Disclaimer: This post reflects my personal experiences and opinions on using Fanatics Collect. I am not affiliated with or sponsored by Fanatics Collect, and this is not financial advice. Always do your own research before using any sports card marketplace.
Powered by of the biggest names in the sports card industry, I decided to test out Fanatics Collect.
To start, I made a low-cost purchase to explore how the buying and vaulting process worked. Now that I’ve completed my first transaction, here’s my breakdown of the experience.
Buying a Card on Fanatics Collect
Since this was my first purchase, I wanted to start small. I ended up buying a 1998 Topps Dirk Nowitzki Rookie PSA 7 for $11. While Nowitzki isn’t the most sought-after player among collectors, he’s still one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and at that price, it was a solid pickup.
Ease of Use: One of the Best Buying Experiences
Fanatics Collect has one of the cleanest and easiest-to-navigate platforms. The UI/UX feels smooth, and searching for cards is seamless—definitely a strong positive compared to other marketplaces I’ve tested.
The checkout process was also very simple, but one drawback is that Fanatics Collect charges a 2.9% credit card fee. To avoid this, I opted to pay via my bank account (ACH) instead.
The Biggest Issue: Slow Payment Processing
After I made my purchase on February 12th, I expected the card to show up in my vault quickly. However, because I paid via bank transfer, the payment didn’t process until February 20th—an eight-day delay before the card was available in my account.
This isn’t a huge issue if you’re buying for long-term holding, but if you’re planning to flip cards quickly, this processing time could be frustrating.
Managing Cards in the Fanatics Vault
Once my payment was processed, the card showed up in my Fanatics Vault with no extra steps required. Because I bought directly from Fanatics Collect, there was no need to manually request vaulting—the card was simply available in my inventory, ready to be held, sold, or listed.
This effortless vaulting process is a major plus. In the future, I may also test sending an eBay purchase to the Fanatics Vault.
What About Selling?
I haven’t listed or sold anything on Fanatics Collect yet, so I can’t judge the full selling process. That will be something I test in the future.
However, one thing I don’t like is that Fanatics Collect auctions come with a 20% buyer’s premium. While much of this fee goes to the seller, it can make auction purchases seem significantly more expensive than eBay.
Because of this high buyer’s premium, I would only consider bidding in Fanatics Collect auctions if I see final prices landing lower than eBay sales to compensate for the extra cost. Otherwise, I’d likely stick to fixed-price listings and use the vaulting service instead.
Early Thoughts: Is Fanatics Collect Worth Using?
So far, my first impression of Fanatics Collect is positive, with some key takeaways:
✔ Best user interface among all sports card marketplaces
✔ Easy buying experience with smooth navigation and checkout
✔ Great selection, especially for higher-end cards
✔ Vaulting is seamless when purchasing directly from Fanatics Collect
✖ 2.9% credit card fee is annoying, making ACH a better option
✖ However, slow payment processing for ACH purchases (8-day delay in my case)
✖ 20% buyer’s premium on auctions is extremely high
I don’t know yet if this will be my go-to platform, but it’s definitely worth checking out—especially if you’re into higher-end cards. Whether I continue using it long-term depends on how selling works and how the Fanatics Vault compares to other vault services like PSA Vault (which I’m also testing).
What’s Next?
For now, I plan to hold my Nowitzki rookie in my vault, but I definitely want to test the selling process on Fanatics Collect soon.
In a future post, I’ll cover:
➡ How selling works on Fanatics Collect
➡ Whether shipping cards to their vault is easy
➡ How it compares to other vault services
10K Card Journey 
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