This page describes the code as of 30 October 2026
How we price
Price readouts in ScanDex name their source and the date that source gave it. Short lists, like search results, can show the price alone; the card page has the rest. We re-read guide prices daily. The date on each is the date the source gave, which can be weeks old. eBay and PriceCharting are read on request. Here is each source, when it updates, and what happens when there is no number at all.
Where prices come from
TCGplayer market price
TCGplayer's market price for each card, read from the public Pokémon card catalog. It is the price you see first on most cards.
- Updates:
- Daily at 3:00 AM UTC, we re-read the catalog. The date shown is the source's date.
- Marked as old after:
- 10 days
A guide price. It is not what any one copy sold for.
TCGplayer daily price history
A day-by-day record of TCGplayer's market price, from a price-history feed. It draws the charts and the trend lines.
- Updates:
- Daily at 5:00 AM UTC, for up to 25 cards a run: cards in collections and the highest-priced cards, the longest-waiting first. Opening a card's price history can also refresh that one card, at most once a day.
- Marked as old after:
- 10 days
Up to 25 cards a day means most cards in the catalog have no daily history yet. Stored days are kept, so a card's history grows each time it is refreshed.
eBay sold
Completed eBay sales: what a copy really sold for, not a guide.
- Updates:
- Read when a card page asks for it.
- Marked as old after:
- 2 days
eBay sold data is not available yet. Where a sold price would go, the app says "Sold data unavailable". It never shows $0 or implies nobody bought one.
Cardmarket (EUR)
Cardmarket's European price, in euros, from the same card catalog.
- Updates:
- Daily at 3:00 AM UTC, with the card catalog.
- Marked as old after:
- 10 days
Its own euro line on a card page. Batch scan may show it converted to USD, labelled, and totals it separately.
PriceCharting
A price guide the app reads only when a PriceCharting connection is switched on. When it is off, nothing from it is shown.
- Updates:
- Fetched when a card page asks for it, then kept for up to a day.
- Marked as old after:
- 10 days
A guide price, like TCGplayer's.
ScanDex blend
A line on some card pages, under the sources. It mixes TCGplayer's guide prices for the card's printings with eBay sales when there are any. Sales count more than guide prices, and newer prices more than older ones.
- Updates:
- Worked out when the card page loads.
- Marked as old after:
- 10 days
It is labelled as a blend and only appears when it differs from the headline price. Euro prices are left out. It is not a source and not a sale.
Which price leads
Usually the TCGplayer market price. When a card also has recent daily history and the two disagree by more than 35%, the headline is the middle price of the last 7 days of daily history, and the card says how far the guide is off. One odd sale can drag a guide price a long way, so the gap is shown, not hidden.
A 1st Edition price only ever comes from TCGplayer's 1st Edition price for that card. It never borrows the unlimited one. Shadowless prices have no source yet, so there are none.
When there is no price
No price yet means none of our sources has a price for that card, or for that version of it. We show the words, never $0. A missing or zero price from a source counts as no price.
How old is too old
Dates are shown in UTC. Where a price shows its date and is older than the days listed for its source above, it says so next to it. A price with no date is never called current.
Sales counts
A sales-a-month figure needs at least 3 sales on record. With fewer, no figure is shown. Two sales is a guess.
Guide prices are not sales
TCGplayer, Cardmarket and PriceCharting prices are guides. They describe the market for a card in general, not what your copy will sell for. Condition, grade, fees and the day you sell all move that.
No advice
ScanDex shows what its sources reported in the past, and it does not forecast prices. The Opportunity and Risk numbers on a card page are arithmetic on past prices and, when there are any, sales. They are not a tip.