Cardmarket vs your own store: where should a card shop sell?

By Ignacio Muñoz · 9 min read

Cardmarket is Europe's biggest marketplace for trading cards, and for many shops it is their main source of sales. But relying 100% on a marketplace has a cost that is easy to miss: a fee on every sale, direct price competition and customers who are not really yours.

In this guide we compare, honestly, selling on Cardmarket with running your own online store. Spoiler: for most shops the answer is not "one or the other", but using both strategically.

What Cardmarket gives you

• Traffic from day one: thousands of buyers already looking for specific cards.
• Trust: buyers know the platform, its ratings and its protection.
• Reference prices: the market sets the price of each card, which makes pricing easier.
• Zero development: sign up, upload stock and start selling.

What Cardmarket costs you (not only in money)

• A fee on every sale. The percentage depends on your account type; always check the current fee on Cardmarket.
• Price competition. Your card is listed next to dozens of sellers sorted by price. Winning the sale usually means cutting your margin.
• The customers aren't yours. You can't build a customer list, announce preorders or build loyalty outside the platform.
• Dependency. If fees, rules or the algorithm change, your business changes with them.

What your own store gives you

• No marketplace fees: you only pay your payment provider.
• Your own customers: email, purchase history and the ability to sell to them again.
• Your rules: preorders, reservations, bundles, sealed product, events and tournaments in one place.
• Traffic from Google: a well-built store ranks every card, set and sealed product.
• Your brand: the store is a business asset, not an account on someone else's platform.

And what it requires

• An initial investment in development and a small monthly maintenance cost.
• Bringing in traffic: at the start nobody knows your website. You need SEO, social media and community.
• Syncing stock if you keep selling on Cardmarket, so you never sell the same card twice.

When does each option make sense?

• You're starting and selling little: Cardmarket. A website doesn't pay off yet.
• You sell steadily and have repeat customers: Cardmarket plus your own store for regulars, preorders and sealed.
• You have a physical shop: your own store with click & collect, events and reservations; Cardmarket for singles.
• You move thousands of euros a month: your own store as the main channel, with programmatic SEO for the whole catalogue.

Want to see it with your numbers? Use our Cardmarket fee calculator: enter your sales and the share you would move to your website, and it shows your yearly savings and payback period.

The strategy that works best: both at once

1. Stay on Cardmarket to reach new buyers and sell fast-moving singles.
2. Bring customers to your website: a card in every order with a first-purchase discount works very well.
3. Sell what doesn't compete on price on your site: preorders, booster boxes, sealed product, bundles, accessories and events.
4. Sync your stock so you never sell the same card twice.
5. Work on SEO so every month more customers arrive who don't come from any marketplace.