"Collectr undervalued my cards by 25%": a UK collector built PulseTCG with a spreadsheet, pricing only at UK sold prices, and gained 20k users in just over a year
What it is A scanning, valuation, and portfolio app for UK card collectors and sellers, priced only on UK eBay sold data. Beyond the free tier there are three monthly subscription tiers at £3.99 / £10 / £30; the top tier is for market stall and shop owners, with inventory, VAT, price tags, and storefront tools.
Why it took off Mainstream apps like Collectr price in US dollars, and UK collectors have long complained they're inaccurate. This app prices only in UK terms, and was repeatedly recommended in UK card circles as the "most accurate". The founder then personally worked Reddit, small influencers, and card shops, handing out first-month codes one by one, sponsoring card shows, and posting daily price movement content, bringing the users built up over a year on the web into the store.
BHow you could follow it Don't head-on compete in the UK. Instead, replicate it in a country where US apps' prices are off (Australia and New Zealand are the most obvious): local sold prices, Collectr import, a generous free tier, charge sellers, acquire users through local forum invite codes, small influencers, first-month free codes from card shops, and card show sponsorships, and build the seller tools before eBay pushes free price lookup there.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-10-13 · 11-07 installs 19,248
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-11-01 → 2026-11-07 (7 days, 6 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
PulseTCG is a Pokémon card scanning, valuation, and bookkeeping app, much like the US Collectr, with one difference: all its prices come from UK eBay sold records, in pounds. On Google Play it looks like it launched in October and got 19k installs in three weeks, but the founder had already spent over a year building it up by posting invite codes on the UK Reddit card subreddit. Below: what gap it fills, how users were acquired, where the money comes from, and whether this playbook can travel to other countries.
A Reddit post with an invite code
In Jul 2025 27, Reddit user kkthxbye123 posted in r/PokemonTCG_UK titled "PokePulse.io - UK only market prices and data (invite code inside)". The opening of the post reads:
I think it's time to invite more UK friends to test PokePulse.io. Short version: it's an app like Collectr / Shiny that only tracks UK eBay sold prices and market data.
The app started as a spreadsheet he used to track card prices. The post got 115 upvotes and 87 comments. He then posted five or six progress updates in r/PokemonTCG_UK and r/PokemonDealsUK, each with an invite code (such as ALPHATEST), and replied under posts whenever someone reported a bug.
Over three months later, someone in the same subreddit asked "which collection app is best in the UK", and a reply said "Pokepulse's UK prices seem the most accurate". Another person was more specific:
I found that Collectr undervalued my entire Paradox Rift collection by about 25%, based on comparing against eBay sold prices.
That single comment is where the whole story starts.
What it is: a Collectr that only prices in the UK
Scan a card with your phone and it's recognized on the spot. Add it to your collection and see what the whole set is worth now. Raw cards, graded slabs and sealed product are priced separately. Supported games: Pokémon, One Piece, Lorcana and Riftbound. 2026 May it was renamed PulseTCG (pokepulse.io and pulsetcg.io are the same site), and claimed to be "used daily by 20k+ UK collectors" (Reddit, 5-08, back when it was still web-only; the number can't be verified).
Then it layered a full set of seller tools on top: inventory and margins, auto-pricing, Bluetooth price-label printing, a card-show shopping list, VAT calculated the UK way, its own storefront and payments. In October it also shipped an API so Claude and ChatGPT can query its price data directly.
Four pricing tiers (pricing page on the site, 11-06):
| Tier | Monthly fee | Audience |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | Unlimited card scans, 3 holdings, 5 binders, live UK prices |
| Casual | £3.99 | For collectors with growing collections: no item cap |
| Investor | £10 | Return analysis, price alerts, grading insights, 200 AI queries a day |
| Vendor | £30 | For sellers at markets and shops: inventory, pricing labels, VAT, storefront and payments |
Both Investor and Vendor come with a 3-day free trial.
Why UK collectors want their own prices
The price base for mainstream tools like Collectr, TCGplayer and PriceCharting is US TCGplayer dollar sale prices. UK collectors buying and selling locally, and working card shows, need "what this card actually sells for in pounds in the UK." Converting from dollars plus shipping and duties can be off by a quarter. This complaint keeps coming up in UK card communities, and nobody had built for it specifically.
