I have found that there are some discrepancies; which is interesting since they both sample online stores, and I believe some of those stores overlap.
The better questions would be:
1) Which one is more accurate?
2) Why the differences, if their sources are about the same?
3) Shouldn't the laws of averages put them, at most, 50 cents to a dollar off in difference?
4) If you don't use either of those two, where do you go to get prices?
I used to use Findmagiccards , but it seemed slow to update sometimes, and rarely used any of the sellers in their listings. For me, I perfer to do some of my own research for comparison.
Look X card and lets say its Noble Hierarch.
1. Magic Tcg player price look up- check for low price - medium.
I need 4
2. Check ebay for 4 of sets at "buy it now". check the cost for one by dividing by 4.
3. Check some of my favorite online shops
-cardkingdom, exspensive but generally has it
-oldschoolgaming, cheap but slow to ship
-Timevaultgames, no issues as above but often not in stock
-a few others from TCG player listings cause can't find it.
Like to buy playsets or 2 at a time if they are at Noble hierarch price level. If its $20 or less; I tend to wait till I need a bunch of stuff to get free shipping.
I only check/buy at my local shops if I am in the area and have fee time, has it for reasonable price, or at FNM got my butt kicked and need to make myself feel better.
I do the same as Sparki. Since the people in my area sometimes use Star City, I try to be familiar with their prices as well.
The idea that a lot of people have is that it doesn't matter which site you use as long as you use the same site for all cards in the trade. This isn't accurate though and you need to be aware of the differences.
I prefer magiccards.info (tcgplayer) because its an average of a group of stores rather than a single source. When that is glitching out (a store with LotV at$999 for example) I check eBay
Either TCGPlayer's mid price or StarCityGames. Even though SCG's prices are really inflated, that means everything is inflated. I just use SCG for obscure foils and other stuff not commonly found. Still SCG should be taken as a secondary reference point for prices.
If the store owner says that I can't trade in the premises, I'll just go outside. If he says that I can't trade within 10m of his premises, I'll go to 11 meters. If he says that he doesn't want to see me trading, I will put a basket over his head and continue trading.
Yes, he's a local legend. He's only known to take his clothes off before he goes into the Ladies' Lockerroom. Nobody knows what he does in there because he's invisible, but it's almost certainly tons of masturbating.
No matter which site you use when trading, you have to be careful with the "Not in stock" notice.
These online sites do not update their prices when they don't have a card in-hand. When they do not have a card in stock, look up on a different site for the current price.
Sometimes using the same source for everything does not ensure fairness- take SCG for example. The problem is you can get very good deals on SCG. Why is that bad? Well, that simply means that they overprice some cards, leave some cards close to TCGmid, and sell some at a really good price. A knowledgeable person can take advantage of these discrepancies. Some general rules of thumb:
Standard staples: These are hugely overpriced on SCG. They overprice them because Standard has the highest demand out of all the formats and Standard players tend to swallow the prices (often because they're new or because they need them in a hurry).
Modern staples: They often depend on the staple. I've gotten great deals and other times recoiled at some of their ridiculous prices.
Legacy staples: I don't really buy these, but from the few trades I've done with them using SCG prices as a guideline, they follow a similar distribution as Modern.
Foils: These are generally better prices than you find on eBay. Be careful when using eBay to evaluate foils, since oftentimes SCG will give you a better estimate since they have a larger supply.
There's a lot of ways someone can screw you over with SCG, and it's difficult to avoid- especially when foils are involved. If you try to use eBay, there are even more ways to be screwed so if you're in between, I'd suggest SCG since they give a decent representation of the market; occasionally better than TCG but not very often.
Here's an example of how you can be screwed: you're getting back into Standard and you have an extra Force so you think you'll just trade it at a 10% premium for Reckoners. Some guy comes along and asks if you'd be willing to use SCG for the trade. Sure, it's all the same source so of course you can!
Let's say Forces are $70 and Reckoners are $20 on SCG (made up). The guy offers you 4 Reckoners for your Force and you think it's a decent deal. Well, you do the trade and afterwards you're curious, so you look on magiccards.info to get an idea of the prices they have there. Turns out Reckoners were $15 mid on TCG and Forces were $65 (again, made up). So who won? You thought you got the premium, but instead you just traded a stable, reliable Eternal card for Standard fodder at a premium. Heck, even a smaller discrepancy may just erase the premium, but what kind of Standard player looking to get into Legacy wouldn't love to trade his staples for Legacy staples without a premium?
