If you already have your card collection stored in a file, you may upload it directly to Trade Cards Online. You only need to format the file in the way shown below. Then, you access on the site the list of cards you have or you want for a specific game and click on the link that appears at the bottom, in the 'Add card list from file' box.
You will get a form with the following fields:
- File: you should enter here the file to upload. Press the button and search and select on your computer the file with your cards.
- Collection: you may upload a file that only contains the cards you have or that only contains those you want. In these cases you should select 'Haves' or 'Wants'. But you can also upload files where you list both the cards you have and the cards you want. In this case you should select 'Both'.
- remove first the existing cards: select this option if you want to replace the cards already in your collections in Trade Cards Online with those in the file you are uploading. Be aware that the cards will be deleted even if errors occur that prevent the list in your file to be uploaded.
- ignore errors: if you select this option the cards in your file will be uploaded even if errors are detected in some of the records. We recommend not to check this option the first times you try to upload a file. This option allows for lines in the file with incorrect format, which will be simply ignored (although the corresponding errors will be shown nevertheless).
Once the file you provided gets processed you will see a page with the result obtained. If there were errors they will be listed with the line they occurred in and a description (only the first 20 errors will be shown). If no errors were detected (or if you chose the option to ignore them), the number of cards added to your lists will be shown.
The errors that may occur are the following:
- The name of the expansion set indicated for the card does not match any of the expansions included in the game. You must check the first field in the affected line and make sure it matches exactly with the name of one of the expansion sets in that game as the appear on the sets list for that game in the 'search for a card' section.
- The number of the card does not exist in the indicated expansion set. You must check the second field in the affected line and make sure that it is the number assigned to the card as it appears in the card list of the corresponding expansion set in the 'search for a card' section.
- The number and the name of the card do not match each other, i.e. the name corresponding to the card with that number is not the same than the one in your file. You must check that the third field in the affected line contains the name of the card as it appears in the card list of the corresponding expansion set in the 'search for a card' section for the corresponding number.
- The name indicated for the card does not match any of the cards included in the indicated expansion set. You must check that the third field in the affected line contains the name of a card as it appears in the card list of the corresponding expansion set in the 'search for a card' section.
- The indicated amount is not a number. You must check that the fourth field in the affected line contains a number (positive for cards you have, and negative, that is, with an initial negative sign, for cards you want), or a couple of numbers separated by a slash ("/").
- The value indicated for the foil property is not valid. You must check that the fifth field in the affected line contains one of the possible values for that property: 'foil', '1', or 'yes' (without the quotes), to signify that the card is foil, or '0', 'no', or nothing, to show that the card is not foil.
- The value indicated for the language of the card is not valid. You must check that the sixth field in the affected line contains one of the possible values for the language: 'English', 'Spanish', 'German', 'French', 'Italian', 'Portuguese', 'Polish', 'Japanese', 'Chinese', 'Korean', or 'Other' (without the quotes).
Format of the files to upload
The file to be uploaded must have a very specific format so that it can be processed without problems. It must be a text file in which each line contains the data for an element of the collection. You can see examples of correctly formatted lines here.
The data for each element are to be separated by tabs (the character you get by pressing the 'Tab' key of your computer keyboard) and should not be delimited by quotes. Most spreadsheet and database programs let you export their contents to text files delimited by tabs. You can also use a text editor to adapt your list to our format.
The data for each card have to be the following, and in the indicated order:
- 1) Expansion set: name or abbreviation of the expansion set in which the card belongs.
- 2) Number: number of the card in its expansion set. It must be exactly the number that corresponds to the card in our listings. You may leave this field empty if you don't know the exact value for each card, and if you provide its exact name (see next field).
- 3) Name: name of the card as it appears on this web site. It must exactly match to allow the system to identify the card without ambiguity. It may differ in the use of uppercase letters and accents. You may leave this blank if you provide the number of the card (see previous field).
- 4) Amount: number of identical copies of the card that you have or want. In the first case it must be a positive number, in the second case you must use a negative value. For the cards you have you may indicate both the number of them you are offering for trade and those you are keeping in your collection. You need to separate them with a slash, being the first figure the number of cards you are trading, and the second figure the number of them you have in your collection. For example:
- 2/1 means that you offer two copies of the card and you keep one for your private collection
- 2 means that you offer both copies that you have for trade
- /1 or 0/1 means that you don't offer any copies of the card but you have one copy in your private collection
- 5) Foil: in this field you must indicate if the copies of the card are normal or foil (shiny version). If they are not foil you may leave the field empty, or enter 'no' or '0' (without the quotes). If they are foil you have to indicate 'yes', '1', or 'foil' (without the quotes).
- 6) Language: language for that version of the card. The accepted values are:
- English
- Spanish
- German
- French
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Polish
- Japanese
- Chinese
- Korean
- Other
- 7) Comments: any comments you want to include with that card in your lists at Trade Cards Online.
Examples of correct lines in the files to upload
The following are lines that are formatted correctly to be uploaded to Trade Cards Online. Real values have been chosen for some of the existing games. You must replace the arrows (->) with tabs:
For the game 'Lord of the Rings':
The Two Towers ->29 ->No Refuge ->1 ->no ->English ->
This line indicates that you offer for trade 1 copy of the card 'No refuge', which is number '29' in the expansion set 'The Two Towers', and that this copy is in English and it is not foil.
For the game 'Magic the Gathering':
Legions ->129 ->Hundroog ->0/3 -> ->English ->For sale
Scourge ->91 ->Enrage ->-1 ->yes ->English ->
The first line indicates that you don't offer any for trade, but that you have 3 copies in your collection of the card 'Hundroog', which is number '129' in the expansion set 'Legions', and that these 3 copies are in English and are not foil. It also includes a comment ('For sale') which will show in your lists next to the card.
The second line means that you want (because the amount value is negative) 1 copy of the card 'Enrage', which is number '91' in the expansion set 'Scourge', and that you want the card in English and foil.
For the game 'Yu-Gi-Oh!':
New Ruler (Japanese) ->23 ->Viper Pod ->2/1 -> 0->English ->
Cyberdark Impact ->CDI-EN060 ->Black Horn of Heaven ->-1 -> 0->English ->
The first line means that you offer 2 copies for trade and keep 1 copy for you of the card 'Viper Pod' which is number '23' in the expansion set 'New Ruler (Japanese)', and that the copies are in English.
The second line means that you want (because the amount value is negative) 1 copy of the card 'Black Horn of Heaven' which is number 'CDI-EN060' in the expansion set 'Cyberdark Impact', and that you want the copy in English.