PulseTCG fills that gap with a simple approach: it uses only eBay.co.uk sold data. The people recommending it on Reddit almost always give the same reason: the UK prices are the most accurate. In 2025 August it added Collectr import, so switching over takes one click. In 2026 March a TikTok video titled "Its time to move from collectr!" got 19k views.
Why installs look like 19k in three weeks
Google Play lists an October 13 release date, 6 cumulative installs by November 19,248, and 7 added over the last 1,249 days (Google Play, 11-06). That release date isn't reliable: third-party estimates show about 8,300 installs already in September 12, and AppBrain only says "on Google Play since 2026 October." The date was most likely reset when the store listing was edited.
What actually happened: web users who had accumulated over a year of history moved over gradually after the iOS (released September 14) and Android versions came out. From mid-September to early November, installs averaged roughly 200 a day. On October 4 and 8 each day spiked past 1,100. I couldn't find the cause (probably a creator video or a card show).
On the charts it shows up only in the UK: Play UK Tools Top Grossing #162 (11-01) to #144 (11-06); iOS UK Reference category Top Free #8 to #21, Top Grossing #43 to #71 (10-28 to 11-06); the App Store page has 22 ratings at 4.4 stars. Making the Top Grossing chart means real people are paying, but the rank is low, revenue can't be estimated at any meaningful scale, and it has never been disclosed.
Where users come from: all within UK card communities
No sign of paid acquisition (inference: it doesn't show up in any of the ad libraries, and 200 daily installs doesn't look like paid spend). The traffic comes from the channels below, with little money spent:
- The founder working Reddit himself. From 2025 July to 2026 May he posted more than five update threads, using invite codes to create scarcity. Afterward, whenever someone asked "what app do UK people use," someone would recommend it unprompted.
- Small creators and card shops, one code each. Every partner got a personal code or link that gives a free month of Investor or Vendor: LUKEPOKEHUNTUK (YouTube, 5-01), SNIVY (TikTok, 10.6k followers), and the card shop The Card Mill, which lists PulseTCG on a "Trusted Partners" page on its site. Others include Kenny's Kards, Pokemonsta (London card show vlogs) and TCWCARDS. Most partners have a few hundred to ten thousand followers, and each code shows exactly who brought in how many users.
- Card shows. It sponsored the Lincolnshire Card Show. Card Fest wrote on Instagram in Mar 27 that PulseTCG "came to us first." On Apr 4, every attendee got a free month of the subscription, every vendor got three months of Vendor, and 10 one-year Investor plans were raffled off. Vendors used it to print price labels at their stalls, so buyers saw it while standing at the table.
- Turning prices into daily content. The official Instagram @pulsetcg.app has 7,905 followers and 101 posts. Threads runs daily UK market updates like "Unified Minds up 34% in a year to £3,857." A third-party TikTok account, @thetiredgamingdad (6,475 followers), posts a video every day from 10-31 to 11-06, each tagged "All prices are from @pulsetcg.app," so people are advertising it for free.
Who pays: free for casual users, sellers pay
The free tier is generous: unlimited scans, and casual users who stick around spread it on their own. The people who actually pay £30 are those running market stalls and shops. They're buying things that save time: inventory, VAT, labels, storefront pages. Some Reddit users put it bluntly: let the sellers who make money fund the app.
It hasn't been smooth. In 2026 February it ended the free alpha and started charging. Some in the community complained £120 a year was too expensive and that charging came too early, while other sellers said £4 a month was worth it. Its response has been very fast updates: the changelog shows about 25 items shipped in October alone, new sets get added almost every week, and feature requests from the community often get a response the next day.
