Alt Value is Alt’s own computer-generated estimate of what a graded card is worth right now, recalculated every day from auction-house and marketplace sales that Alt does not name. It is not the last sale and not an offer to buy, and Alt’s Terms disclaim liability for pricing done with its services, without naming Alt Value. Even so, the same number sets vault fees, auction opening prices and cash-advance offers on Alt, so it is worth knowing how it is made and how to test it.
As of October 9, 2026: Alt Value is refreshed daily. Public card pages show the figure with a low-to-high range at no charge; full sold history is a $15-a-month subscription with no free trial. Alt publishes no Alt Value for SGC- or CGC-graded cards under $500. In the vault, a slab valued under $50 costs $5 to intake, and pulling a card back out is charged at 3% of its Alt Value during its first 90 days there, or 1% (never more than $100 a card) later on.
How Alt Value is built
Alt’s help article What is Alt Value? (dated July 15, 2024) calls it “a computer-generated estimate of a card’s present value in the market” and says Alt collects sales “from a number of auction houses and marketplaces”. Neither that article, Alt’s March 18, 2026 blog post on its pricing tools, nor the Terms names those venues.
The method has two modes. For a card that trades constantly, the estimate sits close to the average of its recent sales. For a card with few sales, Alt prices it against similar cards that do trade, much as a dealer reasons from comps. Either way, “The valuation model is updated daily.”
Think of it as a model’s opinion, not an appraisal or a bid. Alt’s April 23, 2026 press release describes Alt Value as “proprietary pricing technology used by collectors, auction houses, and institutional buyers to value cards across the market”. That is Alt’s own claim; we found no independent study of its accuracy.
Reading the range and the confidence label
Every Alt Value carries a confidence level tied to data volume. Alt’s help article on the subject (September 19, 2024) says: “Low: Limited data available, suggesting a broader range of possible values.” The March 2026 blog post is blunter: “Low Confidence — Limited data available. Treat this as a ballpark.” Medium is “Solid directional value, but expect some variance.” So read the label before the number: High on a heavily traded PSA 10 is a fair midpoint, while Low on a thin Japanese promo is, in Alt’s own word, a ballpark.
On October 9, 2026, Alt’s public page for a Japanese PSA 10 Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex (#125, Glory of Team Rocket) gave the slab an Alt Value of $419, inside a band running from $371 up to $472, while the seller on Alt was asking $700. The page also listed four auction results from October 6 to October 8, 2026: $410 and $515 on the first day, $420 on the second, and $355 on the third. Two of those four sales landed outside Alt’s own band, one under it and one over it. When one slab can swing that far inside three days, the band tells you more than the single headline figure.
Cards that get no Alt Value, or a late one
- SGC and CGC slabs under $500. Alt’s help article is explicit: “Alt does not provide Alt Value for SGC or CGC-graded cards valued at less than $500.” For Pokémon collectors who grade with CGC, that leaves many everyday slabs without a number at all.
- SGC in the app’s quick comps. Alt’s app-only Instant Pricer gives comps for PSA and BGS slabs and leaves SGC out.
- Raw cards. Alt’s blog defines Alt Value as a valuation for graded cards, and Alt will not list an ungraded card for sale. Its Supported Assets page names five graders whose slabs can be sold: PSA, BGS, BVG, SGC and CGC.
- New releases and rarities. Alt says new Pokémon sets become fully searchable about a month after release, and that rare, vintage and newly added cards can sit without a value while the model catches up.
A missing value has knock-on effects. Alt’s vault page says cards with no Alt Value on file skip the $5 low-value intake fee, but its fee pages do not explain how the outtake charge, a percentage of Alt Value, is worked out for a card that has none.
What is free on a card page, and what the $15 plan adds
Logged out on October 9, 2026, the Mewtwo page showed the Alt Value and its band, PSA, BGS and CGC population counts, the latest auction sales and live listings that included eBay, and we could open a longer list of dated sales without signing in. Alt does not say exactly which screens sit behind its paywall. The paid tier is for deeper history: “For $15 per month, subscribers receive full access to our sold history data from all major marketplaces.” There is no free trial, and sales from Alt’s own marketplace only go back to January 2023.