So, look at all the sources before you trade and try to come up with one that represents them all fairly accurately. Sometimes SCG will do this, sometimes magiccards.info (TCG), and sometimes eBay. Ebay gives you an idea of what you can actually sell your cards at (of course take into account fees and shipping), but if there isn't much discrepancy between it and TCG mid, there's not much point in using it over TCG. But sometimes you can get a $4 TCG mid card for <$1 on eBay so it's always worth noting (this generally occurs with price manipulated cards). TCG gives a picture of the overall market and is my go-to source unless foils are involved. SCG is what I turn to when foils are involved, but I always look with a grain of salt, even if using the same source for all cards.
Anyways, the main point is to use a variety of sources and common sense. Watch out when people try to skew prices in their favor.
The idea that a lot of people have is that it doesn't matter which site you use as long as you use the same site for all cards in the trade. This isn't accurate though and you need to be aware of the differences.
Sometimes using the same source for everything does not ensure fairness- take SCG for example.
Absolutely.
I would prefer to use the lowest price for the condition on TCG. I would typically ignore that one vendor that significantly undercuts everyone else but only has one copy in stock. For playsets, I might x-ref to eBay, which is sometimes lower.
This addresses a few of the issues:
Condition. TCG includes LP with NM cards in their statistics for low and average price. For some cards, the lowest NM price may be equal to the average price.
Desirability. Truly rare cards tend to have a very tight spread between low and average prices (avg may be just 5-10% higher than low). In contrast, cards that dealers are trying to exit may have a huge spread (avg may be >100%higher than low) between these benchmarks.
Markup. This is related to the above point - small value cards often have a much wider spread between low and average prices. I think of this as the markup dealers add per card just to process the order. SCG, for example, tends to price lower value cards at more of a premium than higher value cards, so using that site as a reference while trading down can be brutal.
Reality. In practice, I'm personally far more likely to spend the least amount of cash possible when buying cards online, especially with the Cart Optimizer tool on TCG.
The TCG low and eBay prices tend to be similar, so in theory, one could purchase or sell at this price (ignoring transaction costs).
This doesn't address the expected future value path of eternal vs. Standard cards. When trading across formats, most participants with eternal cards appear to expect an additional premium. I might benchmark against the relative dealer buylist prices, but rarely use those in practice.
Foils: These are generally better prices than you find on eBay. Be careful when using eBay to evaluate foils, since oftentimes SCG will give you a better estimate since they have a larger supply.
There's a lot of ways someone can screw you over with SCG, and it's difficult to avoid- especially when foils are involved. If you try to use eBay, there are even more ways to be screwed so if you're in between, I'd suggest SCG since they give a decent representation of the market; occasionally better than TCG but not very often.
I cannot agree with you here. ebay is generally the cheapest for expensive foils(i'm talking about auctions here), there is no doubt in my mind on this and i have put a lot of research into it. for cheaper foils like unplayable rares, random stores can be cheaper than ebay, but i have not found this true for staples or other expensive foils. there are many staple you can get on ebay for a fraction over tcg mid price for the regular card. with SCG this is rarely the case.
there are only two significant reasons i can think of in which ebay can throw off the trading value of a card. first, is with rare cards like foils there may not be much of a history in sold listings. second, the price of foils is likely to be undervalued because it is likely the other cards in the trade will be using another measure to access value like tcg mid(which is higher than cards sell on ebay). this seems obvious, but when i ask people looking to trade for my foils to value them at ave ebay price plus some percent they object.
going back to the main question i use tcg mid because it is most commonly used and agreed upon. though, i am always aware of how cards sell on stores i typically buy from and ebay and this factors into my decision.
ex: someone wants to trade me a volrath's stronghold, tcg mid 21.40, and throw in, for my Elspeth, knight-errant which tcg mid 23.11. i may look at ebay history and see that volrath's stronghold typically sells at only 60% of tcg mid, while elspeth sells at 80%. in this case i don't argue with my trading partner that volrath's stronghold is overvalued in tcg mid, i simply wont trade for it, or at least not with a card(s) i believe are correctly valued.
similiarly i sometime buy cards that i can get on ebay at a lower fraction of tcg mid because i can use this deal in a trade with others using tcg mid to profit.
on a side note, i can't stand when people devalue standard cards in trades because they will rotate. i believe tcg mid already accounts for this. if you dont want to pay the price demand obligates, wait years for the price you want(this in turn lowers demand for the card and thus tcg mid price). in essence i believe people demanding a reduction in the value of standard card prices receiving a double discount for the fact that standard cards rotate. this is not to say standard cards aren't overpriced. personally, i dont play standard and dont want to pay the exorbitant prices for them. i also dont complain. i simply dont ask to trade for these cards unless i am willing to pay the price the markets has dictated. basically the point of this rant(which i apologize for btw) is to say that tcg mid is accurate, even for standard cards.