Who it's competing with
| Product | Scale | How PulseTCG differs from the rest |
|---|---|---|
| Collectr | 3.38M installs on Play, #36 Top Grossing in UK Tools | Global and multi-currency, built on US dollar prices; UK users say it's inaccurate. PulseTCG's users mostly come from here. |
| eBay Price Guide (UK) | Launched 2026-09-01, free for all UK eBay app users | Same eBay.co.uk sold data, and broader. But it's price lookup only, with no holdings or seller tools. It's the biggest threat to PulseTCG's free tier. |
| HoloDex | 1.25M on Play, #53 Top Grossing UK | Global AI card scanning and collection tracking, not focused on UK prices |
| FoilSnap | 465k on Play, #5 Top Grossing iOS UK Reference | Scanning apps mass-produced by tool makers, relying on ads and store search |
| Slabbed | Not charted | Also positioned as "UK-first, GBP prices," built by five friends with their own money. No seller back office. |
| SleeveUp | Not charted | eBay UK prices plus a card shop directory, with import from PulseTCG, going straight after its users |
| COMPED | Scale unknown | A UK Pokémon AI pricing site with a dedicated page titled "COMPED vs Pulse TCG" |
(installs are Google Play, 11-06)
In mid-2025, the position of "UK prices only, plus a seller back office" was empty, and PulseTCG was the first to take it and went deepest. By the second half of 2026, three local followers had appeared in the UK, and eBay itself had entered with the same data for free.
How well known is it?
It's well known in its niche. Almost everyone in UK Pokémon knows it from Reddit, TikTok, Instagram and card shows, several UK "best card apps" guides include it, and competitors have written comparison pages about it. Outside that circle nobody has heard of it: no tech press coverage, no discussion on X, no disclosed revenue. Reddit already has users in Australia and New Zealand asking when an AUD price version is coming.
If it were you
Verdict: skip the UK, but the playbook of "local price blind spots in US apps" can be run in another country. It shows that single-country sold prices plus a seller back office can get a small group to pay. It also shows this has to be ground out one community at a time, taking over a year to reach 20k people.
Who it suits: indie developers already inside a collector community in some country (cards, sports cards, figures all work) who can post in forums themselves and chat at card shows. Being able to write scrapers and clean up local sold data is the hard requirement.
Who it doesn't suit: anyone hoping to grow fast through paid acquisition. This category is small, and paying users in one country may number only a few thousand. It also doesn't suit anyone wanting to compete head-on in the UK, where PulseTCG, three followers and eBay already are.
How to do it:
- Pick the country first: look for places dominated by US apps, with a large local price gap and active sellers. Australia and New Zealand have people asking for it directly on Reddit. Japan has Mercari and Yahoo Auctions sold prices, but there are already a number of local price sites, so check carefully first (inference). Germany and France have Cardmarket euro prices, and the gap may be smaller than in the UK.
- Build Collectr import on day one, so switching over is effortless.
- Make the free tier generous, with unlimited scans, and charge sellers, building local-tax features (Australia's GST), label printing and card show lists. This is the part that a big player's price lookup feature can't replace.
How to get users: follow its order. Start with a small invite-code beta in your country's card communities, with the founder replying to threads himself. Give each local creator and card shop with a few hundred to ten thousand followers a free first-month code. Sponsor local card shows and give vendors several months of the seller plan. Post daily "which set moved how much" updates so others tag your name when they make videos.
Timing: get the seller tools built before eBay pushes Price Guide into your country. The UK version launched in 2026 September, and other large markets could follow at any time.
What would mean you read it wrong:
- Six months later, PulseTCG's UK install growth clearly slowed and it dropped off the bestseller charts, a sign that eBay's free price lookup has eaten into the free tier of this kind of app.
- If eBay announces Price Guide for Australia and other markets, there's no need to build beyond the seller tools.
