Ryan Barone (@ballcardgenius, Card Expert) is a lifelong member of the hobby. He has been quoted in PSA Magazine, and his content has regularly been mentioned in “Quick Rips” (the Topps RIPPED Newsletter) and across other hobby publications. hello@ballcardgenius.com; Last Time Ago LLC dba Ballcard Genius.
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An eBay comp is a comparable of what a similar trading card has sold for in the past or what it is currently selling for. It is way for buyers and sellers to measure the value of a card when deciding to buy and sell. For example, if a card’s last three eBay card sales were $20, $18, and $22, one could reasonably say eBay comps are $20.
There are a few different ways to check comps when selling your cards on eBay, with the process differing depending on the user’s device. On your eBay mobile app, search for a card like you normally would and then click “Filter” in the top right of the screen and toggle “sold items” on.
@ballcardgenius Two different ways, so use both! Not to mention other sold data tools…
♬ original sound – ballcardgenius
While a straightforward process, it’s also easy to mistakenly comp a card due to a few limitations. One of the biggest is that if a card was sold via “Best Offer,” you probably won’t be able to see the true price it was sold for. Even worse. you’ll see a price, but that price won’t be the actual sales price.
Seeing Best Offer Price with 130 Point
Addressing the limitation – not seeing the true sales price when sold at best offer – we can first try with the eBay Price Guide, which sometimes uncovers that data, or the more reliable 130 Point.
Let’s take a look at this “2022 corbin carroll topps series 2 ssp gold mirror.”
Wow, it sold for $999.99! Right?
Unfortunately, no. This is an instance where the eBay comp steers us in the wrong direction. They give you a little hint with the strikethrough, but that really only tells us the card was sold via best offer.
Enter 130 Point—a website separate from eBay that will tell you the actual sold price for items that were sold at best offer. Go to their site, search for your card like you would on eBay, wait a few seconds, and voila:
As you can see here, the card actually sold for $700!
Now you know how to check comps! One extra step I like to take, though.
Sure, it’s good to know what a card sold for, but you need to remember that “past performance is not indicative of future results.” Meaning, just because a card sold for $100 last month or even yesterday, that same card might sell for less (or more) today.
So, I like to also take a look at current listings to see what the card is listed for now because that too should inform us of its current market value.
Going back to my example above—a card’s last three sales have been $20, $18, and $22, so I might say comps tell us the card we want to sell is around $20. But, if there are also two cards like it currently for sale, one for $10 and another for $20, then we have to think differently.
Especially if the card has been listed at $10 for a few weeks, we can reasonably say the card probably isn’t worth $20 anymore and that recent comp doesn’t exist, or a new value is $10 or less.
