Website Update: More Accurate Paper Prices

Tweet by mtggoldfish // Jan 09, 2018

website update

Update: We found several issues with TCGplayer Market Pricing and have rolled back prices to TCGplayer Mid while we investigate further. Some of these issues may be intrinsic to how the prices are calculated, so we are working with TCGplayer to understand/resolve the issues.

Effective today, we are changing our default paper prices from TCGplayer mid to TCGplayer Market Price, which should be more accurate and reflect market conditions better. What does this mean for you?

The old pricing, TCGplayer mid, was based on current listings on the TCGplayer marketplace. Because the price is based on listings and not actually sold cards, this allows for potential abuse. One common tactic is to find cards with low inventory (such as Reserved List cards), buy out all available copies, then relist the copies at a significantly higher price. This would then inflate the TCGplayer mid price and affect the price you see on MTGGoldfish.

The new pricing, TCGplayer Market Price, is based on sold listings. This is more accurate as it reflects the price that people actually paid for cards. However, do note that while this is better, it is not immune to abuse. You can still game the price like before by buying out low inventory cards, listing at the new price, and you yourself buying at the new price. However, this is significantly more costly as you need to pay a percentage of each purchase in seller fees. This additional cost makes it less likely (but not impossible) that someone will try to manipulate the prices.