You found some of your old Yu-Gi-Oh! cards while cleaning out the attic and realized you could probably sell these online. However, you don’t know whether or not they’re still worth money.
The Japanese trading card game (TCG) Yu-Gi-Oh! launched in 1999 in Japan and in 2002 in the US. It took the industry by storm. The Guinness World Records even recognized it as the top-selling TCG of 2009 after selling 22.5 billion cards worldwide.
Sadly, Yu-Gi-Oh! didn’t maintain its popularity. Although the game still has a solid following, casual TCG collectors focus more on sports and Pokemon cards.
For this reason, you might doubt the salability of your Yu-Gi-Oh! collection. Rest assured, these cards still hold value today, and your old deck might amount to hundreds or thousands, depending on the card they contain.
If you find yourself lost on where to sell Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, don’t worry. We have you covered.
Our team scoured the net for the best platforms to sell, buy, and trade Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. We also researched whether Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are still profitable.
Stick with us until the end. Otherwise, you might accidentally sell a super-rare card like Black Luster Soldier or Armored Blue-Eyes White Dragon for just a few hundred bucks, or worse, throw them in the trash.
Let’s get into everything you need to know about flipping Yu-Gi-Oh! cards!
Are Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards Still Worth Money?
Before anything else, you might wonder whether your Yu-Gi-Oh! cards still have value. The short answer is yes.
Although the game’s popularity stagnated after the manga and anime ended, statistics show that more than a million people still play regularly.
However, don’t expect all your old cards to turn a profit. The official Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! game has 12,500+ different cards, but less than a thousand cards will sell for more than $100.
Also, casual players typically buy their cards brand-new. Most people willing to spend hundreds to thousands on a single character card are hardcore players or collectors.
Best Places to Sell Yu-Gi-Oh!! Cards
Technically, you can sell Yu-Gi-Oh! cards on any online or offline platform you want. However, to get the best prices for your listings, use the following websites to connect with like-minded collectors and players who understand true secondary market values.
eBay
eBay is a global eCommerce platform that lets you sell a wide range of items, including TCG collectibles. You can either opt for fixed-price or auction-style listings.
How to Create a Listing
- Click sell on the eBay website.
- Select whether to post a fixed-price and auction-style listing, then set an ad duration.
- Upload multiple pictures of your card and honestly describe its condition, rarity, and grading.
- Set your price, then publish the ad.
Buyer Transactions
Check your messages for buyer inquiries. Expect most buyers to ask for more pictures and discounts—unless you have an in-demand character card.
Also, eBay lets you choose your preferred shipping options. However, the buyer might request to meet up if you’re selling limited edition, PSA-graded cards that cost thousands.
Collecting Payments
You can link a checking account to your eBay account.
Earning Potential
To maximize your earning potential on eBay, opt for auction-style listings. Limited edition character cards acquired solely through tournaments and promotions can spike exponentially after several bids.
Platform Fees
eBay charges 5% to 10% per sale. On rare $10 cards, a $0.50 to $1 fee might seem negligible, but it could rack up to hundreds on 1st edition cards like the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
TCG Player
TCG Player stands as the most widely used eCommerce platform for selling TCG like Pokemon, Magic; The Gathering cards, and, of course, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
How to Create a Listing
- Sign up as a marketplace seller for free.
- Next, visit your personal marketplace profile and start adding listings. Set your prices, upload photos of the actual card, then publish the ad.
- Your ad should go live instantly.
Note: You need to sign up as a Pro Seller to create a custom website through CrystalCommerce or BidWicket.
Buyer Transactions
You can have the card shipped at the buyer’s expense. However, most buyers will request to see and authenticate expensive, PSA-graded cards in person.
Collecting Payments
TCG Players holds buyer payments until the platform confirms the sale. You’ll have to send a copy of the transaction invoice and item purchased before the site releases your money.
Earning Potential
TCG Player lets you connect with hardcore TCG players and collectors, so you’ll have an easier time justifying your prices.
Platform Fees
The platform charges a steep 10.25% fee. However, it caps at $50, so we suggest using TCG Player for cards costing more than $500 to maximize your profits.
Heart Of The Cards
If you need to dispose of your Yu-Gi-Oh! card fast and have no time to handle customer inquiries, try Heart of the Cards. The website buys TCG in near-mint condition. Although you wouldn’t get the best prices, the website takes care of all fulfillment responsibilities. Just list your card and have the team evaluate it.
How to Create a Listing
Contact the Heart of the Cards team, then express your desire to sell a card.
Have the appraiser evaluate your card.
Afterward, the team will give you a straightforward offer that you can accept or reject.
Buyer Transactions
You will only contact the Heart of the Cards team since they’ll purchase your card directly. There’s no need to deal with customers yourself.
