How ScryPrice finds you the cheapest cart

By the ScryPrice team · Updated July 15, 2026

You paste a decklist. ScryPrice works out the cheapest way to actually buy the whole thing once shipping is in the math. That's a different number than the sum of each card's lowest price, and the gap can run to a booster box's worth of postage.

Why the cheapest cart is not the sum of the cheapest cards

Here's the trap almost every price tool falls into. You look up each single, grab the lowest number, add them up, call that your deck cost. Looks optimal on paper. In a real cart it usually isn't.

Most marketplaces charge shipping per seller. If your 60-card deck buys its cheapest copy of every card from a different vendor, you're not paying one shipping fee. You're paying a dozen. Each single shows up in its own envelope with its own postage. Add that up and the "cheapest" cart can cost more than a smarter split that pays a few cents more per card and ships in three packages instead of twenty.

How ScryPrice works: the cheapest way to buy a whole card list

1. Paste your list. Drop in a Magic or Pokémon decklist: a Commander pile, a Standard 75, a Pauper brew, a shopping list of staples. No account, no login.
2. We pull live prices. ScryPrice checks current prices across three stores and matches every line to the right card using data from Scryfall, MTGJSON, and pokemontcg.io. Prices refresh daily across 170,000+ indexed cards.
3. We solve for the lowest total. Instead of grabbing each card's cheapest seller, it tests how to split your list across stores so the combined item price and shipping land lowest. Each store's shipping rules are baked in.
4. You get ready-to-buy carts. Out comes a cart link for each store in the cheapest split, plus per-card links so you can check anything by hand.

You can run your own list through ScryPrice in a few seconds and see the split for yourself.

The three stores, and how shipping changes the math

ScryPrice compares TCGplayer, Card Kingdom, and ManaPool. Each handles shipping differently, and those rules are exactly why the cheapest split is rarely obvious by eye.

Because those thresholds interact, the winning answer often isn't "buy everything at the cheapest store." Sometimes it pays to push a store's subtotal over its free-shipping line. Sometimes it's cheaper to shift a few cards elsewhere. That's the kind of trade-off you almost never nail by hand. For the head-to-head detail, we break it down in TCGplayer vs Card Kingdom and ManaPool vs TCGplayer.

How current are the prices, and which games are supported?

Prices refresh daily across all 170,000+ indexed cards, so the split reflects recent market pricing instead of a stale snapshot. Card matching leans on established sources: Scryfall and MTGJSON for Magic, pokemontcg.io for Pokémon, so each line maps to the correct card, set, and printing before any price gets compared.

Magic and Pokémon lists both work the same way. Paste a Commander deck, a Standard build, a Pauper list, or a Pokémon lineup, and ScryPrice runs the same lowest-total solve across the three stores. For the Pokémon side specifically, see Pokémon card price comparison. Singles get matched individually, so a mixed shopping list of staples works as well as a full 60- or 100-card deck.

The two controls that shape your result

ScryPrice gives you two knobs. Both move the total in ways worth understanding.

Minimum condition floor

Set the lowest condition you'll accept across five grades: NM, LP, MP, HP, DMG. Hold it at NM and you pay for near-mint copies. Drop it to LP or MP and the tool can pull in played copies that usually cost less, which matters for older or beat-up staples. LP is the sweet spot for a lot of players: cards that look clean in a sleeve for less money.

Cheaper-printing substitution

Turn this on and ScryPrice can swap in any printing of the same card when it's cheaper. If a reprint or an older set version costs less and plays identically, it uses that one. Handy for cards with a dozen printings. Leave it off if you want a specific set or frame.

What you get back

The result isn't a spreadsheet you have to act on. It's a plan you can buy:

• A cart link per store for the cheapest split, so you check out in as few transactions as possible.
• Per-card links, for when you want to verify a price or grab something on its own.
• The real consolidated total for ManaPool, calculated with its own optimizer instead of an estimate.

From there it's a couple of checkouts and you're done. For a full walkthrough of the buying flow, see how to buy a Magic deck online.

What a deck usually costs

Ranges swing with format, printings, and condition, but rough ballparks set expectations. Pauper tends to land around $30-60. Standard runs $100-250. Commander goes anywhere from $30 to $200+. Pioneer sits at $150-400, Modern at $200-600+. Treat those as starting points, not quotes: your actual number depends on your exact list. To pin yours down, run it through the Commander deck price calculator or read the cheapest way to buy a Magic deck.

Is it really free?

Yes. ScryPrice is free, no account required. That never changes which option ranks cheapest.