Ask any successful sports gambler what’s harder: identifying winning bets or finding counterparties to take your action once you’ve shown you know what you’re doing. Because if you succeed at betting over a long enough (and statistically relevant) sample, bookies will simply cut you off.
A successful bettor has to cultivate and maintain access to places willing to take their bets; these are known as “outs.” Building a rolodex of connections, nurturing relationships, managing more messaging apps than you knew existed…these are the skills that end up mattering, not just the ability to calculate an edge on single-inning derivative bets in MLB.
The same holds true in the world of cardboard.
Let’s say you open a Quantum Riddler in a pack of EOE: what are you going to do with it?
If you don’t even think about selling cards, you trade it in at the LGS and take whatever they give you; you have access to one out. Maybe you ask one of your friends (or the other LGS across town) if they’ll pay you more than what the LGS just offered; congrats, now you have two outs. If you take the next step and start selling on third-party platforms…more outs. And don’t forget those online buylists too.
If a card is in high enough demand, you might have access to a dozen different offers, but you won’t know what they are if you don’t actively seek them out.
And yes, each option has its pros and cons, but to focus on any one of them in isolation is to miss the point; what matters is that they’re different and, collectively, they create optionality. Knowing the “right” price matters less, over time, than having enough counterparties so that you’re never forced to accept the wrong one.
Back to the Riddler. Your LGS offers $23 cash. A buylist offers $28 credit. TCGplayer might net you $32 after fees and shipping. And a local player might pay the full $40 if they need it for a tourney tonight! These are all different markets, with unique prices, frictions, and constraints. The spread that’s created is the point.
Selling options comparison for a single card across LGS, buylist, TCGplayer, and local player.
| Option | Net | Advantages | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| LGS | $23 | Instant liquidity | Leaves significant value on the table |
| Buylist | $28 | Higher payout; trade-in bonus; no tax | Conditioning risk; shipping burden; still below max |
| TCGplayer | $32 | Closest to market value | Fees, shipping, platform friction; taxable |
| Local player | $40 | Full market price; instant, no fees | Situational; requires the right buyer at the right time |
If you only plan to sell one card in your life, then yeah, it probably doesn’t matter how you do it. But over many transactions, consistently taking the best option available is one of the few durable edges in card selling. That’s why it’s so important to continually seek out more counterparties, more outs. Expanding and varying your access to the market itself is more important than trying to figure out where the Standard meta is going to shift next.
Markets reward participants with options. Someone with ten outs will consistently realize more value than someone with two. More outs effectively increase the value of every card you sell.
If you have feedback on this post, reach out to eric@mtgsold.com.