Every case split eventually runs into the same question: what is this card actually worth? Rarity weights answer it approximately, which is enough for the hundreds of cards in a case that trade in a narrow band. For the handful that do not, you need a real number — and where that number comes from is worth agreeing on before anyone pulls one.
Weight or fixed cost: the decision rule
The test is dispersion, not price. Use a weight when cards of that rarity trade in a tight band relative to each other. Use fixed cost when they do not.
- Rares in a standard set range from $0.25 to $4. Tight enough — use a weight.
- Pokémon Special Illustration Rares in one set range from $30 to $400. Not tight — fixed cost.
- Lorcana Enchanteds range from $35 to $400+. Fixed cost.
- One Piece alternate arts span two orders of magnitude. Fixed cost.
- Magic commons and uncommons: weight, or zero, and do not think about it further.
Rule of thumb: if the most expensive card in a rarity is more than about 5x the cheapest, that rarity needs fixed costs rather than a weight.
Where to get the number
Pick one source and use it for the whole case. Mixing sources mid-case is how people end up feeling cheated, because different sources systematically disagree.
- TCGplayer Market Price — the most common convention in North America. It is a trailing average of actual completed sales, not an ask price, which makes it hard to game.
- TCGplayer Low / Lowest Listed — reflects what you would pay today but is noisy and can be dragged down by damaged copies or bad listings.
- Cardmarket Trend Price — the European equivalent, and the right choice for EU groups pricing in euros.
- eBay completed sales — the most accurate for very high-value or thin-market cards where market price is based on few sales.
For most splits, TCGplayer Market Price is the correct default. For any card over roughly $150, cross-check with recent eBay completed sales, because thin markets make averaged prices unreliable in both directions.
Pin the timestamp
Prices for freshly released product move fast, often 20-30% in the first two weeks as supply floods in. Agree that prices are taken at the moment of opening, and write it in the Terms field. The alternative — pricing at settlement, which might be a week later — means the person who pulled the chase is exposed to market movement they cannot control, and the group is exposed to someone stalling settlement while they watch the price.
Condition matters, and pack-fresh is not mint
Market prices generally reflect Near Mint. Pack-fresh cards are usually NM, but not always — edge wear, print lines, and centering issues are common enough that a card can come out of a pack in Lightly Played condition. If a chase card has a visible flaw, discount it. A 15-20% haircut for a noticeable flaw is a normal convention, and it should be visible to everyone rather than negotiated privately.
Do not price cards as though they are graded. A card that might grade a 10 is worth its raw price until it has actually been graded, and grading is a bet the puller takes on their own.
Handling disagreement
When two people disagree about a card's value, the source usually settles it. When the source is genuinely ambiguous — thin market, wide spread, a card that spiked this week — use one of these:
- Split the difference between the two proposed numbers. Fast and usually fine.
- Take the midpoint of TCGplayer Market and the average of the three most recent eBay sales.
- Auction it internally: whoever bids highest claims it, and their bid becomes the fixed cost. The money stays in the pool, so the rest of the group is compensated by paying less.
The internal auction is the most robust mechanism available, because it converts a valuation argument into a revealed preference. Nobody can claim a card is overpriced while bidding for it.
What not to do
- Do not price from a listing you have not verified is a real, active, NM listing.
- Do not use graded-card comps for raw cards.
- Do not price sentimental value. A card someone loves is worth its market price to the split.
- Do not renegotiate a settled price because the market moved. Agree on this before you open.
- Do not let one person be the sole price authority if anyone in the group is uncomfortable with it. Post the sources.
Putting it into Case Split
In the Cards panel, any card can carry a fixed cost alongside or instead of a rarity weight. Fixed costs are subtracted from the case cost first, then the remaining pool is divided by weight. The Split panel shows each participant's fixed-cost total and weighted share separately, so anyone can audit exactly where their number came from. That transparency is the actual product — the arithmetic is trivial, but everyone being able to see it is what keeps the group splitting together next set.