Collecting Payments
Heart of the Cards will send your money via bank transfer or PayPal, although you can also convert your payment to in-store credits. However, doing so might not be a wise decision.
Earning Potential
Unfortunately, Heart of the Cards only pays up to 40% of your card’s fair secondary market value, so don’t expect to turn a profit.
On the contrary, you’ll likely lose money. However, the only advantage is that they will pay you in cash on the spot.
Platform Fees
Heart Of The Cards deducts any added expenses on their part from their offers. You’ll get your \ payment in full.
Card Market
Card Market is an excellent platform for overseas transactions. The site lets you connect with like-minded players and collectors worldwide, broadening your network.
You can also use the site’s extensive library to research global secondary market values. Thousands of users list various Yu-Gi-Oh! Products online, and many of these come from sellers outside the U.S.
How to Create a Listing
- Create a free account.
- Log into your account and click sell cards.
- Choose whether to upload mixed cards or bulk list cards.
- Input the card’s details, upload photos of the actual card, then fill out the other sections required by Card Market.
- Publish the ad.
Buyer Transactions
You can connect with buyers on or off the platform. However, we suggest using the platform’s available communication channels to maintain safety and professionalism.
Collecting Payments
You can collect payments via PayPal or bank transfer, although some overseas buyers might not have the capacity to do the latter. If so, you’ll have to shoulder PayPal’s steep fees as well. Consider adjusting your asking price, or else you might not maintain your desired profit margins.
Earning Potential
Card Market gives you the opportunity to tap into overseas secondary markets. You might be able to sell your cards more if the buyer comes from a country with limited Yu-Gi-Oh! cards circulating.
Also, limited edition cards fetch a higher price since they only exist in specific countries. Remember: some cards only have one or two copies.
Platform Fees
Card Market only charges a 5% transaction fee on sales, but you’ll have to shoulder a 3% conversion fee for payments in foreign currencies.
Reddit: r/YGOMarketplace
If you want to avoid steep seller transaction fees and lowball offers from casual players, go to Reddit’s r/YGOMarketplace.
It’s a subreddit exclusive to Yu-Gi-Oh! card sellers. With more than 17,400 active users, you wouldn’t have an issue finding paying buyers for your cards.
How to Create a Listing
- Create a Reddit account, boost your Karma, then join the subreddit.
- Read its moderators’ pinned post explaining the current state of the sub. You can also use the Trading, Selling, Buying, Trade/Sell, and Buy/Trade filters for easy thread navigation; otherwise, you might have trouble scrolling through the discussions.
- Click Create Post. Type in the details of your listing and insert Imgur links to the actual photos of your card.
- Publish your post.
Buyer Transactions
Most buyers will either leave a comment on your thread or message you directly. You can choose to move the conversation to another communication platform but avoid divulging too much personal information—especially to anonymous accounts.
Collecting Payments
Indicate your preferred payment method right from the get-go. You can do direct bank transfers, but most transactions on this subreddit involve PayPal.
Earning Potential
Sellers with multiple past transactions and excellent buyer reviews have more leverage in charging higher prices, especially if they often list highly sought-after pieces.
Platform Fees
You don’t have to pay for anything on r/YGOMarketplace.
Factors That Affect Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards Prices
The secondary market value of your Yu-Gi-Oh! card depends on the following factors:
Condition
Sellers typically rate their cards from heavy play to mint. Cards in a heavy play condition often have multiple imperfections like creasing, marking, and blotting, while mint condition cards look brand-new. However, most mint condition cards will need professional grading
Playability
Generally, functional cards with excellent playability cost more. Each character card comes with different features affecting playability, such as its attack, defense, and effect.
Take the monster card Larvae as an example. Apart from its challenging summoning conditions, it yields negligible effects since it has a ridiculously low attack and defense level.
On the contrary, let’s check the Crush Card Virus. Its popularity in anime and versatility make it one of the most highly sought-after cards on the market. A GEM-MT10 could sell for up to $150,000 online.
Rarity
You can’t just call your card “rare” at random. The secondary market typically follows 10 card rarity levels:
- Common: Common cards are very easy to find, so don’t expect much profit from them. Also, they don’t have any embellishments.
- Rare: They don’t have holographic finishing on their card illustrations, but the character name comes in textured silver foil.
- Super Rare: Super rare cards have holographic finishing on their illustrations but no textured foil on their character names.
- Ultimate Rare: Ultimate rare cards come with textured foil accents on the border and illustration.
- Secret Rare: A secret rare card has sparkling holographic finishing and rainbow foil on the character name.
- Ghost Rare: Apart from the rainbow foil on the character name, the illustration comes with a 3D hologram.
