Sports Card Comps: How to Pull Accurate eBay Sold Prices (Parallels, Grades, Raw)
Ask what a card is worth and someone will send you one eBay sold listing. One sale is an anecdote. Good sports card comps are a set of recent sales of the exact card, read as a range.
The hard part isn't finding sales. It's making sure every sale in the set is the same card you're holding.
What the live data shows
We ran eight common sports card searches through our sold comps API. Numbers are eBay US sold listings, last 90 days, pulled Oct 23, 2026. Prices move, so treat these as a snapshot.
| Search | Sales | Median | Middle half (25th–75th pct) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 prizm luka doncic psa 10 | 181 | $229 | $200–$891 |
| 2018 prizm luka doncic psa 9 | 164 | $107 | $75–$242 |
| 2011 topps update mike trout psa 9 | 47 | $405 | $379–$435 |
| 2023 bowman chrome paul skenes auto | 87 | $740 | $592–$1,439 |
| 2003 topps chrome lebron james rookie | 153 | $3,856 | $2,950–$4,853 |
| 2017 prizm patrick mahomes psa 10 | 124 | $3,806 | $1,291–$7,500 |
| 2017 prizm patrick mahomes psa 9 | 132 | $1,728 | $1,034–$2,100 |
| 2017 prizm patrick mahomes | 188 | $1,200 | $636–$1,931 |
Look at the Luka PSA 10. The median is about $229, but the 75th percentile is about $891. That's not a market disagreeing about one card. "2018 Prizm Luka Doncic PSA 10" also matches the Silver Prizm and other parallels, which sell for far more than the base card. The search is pricing several cards at once.
The Mahomes PSA 10 is worse: a middle half of roughly $1,291 to $7,500. Anyone pricing a base Mahomes PSA 10 off that full range is guessing.
Now compare the Trout PSA 9. Its middle half is about $379 to $435, a tight band. The 2011 Topps Update Trout is a single, well-defined card, so almost every sale in the search is the same thing. That's what a clean comp looks like.
How to pull accurate sports card comps
1. Search the exact card
Use year + set + player + card number + parallel + grade. The card number is the most reliable part of a title; it filters out inserts and other subsets that share the player's name.
- Too broad:
luka doncic prizm psa 10 - Exact:
2018 prizm luka doncic #280 psa 10
2. Include the parallel, or exclude it
If you have a parallel, put it in the search: silver, refractor, /99, auto. If you have the base card, remove the parallels with minus words:
2018 prizm luka doncic #280 psa 10 -silver -refractor -holo -auto -/
Run the search, scan the titles, and add more minus words for any parallel that slips through (color names like -red -blue -green are common culprits).
3. Split raw, each grade and each grader
Raw, PSA 9 and PSA 10 are three different products. The Mahomes searches show it: about $1,728 for PSA 9 and $3,806 for PSA 10. The broad search with no grade lands at $1,200 because it blends raw cards and slabs.
Graders matter too. A BGS 9.5 and a PSA 10 are not the same comp, and an SGC 10 is its own market. For raw cards, exclude slabs:
2017 prizm patrick mahomes #269 -psa -bgs -sgc -cgc -graded
More on grading and parallels in how to comp trading cards on eBay.
4. Drop lots, reprints and the obvious junk
- Lots: "lot", "x3", "team set". A five-card lot is not a comp for one card.
- Reprints and customs: add
-reprint -rp -custom. - Outliers: the Luka PSA 9 search has a top sale of $9,100 against a $107 median. Ignore the single highest and lowest sale and read the median.
5. Check auction vs Buy It Now
The two formats don't always agree. The LeBron Topps Chrome rookie auction median was about $4,300 against a Buy It Now median of about $3,525. For the Trout PSA 9 it went the other way: about $381 at auction and $425 Buy It Now. Know which one you're pricing for. More on the gap.
6. Count the sales and check the trend
- Minimum 10 sales of the exact version. Fewer than that, widen the date range or call it a guess.
- Last 2 weeks vs 90 days. eBay's sold search covers about 90 days. If the two-week median sits above the 90-day median, the card is rising; below, it's cooling. Player news moves card prices faster than almost any other category.
Where to get the sales
eBay requires signing in to see sold listings, and the old Finding API's findCompletedItems was shut down in February 2025. For a handful of cards, the free sold comps lookup shows the median, middle half and sale count for any search, with lots and outliers removed.
Pricing a whole collection
Doing six steps by hand for every card in a box takes an afternoon. A sold-listings API runs one search per card version and returns the stats:
curl "https://api.soldcomps.io/v1/sold?q=2011+topps+update+mike+trout+psa+9" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SALEHISTORY_KEY"
# → { "count": 47, "stats": { "median": 405.00, "p25": 379.00, "p75": 435.00, ... } }
One request is one search and returns up to 200 sold listings. The free plan covers 100 requests a month, and pay as you go is $2.50 per 1,000 requests.
If your collection lives in a spreadsheet, use the Google Sheets formula to fill in a median next to every card. There's a worked example for a full box in pricing a baseball card collection. Building a card shop tool or scanner app? See trading cards and how card scanner apps get prices.
Frequently asked questions
What are sports card comps?
Sports card comps are recent sold prices for the same card: same year, set, player, card number, parallel and grade. They come mostly from eBay sold listings and show what buyers actually paid, not what sellers are asking.
Why is the price range so wide when I comp a card?
Usually because the search is catching different cards. A base card, a Silver Prizm and a numbered parallel of the same player share most of their title words. Add the parallel name, or exclude it with minus words, and the range tightens.
Should I comp PSA, BGS and SGC slabs together?
No. The same grade from different graders often sells at different prices. Comp the exact grader and grade, and comp raw cards separately.
How many sales do I need for a reliable comp?
At least 10 sales of the exact version. Then compare the last two weeks to the 90-day median to see whether the card is rising or cooling.