Source Transparency

Trust in a card-news site comes down to sourcing. Here is ours, in the open.

Our source ladder

We weight evidence by how primary and accountable it is:

• Tier 1, primary: manufacturers (Topps, Panini, Upper Deck, Pokemon, Wizards of the Coast) for releases and product; grading services (PSA, BGS, CGC, SGC) for standards and population data; auction houses and marketplaces (Goldin, Heritage, PWCC, Fanatics Collect, eBay sold listings) for realised prices.
• Tier 2: direct interviews, verified owner or developer statements, public repositories, and primary photographic evidence.
• Tier 3: long-running price-history platforms and respected guides (Card Ladder, TCGplayer, MTGGoldfish, Beckett price guide). These support a claim; they do not replace a primary sold comp.
• Tier 4: reputable trade press and named analysts (Sports Collectors Daily, Cardboard Connection, and similar).
• Tier 5, discovery only: forums, Reddit, social media, seller descriptions and reseller listings.

How we handle market values

Our live market values come primarily from recent sold listings, never asking prices, and are attributed to their source with a date. We include the buyer's premium on auction results. We never present a listed price as a sold price, and we flag thin, single-sale or low-volume data rather than dress it up as a market.

How we use links

We link to the original source where we can, the manufacturer release, the grading-service population report, the auction lot, the cert lookup, and we check that links lead where they should.

Social media is discovery, not evidence

Google News, X and community platforms help us spot breaking stories, scam patterns and trends. Nothing found there is reported as fact, value or authenticity without independent verification against primary sources.