Spreadsheet vs Cardinal
Almost every card vendor starts in a spreadsheet, and for a while it works. The question is when the admin stops being cheap — and what you're giving up in the meantime.
Written by Ben and Tom, Cardinal
Where a spreadsheet is genuinely fine
If you hold a few dozen cards, sell occasionally and remember what everything cost, a spreadsheet is the right tool. It's free, it's flexible, and nothing beats it for a small, slow-moving list.
It stops being fine at the point where repricing takes an evening, two people need the same file, or you can't answer 'what is my stock worth today?' without a guess.
Side by side
The three costs people underestimate
Stale prices
A price typed in months ago quietly becomes the price you sell at. In a market that moves weekly, that's margin leaking in both directions.
Unrecorded cost basis
Without knowing what each card cost, every margin and ROI number you produce afterwards is an estimate dressed up as a fact.
Your evenings
The admin doesn't show up as an expense anywhere, which is exactly why it grows unchecked.
What stays the same
You keep control of your own numbers. Your buy, trade and sale percentages are yours to set, your data exports, and nothing prices a card without showing you where the value came from.
Cardinal was built by two vendors who ran their business on spreadsheets first, and it's shaped by the specific things that broke.
Try it before you move anything
The demo is a full sandbox of the real app with sample stock. Price a card, build a trade and take a payment without signing up.
Keep reading
Make better deals with your own stock.
Know what you own, what it's worth and what you're making on it.