Cardmarket Seller Fees Explained: What You Keep on Every Card
Cardmarket keeps 5% of each sale for private sellers. See what you keep on a €10, €40 and €100 card, who pays the trustee fee, and when to sell direct.
In this guide
The 5% commission is the cheap part. One grade dispute on a €40 card costs you a 10% refund, €4, which is twice the €2 commission on the same sale. Add the tracked postage rule above €25 and the wait until the buyer confirms arrival, and you have the real cost of selling on Cardmarket. Below, every piece is in one place, each number linked to Cardmarket's own help pages.
The fees, one line each
Cardmarket's help centre states each piece in a different article, so here they are side by side.
| What | Who pays | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Sales commission (private account) | Seller | 5% of the order |
| Trustee Service fee | Buyer | 0.5% of the merchandise value, 1% if postal insurance is lower than the shipment value |
| Shipping | Buyer | Set by Cardmarket's system, not by you |
| Packaging fee inside shipping | Buyer | €0.30 letter under 100 g, €0.50 heavier or registered letter, €1.00 parcel |
The commission is taken for you. Cardmarket says the amount is paid out to your Cardmarket account and the commission is deducted automatically, so you never get an invoice to forget about. Bulgaria is on Cardmarket's list of available countries, so a seller in Sofia or Varna plays by the same rules as one in Berlin.
Professional and Powerseller accounts
Professional accounts and Powersellers work on a different fee table, published on Cardmarket's fees policy page. That page blocks automated readers, and we only quote numbers we read ourselves, so we do not repeat the professional rates here. Open the page while logged in and check the row for your account type before you do the maths on a big inventory.
What you keep on a €10, €40 and €100 card
Here is the take-home for one single at three common prices, using only the published private rates. Shipping is left out because the buyer pays it and the packaging fee inside it is meant to cover your envelope and toploader.
| Card price | Commission (5%) | You keep | Trustee fee (buyer) |
|---|---|---|---|
| €10 | €0.50 | €9.50 | Usually none, see below |
| €40 | €2.00 | €38.00 | €0.20 |
| €100 | €5.00 | €95.00 | €0.50 |
Three things change these numbers in real life.
Tracked postage above €25. Cardmarket makes tracked shipping mandatory for any shipment worth more than €25, for some shipments above €10 from a new seller, and for any shipment from a seller with a loss rate above 2%. The buyer pays that postage, but it makes a €26 order cost the buyer noticeably more than a €24 one, so keep the €25 line in mind when you price a bundle.
The Trustee Service. It is used on orders costing more than 25 euros and for the first five sales of any new seller. On those orders Cardmarket holds the seller's payment until the buyer confirms arrival. The fee is the buyer's, but the waiting is yours.
When the money arrives. For untracked orders you are paid after you confirm the order has been shipped; for tracked orders, after the buyer confirms arrival. Your €95 from the €100 card is real, it is just not in your balance while the parcel is in a sorting centre.
You can run your own numbers with the Cardmarket fee calculator, which does the 5% and the take-home for a whole order.
The fee nobody lists: the grade dispute
The commission is predictable. The dispute is not. A buyer opens your €40 Riftbound Showcase, decides it is EX and not NM, and asks for money back.
Cardmarket's own guidance is that for a one-grade difference, a 10% refund of the card's value should be adequate compensation. On that €40 card, the €38 you expected becomes €34. That single dispute costs you twice the commission.
Mint is the riskiest word on the platform. Cardmarket states that if a buyer complains about a Mint grade, the responsibility for proving that grade lies entirely with the seller. Unless the card came out of a pack into a sleeve and never left it, grade it NM and sleep better.
How to keep dispute costs near zero:
- Photograph the front and back of every card above €20 right before it goes into the toploader.
- Grade one step down when you hesitate between two grades. A happy buyer with an "EX that looks NM" is cheaper than a 10% refund.
- Pack so the card cannot move: sleeve, toploader, a strip of tape over the opening, and stiff card on both sides. Our guide to shipping trading cards safely in the EU has the full method.
- Answer a complaint the same day, with your photos attached. A calm reply with proof settles faster than a defensive one.
- Use the 10% rule as your ceiling when you settle, not as your opening offer.
A few rules that cost private sellers money
These are not fees, but they shape what you can earn on Cardmarket as a private account.