- Conversely, if PulseTCG or Slabbed goes to Australia or New Zealand first, that spot is taken. Switch to another country or another category.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Collectr iOS 2022-01 3.38M installs on Play; 69,432 US App Store ratings on iOS and 5,806 UK ratings; #36 Top Grossing UK Tools on Play Multi-TCG, built on US dollar TCGplayer prices, which UK users say are inaccurate. PulseTCG focuses on UK prices and added Collectr import to win users over. eBay Price Guide (UK) Big-company features 2026-09-01 Free and unlimited for all UK eBay app users Same eBay.co.uk sold data, but price lookup only, with no holdings, binders or seller back office HoloDex Android 2025-09 1.25M installs on Play, #53 Top Grossing UK Tools; 2,748 UK ratings on iOS Global AI card scanning and collection tracking, not focused on UK prices, no seller tools FoilSnap iOS 2025-09(Play 2026-02) 465k on Play; #5 Top Grossing iOS UK Reference Card recognition mass-produced by tool makers, relying on ads / ASO, without deep UK market data Shiny: TCG Card Scanner Android 2024-08 Play 370k installs General card scanning and collection tracking, UK prices not central Slabbed iOS 2026 Not charted Also positioned as UK-first with GBP prices, but no VAT or storefront seller back office SleeveUp Web Around 2026-08 Not charted eBay UK price guide plus card shop directory and card shows, weak seller tools, supports importing from PulseTCG COMPED Web 2026 Unknown UK Pokémon card price lookup by set, AI pricing, web/PWA, no multi-game holdings PokeCardex / PriceCharting / Pokedata / Dex / PokeScope Other 2015–2025 PokeCardex Play 1.91M, rest of UK store a few hundred reviews General price/collection tools, USD or EUR prices mostly - Where users come from
- Verified Reddit community (run by the founder): kkthxbye123 posted 5+ update threads from 2025-07 to 2026-05 in r/PokemonTCG_UK and r/PokemonDealsUK, with invite code ALPHATEST; main thread 115 upvotes / 87 comments; several "what app do UK people use" threads have users recommending it unprompted as "most accurate UK prices"
- Verified Creator and card shop partner codes (first month free Investor / Vendor): LUKEPOKEHUNTUK (YouTube 2026-05-01), SNIVY (TikTok 10.6k followers), CARDMILL (card shop Trusted Partners page), KENNYSKARDS, POKEMONSTA, /refer/TCWCARDS, /partner/CONSOLE
- Verified Card show sponsorship / seller reputation: sponsors Lincolnshire Card Show; site has a /shows page; sellers at booths print and price with its labels
- Verified Price content (IG / Threads / TikTok): IG @pulsetcg.app with 7,905 followers, Threads posts daily UK set movers; third-party TikTok @thetiredgamingdad posts daily videos noting "All prices are from @pulsetcg.app"
- Verified Migrating from Collectr: 2025-08 imports from Collectr; TikTok @calspokemart "Its time to move from collectr!" 19k views
- Verified Moving existing web users to the stores: 2026-05 web version claims 20k daily users; iOS 2026-09, Play 2026-10 only recently listed, Play 9-12 already 8,332 installs
- Inferred Store search / new releases chart: AppBrain: UK Top New Free Tools #6; iOS UK Reference free category chart 8–21
- Inferred Paid acquisition: not in metaads / tiktokads / googleads libraries; ~200 daily adds also doesn't look like paid spend
PulseTCG (io.pulsetcg.app): UK TCG collectors' "UK sold price" market data and seller tools
Research date 2026-11-06. Sources: googleplay / appstore libraries (agent-im machine, DuckDB), official site pokepulse.io (= pulsetcg.io = pulset.cg), Reddit search snippets (Brave), TikHub, Exa/Jina. Reddit full text couldn't be fetched (403), so all Reddit content is quoted from search snippets.
One line
PulseTCG (formerly PokePulse.io) is a Pokémon / One Piece / Lorcana / Riftbound card scanning, valuation and holdings-tracking app built by a UK collector. Prices use UK eBay sold data only (with Cardmarket as reference), plus a seller back office (inventory, price-tag labels, VAT, shop page, payments). The free tier is usable; Casual £3.99, Investor £10, Vendor £30 per month.
Verdict
It's not a new app that appeared in October. The web version has been running in alpha since 2025-07, with invite codes handed out on r/PokemonTCG_UK, and it spent over a year building in that community. 2026-05 it was renamed PulseTCG and described itself as used daily by 20k+ UK collectors. 2026-09 it launched on iOS first, and the Play store listing only went up in October (its listing date was reset to 10-13). It took off for two reasons:
- A clear gap people complain about daily: Collectr, TCGplayer and PriceCharting all price off US dollar sold prices, and UK collectors keep saying on Reddit that "Collectr's UK prices are off." PulseTCG only uses UK sold prices and kept getting recommended on r/PokemonTCG_UK as "the most accurate for the UK."
- Cheap distribution rooted in the UK community: the founder (Reddit user kkthxbye123) posts in the threads and replies to bug reports personally. Local UK creators, card shops and card shows each got a "first month free Investor/Vendor" partner code (LUKEPOKEHUNTUK, SNIVY, CARDMILL, KENNYSKARDS, POKEMONSTA, TCWCARDS, CONSOLE…), and it sponsors local card shows like Lincolnshire Card Show. The official Instagram / Threads post daily "this set rose X%" price content, reaching 7,905 IG followers, and on TikTok people post daily videos crediting "prices from @pulsetcg.app", which is free exposure.
