Why we pay by the pound (and show the math)
Most buyers price a collection one of two ways. Either they go through it card by card, which takes hours and means the offer arrives weeks later, or they look at the top layer, say "I'll give you fifty bucks for the lot" and hope you don't ask why. We do neither.
The problem with card-by-card
A typical childhood collection is two or three thousand cards. Identifying each one, checking its condition and looking up a price is a full day's work, and the honest answer for most of them is "a few cents". The seller can't verify any of it. You're trusting the buyer's spreadsheet.
Card-by-card is the right method for the handful of cards that are actually worth something individually: holos, 1st Editions, shadowless Base Set. We do price those one at a time, at about 65% of market, and we show you which ones.
The problem with "fifty bucks for the lot"
A number with no reasoning can't be argued with, which is the point. It also tends to be low, because the buyer is pricing in their own uncertainty: they don't know what's in the middle of the stack either.
What we do instead
Numbers you can check yourself.
Weight. Our planning assumption is 234 loose cards per pound, not a measured count. Actual counts vary. We subtract the packaging using a posted table (a binder is about 17% binder; a loose box is about 7% box). You can check this with a bathroom scale before you email us.
A floor. Every pound of Pokémon cards earns at least $2.25, and we pay the shipping. That's the number we commit to before we've seen a single card.
Era. Original 1999–2003 cards raise the rate, up to $14 a pound for a pile that's mostly Base Set through Neo. We judge it from your photos of the stack edges and a handful from the middle, and we tell you what we found. Here's how to tell yourself.
The quote email shows each part on its own line, plus the individually priced cards, plus anything we'd take off (energy, counterfeits, merchandise). If you think we read the era wrong, send a better photo and we redo it.
Why we don't post a rate for every era
We used to think a four-line price list was the honest approach. The trouble is that it asks you to classify your own pile, and most people can't tell a 2001 card from a 2021 card at a glance. The quote never matches what you expected, and nobody enjoys that conversation. A floor we always honour, plus an upside we find for you, is simpler and fairer.
Why the rate climbs so steeply with age
Original-era sets were printed in far smaller numbers than anything after 2010, and the value is spread through the stack: a common from Fossil is worth more than a common from 2014, and the odds of a holo or a 1st Edition hiding in an unsearched vintage box are real. Modern bulk is the opposite. Huge print runs, value concentrated in a few chase cards that have usually been pulled, and buylists that pay about a penny a card for the rest. We pay about the same for newer cards — but we pay the shipping, and you don't have to sort anything.
What this means for you
Weigh it. Look at a handful from the middle. Run the numbers on the rate page. If you like the range, send the weight and two photos and you'll get the same math back with a real number on it.