How to spot a pressed Bronze Age key.
The specific tells before you pay restored-book money — cover-gloss inconsistency, page-spine compression, color rebalancing, micro-tape residue.
Format in developmentWantlist match alerts surface listings the moment they post. In the model, items over $500 route through our Dallas inspection facility before they reach you. The platform is designed around how serious collectors actually buy — passive, patient, deeply researched.
Your wantlist
Illustrative preview
Amazing Spider-Man #129
CGC 9.0–9.6 · Marvel 1974
Charizard 1st Edition Base Set
PSA 9 · 1999 · Holo
Giant-Size X-Men #1
CGC 9.4–9.8 · Marvel 1975
Black Lotus, Beta
MTG · BGS 8.5+ · 1993
Inspection on higher-value ordersItems over $500 route through the Dallas facility — chain-of-custody photography, optional on any item.
Inspection-on-receipt windowThe model: 5–10 days by tier to inspect before settlement clears.
Disputes adjudicated on evidenceTrained mediators; outcomes follow the evidence, not fee incentives.
Planned stolen-property registryRouted items would be cross-checked; provenance fingerprints travel with the item.
Most marketplaces have “saved searches” — string-match queries that ping you with notification spam. The wantlist is structured: grade tolerance, condition notes, price ceiling, and language preference. It’s designed to fire only when a listing genuinely matches what you specified.
The wantlist is built for the run-builder — collectors completing specific issue runs over years, who want to hear only when a copy at the right grade and price appears. Notification fatigue is the failure mode it’s designed against.
A wantlist entry can specify a grade range, restoration acceptance, and a price ceiling — not just a name. The alert is designed to fire only when a listing matches what you set: not a grade above your ceiling, not one below your floor, not a restored copy when you asked for unrestored.
When a listing matches your wantlist, the alert fires immediately — on your dashboard and in your notifications. Time-to-purchase matters on rare items, so matches aren’t batched into a daily digest that arrives after the listing has sold.
Comics, Pokémon, Magic — and more as we add them — all in one wantlist. You’re not maintaining separate watchlists across separate apps. If you collect across categories, the wantlist captures all of it.
A wantlist entry can be flagged trade-eligible. Sellers see the interest signal and can propose trades from their inventory — so the wantlist is also a discovery channel for incoming trade proposals, not only a buy alert.
Beyond the wantlist, the editorial program — Authentication Files, Discovery Files, Reference Profiles, State of the Hobby — is how you find things you didn’t know you wanted. It’s research that happens to make you better at collecting. The program is rolling out by format; first files preview below.
Editorial operates separately from commerce — editorial can’t pitch listings, and commerce can’t edit editorial. The firewall is constitutional.
The specific tells before you pay restored-book money — cover-gloss inconsistency, page-spine compression, color rebalancing, micro-tape residue.
Format in developmentThe authentication points — wreath thickness, holo angle, font weight on the energy symbol, copyright-date positioning, paper feel.
A planned annual report drawing on SlapSwap’s own multi-vertical pricing data across the verticals we cover.
Format in developmentWhen the cart ships, a run-builder pulling several issues from one seller checks out as one transaction. The platform handles routing: $500+ items route through Dallas for inspection, sub-$500 items ship direct. One cart, one checkout, one history entry — that’s the model.
A cart that can’t cleanly hold several issues from one seller is the specific failure that drives run-builders off other marketplaces. This is the answer to it.
Cart · 4 items from 2 sellers
Illustrative · how checkout will workAmazing Spider-Man #129
CGC 9.4 · Marvel · 1974 · Unrestored
Incredible Hulk #181
CGC 9.2 · Marvel · 1974 · Unrestored
Charizard ex — Special Illustration Rare
PSA 10 · Pokémon · 151 set
Giant-Size X-Men #1
Raw VF/NM · Marvel · 1975 · Unrestored
Subtotal $13,445 · Inspection $40 (items over $500) · processing 2.9% + $0.30
Total $13,876.30
Illustrative. The cross-seller cart and checkout are in development; processing passes through to the buyer at checkout in the model.
Most marketplaces have “buyer protection” as a single vague promise. SlapSwap’s model has four distinct protections, each with operational mechanics behind it.
The protections are designed against specific dispute categories — the decision tree routes each dispute to the right path with the right evidence requirements.
In the model, items at $2,500 or above (and trades at $1,000 or above) route through the Dallas inspection facility before reaching you — SlapSwap performs a Listing Verified inspection, confirming that the physical item matches the listing’s title, attributes, photos, grade, and cert number. We verify; we don’t authenticate — authenticity is the grader’s claim, not ours.
Each inspection’s start and completion timestamps are recorded; turnaround windows aren’t published until the SLA schedule is committed.
The settlement model: after the item is delivered, a hold window begins in which you examine the item and can file a dispute if it doesn’t match what you bought. Settlement to the seller doesn’t clear until the window closes without a dispute, or the dispute is resolved.
For items that ship direct from the seller (below the inspection routing tier), the hold still applies — funds aren’t released the moment you sign for delivery.
Disputes are designed to be adjudicated by trained mediators with vertical-specific expertise. On inspection-routed items, inspection photographs and chain-of-custody records enter as primary evidence. Outcomes follow the evidence, not the platform’s fee incentives — and sellers can be ruled in favor of when the evidence supports them.
The outcome ladder is part of the dispute model, not a single yes/no.
A planned 501(c)(3) registry. Routed items would be cross-checked against registered stolen-property reports; a match would halt the transaction. Provenance fingerprints are designed to travel with items across ownership transfers.
The registry is intended to extend beyond the platform through grading-service, auction-house, and dealer integrations.
Create your account and seed your wantlist with a few items. When a listing matches what you specified, you’ll know — across every vertical you collect.