The 19k Play installs are only part of it: existing users have been on the web / PWA for over a year, so the store listing is migration plus organic traffic. I didn't see any paid acquisition.
Growth data
- Cumulative global Play installs (googleplay library app_day; 9–October estimated with AppstoreSpy app_day_ext): 2026-09-12 had 8,332 → 10-04 12,417 → 10-21 16,215 → 11-01 17,999 → 11-06 19,248. From mid-September to early November it averaged about 200 installs a day, with single days occasionally spiking to 1,100–1,300 (10-04, 10-08; possibly tied to creator videos or card shows, not verified); last 7 days +1,249.
- The "Play listing 2026-10-13" date isn't reliable: AppstoreSpy recorded 8,332 installs as of 9-12, and AppBrain also says "On Google Play since October 2026", which suggests the store date got reset when the listing info was changed.
- Play charts: UK Tools top grossing 162 (11-01) → 144 (11-06), charted only in the gb store; AppBrain has also recorded it at #6 on UK Top New Free Tools.
- iOS (appstore library, id 6784131097, developer PTCG Limited, listed 2026-09-14): UK Reference free category rank 8–21, top grossing category rank 43–71 (10-28 to 11-06); UK ratings 18 → 21 (the App Store page shows 22 ratings, 4.4 stars).
- Self-reported users: 2026-05-08 Reddit post says "over 20,000 UK collectors using the app every day" (at that time it was still the web version; not independently verified).
- Revenue: not public. UK Play Tools top grossing 144 and iOS Reference top grossing 43–71 suggest real subscriptions, but at small volume.
Timeline
| Timeline | Event | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-07-27 | Posted "PokePulse.io - UK only market prices and data (invite code inside)" in r/PokemonTCG_UK, 115 upvotes, 87 comments; it started as the founder's own spreadsheet | Reddit (Brave snippets) |
| 2025-08-10 | Added Collectr import, directly targeting Collectr users | |
| 2025-11 | In a "Best Collection App UK" thread someone said "Pokepulse seems the best and most accurate for UK prices" | |
| 2025-12-16 | Posted progress updates on r/PokemonDealsUK with invite code ALPHATEST | |
| 2026-02-22 | Closed the alpha for beta and started charging; some complained £120/year was too expensive | |
| 2026-03 | A "Pokepulse" thread had someone complaining it charged too early, while a seller said £4/month was worth it | |
| 2026-03-02 | TikTok @calspokemart "Its time to move from collectr!", 19k views | TikHub |
| 2026-04–07 | Creator partner codes kept appearing: LUKEPOKEHUNTUK (5-01), Pokemonsta London card show vlog (4-21), snivytcg (7-20), jumping.jack.cards (6-21) | YouTube / TikHub |
| 2026-05-08 | Renamed to PulseTCG, claiming 20k+ daily users; sign up on the web, then download the app | |
| From ¥2026-06 | Dozens of updates a month: One Piece, eBay sales sync with VAT added, shop page, label studio, payments, Riftbound, full-page binder scanning | pokepulse.io/whats-new |
| 2026-09-01 | eBay launched a free trading card Price Guide in its UK app (two years of eBay.co.uk sold data, with card scanning) | eBay Inc. press release |
| 2026-09-14 | iOS version listed (PTCG Limited) | appstore library / chartoo |
| 2026-10 | Play Store listing went live; 10-16 joined MCP, so Claude / ChatGPT / Codex / Gemini can query Pulse price data directly (Investor and above) | AppBrain / whats-new |
Competitors
| Product | Where | Launched | Scale | How PulseTCG differs from the rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collectr | iOS / Android / web | 2022-01 | Play 3.38M installs, last 7 days +42k; iOS US store 69,432 ratings, UK 5,806 ratings; UK Play Tools top grossing #36 | Multi-TCG, global, priced off US TCGplayer, which UK users say is inaccurate; PulseTCG poached users from it (added Collectr import) |
| eBay Price Guide (UK) | Big-company features | 2026-09-01 | Free and unlimited for all UK eBay app users | Same data source (eBay.co.uk sold), broader, but price lookup only, no holdings, binders or seller tools; the biggest threat to PulseTCG's free tier |
