TCG KeeprTrading
| Fee | Rate | Charged to | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | 2.00% (200 bps) | The resting order | You posted liquidity and waited. Cheaper, on purpose. |
| Taker | 4.00% (400 bps) | The incoming order that crosses | You consumed liquidity and got immediacy. You pay for it. |
| Swap | 1.50% of the larger side, min $2.00 | Both parties | Charged per side, so a swap of two $5,000 cards costs each of you $75. |
The maker/taker gap is the point. On a $10,000 card the difference between posting a bid and lifting an offer is $200. In a market this thin, that spread is what pays people to quote both sides — and a thin market with no quotes is not a market, it is a waiting room.
Worked examples
Lifting an offer
PSA 10 Charizard (Classic Collection), best offer $126.12.
Posting and getting hit
Same card, you rest a bid at $124.00 and someone sells into it.
Same card, $4.68 apart — 3.6% of the trade — purely on whether you were patient.
Storage
| Tier | Rate | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $0.02 per item per month | Items marked under $2,500 |
| High value | $0.25 per item per month | Items marked at $2,500 or above — cage storage, tighter count cadence |
| First 30 days | Free | Every new submission |
Storage is billed on the mark at the start of each period, so a card that appreciates past the threshold moves tiers at the next cycle rather than retroactively. A 400-card collection with six pieces above the threshold runs about $9.38 a month.
Intake
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Inbound shipping label | Free above $500 declared | Below that, at carrier cost |
| Receiving, imaging & authentication | Free | Four captures, weight, caliper, cert lookup, holder inspection |
| Bin assignment & vault credit | Free | |
| Quarantine return shipping | At cost | If an item fails authentication and you want it back |
| Pre-grade report | Free | Predicted grade, binding constraint, confidence |
Intake is free because it is our risk, not yours. Authentication protects the integrity of the book — if bad items get vaulted, every price on the platform becomes less trustworthy. Charging you for the work that protects us would be backwards.
Ship-out
| Component | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Base, per parcel | $14.99 | Items across both facilities ship as two parcels |
| Per item | $0.50 | |
| Slab surcharge, per slab | $3.00 | Rigid insert and double-boxing |
| Declared-value coverage | First $1,000 free, then 65 bps | On the total declared value of the parcel |
| Exit fee | $0.00 | There isn't one. Withdraw everything, any time. |
Worked example
Three slabs from the West Coast facility, $43,600 declared:
Coverage dominates, as it should — the cardboard is worth more than the box by four orders of magnitude.
What we don't charge for
Account minimums
None.
Listing fees
Post as many orders as you like. You pay when something fills.
Cancellation
Pull an order any time. Reservations release immediately.
Declined swaps
Only settled swaps are charged.
Inactivity
Storage is the only recurring cost, and it is priced in cents.
Exit
No closing fee, no minimum term, no penalty for withdrawing everything.
Fee questions worth asking
Why percentage fees instead of flat?
Because the cost of being wrong scales with value. A dispute over a $12 card and a dispute over a $420,000 card consume very different amounts of insurance, imaging scrutiny, cage space and legal attention. Flat fees would mean the cheap trades subsidise the expensive ones, which ends with us either declining high-value business or going out of business.
Is the swap fee charged on the boot or the cards?
On whichever is largest: the value you give, the value you get, or the cash difference. It is 1.50% of that figure, minimum $2.00, and each side pays it. Trading two $200 cards straight across costs each of you $3.00.
Do I pay the taker fee if my limit order only partly crosses?
You pay taker on the portion that crossed and maker on the portion that rests and later fills. The engine bills per fill, not per order, so a partially aggressive order is billed exactly as aggressive as it actually was.
Why is my buying power lower than my cash?
A resting bid reserves the notional plus the worst-case taker fee up front. That money is committed, not spent — cancel the order and it returns instantly. Reserving up front is what guarantees a resting bid can never fail for insufficient funds at the moment someone hits it.
What happens to fees if a trade fails?
Nothing happens, because failed trades do not exist. A command either commits in full — assets, cash and fees in one balanced journal entry — or it rolls back completely and charges nothing.
Every fee here is live in the terminal
The order ticket previews maker versus taker before you submit, the swap desk shows the fee on both sides, and the ship-out quote itemises coverage. Nothing is estimated.