Pricing Data Sources
Deep dive into how RocketVault prices your cards — data sources, confidence scoring, and manual overrides.
Overview
Accurate pricing is critical for both collectors (knowing what your collection is worth) and sellers (pricing listings competitively). RocketVault uses a multi-source pricing pipeline that combines proprietary data, eBay market data, and intelligent rules to give every card a fair market value.
The Pricing Pipeline
RocketVault evaluates prices through three tiers, falling through to the next if the previous one doesn't return a result:
RocketVault Pricing Database (Primary)
The RocketVault Pricing Database is RocketVault's primary pricing source. It tracks real market values for millions of sports cards, updated continuously from aggregated sales data across marketplaces.
- Coverage: Millions of cards across all major brands, years, and sports
- Data: Median sale price, price range (low/high), volume of recent sales
- Freshness: Updated continuously as new sales data comes in
- Best for: Modern cards (2015+) from major brands (Topps, Panini, Bowman)
eBay Sold Comparables (Fallback)
For cards not in the primary database, RocketVault queries eBay's completed listings to find comparable sales:
- Search method: Matches on player name, year, set, card number, and parallel
- Price calculation: Median of recent sold prices, excluding outliers
- Time window: Looks at the last 90 days of sales
- Best for: Obscure cards, very recent releases, or niche parallels
Smart Pricing Rules (Final Fallback)
For cards with no sales data anywhere, RocketVault applies intelligent pricing rules:
- Base cards from common sets → $0.25–$1.00
- Rookie cards → Premium based on player draft position and hype
- Numbered parallels → Multiplier based on print run (/10 vs /99 vs /199)
- Autographs → Base value + autograph premium
- Memorabilia → Base value + relic premium
These rule-based prices are marked with lower confidence so you know to verify them.
Price Confidence
Every price in RocketVault comes with a confidence indicator:
| Confidence | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
| High | Based on multiple recent sales of this exact card | RocketVault DB with strong match |
| Medium | Based on comparable sales or limited data | eBay comps or RocketVault DB with few data points |
| Low | Estimated from pricing rules or very old data | Smart Rules or stale market data |
| None | No price available | Card not found in any source |
Focus Review on Low-Confidence Prices
Use the Status & Pricing filter on the Cards page to find cards with low-confidence or missing prices. These are the ones most likely to need manual price adjustments before listing.
Manual Price Overrides
You're never locked into RocketVault's suggested price. Override it at two levels:
Per-Card Override
On the card detail page, click Edit and change the List Price field. This becomes the price used when creating an eBay listing. The market price is still shown for reference.
Pricing Rules in Settings
In Settings → Pricing, you can configure global rules that apply to all new cards:
- Floor price — Minimum listing price (e.g., $0.99)
- Markup percentage — Auto-add a margin above market price
- Final value fee offset — Account for eBay's selling fees
- Shipping cost inclusion — Factor in shipping when calculating list prices
Price Refresh vs. Full Reprocess
| Action | What It Does | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh Pricing | Re-fetches market price using current identification | Price is stale, but card identity is correct |
| Reprocess | Re-runs full AI (OCR + identification + pricing) | Card was misidentified, so the price is wrong because the identity is wrong |
Use Refresh Pricing from the bulk action toolbar to update prices for many cards at once. This is fast — it only looks up new prices without re-running AI.
How Pricing Feeds Other Features
Your card prices power several RocketVault features:
- Portfolio Value — Dashboard shows total collection value based on current market prices
- Heat Score — Market Intelligence uses price trends to recommend when to sell
- Deal Finder — Identifies underpriced cards on the market by comparing asking prices to fair market value
- Listing Suggestions — Suggested list prices are derived from market data plus your pricing rules
- P&L Tracking — Profit/loss calculations use your purchase price vs. current market value
Data Freshness
| Source | Update Frequency |
|---|---|
| RocketVault Pricing DB | Continuously (new sales ingested in near real-time) |
| eBay comps | On-demand when you refresh pricing |
| Smart Rules | Static (updated with model releases) |
Note
Individual card prices are not automatically refreshed on a schedule. Use the Refresh Pricing bulk action periodically to keep your inventory values current. Cards being actively listed or tracked in your Watchlist are refreshed more frequently.
Common Questions
Why do two identical cards show different prices? If one was priced a week ago and the other today, market fluctuations can cause differences. Refresh both to get current prices. Also check that the parallel identification matches — a misidentified parallel will have a very different price.
Can I see where a price came from? Yes. On the card detail page, the Price Source field shows whether the price came from the RocketVault Pricing Database, eBay sold comps, or Smart Rules.
How accurate are the prices? For high-volume modern cards with lots of recent sales data, prices are very accurate (within 5–10% of actual sale prices). For obscure cards or volatile markets (e.g., right after a player gets traded), accuracy decreases. Always verify high-value cards manually.
Related Guides
Pricing & Market Data
Understand how RocketVault prices your cards using real market data from the RocketVault Pricing Database and eBay.
Market Intelligence
Use Heat Scores, Deal Finder, and Watchlist to make smarter buy and sell decisions with real-time AI-powered market analysis.
Viewing Pricing Insights
Explore market intelligence, heat scores, deal scoring, and pricing trends for your cards and the broader market.
Listing Cards on eBay
Connect your eBay account and publish listings directly from RocketVault with AI-generated titles and descriptions.