| HoloDex | iOS / Android | 2025-09 | Play 1.25M installs; UK Tools top grossing 53; iOS UK 2,748 ratings | Global card scanning plus collection tracking, AI-scan oriented, doesn't focus on UK prices |
| FoilSnap(Next Vision) | iOS / Android | 2025-09 / 2026-02 | 465k on Play; #5 Top Grossing iOS UK Reference | Scanning apps mass-produced by tool makers, relying on ads / ASO, no deep UK market data |
| Shiny | iOS / Android | 2024-08 | 370k on Play | Card scanning plus collection, can serve the UK market, and people mention it in the community |
| Slabbed | iOS / Android | 2026 (April founding story post) | Not charted (absent from both libraries) | Also pitches "UK-first, GBP prices", built by five friends with self-funding; the closest positioning, but no seller back office |
| SleeveUp | iOS / Android / web | Around 2026-08 | Not charted | UK eBay sold prices plus card shop directory and card shows; supports importing from PulseTCG, openly targeting its users |
| COMPED | Web / PWA | 2026 | Scale not found | UK Pokémon card price lookup by set, AI pricing engine "Digby", published a full "COMPED vs Pulse TCG" comparison page |
| PokeScope, MyDex, ValuDex, Dex, PriceCharting, Pokedata, TCG Collector, PokeCardex | iOS / Android / web | 2015–2026 | PokeCardex Play 1.91M; the rest of the UK store a few hundred reviews or fewer | All general-purpose scanning / pricing / collection tools, mostly USD or EUR prices |
Takeaway: the space is crowded, but the combination of "UK sold prices only" plus "seller back office" was empty as of mid-2025; PulseTCG was first and went deepest. From 2026 a wave of UK-local followers appeared (Slabbed, SleeveUp, COMPED), and eBay itself entered in September.
Growth tactics (evidence)
- Run personally by the Reddit founder (confirmed): kkthxbye123 posted 5+ update threads from 2025-07 to 2026-05 in r/PokemonTCG_UK and r/PokemonDealsUK, using invite codes to create scarcity; main thread 115 upvotes / 87 comments, 87 upvotes / 75 comments. Since then, whenever someone asks "what app do UK people use," someone unprompted recommends it.
- Creator partner codes with a free first month (confirmed): each partner gets a personal code or link (pulsetcg.io/partner/XXX, /refer/XXX) that unlocks one free month of Investor or Vendor. Partners are small UK accounts and card shops with a few hundred to ten thousand followers: LukePokeHuntUK (524 views), snivytcg (10.6k followers), jumping.jack.cards, The Card Mill (its shop site has a "Trusted Partners" page), Kenny's Kards, Pokemonsta (London card show vlogs).
- Card show sponsorship and seller word of mouth (confirmed): sponsors the Lincolnshire Card Show; the site has a /shows card show page; sellers use it with their label printers (NIIMBOT / Phomemo Bluetooth) and pricing, and buyers see it right at the stall. COMPED's comparison page even concedes it has "strong vendor toolkit" features.
- Price content marketing (confirmed): Instagram @pulsetcg.app with 7,905 followers and 101 posts; Threads posts daily UK price news like "Unified Minds up 34% in a year to £3,857". Third-party TikTok @thetiredgamingdad (6,475 followers) posts videos 10-31 to 11-06 a day, each captioned "All prices are from @pulsetcg.app"; @portal_tcg (12.6k followers, a card shop) films using it to scan cards into stock.
- Migrating from Collectr (confirmed): built a dedicated Collectr CSV import; TikTok "Its time to move from collectr!" with 19k views.
- AI / MCP access (confirmed, minor impact): 10-16 launched an MCP server, so Claude / ChatGPT can look up its prices. For now it's a selling point, not an acquisition channel.
- Paid acquisition (no evidence found): not in the metaads / tiktokads / googleads libraries (those only track a fixed list of products, so absence doesn't prove it isn't advertising). Around 200 new installs a day, which also doesn't look like paid buying.
- Store search (inferred): ranks 6 in the UK Tools new releases chart and top 20 in the iOS Reference free category; searching "Pokemon card price UK" in the UK brings some organic traffic.