Treat the live listings on that page as asking prices, not sales. The Mewtwo page showed an eBay fixed-price listing for the same card and grade at $1,139, well above every recent sale.
Where Alt Value moves real money
On most price sites a value is just information. On Alt it feeds straight into what you pay and what you are offered:
| Where on Alt | What Alt Value decides | Alt page (read October 9, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Vault intake | Under $50: $5 per slab on arrival (slabs sent in from March 18, 2026 onward). $50 or more: free. No Alt Value on file: no $5. | Alt Fees, The Alt Vault |
| Vault outtake | 3% of Alt Value on the day it leaves if inside 90 days of vaulting, then 1% with a $100 ceiling per card, plus Alt-arranged shipping and insurance | Vault Fees |
| Auction start | Opening price set from the Alt Value | Alt Auction Functionality |
| Snap to Sell advance | Offer of up to 70% of the estimated Alt Value | Snap to Sell |
| Auction cash advance | Card or lot needs an evaluated value of $250 or more | Auction Cash Advances |
| Lending | Collateral must be worth $500 or more by Alt Value; card experts then price it, and loans run up to 40% of collection value | Alt Lending |
| Vault insurance | The help centre says vaulted items are insured to their Alt Value (the Terms differ; see our vault comparison) | The Alt Vault |
To see the scale, here is our worked example using Alt’s published rates and the $419 Alt Value the Mewtwo page showed on October 9, 2026. Withdrawing that slab within 90 days of vaulting would cost $12.57 (3%), or $4.19 (1%) after 90 days, before Alt’s shipping and insurance. A Snap to Sell advance could be at most $293.30 (70%), and the card clears the $250 floor for auction advances. Because Alt charges outtake on the value at the moment the card leaves, those numbers move whenever the estimate does.
The 70% is a ceiling, not a norm. In 2024, Alt told cllct that “Typically, more stable cards receive between 50 and 70 percent of the assigned Alt Value, while less liquid cards fall between 30 and 50 percent.” And Snap to Sell is consignment, not a purchase: “No, Alt facilitates the auction of your card — we do not buy it directly.”
If an auction ends below the advance, Alt’s help centre says “you do not owe any of the advance back to Alt”, while the August 12, 2025 version of Alt’s Terms reserves the right to claw an advance back, naming an auctioned card that fails to sell as one case. We set those two documents side by side in our review of whether Alt is legit, and compare vault costs with PSA’s in Alt Vault vs PSA Vault.
Why Alt Value differs from the last sale
Collectors often see yesterday’s sale on an Alt page and wonder why the headline value does not match it. By Alt’s own description, it is not meant to.
- It smooths. With plenty of sales, Alt Value leans toward an average, so one high or low print moves it only part of the way. The newest Mewtwo sale was $355 while the value read $419.
- It runs once a day. This afternoon’s sale may not count until the next refresh.
- It borrows from other cards when data is thin. For rare, vintage and Japanese cards, the anchor is a comparable card, and comparables can miss in either direction.
- It mixes venues. Checking one marketplace’s sold results means comparing a single venue with a blend.
None of this makes Alt Value wrong when it disagrees with the last sale. The two answer different questions: what one buyer paid once, and what a model thinks the card trades for now.
