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The sellers profit has nothing to do with the value of a card other than being a part of the sale price calculation. We don’t talk about how much McDonalds makes when they sell a Big Mac either if that puts it into perspective better for you.

@Budler covered a lot of the relevant points re Sportlots.

I will add the following with regard to shipping which may explain why it is not listed/impractical to list with Sportlot pricing. I imagine very few cards are single card purchases through their site. I doubt many buy a card for .20c then pay the seller's $4 (or whatever) shipping price. Most of these purchases would be for multiple cards, so then how do we breakdown/assign this shipping cost on a per card basis? I know this shipping conundrum has been debated before and doesn't need to be rehashed now.

As.an international buyer I take advantage of Sportlots box shipping option - sellers ship once a week/fortnight direct to Sportlots who store the cards until ready to be shipped out to the buyer. This way the seller can ship multiple orders in one package allowing some sellers to offer free box shipping. Thus, some of these cards can be a true purchase price of what is shown with no additional shipping.

However, keep in mind, whether a shipping cost is entered or not, it is bot used to calculate the median price as displayed on the card's page.

As @Budler mentioned, I have also stopped entering my Sportlots purchases to the site. From my experience the sales data is not pulled across instantly and usually takes a few days/week for it to appear. I'm not sure if there is say a once weekly mass migration of data, but it is certainly not performed in real time as individual sales occur.

To touch back on the Brady issue, with the caveat I am not a football fan, or know anything at all about the card market. What I do know is he was a late draft pick (199th?) and did not play his first year. In his second season he took over starting after Bledsloe got hurt and stayed starter amid some "controversy" the following season, however didn't really break out until his 4th? season. I could see a 199th pick who is not playing have his cards selling for low amounts at this stage.

I think Sportlots offers a valuable balance against some of the prices loaded here for cards that have one off user loaded prices, with no corroborating evidence, that are unrealistically high.

Having said that, I agree there are limitations to the pricing. The lack of shipping is one, but also the lack of card condition. A chewed up card is obviously going to sell for less than a better condition one, but we don't have that information recorded for Sportlots sales.

What I do find remarkable is that we now have access to a pricing history that dates back to the early 2000s. It impresses me that Sportlots has been around 20+ years and has data that can be supplied. I think, if people could open their minds a little and stop focusing on the minutiae, they would really this is an incredibly valuable addition to the history of these cards.

I agree but I'm not talking about profit.   Profit kicks in what you remove the price you paid for the card along with what other fees/shipping may happen.    I'm talking about price/value a seller put on a card and the price/value a buyer pays.      2 different amounts/values for the same card.  

Just like 2 different people pricing/value a card or 2 different sales.

There are always 2 sides and 90% of the time they are not the same and we use the buyers side.

What I find interesting is the buyer value vs seller value. This is a very simple calculation when it's done in person between two collectors.  Over the internet can get messy.  Especially on eBay.

A simplified eBay example, a buyer pays $10 card + $2 shipping + $1 tax, so the buyer values that card at $13, which is what they paid out of pocket to acquire the card.

Seller sold the card for $10 + $2 s/h charge - $2 postage/packaging/handling - $2 fees/taxes, so that card was worth $8 to the seller, which is the amount of money going into their pocket for the card.  Which the seller then uses for fixed expenses and profit.

So what is the card worth in person?  $13, $10 or $8.  

I think the truest way to determine card value is when it's bought in person.  It's also the hardest to track.

A local card shop owner went on a mega rant after the Toronto Expo about briefcase bros and how they cherry pick eBay comps and then also ignore the shipping and taxes that buyer had to pay for the card as well.  

also, I don't think comparing it to a Big Mac is valid.  When we talk about how much a Connor Bedard rookie is worth, we don't talk about how much it cost Upper Deck to make it.  Cards are a secondary market.  There is no Big Mac secondary market.

Lastly to the original post, I don't use TCDB for any pricing.  Some cards don't have any sportlots sales and have what feels like a random price entered by a random user 10 years ago.

Pricing in the sports card world is funny.  Ebay is a crap shoot because you will see variation depending on the type of sale (auction vs listing w/ or w/out Best Offer, etc.) and how common the card is.  And because someone paid some amount for a card once doesn't mean anyone else wants to pay that much for it.  The worst of the "sell value" guys are the ones who look up the CHEAPEST price anyone is confirmed to have paid for a card on Ebay for the cards YOU are putting in a trade, and compare it with the MOST EXPENSIVE price anyone has paid for their cards they are adding in.  I had someone tell me the rookie parallels I was valuing in the Beckett guide range (~$10) were selling for like $1 on Ebay.  I told him to go buy one on Ebay then and he got mad and canceled the unbalanced proposal.  If someone proposes me a sell price that seems reasonable, I'll do it.  Whether it is Beckett BV, Ebay average sell, or other metric, I'm generally okay as long as it is uniformly applied.

This is called the Trading Card Data Base, not the Buying Card Data Base, not the I Gotta Shop Around Data Base.  Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and some things are only worth what someone is willing to sell it for.  When it comes to trading, it is a mutual understanding that the trade is fair for both parties.  This website is absolutely amazing!! The worst part about it is adding values to cards because that is somewhat subjective.  If you are in it for the money side of this hobby then get your data elsewhere and make your trades or purchases here with backed up data from other sites.  The only part of this site that should leave is the assigned values of cards put in by who knows who and uploaded who knows when.  This site does a great job of uploading information (from users) scans (from users) and every other facet of the hobby.  If you need the money side of things go to Ebay/Sportslots/COMC or others that are only there for selling. 

Being confused as to why this site isn't an accurate price guide is like being confused as to why teenage boys don't find your grandmother attractive. Your grandma is a good looking woman and all ages of boys should find her attractive but they just don't. Kind of like how this site isn't a good price guide. I hope that clears things up.

It would be weird to stumble on a trader who is concerned about the values listed on this site when building a trade. They may need a bit of gentle education. That said, historical sales data is useful data to keep, but as always yesterday’s price is not today’s price for most things in life.