Why users stay and pay
- Accurate prices are a hard requirement: UK collectors trading and card show sellers both need "what does this actually sell for in the UK". Converting from USD, plus shipping and duties, can create a gap of about 25% (Reddit: "Collectr undervalued my Paradox Rift master set by around 25%").
- The free tier is generous (unlimited card scans, 3 holdings, live prices), which keeps people around; investor-type collectors who want ROI, price alerts and AI queries pay £10, and serious sellers pay £30 for inventory, VAT, label printing, storefront pages and Shopify export. Money mostly comes from sellers, while casual users stay free, and that split is the right one. Redditors have also said "let the sellers who make money pay for this app".
- Updates are very fast: its what's new page shows about 25 items in 2026-10 one month, with new sets added almost every week (30 anniversary, Riftbound, Chinese/Japanese/Korean editions), and community feedback gets a response the next day.
Differentiation
- Data scope: it uses only UK eBay sales (raw, graded and sealed tracked separately), priced in pounds. This is the root reason it took off: almost every Reddit recommendation boils down to "UK prices are the most accurate".
- Seller back office: comparable UK apps (Slabbed, SleeveUp) don't cover the layer of VAT, label printing, storefront pages and card show checklists. That's why it can charge £30, and it's the part eBay's Price Guide can't replace.
- AI / MCP data interface: rare among its peers, and for now more of an outward-facing talking point.
Why it broke through: "UK prices" is the reason it took off. But that moat is thinning: eBay offers the same data for free, and Slabbed, SleeveUp and COMPED are all copying the same story. Whether it holds depends on its seller tools and its community.
Visibility
It's circulating in small circles. It's fairly well known in the UK Pokémon scene (r/PokemonTCG_UK, UK card TikTok and IG, card shows), and several UK "best apps" guides list it (SleeveUp, Imperium Grading), and competitors have written dedicated comparison pages. But revenue isn't disclosed, there's no mainstream tech press coverage, the x-radar corpus has 0 X mentions, and outside the UK almost nobody knows it (Reddit users in Australia and New Zealand are asking for AUD).
Copycats
- Slabbed (slabbedapp.co.uk, iOS / Android): "UK-first prices in GBP", nearly the same positioning.
- SleeveUp (sleeveup.app): eBay UK prices plus a card shop directory, with a PulseTCG import.
- COMPED (comped.co.uk): UK AI pricing, with a "vs Pulse TCG" comparison page.
- Big player: eBay UK Price Guide (2026-09-01).
- Also: the Dutch card webshop pulsetcg.nl (TikTok @pulsetcg_) shares the name. It's probably a coincidence, not the same company.
What to borrow
- Single-country market data in the local-price blind spot of the big platforms: in collectibles categories dominated by US apps (trading cards, sports cards, figures, sneakers), local sold prices in Europe, Japan or Australia are often missing. The data comes from local eBay / Cardmarket / Mercari sales, priced in the local currency. Australian and New Zealand users on Reddit are already asking for it.
- Free for collectors, paid by sellers: casual users spread the app through the free tier, while sellers (who need VAT, inventory and labels) pay the higher prices.
- Micro-creators and card show distribution, one code per person: local accounts with a few hundred to ten thousand followers, each with a personal free-month code. Cost is close to zero, and codes make attribution trackable.
- Use price content as acquisition content: post daily "this set is up or down by X", and other creators naturally cite the data source when they make videos.
- Build an import to lower the switching cost for people leaving the market leader (Collectr).
Still unclear
- The "20k users a day" figure is self-reported and unverified; how users split across web, iOS and Android is unknown.
- Paying users and revenue: only chart positions are visible, and the ranks are low, so no order of magnitude can be estimated.
- The sources of the 10-04 and 10-08 single-day spikes of 1,100+ installs (creator videos? card shows? a Play listing push?) could not be pinned down.
- When the Play listing first went live is unclear (AppstoreSpy already shows 9-12 installs at 8,332, while a May Reddit post says "not on the stores", so there may have been a test track or a PWA wrapper in between). Not verified.
- The effect of eBay's Price Guide on its free tier after launch: Play installs kept climbing steadily at about 200 a day from September on, with no clear impact seen so far.
- The original Reddit post text couldn't be retrieved; all quotes come from search snippets.