Alt Value vs Card Ladder’s CL Value
Card Ladder’s estimate starts from a different place, which is why the two often disagree on the same slab. Its help centre says CL Value anchors the card’s last sold price to the player’s or character’s market index, with a 1-to-5 confidence meter based on how recent that sale is. Alt’s confidence measures how much data exists; Card Ladder’s measures how fresh the latest sale is.
| Alt Value (Alt) | CL Value (Card Ladder) | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | A model over sales from unnamed venues: near the recent average when data is plentiful, anchored to comparable cards when not | The last sold price, adjusted for how far the player or character index has moved since |
| Thin graded cards | Comparable cards as anchors | No Ladder profile: up to 1,000 sales, outliers filtered, index fallback that can be a Pokemon category index |
| Confidence means | Low, Medium or High, by amount of data | 1 to 5, by recency (Level 5 within 2 weeks, Level 1 over 6 months) |
| Refresh | Daily | Indexes nightly, after sales are approved |
| Cost | Free on card pages; sold history $15 a month | Pro only, $20 a month |
Going by each company’s description of its own method: on a card with a Ladder profile, one unusual sale feeds straight into CL Value until the next sale replaces it, unless Card Ladder’s team excludes it (its newer method for other graded slabs filters outliers first), while Alt Value is built to dilute a single print when a card trades often. On a slow card both show low confidence, for different reasons. Card Ladder’s own white paper says any pricing model is an aid to analysis rather than a final verdict on value, and we found no independent study comparing the two. For data sources, cost and interface side by side, see Alt vs Card Ladder for price tracking; for what the $20 Pro plan buys, our Card Ladder review.
What Alt’s Terms and complaint records say about valuations
The current Terms, dated August 12, 2025, never name Alt Value. Their pricing clause opens “We may enable you to price your Assets using the Services” and calls the result Generated Pricing, then states: “We make no representations, warranties, or guarantees with respect to any Generated Pricing and disclaim all responsibility and liability for Generated Pricing”. The Terms do not say whether the Alt Value shown on a card page counts as Generated Pricing, so read the clause as Alt’s general disclaimer on pricing done through its tools rather than a statement about Alt Value itself. The figure still drives every fee and advance in the table above.
As of October 9, 2026, BBB’s complaints page for Alt Platform, Inc. read “8 total complaints in the last 3 years. 5 complaints filed in the last 12 months.” Every one was marked Unanswered. Two are about valuations, and both are one-sided allegations that BBB does not verify:
- An August 2025 complaint from a consignor who took a cash advance alleges the auction results came in well under the Alt Value-based estimate: “At auction close I ended up losing 40-50% of the true value of my cards”.
- An August 2026 complaint alleges that after the card reached Alt and was committed to a no-reserve auction, the displayed estimate dropped sharply and stayed beside the live listing: “ALT is displaying inaccurate valuation information beside my no-reserve auction”.
Alt did not respond to either on BBB. Both describe the mechanism above: when an estimate sets an advance or sits beside a live auction, a seller feels any gap between estimate and hammer price directly.
How to sanity-check an Alt Value against sold listings
A few minutes of checking before you consign, borrow or withdraw is cheap insurance:
- Match the exact slab. Same grader, grade, card number, language and edition. A Japanese PSA 10 and an English PSA 10 are different markets.
- Pull recent sold prices on eBay. A normal sold-items search covers only the last 90 days, according to eBay’s Product research help page. Sellers with Seller Hub access can use Product research to look back up to 3 years, and eBay says it shows the price actually paid even when a Best Offer was accepted. The free eBay Price Guide scanner reports a median built from accepted Best Offer prices.
- Check a second source. For the cards we track, Pokemon Pricing’s card pages chart verified sales gathered from eBay, TCGPlayer, Goldin and Fanatics Collect, such as the Base Set Unlimited Charizard price history and the 1999 Base Set prices hub.
- Clean the list. Drop lots, cracked slabs and any sale that fell through; our piece on taking a marketplace-rejected slab sale out of your comp set shows why one bad print distorts a short list.
- Compare with the band, not just the headline. If most clean sales sit inside Alt’s low-to-high band, the estimate is doing its job. If they cluster below it, read the Alt Value as optimistic for a seller; if above, as conservative.
- Weigh the label and the volume. A Low label is Alt’s ballpark warning, and thin sales on any site can flatter a price; see whether rising prices reflect more sales or fewer listings.
