Buy Pricing Rules

Buy pricing rules tell Sideboard’s buy engine what to offer for each card. Instead of manually pricing thousands of cards, you write rules like “pay 50% of market for rares” and the engine applies them across your entire catalog — updating automatically when market prices shift.

Rules cascade: every enabled rule is evaluated in order, and the last matching rule wins. This lets you start broad (“all cards, 40% of market”) and layer in exceptions (“mythics, 60% of market”).

Pricing Modes

There are three ways to express a buy price.

1. Percentage of Market Price

You pay a percentage of the current market price pulled from pricing data.

Buy Price = Market Price × (Your Percentage / 100)

Example: Lightning Bolt has a $4.00 NM market price. Your rule is 50% of market. The buylist shows $2.00 for NM copies, $1.80 for LP (90% condition adjustment), $1.50 for MP, and so on.

Use this when you don’t maintain a full sell-price catalog, or when you want your buy offers to track the market directly.

2. Percentage of Your List Price

You pay a percentage of what you are selling the card for in your inventory.

Buy Price = Your Sell Price × (Your Percentage / 100)

Example: You sell Smothering Tithe for $12.00. Your rule is 50% of list. The buylist shows $6.00 — regardless of what the broader market is doing.

This mode ensures your margins stay consistent: if you’re moving a card for more than market, you can afford to pay more for it. If you’re discounting, your buy price automatically follows.

When no inventory item exists for a card, Sideboard falls back gracefully:

1. Uses a cached sell price (calculated from your sell pricing rules)
2. Falls back to market price at the same percentage

So ”% of list” works for your full catalog, not just cards you currently have in stock.

3. Fixed Price

Sets a flat dollar amount regardless of market.

Example: “$0.05 for any common under $1.00” — useful for bulk intake where you want a simple, consistent number.

Rule Criteria

Each rule targets a subset of cards. You can combine criteria — a rule only fires if all specified criteria match.

Rule Actions

Each rule specifies what to pay:

Rounding to the nearest quarter makes communication easier in person: “$0.50 each” is cleaner than “$0.47 each”.

Condition Adjustments

Prices are always calculated at Near Mint first, then scaled down by condition. The default adjustments are:

Example: Lightning Bolt NM buy price is $2.00. A customer submitting 4x LP copies gets $1.80 each — $7.20 total.

You can adjust these multipliers per-buylist in your buylist settings.

The Cascade: Last Matching Rule Wins

Rules are numbered. Every rule is tested against a card. The last rule that matches is the one that applies.

Example cascade:

Position 1: All cards            → 40% of market, min $0.05
Position 2: Rare or Mythic       → 50% of market
Position 3: Market price $20+    → 55% of market
Position 4: Market price $100+   → 60% of market
Position 5: Foils                → 45% of market

A $150 foil mythic:

• Matches rule 1 → 40%
• Matches rule 2 → 50%
• Matches rule 3 → 55%
• Matches rule 4 → 60%
• Matches rule 5 → 45%

Result: 45% (last match wins — rule 5 fires last)

If you want foils and high-value cards to both get premiums, put the foil rule before the value rules so the value rule fires last.

Cookbook: Common Rule Setups

Standard Store: Pay Off Your List Price

You price your inventory, and your buylist tracks those prices.

Position 1: All cards            → 50% of list, min $0.05
Position 2: Market $20+          → 55% of list
Position 3: Market $100+         → 60% of list

This gives you a consistent 50% margin on everything, with slightly better rates to attract high-end singles.

Market-Based: No Inventory Pricing Required

You don’t maintain sell prices. Buy off the market feed directly.

Position 1: All cards            → 40% of market, min $0.05
Position 2: Mythic               → 50% of market
Position 3: Foil                 → 45% of market

Bulk-Friendly: Fixed Rates for Low-Value Cards

You want to accept bulk but don’t want to negotiate on commons.

Position 1: All cards            → 50% of list, min $0.10
Position 2: Market under $0.50   → $0.02 fixed
Position 3: Market under $1.00   → $0.05 fixed

Rules 2 and 3 override the percentage for cheap cards with predictable flat rates. A customer submitting 200 bulk commons knows exactly what they’ll get.

Event Prep: Hot Cards at a Premium

You’re hosting a tournament and need specific cards urgently.

Position 1: All cards            → 45% of market, min $0.05
Position 2: Mythic/Rare          → 55% of market
Position 3: Set code = DSK       → 60% of market   (the new set you need)
Position 4: Card name = "Atraxa" → 70% of market   (one specific card you're out of)

Customers notice when your prices on specific cards spike — it drives targeted submissions.

Presale / Chase Mythics at a Premium

You’re willing to pay up for specific chase cards.

Position 1: All cards            → 50% of list, min $0.05
Position 2: Market price $50+    → 65% of list
Position 3: Card name = "Black Lotus" → 70% of market, max $5,000

The max price ceiling prevents runaway offers if market data is ever stale or incorrect.

Manual Price Overrides

Any individual card on the buylist can have its price manually set, bypassing rules entirely. This is useful for one-off exceptions — a card whose market price is notoriously unreliable, or a card you’re currently not buying.

To reset a card back to rule-calculated pricing, use Reset to calculated on the individual card.

Prices Update Automatically

When market prices change (Sideboard syncs pricing data regularly), Sideboard’s buy engine recalculates your buy prices automatically. You don’t need to do anything. Cards with manual overrides are not affected.

What’s Next

• Quantity Rules — Control how many copies you’ll accept per card
• Creating a Buylist — Condition adjustments and store credit bonus setup
• The Order Flow — What happens when a customer submits
• ../pricing/pricing-rules — Sell-side pricing rules (same cascade, sell direction)
• ../customers/store-credit — Managing store credit payouts

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