- Starfoil Rare: You’ll see starburst patterns all over the card.
- Mosaic Rare: The topside of a mosaic rare card has several foil and embellishment sections.
- Duelist League: Duelist league cards rank among the rarest and most exclusive pieces on the secondary market. You can only acquire these through promotions and tournaments.
Edition
You’ll typically encounter the following Yu-Gi-Oh! card editions.
- 1st Edition: This edition includes character cards used in the Trading Card Game (American TCG), Asian-English Official Card Game (OCG), and Korean OCG. You can’t use these in the Chinese, Japanese-Asian, and Japanese OCG. In most cases, 1st Edition cards cost more than their counterpart unlimited edition character cards.
- Limited edition: These cards were used in the Asian-English OCG, Korean OCG, and American TCG. You can’t use them in the Chinese, Japanese-Asian, and Japanese OCG. Most super-rare limited edition cards fetch a market value of at least $1,000.
- Duel Terminal: You’ll only get these cards from Duel Terminal arcade machines. Most rare duel terminal character cards cost at least a couple of hundred dollars.
- Unlimited Edition: These cards have no edition text printed. Common unlimited edition cards often have no secondary market value.
PSA Grading
Consider sending super-rare Yu-Gi-Oh! cards for PSA grading. In-demand limited edition character cards could increase exponentially after professional grading, especially NM7 grading or higher.
Spotting the Rarest and Most Expensive Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards
Based on the pricing guide we mentioned above, you’ll notice that most Yu-Gi-Oh! cards sell for around $10 to $20. Only first edition cards cost upward of $100.
However, as with any other TCG, there are a handful of ultra-rare cards fetching insanely high prices. You might not believe it, but some even cost more than a supercar or mansion.
Keep an eye out for the following ultra-rare and expensive Yu-Gi-Oh! cards!
Tournament Black Luster Soldier
Cost: $10 million
Topping off the list is the tournament-edition Black Luster Soldier. This one-of-a-kind Black Luster Soldier card is printed on stainless steel, not paper.
Unfortunately, only Tournament Black Luster Soldier exists. It was a prize for the 1999 Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship, and the original owner sold for around $2 million.
Armored Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Cost: $500,000
The Armored Blue-Eyes White Dragon is an elusive card that has only been listed a handful of times. If the current owner decides to let go soon, they’ll acquire a small fortune. Many hardcore collectors would willingly pay half a million dollars for this card.
Tyler The Great Warrior
Cost: Priceless
In 2002, The Make a Wish Foundation partnered with 4Kids Entertainment to grant the wish of liver cancer survivor Tyler Gressel: design a custom Yu-Gi-Oh! card. The result was a one-of-a-kind Tyler the Great Warrior piece.
Fortunately, Tyler survived his rare form of liver cancer. Although he received a $75,000 offer for it in the past, he still chose to keep it.
Exodia: The Forbidden One
Cost: $1,000 to $10,000
Exodia is a single beast divided into five parts: left arm, right arm, left foot, right foot, and head.
It doesn’t have an attack or defense level. However, correctly summoning all five pieces guarantees an instant win.
Considering Exodia’s overpowered features, it’s understandable why the community would pay a high premium for Exodia parts. A Near Mint-Mint card costs $1,000. Meanwhile, Gem Mint PSA-graded pieces will sell for up to $10,000.
Armament Of The Lethal Lords
Cost: $8,000
The Armament Of The Lethal Lords was the grand prize for the 2006 Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship. Reports indicate that it only has one copy.
What makes the Armament Of The Lethal Lords unique is it turns around losses altogether. If your life points hit zero while you have it in your field, card activation guarantees an instant win.
Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Cost: $500 to $10,000
The Blue-Eyes White Dragon ranks among the most widely known Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards, both as a TCG and anime character. You might recognize it as Seto Kaiba’s go-to monster.
A PSA-graded card in Excellent condition costs $500, but Gem Mint pieces cost upward of $10,000.
Getting the Best Prices for Your Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards
You can sell Yu-Gi-Oh! cards on any platform you want, but you’ll likely get the best value for your collection on eBay or TCG Player. You can even post auction-style listings for in-demand pieces to maximize your profits.
Also, don’t overlook trade offers. You can use this as an opportunity to rekindle your love for Yu-Gi-Oh!, explore different cards, and build an even stronger deck.
Trust us—turning a profit from Yu-Gi-Oh! card trade-ins and sales will take time. If you don’t take an interest in the cards you’re selling, you might prematurely agree to lowball offers and end up losing money.
Aidan has been writing about personal finance for over 6 years. Prior to this, he worked as a Corporate Finance Analyst where he specialized in Due Diligence, Company Valuations and more. He is a CFA charterholder.
