CardTrader Setup
This guide walks you through connecting your CardTrader account to Sideboard, selecting which inventories to list, and running your first product push. The process takes about 10 minutes.
Before you start
You’ll need:
- A CardTrader seller account (registered at cardtrader.com)
- Your CardTrader API token (generated from your account settings)
- At least one game inventory in Sideboard with cards in stock (the integration is most useful with inventory to list)
The CardTrader integration currently supports Magic: The Gathering, One Piece Card Game, Star Wars Unlimited, and Riftbound. Support for additional games is coming.
Step 1: Generate your CardTrader API token
- Log in to your CardTrader account at cardtrader.com.
- Go to your account settings (top-right avatar menu → Settings).
- Navigate to API or Developer Settings — the exact label depends on CardTrader’s current UI.
- Click Generate Token (or Create New Token if you have existing tokens).
- Copy the token. It’s a long string — you won’t be able to see it again after you leave the page.
Keep this token private — treat it like a password. Anyone with your API token can read and modify your CardTrader listings.
Step 2: Open the CardTrader settings in Sideboard
In Sideboard, go to Settings → Integrations. You’ll see a CardTrader card showing “Not connected.”
Click Connect CardTrader.
Step 3: Paste your API token
In the connection dialog, paste the API token you copied from CardTrader.
Click Test Connection. Sideboard immediately validates the token with CardTrader and shows you:
- Your CardTrader seller username
- Your account’s seller currency (usually EUR for European accounts)
- Confirmation that webhook notifications are configured
If the test succeeds, click Connect to save the integration.
Currency note: If your CardTrader account is in a currency other than USD, you’ll see a notice on the settings page. Your Sideboard prices (set in USD) will be sent to CardTrader as-is — CardTrader handles the display conversion on their end. Review your pricing before doing a large push to make sure you’re comfortable with how your prices look in the local currency.
Step 4: Wait for blueprint sync (or check its status)
Sideboard maintains a shared index of CardTrader’s entire card catalog — what CardTrader calls blueprints — updated daily. This index is what allows Sideboard to match your inventory items to the correct CardTrader product listings.
The blueprint sync runs platform-wide and is usually already up to date when you connect. You can check the status on the CardTrader settings page.
The table shows match coverage per game. Confirmed match rates (validated against live CardTrader catalog data):
- Magic: The Gathering — ~88% (via Scryfall ID), with additional coverage via TCGPlayer ID fallback
- Star Wars Unlimited — ~99%
- One Piece — ~85%
- Riftbound — ~71%
Cards in the unmatched percentage will not be pushed to CardTrader until they are matched. If you want to trigger a fresh blueprint sync manually, click Sync Blueprints on the settings page.
Handling unmatched cards
For cards Sideboard couldn’t match automatically, the settings page shows an “Unmatched” count per game with a link to review them. The blueprint review page lets you search CardTrader’s catalog and manually link a Sideboard card to its blueprint.
This is most relevant for Riftbound, which has the lowest automatic match rate. For MTG and SWU, the automatic matching covers nearly everything.
You don’t have to match every card before pushing — unmatched cards are simply skipped. You can push with whatever is matched, then come back and link the unmatched ones as needed.
Step 5: Select which inventories to sync
On the CardTrader settings page, you’ll see a list of your Sideboard inventories. Check each one you want to list on CardTrader.
Only inventories you check here are pushed to CardTrader. A Sideboard inventory represents one game’s stock. You can connect one game or multiple.
Click Save after making your selection.
Step 6: Configure oversell protection
Before pushing products, review the Oversell Protection setting:
Settings → Integrations → CardTrader → Oversell Protection
The default buffer is 1. This means Sideboard reports 1 fewer copy to CardTrader than you actually have for every listing — so if you have 3, CardTrader sees 2. This protects against the race condition where the same card sells on CardTrader and another channel at the same moment.
If you sell primarily through CardTrader and are comfortable with the risk, you can lower the buffer to 0. If you sell across multiple channels, keeping it at 1 or 2 is recommended.
Step 7: Run the first product push
Click Push All Products to send your inventory to CardTrader.
For each in-stock inventory item that has a matched blueprint, Sideboard creates a product listing on CardTrader with:
- The blueprint linked to that card
- Your condition (Near Mint, Lightly Played, etc.)
- Your finish (Foil / Non-Foil) — set at creation and cannot be changed after
- Your language
- Your price from Sideboard
- Your quantity minus the buffer (if applicable)
The push runs in the background. You can watch progress on the settings page — it updates while the sync is running. For stores with thousands of items, this can take several minutes.
First push strategy: The initial push uses an “add to stock” approach. If you already have manual listings on CardTrader that you created outside of Sideboard, they are left in place — Sideboard only adds new listings. It does not replace or delete your existing manual listings on the first push.
What happens after setup
Ongoing sync
After the initial push, Sideboard keeps your CardTrader listings updated automatically:
- Price changes in Sideboard are pushed to CardTrader within seconds.
- Quantity changes (from sales, buylist purchases, manual edits) are pushed within seconds.
- Sales on CardTrader are received via webhook and decrement your Sideboard inventory automatically.
- Nightly reconciliation (runs at 4 AM) compares your CardTrader quantities to Sideboard and corrects any drift. Sideboard quantities always win.
Order notifications
When a CardTrader order comes in, Sideboard:
- Receives the order via webhook notification from CardTrader.
- Finds the matching Sideboard inventory item for each order line.
- Decrements the sold quantity.
- If you also have Shopify connected, pushes the updated quantity to Shopify.
Orders appear in your Sideboard order history with a CardTrader badge. You can also see recent orders directly on the CardTrader settings page.
Order polling
In addition to webhooks, Sideboard polls CardTrader for orders every 15 minutes. This catches any orders that a webhook might have missed. Orders already processed via webhook are recognized and skipped — no double-counting.
Monitoring and troubleshooting
Sync status panel
The CardTrader settings page shows a live sync status panel:
- Current sync run (running / completed / failed)
- Products pushed / failed counts
- Orders processed
- Last reconciliation timestamp
If a push fails
Most push failures are transient (CardTrader API timeout, rate limit hit). Sideboard retries automatically. If a push consistently fails:
- Check the error message on the settings page.
- Verify your API token is still valid (Settings → Integrations → CardTrader → test the connection).
- If the token was revoked or rotated in CardTrader, you’ll need to generate a new one and paste it into Sideboard.
If the API token expires or becomes invalid
After 3 consecutive authentication failures, Sideboard pauses all sync for your CardTrader integration and shows a red “Authentication failed” badge. To restore sync:
- Go to your CardTrader account and generate a new API token.
- In Sideboard, go to Settings → Integrations → CardTrader.
- Click Re-enter API Token and paste the new token.
Sideboard will immediately re-validate and resume syncing.
Disconnecting
To remove the CardTrader integration, go to Settings → Integrations → CardTrader → Disconnect.
This removes your product listing mappings in Sideboard and stops all future syncing. It does not delete your actual listings from CardTrader — those remain on CardTrader’s platform and you’ll need to remove them from your CardTrader account if desired.
What’s next
- Understand the blueprint system in depth: CardTrader Overview
- Managing inventory across channels: Managing Inventory
- How presale works across channels: Presale
- Shopify integration: Shopify Setup
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