Getting Started with TCGAPIs: Your First API Request in 5 Minutes

What is TCGAPIs?

New to TCG APIs? Read our TCGPlayer API alternatives guide to understand why developers choose TCGAPIs.

TCGAPIs provides RESTful APIs for accessing trading card game market data. Whether you're building a price tracker, an inventory management tool, or a market analytics dashboard, our API gives you the data you need.

With TCGAPIs you get access to:

Real-time pricing for cards across 80+ TCGs
Live marketplace listings with current seller data
Historical sales data for trend analysis
SKU-level pricing broken down by card condition
Expansion and card catalog data for all supported games

Let's get you set up.

Step 1: Create Your Account

Head to tcgapis.com/signup and create your account. You'll need:

A valid email address
A password (8+ characters)

After signing up, check your email for a verification link. Click it to activate your account.

Step 2: Get Your API Key

Once your email is verified:

Log in to your dashboard
Your API key will be displayed in the dashboard
Copy it — you'll need it for all API requests

Your API key is a UUID that looks like this: a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890

Important: Keep your API key secret. Don't commit it to public repositories or share it in client-side code.

Step 3: Make Your First Request

Let's fetch the list of supported games. This is the simplest endpoint and doesn't require any parameters:

curl -X GET "https://api.tcgapis.com/api/v1/games" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

You should get a response listing all 80+ supported trading card games with their category IDs.

JavaScript Example

const API_KEY = process.env.TCGAPIS_KEY;
const BASE_URL = 'https://api.tcgapis.com/api/v1';
 
async function getGames() {
  const response = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/games`, {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${API_KEY}`
    }
  });
 
  if (!response.ok) {
    throw new Error(`API error: ${response.status}`);
  }
 
  return response.json();
}
 
const games = await getGames();
console.log(`Found ${games.length} supported games`);

Python Example

import os
import requests
 
API_KEY = os.environ["TCGAPIS_KEY"]
BASE_URL = "https://api.tcgapis.com/api/v1"
 
def get_games():
    response = requests.get(
        f"{BASE_URL}/games",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
    )
    response.raise_for_status()
    return response.json()
 
games = get_games()
print(f"Found {len(games)} supported games")

Step 4: Explore the Data Hierarchy

TCGAPIs organizes data in a logical hierarchy:

Games → Expansions → Cards → Prices/Listings

Get Expansions for a Game

Once you have a game's category ID, fetch its expansions:

// Get all Pokemon expansions
const expansions = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/expansions/3`, {
  headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${API_KEY}` }
}).then(r => r.json());
 
console.log(`Pokemon has ${expansions.length} expansions`);

Get Cards in an Expansion

With a group ID from the expansions response, fetch the cards:

// Get cards from a specific expansion
const cards = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/cards/12345`, {
  headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${API_KEY}` }
}).then(r => r.json());
 
cards.forEach(card => {
  console.log(`${card.name} - Product ID: ${card.productId}`);
});

Get Prices for a Card

Finally, get current pricing data:

// Get price data for a specific card
const prices = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/prices/67890`, {
  headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${API_KEY}` }
}).then(r => r.json());
 
console.log(`Market Price: $${prices.marketPrice}`);
console.log(`Low Price: $${prices.lowPrice}`);

Available Endpoints

Here's a complete overview of the API endpoints:

Endpoint	Description	Use Case
`GET /games`	List all supported games	Game selection UI
`GET /expansions/:categoryId`	Expansions for a game	Set browsers, filters
`GET /cards/:groupId`	Cards in an expansion	Card listings, search
`GET /prices/:productId`	Current price data	Price displays
`GET /skuprices/:skuId`	Condition-level pricing for one SKU	Detailed pricing tables
`GET /skuprices/product/:productId`	Every SKU's pricing for a card in one call	Bulk condition pricing
`GET /livelistings/:productId`	Active marketplace listings	Listing comparisons
`GET /sales-history`	Historical sales data	Charts, trend analysis

Rate Limits

Your rate limit depends on your plan:

Hobby (£99/mo): 10,000 requests per month
Business (£199/mo): 50,000 requests per month
Unlimited (£499/mo): Unlimited requests

Rate limit headers are included in every response:

X-RateLimit-Limit: 10000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 9987
X-RateLimit-Reset: 2025-02-01T00:00:00Z

Best Practices

Cache Responses

Price data doesn't change every second. Cache responses for at least 5-15 minutes to reduce API calls:

const cache = new Map();
const CACHE_TTL = 10 * 60 * 1000; // 10 minutes
 
async function getCachedPrices(productId) {
  const key = `prices:${productId}`;
  const cached = cache.get(key);
 
  if (cached && Date.now() - cached.time < CACHE_TTL) {
    return cached.data;
  }
 
  const data = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/prices/${productId}`, {
    headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${API_KEY}` }
  }).then(r => r.json());
 
  cache.set(key, { data, time: Date.now() });
  return data;
}

Handle Errors Gracefully

Always check response status codes:

async function safeApiCall(endpoint) {
  const response = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}${endpoint}`, {
    headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${API_KEY}` }
  });
 
  if (response.status === 429) {
    console.log('Rate limited. Try again later.');
    return null;
  }
 
  if (!response.ok) {
    throw new Error(`API error: ${response.status}`);
  }
 
  return response.json();
}

Use Environment Variables

Never hardcode your API key:

# .env
TCGAPIS_KEY=your-api-key-here

// Load from environment
const API_KEY = process.env.TCGAPIS_KEY;

What's Next?

Now that you're set up, here are some ideas for what to build:

Price tracker — Monitor specific cards and get alerts on price changes
Collection manager — Track your card collection's total value
Market dashboard — Visualize price trends across different TCGs
Inventory tool — Help your card shop manage pricing and stock

Build a Pokemon card price tracker, analyze MTG market trends, or automate your card shop inventory.

Card Recognition