Best Cardmarket Tracker – finding the right collection app

The problem: Cardmarket is a marketplace, not a tracker

Cardmarket is the largest European marketplace for trading cards – and that is exactly what the platform is built for: buying and selling. But the moment you want to know how much your entire collection is worth or how its value has developed over the past few months, Cardmarket leaves you hanging.

Cardmarket has no portfolio view that adds up all of your cards. There is no value history graph for your collection as a whole. And there is no automatic ROI calculation that shows you whether your €200 display is worth more or less today. You can look up individual cards – and that's it.

Many collectors therefore reach for a second tool. But the path there is littered with pitfalls:

• The official Cardmarket API is no longer freely available. Anyone who once wanted to access price data via the API could do so fairly easily. Today, API access comes with conditions and is hardly practical for private collectors anymore. As a result, home-built scripts and older community tools regularly break.
• Manual tracking in Excel is laborious. A spreadsheet is quick to set up, but it doesn't update itself. Every time you want to check values, you have to look up each card on Cardmarket individually and type in the price – a full-time job once you have hundreds of cards.
• Many tools specialize in a single game. Anyone collecting Pokémon, Magic and One Piece at the same time often needs three different apps – with three logins, three interfaces and three price sources.

The good news: there are solutions. The less good news: they vary widely in how well suited they are to the European Cardmarket collector. One of them, TCGPriceTracker, is a browser-based web app – no download, no installation, it runs directly in your browser on desktop and mobile. Below we take an honest look at the common options.

The common options, honestly reviewed

Each of the following options has its reason to exist – but each was built for a specific purpose. What matters is whether that purpose matches your goal: tracking your Cardmarket portfolio.

MKMtool

MKMtool is an open-source community project that originally grew up around the Cardmarket API. Its strength lies in the management of seller inventories: updating prices at scale, maintaining stock levels, automating listings. For commercial or technically skilled power sellers, it can be a useful tool.

The weaknesses for the average collector, however, are clear: MKMtool requires its own Cardmarket API access – which, as described above, is no longer open to everyone. On top of that come installation, configuration and ongoing maintenance. It offers no convenient portfolio or ROI view, no price alerts and no mobile interface. Anyone who simply wants to keep an eye on the value of their collection is over-served here.

EchoMTG

EchoMTG is an established collection and portfolio app with a focus on Magic: The Gathering (and, in part, other games). It offers solid portfolio management including value history, purchase-price tracking and statistics – conceptually exactly what collectors are looking for.

The catch from a European perspective: EchoMTG is heavily geared toward the US market and TCGPlayer prices (US dollars). Cardmarket prices in euros are not the focus, and the interface is English-only. The full feature set is also tied to a paid subscription. A good choice for US Magic collectors – less obvious for European multi-TCG collectors.

Archidekt

Archidekt is first and foremost a deckbuilder for Magic: The Gathering – and a really good one at that. Building decks, sharing them, enriching them with price information: all of that works conveniently. It also offers a collection feature that can show rough values.

But Archidekt is not a portfolio or investment tool. ROI calculation based on purchase prices, sealed-product tracking, sales analysis or price alerts based on Cardmarket are not part of its core. Anyone who mainly plans decks is in good hands here; anyone who wants to track the value of their collection as an investment, less so.

Deckstats

Deckstats is likewise primarily a deckbuilding and collection tool for Magic, free of charge and with a long history. It can manage collections and display approximate values. For pure Magic players who want to organize their decks and card inventory, it is solid.

As with Archidekt, though, the focus is on playing, not investing. A daily Cardmarket portfolio valuation with ROI, profit tracking across sales and price alerts is not the tool's ambition – and accordingly, it isn't built out for that.

A plain Excel spreadsheet

The Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet is the classic. Its big advantage: maximum flexibility and full ownership of your data. You can add any column you like, and nothing costs you anything except time.

But time is exactly the problem. A spreadsheet does not update prices. Every value has to be looked up on Cardmarket and entered manually. There are no price alerts, no automatic history graph, no built-in separation of singles and sealed. As your collection grows, the upkeep quickly becomes a burden – and errors creep in.

Cardmarket tracker comparison: the big table

The table below compares the most important options against the criteria that really matter for tracking a Cardmarket collection. We've tried to stay fair and objective – every tool is strong within its own area of focus.

The picture is clear: the deckbuilders (Archidekt, Deckstats) shine at deckbuilding, not at portfolio tracking. EchoMTG is a good portfolio tool, but US- and MTG-centric. MKMtool is powerful, but designed for power sellers with API access. Excel is flexible, but labor-intensive. For the European collector who wants to manage multiple TCGs with Cardmarket prices in euros, TCGPriceTracker closes the gaps most completely.