As said before, SCG can be useful in determining the value of cards that are out-of-print. They set the trend for such cards. In-print, standard legal cards get the 'demand premium' at SCG, but it's not like SCG has comparatively mass-volumes of available standard cards as they do eternal format staples.
Say you have a $20 card that people are cautious to buy for one reason or another...suddenly SCG raises prices to $30 and those same people are salivating to buy the card at $25. SCG and smaller sellers enjoy a symbiotic relationship of heightening perceived demand and specializing on different buyers in the market. All stores will eventually catch up with SCG on eternal format cards unless there are reprints.
MCM is my go-to 'sell-low' site where commons and uncommons can be had for exceptionally less than SCG (SCG will seriously get mass-bought out if they don't overcharge and slow-rotate stock on commons and uncommons and to a lesser extent expensive staples). The caveat is that they typically only have in stock 2/3 of the things that I want, where as SCG only runs out of stuff if they because they didn't raise prices fast or high enough, :p.
I have found that there are some discrepancies; which is interesting since they both sample online stores, and I believe some of those stores overlap.
The better questions would be:
1) Which one is more accurate?
2) Why the differences, if their sources are about the same?
3) Shouldn't the laws of averages put them, at most, 50 cents to a dollar off in difference?
4) If you don't use either of those two, where do you go to get prices?
Look X card and lets say its Noble Hierarch.
1. Magic Tcg player price look up- check for low price - medium.
I need 4
2. Check ebay for 4 of sets at "buy it now". check the cost for one by dividing by 4.
3. Check some of my favorite online shops
-cardkingdom, exspensive but generally has it
-oldschoolgaming, cheap but slow to ship
-Timevaultgames, no issues as above but often not in stock
-a few others from TCG player listings cause can't find it.
Like to buy playsets or 2 at a time if they are at Noble hierarch price level. If its $20 or less; I tend to wait till I need a bunch of stuff to get free shipping.
I only check/buy at my local shops if I am in the area and have fee time, has it for reasonable price, or at FNM got my butt kicked and need to make myself feel better.
Multiplayer Decks- Memnarch - Animar, Soul of Elements - Zur, the Enchanter - Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Food Chain Tazri - Teysa Karlov
Modern BUMill and Bant Spirits.
Thank you Xenphire for the signature!
That being said, I refer to TCGplayer and ebay a lot.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
Helpdesk
My Cube on CubeTutor
The idea that a lot of people have is that it doesn't matter which site you use as long as you use the same site for all cards in the trade. This isn't accurate though and you need to be aware of the differences.
XXXX
Modern
URTwinRU R.I.P.
EDH
WUGRoon of the Hidden RealmWUG
Credit to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the Avatar & Miraculous Recovery for the Banner.
My 540 Card Cube (WIP)
This is what I use as well.
No. Its ok, but you can overload yourself of information that just wastes your time.
Multiplayer Decks- Memnarch - Animar, Soul of Elements - Zur, the Enchanter - Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Food Chain Tazri - Teysa Karlov
Modern BUMill and Bant Spirits.
Thank you Xenphire for the signature!
These online sites do not update their prices when they don't have a card in-hand. When they do not have a card in stock, look up on a different site for the current price.
Standard staples: These are hugely overpriced on SCG. They overprice them because Standard has the highest demand out of all the formats and Standard players tend to swallow the prices (often because they're new or because they need them in a hurry).
Modern staples: They often depend on the staple. I've gotten great deals and other times recoiled at some of their ridiculous prices.
Legacy staples: I don't really buy these, but from the few trades I've done with them using SCG prices as a guideline, they follow a similar distribution as Modern.
Foils: These are generally better prices than you find on eBay. Be careful when using eBay to evaluate foils, since oftentimes SCG will give you a better estimate since they have a larger supply.
There's a lot of ways someone can screw you over with SCG, and it's difficult to avoid- especially when foils are involved. If you try to use eBay, there are even more ways to be screwed so if you're in between, I'd suggest SCG since they give a decent representation of the market; occasionally better than TCG but not very often.
Here's an example of how you can be screwed: you're getting back into Standard and you have an extra Force so you think you'll just trade it at a 10% premium for Reckoners. Some guy comes along and asks if you'd be willing to use SCG for the trade. Sure, it's all the same source so of course you can!
Let's say Forces are $70 and Reckoners are $20 on SCG (made up). The guy offers you 4 Reckoners for your Force and you think it's a decent deal. Well, you do the trade and afterwards you're curious, so you look on magiccards.info to get an idea of the prices they have there. Turns out Reckoners were $15 mid on TCG and Forces were $65 (again, made up). So who won? You thought you got the premium, but instead you just traded a stable, reliable Eternal card for Standard fodder at a premium. Heck, even a smaller discrepancy may just erase the premium, but what kind of Standard player looking to get into Legacy wouldn't love to trade his staples for Legacy staples without a premium?
