How Cardboard Assets earns from affiliate links

The short version

Some of the outbound links on Cardboard Assets — specifically those labeled Buy on TCGplayer, See sold listings on eBay, See sealed listings on eBay, and equivalents — are affiliate links. If you click one and then make a purchase, Cardboard Assets earns a small commission from the retailer.

It costs you nothing extra. Commissions are paid by the retailer out of their existing margin, not added to your price.

Which programs are active

• eBay Partner Network (EPN). When active, links wrap through rover.ebay.com with our campaign ID attached. eBay pays commission on completed sales within their attribution window.
• Impact Radius — TCGplayer. When active, links wrap through tcgplayer.pxf.io with our affiliate ID attached. TCGplayer pays 3.5% commission on referred orders.

Status as of May 12, 2026: both applications submitted; activation pending. Until the respective env vars are set, links work as plain referrals (still navigate to the same destinations, just no commission credit).

What this affects on the platform

Affiliate revenue does not change what we show you. Specifically:

• The grading optimizer ranks cards by computed net profit — per-grader math driven by real comp data. Affiliate considerations are not an input.
• The Pack EV tool computes expected pull value from real per-rarity prices. Affiliate considerations are not an input.
• The plays index ranks by play score from a documented formula. Cards aren't promoted because they happen to have affiliate links.
• The verdict on any card (GRADE / WATCH / SKIP) is the honest output of the math. We don't bias toward "GRADE" to drive grading-fee affiliate revenue (which doesn't exist — grading companies don't have affiliate programs).

Every number on the platform is sourced and labeled. The comp pipeline methodology page explains where comp prices come from. The play score methodology page documents the ranking formula. The math is exposed because it's the only way to know when not to trust the platform's default.

What tracking happens when you click

Affiliate links carry a tracking parameter that identifies Cardboard Assets as the referrer. Our system also fires a Google Analytics 4 event (affiliate_click) with provider, card slug, and position so we can measure which links drive the most clicks. This event is fired only after you accept cookies in our consent banner.

We do not store your individual click history, browser fingerprint, or personally identifying information. The data we see is aggregate: total click counts per provider per card.

FTC compliance

Per FTC guidance on affiliate disclosure (16 CFR Part 255), every affiliate link on Cardboard Assets includes rel="sponsored noopener nofollow" in its HTML, opens in a new tab, and is visually distinct from non-affiliate links where possible.

This page exists so the relationship is plainly disclosed in a way you can find from any page on the site. The footer links here. The disclosure is permanent.

What if I don't want to use the affiliate links?

Just don't click them. Or go directly to tcgplayer.com / ebay.com in a separate browser tab and search there. The data on Cardboard Assets remains free either way — affiliate revenue is one of several revenue streams (AdSense being the other) that fund the site, but the data is free regardless.

Questions

Reach [email protected] or visit our contact page.