What does it cost to buy and resell a Pokémon card in the EU?
Data as of · 24 round trips priced with our fee table · Published
Buying a raw card for €100 on Cardmarket and selling it there again at the same price costs 10.7% of what you paid, falling to about 8% from €500 up and rising to 21% at €20. Graded cards cost more to move because tracked shipping is dearer: 20% at €100 and 56% at €20. Buying on eBay.com in the US to resell in the EU adds shipping, currency costs and import VAT, and the round trip costs 27–62% for raw cards and 28–79% for graded ones.
The numbers
| Card price | Raw, Cardmarket → Cardmarket | Raw, eBay.com → Cardmarket | Graded, Cardmarket → Cardmarket | Graded, eBay.com → Cardmarket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €20 | 21.3% (€4.58) | 61.6% (€27.19) | 55.6% (€15.58) | 79.4% (€47.96) |
| €50 | 13.5% (€6.94) | 44.7% (€35.97) | 30.9% (€17.94) | 58.6% (€56.73) |
| €100 | 10.7% (€10.88) | 35.8% (€50.60) | 20.3% (€21.88) | 45.3% (€71.36) |
| €250 | 9.0% (€22.70) | 30.3% (€99.55) | 13.1% (€33.70) | 35.0% (€120.75) |
| €500 | 8.4% (€42.40) | 28.3% (€180.89) | 10.5% (€53.40) | 30.8% (€202.10) |
| €1,000 | 8.2% (€81.80) | 27.2% (€343.58) | 9.2% (€92.80) | 28.5% (€364.78) |
What this means for a collector
- Cheap cards are expensive to trade. A €20 raw card bought and resold on Cardmarket has to rise 27% before you break even; a €20 graded card has to more than double.
- From about €250 up, a raw round trip settles at 8–9%: mostly Cardmarket’s 5% fee, the 1% trustee fee and the 2% discount to sell one copy.
- Graded cards cost more to move at every price because tracked, insured shipping costs €8 to buy and €6 to send.
- A card bought in the US to resell in the EU starts 27–79% behind: 19% import VAT, duty, shipping and currency costs, before Cardmarket’s fees.
- From 1 November 2026 a €2 handling charge also applies to imports worth up to €150, so cheap US imports get slightly dearer.
Where the money goes on a €100 card
Every line item of one round trip at €100. eBay.com prices are converted from dollars at the ECB rate of 23 October 2026 (1.1193 dollars per euro).
| Line item | Raw, Cardmarket | Raw, eBay.com | Graded, Cardmarket | Graded, eBay.com |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card price | €100.00 | €100.00 | €100.00 | €100.00 |
| Shipping to you | €1.50 | €13.40 | €8.00 | €26.80 |
| Currency spread (2%) | — | €2.27 | — | €2.54 |
| Import duty | — | €3.00 | — | €3.00 |
| Import VAT (19%) | — | €22.55 | — | €25.14 |
| You pay in total | €101.50 | €141.22 | €108.00 | €157.48 |
| Sell discount (2%) | −€2.00 | −€2.00 | −€2.00 | −€2.00 |
| Cardmarket fee (5%) | −€4.90 | −€4.90 | −€4.90 | −€4.90 |
| Trustee fee (1%) | −€0.98 | −€0.98 | −€0.98 | −€0.98 |
| Shipping to the buyer | −€1.50 | −€1.50 | −€6.00 | −€6.00 |
| You receive | €90.62 | €90.62 | €86.12 | €86.12 |
| Round-trip cost | €10.88 (10.7%) | €50.60 (35.8%) | €21.88 (20.3%) | €71.36 (45.3%) |
How this compares with our earlier estimate
Our research put the round trip at about 40% for real cards below €50 (many of them worth a few euros), about 8% at €100 raw and about 5% at €500 and up, and US to EU at 22–57%. That estimate used an earlier fee table without the trustee fee and the sell discount. Adding them raises every route by about 3 points, which is the difference you see above.
Method and limits
How we measured it
- We priced one card bought at a price and sold again at the same price, so the numbers show the cost of trading only, not price changes.
- Cardmarket: the buyer pays €1.50 shipping for a raw card and €8 for a graded one. The seller pays the 5% fee, the 1% trustee fee and €1.50 or €6 shipping, and we assume a 2% discount to sell one copy.
- eBay.com: $15 shipping for a raw card and $30 for a graded one to Germany, converted at the ECB rate with a 2% currency spread. Import: 19% German VAT on price, shipping and duty; a flat €3 duty on parcels up to €150 and 2.7% above that, assuming no proof of origin.
- Cost is the difference between what you pay in total and what you receive, as a share of what you pay.
What it can’t tell you
- Fees change. These are the published fees and our assumptions on 26 October 2026.
- The 2% sell discount rests on 34 sales of 25 near-mint raw cards, so confidence in it is low. Selling fast or selling several copies costs more; see Can you sell a graded card in Europe?.
- Import VAT uses Germany’s 19%. Other EU countries charge between 17% and 27%.
- Shipping uses typical tracked rates; yours may be cheaper or dearer. Taxes on any profit are not included.
Sources
- EverySlab fee table, version 2Venue fees, shipping, currency spread, import charges and the sell discount, as of 26 October 2026. Every number in this note comes from it.
- EverySlab analysis: holding and exit costsResearch of 25 October 2026 behind the import charges, trustee fee and sell discount.
- Cardmarket feesCardmarket’s published seller and trustee fees.
- ECB euro reference rate for the US dollarDaily EUR→USD rate; 1.1193 on 23 October 2026.
- How EverySlab fair values workThe prices our cost figures are applied to on card pages.
How to cite
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with this credit:
EverySlab, 'What does it cost to buy and resell a Pokémon card in the EU?', 2026-10-26, https://everyslab.com/notes/cost-of-selling-cards-eu