Data Sources & Attribution

BreakersDNA derives card odds, rarities, and pack-distribution data from a combination of manufacturer disclosures, free public APIs, and community-aggregated pull-rate reports. This page acknowledges the sources we use and the terms under which we use them.

How Estimated Value (EV) is calculated

Every dollar figure on BreakersDNA that isn't a completed sale is an Estimated Value (EV): our estimate of what a card sells for right now, based on recent sales of the same card. It is not an appraisal, an offer or a promise of any sale price.

Where the sales data comes from

Card Ladder: graded cards, looked up by the grading company's certificate number.
Card Hedger: graded and raw cards, from comparable sales.
SportsCardsPro / PriceCharting: sports cards.
TCGplayer (through the Pokémon TCG API): Pokémon and other trading card games.

Card Ladder and Card Hedger build their figures from eBay sold listings, so EV reflects eBay sales even though we don't query eBay directly.

How one number is chosen

We ask every source that covers the card at the same time. For a graded card with a certificate number, Card Ladder leads when its own confidence in the figure is high; otherwise Card Hedger leads if it has sales at that exact grade. The leading source counts for three quarters of the EV and the next source for one quarter. For other cards, we average the sources. Before averaging, a source that sits more than three times away from the others is set aside as an outlier.

How recent the sales are

Card Ladder uses the shortest window that has enough sales: the last two weeks, then one month, three months or a year. Stored values are refreshed when they are more than a day old.

When there aren't enough sales

Neighbouring grades. If a card has no sales at its exact grade, we estimate from the grades above and below it (for example, a PSA 9.5 from PSA 9 and PSA 10 sales).
Another grading company. Sales of the same card graded by a different company can stand in when the matching grade has none.
A model estimate, as a last resort. When no source has sales, Card Hedger's model can estimate a value for a card with no sales history.

Any value that isn't fully backed by sales is shown with a “~” in front of it. A PSA 10 figure built from other grades is marked the same way. When we have confirmed a card has no PSA 10 sales, we say so instead of showing a number. If no source can price a card at all, no value is shown.

After a pull

When a card is scanned into a break report, its EV is locked to that moment and doesn't change afterward, even if market prices move.

Real sales vary with a card's condition, timing and demand, so a card can sell for more or less than its EV. See also Understanding value.

Manufacturers

Panini America. Product information pages on paniniamerica.net publish per-product hit and parallel odds. All Panini brand names (Prizm, Select, Donruss, Optic, Mosaic, National Treasures, etc.) are trademarks of Panini America. We display their disclosed odds for the limited purpose of consumer transparency in card-break analytics.
Topps / Fanatics Collectibles. Set composition data, where used, is taken from publicly-disclosed pack-and-box configurations and published product information.
The Pokémon Company / The Pokémon Company International. “Pokémon” and Pokémon character names are trademarks of Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc. The Pokémon Company does not publish official pull rates; we use community-aggregated estimates (cited below) for derived odds.
Wizards of the Coast. Magic: The Gathering pack-slot structures and rarity definitions are documented by Wizards of the Coast. “Magic: The Gathering” is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Public APIs

Scryfall. Magic: The Gathering card metadata (set composition, rarity) is sourced via the Scryfall API. Scryfall is unaffiliated with Wizards of the Coast. We access the API in accordance with Scryfall's published guidance (identifying User-Agent, rate-limited requests, cached responses).
Pokémon TCG API. Pokémon card metadata is sourced via pokemontcg.io. The Pokémon TCG API is a free community-maintained service and is not affiliated with The Pokémon Company. We comply with their published rate-limit policy.

Community pull-rate aggregations

Where a manufacturer declines to publish official odds — most notably for modern Pokémon TCG sets — we surface derived odds calibrated against public pack-opening data compiled by:

TCGplayer Infinite (editorial pull-rate articles)
Bulbapedia (set rarity definitions, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5)
DigitalTQ, Cardshoplive, PokemonCoders pull-rate reports
Cardboard Connection (sports-card product info reproductions)

Derived odds tagged with community-source confidence are provided for informational purposes and should not be treated as manufacturer-guaranteed values.

How we use this data

We fetch upstream data only with an identifying User-Agent and at rates each source publishes as permitted.
We honour robots.txt directives on every host we contact and skip any path that disallows our agent.
We cache responses (manufacturer-direct for up to 30 days, community for up to 7) to minimize total requests.
Every stored odds value is tagged with its source and a confidence rating, so a consumer reviewing the underlying data can see provenance at any time.

Removal / corrections

If you represent a rights-holder and would like a source removed or an attribution corrected, please email shane@htmlguy.com and we will action the request within five business days.

Last updated: 2026-05-14. See also our Compliance page.