How we tell if a Pokémon card is cheap right now: our buy and sell zones explained

Most price apps tell you what a card is worth. We also tell you whether it's cheap or pricey compared with itself right now. That's the zone you see on every card page.

• Buy zone: it's selling well under its own usual price.
• Fair: it's selling about where it usually does.
• Sell zone: it's selling well over its usual price, sometimes near a recent high.

A card in the Buy zone isn't "a good card". It's a card that's cheaper than usual today.

Where we have enough UK sales

For cards that sell often in the UK, we use our own eBay UK sales from the last 90 days. A card needs at least 6 sales spread over at least 3 weeks before we zone it.

We take the card's usual price, the middle of those sales, and its range from low to high. Then:

• Buy zone means the latest price is at least 8% under usual and sits in the bottom part of its range.
• Sell zone means it's at least 8% over usual and sits in the top part of its range.

Both have to be true. A card that's 10% under usual but still near the top of a wide range stays Fair.

Everything else

Most cards don't sell often enough in the UK. For those we use Cardmarket's real sales: the last 7 days against the last 30. A card moves into a zone when that gap is 15% or more, and only when:

• TCGplayer's price is moving the same way, and
• UK sales don't say the opposite.

That last rule matters. If a card is cheap in Europe this week but still selling above usual in the UK, it isn't cheap for a UK buyer, so we don't call it a Buy.

We also ignore very big swings, over 40%, and cards under £2. Those are usually one odd sale, not a real move.

What the zone doesn't tell you

The zone describes today's price against the card's own recent history. It doesn't tell you where the price goes next. A card in the Buy zone can keep falling, and a card in the Sell zone can keep rising. That's why every zone on Grailmeter says "Data, not financial advice".

Examples, live

These update every time you load this page:

• The Paldean Fates Gardevoir ex 233 is selling about where it usually does right now, so it's neither in our Buy zone nor our Sell zone.
• The Obsidian Flames Charizard ex 215 is in our Sell zone right now: it's selling above its own usual price.
• The Paldean Fates Ditto 201 is in our Sell zone right now: it's selling above its own usual price.
• Moonbreon is selling about where it usually does right now, so it's neither in our Buy zone nor our Sell zone.

Zones are worked out again every morning, so these change. You can see every card in each zone on the Movers page, and set a ping for when a card you want turns cheap on its alerts.