Photocard Prices Explained: What KCC’s Low, Mid, and High Really Mean
Learn how KCC calculates photocard Low, Mid, and High prices from accepted sold listings, including medians, quartiles, small samples, and outliers.
By KCC Team
This guide explains the logic. See real price ranges and market behavior metrics inside the Price Guide.
Mid is the median accepted sale price
KCC shows three prices for a verified photocard: Low, Mid, and High. Those labels describe the spread of accepted sold-listing evidence. They are not condition grades, recommended asking prices, or names for a fast sale, normal sale, and premium sale.
The easiest way to read them is to open the card page and ask two questions: how many accepted sales support this range, and how spread out are those sales?
KCC’s Mid is the median of the accepted, non-outlier sale prices. Put the prices in order and the median is the middle result. If the evidence set has an even number of sales, it falls between the two middle results.
The median is useful because one unusually high or low transaction has less power over it than it would have over a simple average. It still does not promise the price of the next sale. It shows the center of the evidence KCC currently accepts for that exact card.
Low and High change with the evidence count
When a card has at least six accepted sales, KCC uses quartiles. Low is the first quartile, or Q1, and High is the third quartile, or Q3. That focuses the displayed range on the middle half of the accepted price distribution.
When a card has fewer than six accepted sales, quartiles would suggest more precision than the small sample can support. KCC therefore uses the observed minimum as Low and the observed maximum as High. Mid remains the median.
That threshold matters. A three-sale range is showing every accepted price from the lowest to the highest. A twelve-sale range can leave ordinary accepted sales below Q1 or above Q3 while still describing the central part of the market.
A real three-sale example
KCC’s Hanni Get Up Broadcast card currently shows three accepted eBay sales: $86.70, $162.84, and $172.89.
Hanni - Get Up Broadcast photocard
NewJeans HANNI Broadcast Official PC Photocard kpop Limited Tradingcard Mint
NewJeans HANNI Get Up Sanok Broadcast Official Limited Photocard PC New Jeans FS
NewJeans HANNI Get Up Sanok Broadcast Official Limited Photocard PC New Jeans
Because there are fewer than six accepted sales, Low is the minimum, $86.70. Mid is the median, $162.84. High is the maximum, $172.89.
The gap between the first and second sale is large. The correct reading is not that every clean copy should sell near $163. It is that the accepted evidence is thin and widely spread, so the individual listings deserve a close look before you use the range for a purchase.
Accepted evidence comes before the formula
The calculation is only as useful as the listings that enter it. KCC tries to match sold listings to a structured card record using the artist, member, era or release, and card type. Special cards often need an exact retailer, event, round, or version.
A listing can be completed and still be a bad match. It can contain a bundle, a different member, the wrong store benefit, an unofficial replica, severe damage, or an unclear private offer. KCC’s public card page shows the accepted sold listings so collectors can inspect the titles, prices, sources, and dates instead of trusting three numbers without context.
Reviewed outliers stay visible
KCC checks accepted matches for prices that sit far outside the normal pattern. A reviewed outlier is excluded from the Low, Mid, and High calculation so one extreme result does not distort the displayed range.
That sale is not erased. It can remain visible as excluded evidence because the result still matters during review. Sometimes an extreme price reflects a bundle, damage, the wrong edition, shipping confusion, or a weak match. Sometimes it points to a real version difference that needs better card identification.
The Bang Chan HOP Lucky Draw record, card ID pg-stray-kids-hop-lucky-draw-bang-chan, is a useful example. Its published guide range is supported by higher accepted sales, while a reviewed $23.40 result is shown separately as excluded from the range. That low transaction should not silently become the new going rate, but it is still worth examining.
Bang Chan - HIPTAPE HOP Lucky Draw photocard
Stray Kids Bang Chan 合 (HOP) Soundwave Lucky Draw Official Photocard Photo Card
Confidence measures evidence strength
The Confidence label and score tell you how strongly KCC’s current evidence supports the range. Confidence can reflect the number of accepted sales, match quality, consistency, and outlier behavior. It does not measure how valuable, rare, authentic, or desirable the card is.
A $5 album card can have strong evidence. A $160 broadcast card can have a thin, uncertain market. Always read the accepted sale count beside the confidence signal instead of translating HIGH into “safe price.”
Liquidity measures market activity
Liquidity describes how active the market looks for the card. A liquid card has more observable trading activity. A low-liquidity card appears or sells less often.
Liquidity and price answer different questions. A cheap comeback album card can be liquid because many copies change hands. An expensive broadcast or event card can have low liquidity because very few copies appear. Low liquidity can produce long gaps between sales and makes one old result less useful as a current buying anchor.
Condition and shipping still matter
KCC’s range comes from marketplace evidence, and marketplace evidence is messy. A low sale can involve dents, scratches, whitening, print lines, or a seller who needed a quick sale. A high total can include international shipping or reflect a different platform’s fees and buyer protection.
Do not turn those possibilities into automatic explanations. Open the source listing and confirm what is actually disclosed. Compare item price and delivered total consistently. KCC’s Low, Mid, and High are not condition grades, so a damaged copy does not automatically “belong at Low,” and a clean copy does not automatically justify High.
The practical reading order
Start with the exact card identity. Read Low, Mid, and High. Check the accepted sale count to learn whether the range uses quartiles or min/max. Read Confidence and Liquidity as separate signals. Inspect the sold listings and any excluded outliers. Then compare the copy in front of you for condition, shipping, date, and exact version.
The range is a compact summary. The evidence underneath tells you how much weight to give it.
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