The short version
- Typical range: £2 – £300 — see the full trading cards value guide
- What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
- Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
- Category: Toys & Games
Before you photograph it
Ten minutes here is worth more than anything else you will do. Buyers are deciding between your listing and someone else’s, and preparation is what visibly separates the two.
- Identify the set, year and card numbers, and look up whether any individual card is worth listing alone.
- Inspect each significant card under good light for centring, corner wear, edge whitening and surface scratches.
- Sleeve anything valuable immediately, and note whether any card is professionally graded and by whom.
The photographs that sell trading cards
Four photographs do almost all the work. Shoot in daylight, near a window, with the item against something plain — and do not use the flash, which flattens texture and hides exactly what buyers are trying to see.
- The card front, straight on, filling the frame with no glare
- The card back, showing centring and any edge wear
- The corners close up, which is where condition is judged
- Any grading slab and its label, or the full lot laid out for a bundle
Photograph the flaws too. It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover. Buyers who can see the damage stop imagining something worse.
Writing the title and description
Set, year, player or character, and card number: “2023 Topps Chrome, Card #150, Near Mint”. For graded cards put the grading company and grade in the title. For bulk, say the set and approximate count rather than pretending it is curated.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Set name, year and card number for individual cards
- Condition assessed against corners, edges, centring and surface
- Whether professionally graded, by which company and at what grade
- For bundles, the approximate count and whether any notable cards are included
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about trading cards. Answering them in the listing itself removes the back-and-forth, and answering them well when they do arrive is what turns an enquiry into a sale.
Assess corners, edges, centring and surface separately and photograph each. Card buyers grade strictly and vague condition claims kill trust.
Say plainly. A professionally graded card in a slab is a very different product and price from a raw one.
Check before listing. Selling a valuable card by accident inside a job lot is the most common and most expensive mistake in this category.
Pricing it so it actually sells
Start from the honest condition grade rather than the price you hope for. WishThrift listings use five grades — New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts — and what each grade means is worth reading before you choose, because grading up is the most expensive mistake sellers make. It does not raise the price; it produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else.
The trading cards value guide prices all five grades for this item. Pick your grade, take the figure, and if you sit between two grades price toward the lower one. Items priced honestly sell faster than items priced hopefully, and on a free platform there is no fee eating the difference anyway.
What you keep, compared
On a £151 sale — roughly the middle of the range for trading cards — here is what the commission-charging platforms would take, and what you would keep on each:
| Where you sell it | Fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| WishThrift | £0 | £151 |
| Poshmark | −£30 | £121 |
| eBay | −£21 | £130 |
| Mercari | −£15 | £136 |
| Etsy | −£10 | £141 |
Seller-side rates verified 26 Jul 2026 — Poshmark: 20% commission on sales of $15 and above; eBay: 13.6% final value fee, plus a per-order fee; Mercari: flat 10% selling fee; Etsy: 6.5% transaction fee, plus a listing fee and payment processing. Percentages are applied to the sterling figure above; the fixed per-order and processing charges those platforms add are quoted in their own currency and are not included here, so the real deductions are slightly larger. Full breakdown: marketplace selling fees compared.
Timing and getting it to the buyer
Steady with an active collector base, and spikes around new set releases and media events. Graded and scarce cards sell quickly; bulk moves slowly.
Sleeve, top-load and rigid-mail anything of value — a bent corner in transit destroys the grade and the price. Tracked postage is sensible above modest values.
WishThrift does not process payments or arrange delivery — you and the buyer agree both directly — so confirm payment has cleared before the item leaves your hands, and keep the conversation on the site so there is a record of what was agreed.
Ready to list it? It takes about two minutes, costs nothing, and there is no commission when it sells — create a free account or see how selling works.
Frequently asked questions
How do I grade a trading card myself?
Assess four things: centring of the print, corner sharpness, edge whitening and surface scratches. Judge conservatively and photograph all four. Buyers who receive a better card than described come back; the reverse does not.
What are used trading cards worth?
Anywhere from a few pence for bulk commons to hundreds for scarce or graded cards. Always check individual card values before bundling. See the trading cards value guide.
Should I get cards graded before selling?
Only for genuinely valuable cards in excellent condition, since grading costs money and takes time. For most cards, clear photographs and an honest self-assessment achieve a fair price without the outlay.
See also: what a used trading cards is worth · browse live toys & games listings · condition grades explained.