Where to sell Pokémon cards in Ireland, compared

Most people who come to us with cards have the same question. Should I sell them myself online, or just sell the lot to a shop? The honest answer is that it depends on what you have and how much of your time you want to spend. Here is every option we know of, with the real costs.

Your options

Cardmarket. The big European marketplace, and the one that sets the prices most Irish shops work from. You list each card yourself, post it when it sells, and Cardmarket takes a commission of around 5% plus payment fees. Best prices for good cards, but every card is its own listing, its own envelope and its own trip to the post office.

eBay. More buyers than anywhere, and you can sell to the UK and beyond. For a private seller on eBay.ie the final value fee is 11% of the total, plus 35 cent an order, with 150 free listings a month. Watch the postage. A €3 card in a tracked envelope leaves you with very little.

DoneDeal and Facebook groups. No commission, and usually nothing to list. The trade-off is that you are dealing with strangers, meeting them yourself or posting on trust, and bulk lots on DoneDeal tend to sit for weeks unless they are cheap.

Card shows. Events like the Ireland Card Show put you in a room full of buyers and dealers. Good for moving a lot in one afternoon, and good for a second opinion on your better cards. You pay for a table, you give up a day, and dealers at a show are buying to resell, so expect a dealer price.

Consignment. Some shops and online sellers will sell your cards for you and keep a cut, often 20% to 30%. You get closer to market price without doing the listing, but you wait for each card to sell, and you wait to be paid.

Selling to a shop. The fastest. You walk in, the shop prices the cards, you walk out with cash or credit the same day. The price is below market, because the shop has to sell them on, but there are no fees, no postage and no waiting. More on how we do it below.

What each one really costs

Option	Fees	Your time	Risk
Cardmarket	About 5% plus payment fees	High, one listing and one envelope per card	Low, the platform holds both sides to it
eBay	11% plus 35c an order, plus postage	High	Medium, returns and "item not received" claims
DoneDeal and Facebook	None	Medium	High, you meet or post on trust
Card show	Table fee and a day	Medium	Low
Consignment	20% to 30% of the sale	Low	Low, but slow to be paid
Selling to a shop	None, the price is the fee	Low, one visit	Low

A rough rule from the counter. If a card is worth €20 or more, you will get more selling it yourself on Cardmarket, if you have the patience. If it is worth €2, the fees and the envelope eat it. Most collections are mostly €2 cards with a handful of €20 ones, which is why a lot of people do both.

How to get the best price, whoever you sell to

Sort first. Pull out the holos, the full arts, the ex and V cards, and anything old. Leave the commons and energies in a box. A buyer who has to dig through 2,000 commons to find the six cards that matter will price the whole lot as commons.

Check condition, properly. Near Mint means no whitening on the edges, no scratches on the holo, no bends. Hold it under a light. Most cards that have been played with are Lightly Played at best, and prices drop a good bit from there.

Don't sell your good cards in a bulk lot. Bulk lots are priced by weight. If your best card is in there, you have just given it away. Price the good ones separately, every time.

Look prices up before you sell. Cardmarket is the price Irish buyers use. The card's number is in the bottom corner, and the set symbol tells you which printing you have. A card from a 2016 set and the same card reprinted in 2023 can be very different money.

Mind the fakes. If you bought a collection second hand, check the big cards against a real one. Fakes are usually lighter, the colours are slightly off, and the text is a bit blurry.

Selling to us

We buy English Pokémon cards at the shop in Dún Laoghaire, and you can get a quote before you come in. Type or paste your list into the Sell Your Cards tool, one card per line with the number from the bottom corner, and it shows you what we would pay, based on that day's Cardmarket prices.

We pay 70% of market value in store credit, or 55% in cash. Credit can be spent on anything in the shop, games included, which is why most people take it.

The quote assumes every card is Near Mint unless you tell it otherwise. When you bring the cards in we check the condition together and give you a firm price there and then. Graded cards and 1st Editions are priced in the shop, not by the tool, because they need a proper look. Other games and languages, Magic, One Piece, Lorcana, Japanese Pokémon, bring them in and we will price them with you at the counter.

If you have something you think is worth grading rather than selling, say so. We are Ireland's only official PSA dealer and we send cards off regularly. A card that comes back as a PSA 10 can be worth a multiple of the raw price, and we will tell you straight if we think it is worth the fee. You can read about card grading here.

The short version

Sell the few valuable cards yourself on Cardmarket if you have the time. Sell the rest to a shop, in one go, and get on with your life. If you want to skip the first part altogether, get a quote and bring them in. We are at 75 York Road, open seven days, and we all love the cards, so the chat is free.