- Sealed limits. Only professional sellers may offer more than two of any given sealed product or accessory. If you just cracked a case of One Piece boxes, you can list two.
- Shipping is not yours to price. Shipping costs are set by Cardmarket's system. You cannot offer a cheaper courier or a free local hand-over inside an order.
- Letter sizes cap your bundles. A letter up to 20 g holds a maximum of 4 cards, up to 50 g 17 cards, up to 100 g 40 cards. A buyer who wants 60 Dragon Ball commons gets a parcel price.
When Cardmarket is the right tool
Cardmarket is very good at one thing: putting your card in front of buyers across Europe who are already searching for that exact printing. You do not need an audience, a website or a reputation on day one. For a single at €2 that nobody in your city wants, that reach is worth far more than 5%.
It is the right tool when:
- you sell niche singles that only a handful of buyers in Europe want,
- you are new and have no buyers of your own yet,
- you want a neutral platform to sit between you and a stranger in another country.
The fee starts to hurt in the opposite situation: you already have buyers. The regulars from your Friday tournament, the people in your Facebook group, the Discord where you post new pulls. When those people buy through Cardmarket, you pay 5% for a buyer you found yourself, and your money waits for their confirmation. On €2,000 of sales a month that is €100 a month going to introductions you did not need.
For a wider comparison of the big channels, see Cardmarket vs TCGplayer vs eBay. If you want to sell outside Europe, read how to sell trading cards on eBay from Europe, where the fee structure works very differently.
The zero-commission shop next to Cardmarket
You do not have to choose one or the other. Keep Cardmarket for the reach and run your own shop for the buyers you already know.
On Foilio the shop is free and Foilio takes no cut of your sales. The buyer pays you directly, by the method you offer: cash on delivery, cash, card, Revolut or bank transfer, agreed in the order chat. Your €100 card stays €100.
Setting it up from your Cardmarket stock:
- Open a shop: sign in, type a shop name, press "Create my free shop". The step-by-step is in how to open a shop.
- Export your stock from Cardmarket and upload it as CSV or Excel. Foilio takes up to 300 cards per upload, matches the pictures, keeps your prices and fills only the empty ones.
- Check your prices against the Cardmarket trend shown next to each card. Our guide on how to price trading cards for sale covers where to sit against the trend.
- Add your delivery options with a price and choose who pays.
- Share the shop link in your group, your Discord and your bio.
If you ship inside Bulgaria with Speedy, set every parcel up the same way: the buyer can inspect before paying, the buyer pays cash or card, no declared value and no insurance fee, and the recipient pays delivery, so the cash on delivery amount is the cards only. Speedy lists office to office at €2.69 up to 3 kg, with a cash on delivery fee of 2.4%, minimum €0.61 that the tariff charges to whoever pays the delivery (here the buyer), and inspecting before paying is free when the parcel has cash on delivery. That option does not work for lockers, so send to a Speedy office or an address.
The difference from Cardmarket is honest and simple: Foilio does not bring you a European audience on its own, and it does not hold money between you and the buyer. You bring the buyers, you keep the whole price. See how a working shop looks at Delin Collectibles in Sofia, and if you are new to Cardmarket itself, start with how to sell cards on Cardmarket.
FAQ
How much does Cardmarket take from a private seller?
Cardmarket keeps 5% of each sale and deducts it automatically from the payout to your Cardmarket balance. The buyer pays shipping and, on tracked orders, the Trustee Service fee.
Who pays the Cardmarket Trustee Service fee?
The buyer. It is 0.5% of the merchandise value by default, or 1% if the postal insurance is lower than the shipment value. The seller's cost is waiting for the buyer to confirm arrival before the money is released.
Do I pay the 5% on shipping too?
Cardmarket's help pages describe the commission as taken from your payment for the order without splitting cards and shipping. The official fees page is the place to check the exact base for your account type.
What are the Cardmarket fees for professional sellers?
They are on the Cardmarket fees policy page. We could not read that page with our tools, so we do not quote the rates. Check it while logged in before upgrading.
When do I get paid on Cardmarket?
Untracked orders pay out once you confirm shipping; tracked orders once the buyer confirms arrival. If a tracked buyer goes silent, support can set a 7 day deadline and confirm arrival after it when no complaint is open.
Start selling
Open your free shop → It takes a name and a minute, and Foilio takes no cut.
See a live shop → Delin Collectibles in Sofia, set up the way this guide describes.