Track your trading card game collection.

Trading card games are a different animal from sports cards, but the collecting logic is the same. Magic: The Gathering, published by Wizards of the Coast since 1993, is the oldest and deepest of the modern games. Its history runs from the earliest sets like Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and Legends, through the long modern era of yearly Standard sets, premium Masters reprints, and special products like Secret Lair. The single most important structural fact in Magic is the Reserved List, a published Wizards policy that certain older cards will never be reprinted, which permanently caps supply and concentrates demand on a fixed pool of vintage cardboard.

Yu-Gi-Oh, published in North America by Konami after an early Upper Deck partnership, is anchored by its Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon era and iconic cards like Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician. Print rarity in Yu-Gi-Oh runs from common up through Secret Rare, Ultra Rare, Ghost Rare, and beyond, and early-edition printings from the original sets are the chase. Disney Lorcana, launched by Ravensburger in 2023, is the newest of the four and grew fast, with its first sets like The First Chapter and enchanted-rarity cards driving early collector interest. One Piece, published by Bandai and built on the long-running manga and anime, has a passionate base chasing alternate arts, manga rares, and leader cards from sets in its OP numbering.

Across all four games the trap is the same one that defines junk-wax baseball. Mass-produced modern product printed in enormous quantity stays cheap no matter how it looks, because supply swamps demand. A near-mint copy of a common from a heavily reprinted set is not a hidden treasure. Value lives in genuine scarcity, early printings, top rarities, and condition. Knowing which of your cards are common and which are actually scarce is the first job of a real collection record.

TCG singles are graded by the same major companies that grade sports cards. CGC, PSA, and BGS all slab trading card game cards and assign a numeric condition grade, and the grade has a large effect on value, exactly as it does in sports. For older cards where centering, edges, and surface vary widely across surviving copies, the difference between a mid grade and a top grade can be substantial, so the grade is worth recording for every slab you own.

The gradingNote for this category: CGC, PSA, and BGS are the graders that dominate TCG, and grade matters because it is the single most standardized signal of a card's condition. Record the grading company and the numeric grade for each slabbed card. CardGhost does not assert a grade for you and does not track population counts. You enter the grade that is printed on the slab, and CardGhost keeps your collection sorted by it. Raw, ungraded singles are still highly collectible, so record their condition honestly so your records stay useful.

For every card, record the game it belongs to, the set, the card number, the rarity, the grade if it is slabbed, the condition if it is raw, and your cost basis, meaning what you actually paid. Game and set matter more here than in sports because the same character or art can appear across many printings at very different scarcity, so a record that just says Blue-Eyes White Dragon tells you almost nothing without the set and edition.

Distinguish book value from realized value in your own records. Book value is the number you assign to a card today, as of the date you enter it, based on your own research. Realized value is what a card actually brings when it sells. CardGhost stores the value you enter and tracks how your total moves over time, so you always know what your collection is worth as of your latest update, while cost basis tells you what you put in. Watch for counterfeits, which are a real problem in TCG, especially with high-value vintage Magic and popular Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and only record cards you trust as genuine.

CardGhost breaks a trading card game collection out two ways that matter here. First by set, so your Magic Alpha and Beta cards sit apart from your modern Standard cards, your original-era Yu-Gi-Oh sits apart from later reprints, and your Lorcana and One Piece sets each form their own shelf. Second by grade, so your slabbed keys are grouped and totaled separately from your raw singles. Because four different games live in one account, that structure is what keeps a mixed collection legible.

From those groupings CardGhost totals your overall value, shows your cost basis, and shows your gain or loss as of your latest update. It tracks how the total moves over time as you add cards and revise values. Everything stays private to your account, and the numbers are yours because you entered them. It is a tracker, not a price feed, and it never finds deals or shows live or sold prices.