So, look at all the sources before you trade and try to come up with one that represents them all fairly accurately. Sometimes SCG will do this, sometimes magiccards.info (TCG), and sometimes eBay. Ebay gives you an idea of what you can actually sell your cards at (of course take into account fees and shipping), but if there isn't much discrepancy between it and TCG mid, there's not much point in using it over TCG. But sometimes you can get a $4 TCG mid card for <$1 on eBay so it's always worth noting (this generally occurs with price manipulated cards). TCG gives a picture of the overall market and is my go-to source unless foils are involved. SCG is what I turn to when foils are involved, but I always look with a grain of salt, even if using the same source for all cards.
Anyways, the main point is to use a variety of sources and common sense. Watch out when people try to skew prices in their favor.
Absolutely.
I would prefer to use the lowest price for the condition on TCG. I would typically ignore that one vendor that significantly undercuts everyone else but only has one copy in stock. For playsets, I might x-ref to eBay, which is sometimes lower.
This addresses a few of the issues:
This doesn't address the expected future value path of eternal vs. Standard cards. When trading across formats, most participants with eternal cards appear to expect an additional premium. I might benchmark against the relative dealer buylist prices, but rarely use those in practice.
I cannot agree with you here. ebay is generally the cheapest for expensive foils(i'm talking about auctions here), there is no doubt in my mind on this and i have put a lot of research into it. for cheaper foils like unplayable rares, random stores can be cheaper than ebay, but i have not found this true for staples or other expensive foils. there are many staple you can get on ebay for a fraction over tcg mid price for the regular card. with SCG this is rarely the case.
there are only two significant reasons i can think of in which ebay can throw off the trading value of a card. first, is with rare cards like foils there may not be much of a history in sold listings. second, the price of foils is likely to be undervalued because it is likely the other cards in the trade will be using another measure to access value like tcg mid(which is higher than cards sell on ebay). this seems obvious, but when i ask people looking to trade for my foils to value them at ave ebay price plus some percent they object.
going back to the main question i use tcg mid because it is most commonly used and agreed upon. though, i am always aware of how cards sell on stores i typically buy from and ebay and this factors into my decision.
ex: someone wants to trade me a volrath's stronghold, tcg mid 21.40, and throw in, for my Elspeth, knight-errant which tcg mid 23.11. i may look at ebay history and see that volrath's stronghold typically sells at only 60% of tcg mid, while elspeth sells at 80%. in this case i don't argue with my trading partner that volrath's stronghold is overvalued in tcg mid, i simply wont trade for it, or at least not with a card(s) i believe are correctly valued.
similiarly i sometime buy cards that i can get on ebay at a lower fraction of tcg mid because i can use this deal in a trade with others using tcg mid to profit.
on a side note, i can't stand when people devalue standard cards in trades because they will rotate. i believe tcg mid already accounts for this. if you dont want to pay the price demand obligates, wait years for the price you want(this in turn lowers demand for the card and thus tcg mid price). in essence i believe people demanding a reduction in the value of standard card prices receiving a double discount for the fact that standard cards rotate. this is not to say standard cards aren't overpriced. personally, i dont play standard and dont want to pay the exorbitant prices for them. i also dont complain. i simply dont ask to trade for these cards unless i am willing to pay the price the markets has dictated. basically the point of this rant(which i apologize for btw) is to say that tcg mid is accurate, even for standard cards.
Say you have a $20 card that people are cautious to buy for one reason or another...suddenly SCG raises prices to $30 and those same people are salivating to buy the card at $25. SCG and smaller sellers enjoy a symbiotic relationship of heightening perceived demand and specializing on different buyers in the market. All stores will eventually catch up with SCG on eternal format cards unless there are reprints.
MCM is my go-to 'sell-low' site where commons and uncommons can be had for exceptionally less than SCG (SCG will seriously get mass-bought out if they don't overcharge and slow-rotate stock on commons and uncommons and to a lesser extent expensive staples). The caveat is that they typically only have in stock 2/3 of the things that I want, where as SCG only runs out of stuff if they because they didn't raise prices fast or high enough, :p.
Legacy:
RWBG Goblins
RRR Burn
WBU Affinity
UBR Sac-Land Tendrils!
BBBPox
Next possible deck: D&T, but that just wouldn't be right.
Modern: R Goblins (work in progress)
Standard: I only care about standard when Goblins is a deck.
Limited: I only care about limited when Goblins are in the set.
Pauper:
RGoblins
URCloudpost
other decks
Goblins.
.