Every route to selling a card takes a cut, and they take it in different places. The headline fee is rarely the whole of it, so the useful comparison is what reaches your bank account, not what the percentage says.
The four routes
A general marketplace. The largest audience and the most friction. You pay a selling fee, usually a payment-processing share on top, and you carry the postage, the packing and the risk of a dispute. The audience is why people use it anyway: for an unusual card, it is where the person who wants it is.
A hobby marketplace. Lower fees than the general marketplaces and a buyer who already knows what the card is, so less explaining and fewer disputes. Smaller audience. Best for mid-value cards with an established market price.
A local shop. Instant, certain and the lowest number. A shop buys to resell, so expect well under market, though you walk out paid, with no postage, no fees and no chance of a chargeback. For bulk, this is often genuinely the best option once you value your own time.
Consignment or auction. Someone else photographs, lists and ships, and takes a percentage for it. Worth it at the top end, where presentation and reach move the price by more than the commission. Not worth it below that.
The costs people forget
Postage and packing is the obvious one and it is not small on a single cheap card. A rigid mailer, a toploader, a sleeve and tracked postage can exceed the value of anything under about twenty pounds or dollars, which is why bulk goes to a shop rather than one card at a time.
Then the payment-processing share, which is usually quoted separately from the selling fee and applies to the postage you charged as well as the item. Then your time: photographing, listing, answering questions, packing, queueing at a post office. Thirty minutes a card is not unusual, and at any sensible hourly rate that dwarfs the fee on a cheap card.
A worked comparison
Take a card that sells for 200. On a general marketplace at a mid-teens total deduction you keep roughly 170 before postage, and perhaps 160 after. On a hobby marketplace the deduction is usually smaller, so call it 180 before postage. A shop might offer 110 to 130, in cash, today. Consignment at a fifth takes you to 160 and you do none of the work.
Those gaps are real but they are smaller than people assume, and they shrink further once your time is in the sum. The decision is usually about certainty and effort rather than about the percentage.
Check the current rates
Fee schedules change, often, and are published by each platform. Read the current page before you list rather than trusting a figure in an article, including this one. The shape of the comparison holds; the exact numbers will not.
The rule
Sell bulk to a shop. Sell mid-value on a hobby marketplace. Sell anything genuinely scarce where the most people will see it, and accept the fee for the reach. The only clear mistake is listing a five-pound card individually and spending an hour doing it.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I get the most money for a card?
Usually the largest marketplace, because reach sets the price. The gap to a hobby marketplace is often smaller than the extra effort and dispute risk.
Is selling to a local shop a bad deal?
It is the lowest number and often the best decision for bulk. You are paid immediately with no fees, no postage and no chargeback risk.
What do people forget to count?
Payment processing applied to the postage as well as the item, packing materials, and their own time. Thirty minutes a card is common and dwarfs the fee on anything cheap.
