Help & FAQ

TCGSignal is a free price comparison tool for trading card games. Track prices across TCGplayer, eBay, and Cardmarket for Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and One Piece.

Use the search bar at the top of any page, or press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on Mac) to quickly focus the search. Type at least 2 characters to see results with card images, set names, and current prices.

No. Card search, prices, set browsing, the profit calculator, and the decklist tool are all free without an account. You only need an account for watchlist, portfolio, and price alerts.

Visit any card page and click "Add to Watchlist." Set a target price and choose an alert type (price drop, price spike, or arbitrage). When the market price hits your target, you'll be notified.

Drop: alerts when the price falls below your target. Spike: alerts when the price rises above your target. Volatility: alerts when 24-hour price change exceeds your threshold. Arbitrage: alerts when cross-platform price differences exceed your threshold. Snipe: one-time alert that auto-disables after triggering.

Email (via SendGrid), Discord webhooks, and Telegram bot. Configure your channels in Settings. Alerts are checked daily and won't re-trigger within 24 hours.

Yes. On the Watchlist page, click the edit button on any card to change the target price or alert type without leaving the page.

Drop alerts fire whenever the market price falls below your target and can trigger repeatedly (with a 24-hour cooldown). Snipe alerts fire once when any listing price goes below your target, then automatically disable — perfect for grabbing a deal quickly.

Add cards with quantity, condition, and purchase price. TCGSignal tracks current market value, calculates gain/loss, and lets you export your collection as CSV.

Yes. Go to Portfolio and click "Export CSV." The file includes card names, quantities, purchase prices, current market prices, total value, and gain/loss for each card.

Yes. On the Portfolio page, click "Import CSV" and upload a CSV with columns for card name, game, quantity, condition, and purchase price. Cards are matched against the database automatically.

Yes. In your Portfolio settings, enable public sharing to get a shareable link. Anyone with the link can view your collection (read-only) without needing an account.

Enter your buy price and sell price, select platforms, and the calculator shows net profit after platform fees (seller commission + payment processing + shipping).

TCGplayer: 10.25% + $0.30 seller fee, $1.00 shipping. eBay: 13.25% + $0.30 seller fee, $3.50 shipping. Cardmarket: 5% + €0.35 seller fee, €2.50 shipping.

Yes. Cross-platform calculations automatically convert between USD and EUR using live exchange rates. Set your preferred currency in Settings.

The Deal Finder scans for cards where the price on one platform is significantly lower than another, showing potential arbitrage opportunities. Filter by platform, minimum profit, and ROI percentage.

Green badges (e.g., "3h ago") indicate recently updated prices. Gray badges with "(stale)" mean the price data is over 24 hours old and may not be accurate. Stale deals are dimmed to indicate lower confidence.

MTGO format ("4 Lightning Bolt" or "4 Lightning Bolt (M11) 123"), PTCGO format ("* 2 Charizard ex SVI 234"), and generic format ("4x Card Name"). Section headers like Sideboard, Pokemon, Trainer, and Energy are recognized.

Go to the Decklist page, paste your list, and click "Look Up Prices." Each card is matched to our database with current TCGplayer NM prices. You'll see individual prices and total deck value.

Ctrl+K or Cmd+K: Focus search bar or navigate to search page. More shortcuts coming soon.

Card catalog and TCGplayer prices come from TCGCSV (tcgcsv.com), which aggregates TCGplayer data daily. MTG card data also uses Scryfall bulk data. eBay and Cardmarket prices come from their respective APIs. Prices update every ~24 hours.

Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and One Piece TCG. We track 180,000+ cards across all games.

Prices sync daily from TCGCSV (typically around 20:00 UTC). Card detail pages revalidate every hour via ISR. Deal freshness badges show exactly how old each price point is.

The Market page shows a snapshot of the entire TCG market: total cards tracked, platform coverage, game-by-game breakdown, 7-day top gainers and losers, and a market volatility index.

Check your spam/junk folder first. Then verify your email address in Settings. Alert emails are sent via SendGrid and may be filtered by aggressive spam rules. Also check that your alert frequency isn't set to weekly digest — alerts only send at the configured frequency.

Go to Settings and use the "Send Test" button to verify your webhook URL (Discord) or chat ID (Telegram). For Discord, ensure the webhook URL starts with https://discord.com/api/webhooks/. For Telegram, make sure you've started a conversation with the bot first.

Prices sync daily from external sources and may lag by up to 24 hours. Check the "Updated" timestamp on price listings for freshness. The Market Overview page shows when each platform last synced. Very new or obscure cards may not have price data yet.

Try different search terms — use the exact card name without set abbreviations. Cards are matched using full-text search. If the card was recently released, it may not be in our catalog yet (syncs happen daily). Check the Set Release Calendar to see if the set has been imported.

Portfolio values are calculated using TCGplayer NM market prices. If a card has no NM price data, it won't contribute to your total. Check individual card prices by clicking through to the card detail page.

Arbitrage is buying a card on one platform where it's cheaper and selling it on another where it's more expensive, profiting from the price difference after fees and shipping.

ROI (Return on Investment) is the profit expressed as a percentage of the buy price. For example, buying at $10 and selling for $15 (after fees) gives a 50% ROI. Higher ROI means better efficiency per dollar invested.

NM = Near Mint (like new). LP = Lightly Played (minor wear). MP = Moderately Played (visible wear). HP = Heavily Played (significant wear). DMG = Damaged (structural damage). NM cards command the highest prices.

A "stale" price means the data is over 24 hours old. The actual price may have changed since then. Stale deals are dimmed in the Deal Finder to indicate lower confidence. Always verify prices on the selling platform before committing.

Volatility measures how much a card's price changes over time. High volatility means large price swings (up or down). The Market Overview shows a volatility index — the percentage of tracked cards that moved more than 5% in the last 7 days.

A snipe alert is a one-time price alert that automatically disables after it fires. Unlike drop alerts (which can fire repeatedly), snipe alerts are designed for catching a single deal — once notified, the alert turns off so you don't get repeated notifications.