1. Identify the exact card
Same character, different card: a 1999 Base Set Charizard exists as shadowless, 1st Edition and unlimited printings, in several languages, and they are different markets. Read the label for the year, set, card number, language and variety (1st Edition, Shadowless, Reverse Holo, promo stamp), then find that page, not a neighbour. On Assetra, the search accepts a year, name, set and number together (“1999 charizard base 4”), or scan the slab from the home page and the match is made for you.
2. Match the grader and grade
A PSA 10, a BGS 9.5 and a CGC 10 of the same card are three prices, and a BGS Black Label or CGC Pristine 10 is a fourth and fifth. Use sales at your exact grader and grade. If none exist, the neighbouring grades bracket the answer: a PSA 9 sale and a PSA 10 sale put a PSA 9 with no comps somewhere between. See PSA vs BGS vs CGC for how the tiers relate.
3. Use completed sales, never asking prices
An asking price is what one seller hopes for; a sold price is what a buyer paid. Only the second is a value. Assetra records completed auctions and sold fixed-price listings, and drops unsold lots, suspicious sellers and sales that never settled. The methodology page sets out the rules.
4. Read the latest sale and the recent median together
The latest sale is the freshest signal and the one a buyer will quote back to you. The median of the recent sales at that grade is the steadier one, because a single bidding war or a misdescribed lot can put one sale far from the rest. When the two agree you have a price; when they diverge, look at the ledger for why. Assetra’s estimated value weights recent sales toward the present and reports a confidence for the same reason.
5. Check the population
The population report says how many copies exist at your grade and above. A low population with frequent sales means strong demand; a low population with no sales for a year means there is no market to speak of, and the last price may be stale. Pops only grow, so a modern card’s scarcity today is not a promise.
6. Remember how you will sell
Auction results include buyer’s premiums at auction houses and are gross of marketplace fees elsewhere; a seller nets less than the recorded price. A fixed-price sale may take weeks; an auction clears in days at whatever the room pays. Both kinds appear in the ledger with the venue named, so you can compare like with like.
What the figures on Assetra mean
- Latest sale: the most recent completed sale at the reference grader and grade, with its date.
- Estimated value: a recency-weighted figure from the recent sales at a tier, with a confidence level.
- Record: the highest completed sale of the card in any grade.
- Market cap: an estimate, the population at every grade multiplied by that grade’s average sale. It is not a sum of real transactions.
Start from the price hubs, search the sales ledger, or add the slab to your collection to follow its value over time.
Related guides
See the numbers: the graded card price hubs, the sales ledger and how Assetra builds its figures.