For how Alt Value fits alongside Card Ladder and eBay’s own data when you are deciding where to check prices and where to sell, start with Alt vs Card Ladder vs eBay. On the day we checked, the Mewtwo slab’s four latest auction prices ran from $355 to $515 against an Alt Value of $419.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Alt Value based on?
Alt says Alt Value is a computer-generated estimate built from transaction data gathered from auction houses and marketplaces, which it does not name. For cards with plenty of sales it sits near an average of recent prices; for cards with few sales Alt prices them against comparable cards.
How often does Alt Value update?
Daily. Alt’s help centre says the valuation model is updated daily, so a sale that closed today may not show up in the estimate until the next refresh.
Why is Alt Value different from the last sale?
Because it is not built from one sale. When a card trades often, Alt Value leans toward an average of recent prices, so a single high or low result moves it only partly. When data is thin, it is anchored to comparable cards, which can sit above or below the latest sale.
Is Alt Value free to see?
Yes, on public card pages. On October 9, 2026, a logged-out Alt card page showed the Alt Value, its low-to-high range, population counts and recent sales. Alt sells full sold history for $15 per month, with no free trial.
Does Alt give an Alt Value for CGC and SGC Pokemon slabs?
Only for slabs worth $500 or more. Alt’s help centre says SGC and CGC cards below that level get no estimate at all, so many everyday CGC Pokemon slabs show no figure.
Is Alt Value more accurate than Card Ladder’s CL Value?
No independent study comparing them was found. They use different methods: Alt Value is a daily model over many sales, while CL Value starts from the last sold price and adjusts it by an index. Checking both against recent sold listings is the practical test.
Will Alt pay me the Alt Value for my card?
No. Alt does not buy cards outright. Alt Value sets the auction opening price and the size of cash-advance offers, which Alt caps at 70% of the valuation, and the final price is whatever the auction or a buyer pays.
Sources
- What is Alt Value? — Alt Help Center, article dated July 15, 2024; read October 9, 2026
- Alt Value Confidence Levels — Alt Help Center, article dated September 19, 2024; read October 9, 2026
- Know Before You Buy: Alt’s Card Pricing Tools — Alt blog, post dated March 18, 2026; read October 9, 2026
- Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex #125 PSA 10 (Japanese) card page — Alt, live page read October 9, 2026
- Subscription for Full Sold History Access — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Alt Fees — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- The Alt Vault — Alt Help Center, article dated June 4, 2026; read October 9, 2026
- Vault Fees — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Snap to Sell: How to Sell Your Cards on Alt — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Auction Cash Advances — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Alt Auction Functionality — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Alt Lending — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Terms of Service — Alt Platform, Inc., last updated August 12, 2025; read October 9, 2026
- Alt Platform, Inc. complaints — BBB serving the San Francisco Bay Area, read October 9, 2026 (complaints are unverified allegations)
- Alt says it consigned 2,000 cards at National valued at $4.5 million — cllct (Wayback Machine copy), published August 1, 2024; read October 9, 2026
- Alt Acquires Most Expensive Kobe Bryant Card Ever Sold for $3.15 Million — Alt via PR Newswire, April 23, 2026; read October 9, 2026
- What is Card Ladder Value? — Card Ladder Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- “Card Ladder Value”: The Intersection of Player Indexes & Price Modeling — Card Ladder Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Card Ladder Value Algorithm (For Graded Cards Without a Ladder Profile) — Card Ladder Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Pricing — Card Ladder, read October 9, 2026
- Product research — eBay Help, read October 9, 2026
- Price Guide — eBay, read October 9, 2026
- Collection Management — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Instant Pricer — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
- Supported Assets — Alt Help Center, read October 9, 2026
Fees, features and policies are quoted from each company’s own pages on the date shown and change often, so check the platform’s current terms before you list or subscribe. This article is collector information, not investment, tax or legal advice. Pokémon is a trademark of Nintendo, Creatures Inc. and GAME FREAK inc. Pokemon Pricing is not affiliated with Alt, Card Ladder, Collectors (PSA) or eBay, and earns nothing from any of them.