How to write a card list

One card per line. Everything except the set code is optional, so pfl 13 is a complete line, and the order of the parts on a line never matters: 3x pfl 13 nm and pfl 13 nm 3x are the same line.

The parts of a line

The name a card comes back with

A valued line names the card in full, and that name is how the card is referred to everywhere in TCGrail: in a seller's stock, on an offer, and on the order a copy ships against. It is called the fully qualified card name, and it is worth a minute because it is also the shortest way to write a line nobody can misread.

PFL 125/94 Mega Charizard X ex

Three things a collector might expect to find in that name are deliberately left out of it. Rarity does not tell two printings of one number apart, so it is a way to search rather than part of the name, which is the section further down. Condition travels beside the card: the same card in two conditions is one name and two prices. Quantity belongs to the copies you hold, not to the card.

Writing the whole name back is always a valid line, so a list produced anywhere in TCGrail can be pasted straight in.

One number, several cards

A collector number often holds more than one card. The plain print is one, and beside it sit the printings: the same artwork and the same number, produced with a different treatment. They are separate cards with separate prices, and the special printing is frequently worth many times the plain one, so a list that does not say which printing it means is valued as the plain card.

A line with no printing on it gives you the plain card. To name a printing, write it the way it is written on the card page, or a distinctive word out of it. Worked through one Pokémon number, which carries three cards:

Short forms such as rh work here too, and each game's are listed under Short forms below. Writing the printing out is still the surer spelling: where the short form also spells part of a card's name at that number, the name takes the line.

Every card page lists the printings that exist at its number, under Other printings. That is the quickest way to find the spelling a line needs.

When you have no card number

A card's name is often shared by several printings at very different prices. In Pokémon's Phantasmal Flames, Mega Charizard X ex is four cards: a Double Rare, a full art, a Special Illustration Rare and a Mega Hyper Rare. A line with only the name gives you the lowest-numbered one.

Add the rarity to say which one you are holding. It changes which card is matched and nothing else, so pfl charizard sir values PFL 125/94 Mega Charizard X ex.

You can also write the rarity out in full: pfl charizard special illustration rare.

Pokémon: words you can use

Printings

Pokémon names its printings this way, and these are the spellings to type. A card page is the authority on which of them exist at a given number.

Reverse Holo, Holo, Stamped, Pokeball, Masterball, Reverse Energy, Reverse Pokeball

Short forms

Any line reads the abbreviations below and turns each one into the printing it names. Writing the printing out works too, and is the surer form on a number where the short one also spells part of a card's name.

Rarities

Disney Lorcana: words you can use

Printings

Disney Lorcana names its printings this way, and these are the spellings to type. A card page is the authority on which of them exist at a given number.

Foil, Enchanted, Rainbow Foil

Short forms

Any line reads the abbreviations below and turns each one into the printing it names. Writing the printing out works too, and is the surer form on a number where the short one also spells part of a card's name.

Rarities

NARUTO Mythos: words you can use

Printings

NARUTO Mythos names its printings this way, and these are the spellings to type. A card page is the authority on which of them exist at a given number.

Full Art, Holo, Gold, Rare Art, Secret, Secret Variant, Mythos, Legendary

Short forms

Any line reads the abbreviations below and turns each one into the printing it names. Writing the printing out works too, and is the surer form on a number where the short one also spells part of a card's name.

One Piece Card Game: words you can use

Printings

One Piece Card Game names its printings this way, and these are the spellings to type. A card page is the authority on which of them exist at a given number.

Parallel 1

Short forms

Any line reads the abbreviations below and turns each one into the printing it names. Writing the printing out works too, and is the surer form on a number where the short one also spells part of a card's name.

Riftbound: words you can use

Printings

Riftbound names its printings this way, and these are the spellings to type. A card page is the authority on which of them exist at a given number.

Foil, Alt Art, Signature

Short forms

Any line reads the abbreviations below and turns each one into the printing it names. Writing the printing out works too, and is the surer form on a number where the short one also spells part of a card's name.

Rarities

Condition

A condition applies to the one line it sits on. Left off, a line is valued as Near Mint.

Whole runs of numbers

A bulk lot goes in as one line rather than sixty. pfl range(1,94) x2 values two of every card from 1 to 94.

A printing written on a range line applies to the whole run, so pfl range(1,94) reverse is the reverse set. Numbers with no such printing come back as lines that found nothing, which is the expected result rather than a fault: a Double Rare has no Reverse Holo.

If a line does not work

The rest of the list is still valued, and the line that failed says what stopped it. There are three answers worth knowing.

Back to the valuation tool