: $3546.84
Percent of Total: 37.8%
Cards: 1496=== VENDOR OVERLAP ANALYSIS ===
--- Cards with 4 Vendors ---
Total Cards: 308
Total Value: $3332.14
Vendor Win Rates (who has best price most often):
cardkingdom: 163 wins (52.9%) - $2069.82
strikezone: 81 wins (26.3%) - $700.47
starcitygames: 35 wins (11.4%) - $349.69
abugames: 29 wins (9.4%) - $212.16
--- Cards with 3 Vendors ---
Total Cards: 529
Total Value: $3772.80
Vendor Win Rates (who has best price most often):
cardkingdom: 284 wins (53.7%) - $2256.39
strikezone: 124 wins (23.4%) - $655.82
abugames: 66 wins (12.5%) - $188.72
starcitygames: 55 wins (10.4%) - $671.87
--- Cards with 2 Vendors ---
Total Cards: 592
Total Value: $1691.73
Vendor Win Rates (who has best price most often):
cardkingdom: 365 wins (61.7%) - $1103.04
starcitygames: 96 wins (16.2%) - $303.90
abugames: 85 wins (14.4%) - $137.44
strikezone: 46 wins (7.8%) - $147.35=== HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISONS (Markdown-Adjusted) ===
ABU Games:
vs Star City Games: 323W-248L-4T (56.2% win rate)
vs Card Kingdom: 219W-421L-2T (34.1% win rate)
vs Strike Zone Online: 127W-229L-3T (35.4% win rate)
Strike Zone Online:
vs Star City Games: 448W-201L-0T (69.0% win rate)
vs Card Kingdom: 256W-391L-0T (39.6% win rate)
vs ABU Games: 229W-127L-3T (63.8% win rate)
Card Kingdom:
vs Star City Games: 881W-272L-2T (76.3% win rate)
vs ABU Games: 421W-219L-2T (65.6% win rate)
vs Strike Zone Online: 391W-256L-0T (60.4% win rate)
Star City Games:
vs Card Kingdom: 272W-881L-2T (23.5% win rate)
vs ABU Games: 248W-323L-4T (43.1% win rate)
vs Strike Zone Online: 201W-448L-0T (31.0% win rate)