# The Card API

> REST API and MCP server for trading card sold prices. Individual transaction records — not averages — from eBay, Goldin, Heritage, Fanatics-Vault, REA, Alt, and Pristine. True Best Offer accepted prices captured. 200,000+ new records ingested daily. Free to start (10K sales/day, no credit card).

Last updated: 2025-05-19. Designed to be pasted directly into any LLM context window. Tested with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and ChatGPT.

The Card API is the market data infrastructure layer for the trading card industry. It covers 38+ card categories (baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, Pokemon, non-sport, memorabilia) across all major platforms, with a unified JSON schema regardless of source. The key differentiator: Best Offer sales on eBay are captured at the true accepted price, not the asking price — critical for accurate comparable analysis.

Base URL: `https://thecardapi.com/api/v1/market`. Auth via `x-market-api-key` header (REST) or `Authorization: Bearer` (MCP). Free tier requires only email signup at https://thecardapi.com.

## Reference

- [API documentation](https://thecardapi.com/docs): Full endpoint reference, authentication, query parameters, response schemas, and code examples
- [MCP server](https://thecardapi.com/mcp): MCP server configuration for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP clients — 7 AI-native tools for card market data
- [Pricing](https://thecardapi.com/pricing): Free / Starter $9 / Pro $49 / Enterprise — all tiers include Best Offer price capture and multi-platform data
- [Status](https://thecardapi.com/status): Live data freshness and coverage status by platform and date

## Endpoints

- `GET /api/v1/market/sales` — Search and filter card sales. Key params: `q` (full-text), `platform`, `listing_type` (Auction|FixedPrice|BestOffer), `date_from`, `date_to`, `min_price`, `max_price`, `limit` (max 500), `offset`
- `GET /api/v1/market/sales/{id}` — Single sale record by ID
- `GET /api/v1/market/daily` — Aggregate stats for a date (total sales, volume, platform breakdown)
- `GET /api/v1/market/platforms` — All platforms with last-updated timestamps
- `GET /api/v1/market/coverage` — Current data freshness status
- `GET /api/v1/market/sales/export/csv` — Download filtered sales as CSV

## MCP Server

The MCP server is available at `https://thecardapi.com/api/mcp` (JSON-RPC 2.0 over HTTP). Configure in Claude Desktop or Cursor:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cardapi": {
      "url": "https://thecardapi.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer tca_your_key_here" }
    }
  }
}
```

MCP tools: `search_sales`, `get_sale`, `get_daily`, `get_platforms`, `get_coverage`, `export_csv`, `get_market_analysis`

## Sale record schema

```json
{
  "id": "ebay_3941827461",
  "title": "2011 Topps Update Mike Trout RC #US175 PSA 10",
  "platform": "eBay",
  "listing_type": "BestOffer",
  "sale_price": 2450.00,
  "sale_date": "2025-04-12",
  "listing_url": "https://www.ebay.com/itm/...",
  "category": "Baseball Cards"
}
```

## Platforms

eBay (Auction + FixedPrice + BestOffer), Goldin (Auction), Heritage (Auction), Fanatics-Vault (FixedPrice + BestOffer), REA (Auction), Alt (FixedPrice + BestOffer), Pristine (Auction)

## Pricing tiers

| Tier | Price | Sales/day | Lookback |
|------|-------|-----------|----------|
| Free | $0 | 10,000 | 7 days |
| Starter | $9/mo | 50,000 | 7 days |
| Pro | $49/mo | 500,000 | 30 days |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited | Full history |

All paid tiers include a 7-day free trial. Cancel anytime.