What a good Cardmarket tracker needs to do

Before you settle on a tool, it pays to get clear on your own requirements. This checklist sums up how to recognize a genuinely useful Cardmarket price tracker:

• Real Cardmarket prices in euros: the price source should be Cardmarket, not a converted US market. The Cardmarket trend price belongs here too.
• Automatic, regular updates: prices should refresh on their own – ideally daily, without you doing anything.
• Total portfolio value with ROI: a good tracker shows not just individual values but sums up the whole collection and, based on your purchase prices, calculates your profit or loss.
• Singles and sealed products: displays, ETBs and bundles behave differently from individual cards – both categories should be supported.
• Watchlist with price alerts: you should be notified when a wishlist card hits a target price.
• Sales and profit tracking: anyone who sells wants to see the margin actually realized, not just the theoretical market value.
• CSV import and export: so switching from Excel is fast and you can take your data with you at any time.
• Grading and variant support: foil, reverse-holo and grading status (e.g. PSA, BGS) significantly affect value.
• Multiple TCGs and a localized interface: one tool for all games – ideally in the language you speak.

The more of these points a tool covers, the fewer workarounds you need. You'll find a comprehensive guide to building it out in our article Trading Card Portfolio Tracker.

TCGPriceTracker: closing the gaps in the comparison

TCGPriceTracker is deliberately neither a marketplace nor a deckbuilder – it is a pure tracker for your Cardmarket collection. As a collection app it runs entirely as a web app in your browser, so there is nothing to install, and the same tool works on desktop and mobile. That is precisely how it closes the gaps the other options leave open. Here are the key points from the comparison in detail:

Cardmarket prices in euros, updated daily

All prices come straight from Cardmarket and are updated automatically every day – based on the Cardmarket trend price. You don't have to set up any API or look up another card by hand. That is the decisive difference compared to Excel and to API-dependent tools like MKMtool.

More than 20 TCGs instead of a single-game focus

While EchoMTG, Archidekt and Deckstats are geared toward Magic, TCGPriceTracker covers more than 20 trading card games – including Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece TCG, Disney Lorcana, Digimon and Dragon Ball. One login, one dashboard, all games.

Total portfolio value, ROI and sales analysis

TCGPriceTracker sums up your entire collection, calculates the ROI for every product and every single based on your purchase prices, and records sales including profit tracking. That gives you the investment view deckbuilders don't offer – in euros and without exchange-rate conversion.

Sealed, singles, foil and grading

Whether an unopened display or a single card, whether foil, reverse-holo or a graded copy with a PSA/BGS status: TCGPriceTracker distinguishes these variants because they have a major impact on value. In Excel you'd have to maintain your own columns and formulas for that.

Watchlist with email price alerts

Add cards to your watchlist and define a target price. As soon as the trend price reaches your goal, you get an email. None of the pure deckbuilding options offer this in this form.

CSV import in minutes – a fair switch

Coming from Excel or another tool? Export your list as a CSV and upload it – your collection is transferred in just a few minutes. A CSV export is available as well, so you always stay in control of your data.

Free plan and fair pricing

You can start for free right away: the free plan includes up to 20 products, 30 singles and 10 watchlist entries. If that's not enough, the Pro plan costs €5.99 per month or €49.99 per year and removes the limits. No forced subscription just to see the value of your collection.

If you want to dig deeper into the fundamentals, also read our overview Cardmarket Price Tracker, which explains the Cardmarket trend price in detail.

Which tracker is right for whom?

No tool is right for everyone. So you don't pick the wrong one, here's an honest breakdown by use case:

You mainly build Magic decks

Then Archidekt or Deckstats are your first choice. They are excellent deckbuilders, free to use and geared toward playing. For purely tracking the value of your collection, however, you'll also need a portfolio tool on top.

You're a US collector with a Magic focus

Then EchoMTG can be a good fit, because it is tailored to TCGPlayer prices and the US market. For European Cardmarket prices in euros it is less suitable.

You're a technical power seller

Then MKMtool is worth a look – provided you have Cardmarket API access and are willing to take on setup and maintenance. For simply tracking a private collection, it is over-engineered.

You want maximum control and have plenty of time

Then the Excel spreadsheet remains an option. You get full flexibility and ownership of your data – but you pay with continuous manual upkeep and no automatic updates.

You collect multiple TCGs and want to track your Cardmarket portfolio effortlessly

Then TCGPriceTracker is the most obvious choice: a browser-based collection app – really a web app and tool in one – with Cardmarket prices in euros, more than 20 TCGs, ROI and sales analysis, sealed and singles, a watchlist with price alerts, CSV import – in English and German, with no installation and a free way to get started.