Manatraders vs. Cardhoarder: Which Is Better?

Parallel Lives | Illustration by Greg Staples

Greetings planeswalkers! Today’s article will be a head-to-head battle between the two major Magic the Gathering: Online rental services, Manatraders and Cardhoarder. I’ll be going over their subscription plans, how buying and selling tickets works, other site features, and more. Then, we’ll have a Supreme Verdict as to which site I’d recommend for your usage.

Before we begin, it’s worth disclosing that Draftsim was provided a Manatraders Gold subscription to test the service. I used this subscription to test drive the service in our Manatraders review article, where I concluded that Manatraders was a great service. I have now signed up for Cardhoarder as well, but have done so with a small amount of my own money ($6.25) to test their rental service. Transparency is always good when it comes to reviewing products!

What Are Manatraders and Cardhoarder?

Ticketomaton | Illustration by Michael Phillippi

Manatraders and Cardhoarder are the two primary options for renting cards on Magic Online. Both sites offer paid rental services where you can rent cards from their bots for a fee. They are also both in the market for buying and selling Event Tickets, and offer similar rates for both. I covered Manatraders extensively in the previous article, but let’s recap briefly how it works before moving on to Cardhoarder.

Manatraders Services

Subscriptions

Manatraders offers the following plans to its customers, each of which is tailored to fit different needs:

• Base: $15.95 per month for a rental capacity of 150 tix.
• Premium: $39.95 per month for a rental capacity of 400 tix.
• Gold: $64.95 per month for a rental capacity of 850 tix.
• Ultimate: $109.95 per month for a rental capacity of 1250 tix (Ultimate also increases the number of cards you may rent at once from 100 to 150; other plans are all 100).

Note that you can get a 25% discount after your third month of subscription by using the code Draftsim when purchasing a subscription plan.

Image Source: MTGGoldfish.com

I recommend the Premium subscription for most users, as 400 tix covers all Standard/Pioneer decks, and falls just short of the most expensive Modern/Legacy decks. The price examples from MTGGoldfish above show you how the 400 tix might compare to the top-tier decks in a format like Modern.

Loyalty Program

As you pay monthly subscriptions to Manatraders, you will accrue strong discounts towards future rentals. You can see how the numbers for this work above, with improvements beginning on the third month and then slowly increasing from there at specific milestones. Of particular interest to long term grinders will be the “Sell Tickets @ .95” option, which is a rate you’ll find nowhere else.

Buying/Selling Tickets

Buying and selling tickets with Manatraders is quite simple, and done through their website. You input the proper information, then either pay them or hand over the tickets to a bot, after which you’ll receive your cash or Event Tickets. Note the listed rates for buying/selling tickets ($93 for 100 Event Tickets, and $0.65 to $0.80 received for selling them, based off membership), as we’ll be comparing those to Cardhoarder.

Other Features

Manatraders has an excellent website overall with a handy deckbuilder function, and also encourages you to rip successful decks right from MTGO Leagues to be rented right away. Both of these tools are a grinder’s best friend, and were relevant to why I gave the service a solid recommendation to begin with. It doesn’t get easier than just clicking “Rent” on a top tier Standard deck!

How Signing Up/Using It Works

First, you’ll need to make an account on the Manatraders website. Once you’ve done that, you can then choose a plan from the above to begin renting. Just keep in mind you’ll have to verify your identity and provide payment information to begin (I had to use my driver’s license to begin renting). The site verified everything within about an hour as well.

Cardhoarders Services

While Cardhoarder is another rental service just like Manatraders, there are a couple of differences in how it handles the process overall.

Approval Only

The most significant difference between Cardhoarder and Manatraders is that Cardhoarder pre-approves all of its customers. Cardhoarder requires you to verify that you are an MTGO player in good standing with appropriate funds before you can sign up. This is a notable contrast to how simple signing up for Manatraders is with their basic verification process.

Subscriptions

If you’re ready to try and get approved by Cardhoarder, you’d start on their loan program page and choose one of the options above. You’ll have to set your own rental limit for whichever you choose, so keep in mind what deck/format you're aiming to play first. Here are some basic recommendations per format:

• Standard/Pioneer: 100-250 tix should cover most decks.
• Pauper: 30-80 tix should cover most decks.
• Modern: 250-450 tix should cover most decks.
• Legacy: 350-500 tix should cover most decks.
• Vintage: 375-550 tix should cover most decks (Vintage is surprisingly cheap on MTGO).

Affinity Club

As with Manatraders, Cardhoarder has its own loyalty program which can be seen above. The discounts here are simpler and faster to acquire, but also won’t include things like 0.95 ticket sales or improved rental capacity.

Some Comparative Math

We’ll need to do some extra math to figure out how efficient Cardhoarder is relative to Manatraders. Let’s say you set out to rent 150 tickets from Cardhoarder for 4 weeks. We’ll be ignoring the “affinity club” bonus above, as that won’t be active until Week 13+. Your fees will be:

0.025 (base rate) * 150 (rental max) * 4 (# of weeks) = $15 a month

This ends up being $0.95 cheaper than the Manatraders Base plan. Now another example, this time with a higher rental limit of 400 tickets (once again set to 4 weeks with no bonuses):

0.025 (base rate) * 400 (rental max) * 4 (# of weeks) = $40 a month

This ends up being $0.05 more expensive than the Manatraders Premium plan. You can see how remarkably close the rates are so far, so we’ll do one last example modeled off of Manatraders’ Gold plan ($64.95 per month for 850 tix rental limit):

0.025 (base rate) * 850 (rental max) * 4 (# of weeks)  = $85 a month

This final plan ends up being $20.05 more expensive than the Manatraders Gold plan. That’s quite significant, and shows that Cardhoarder is definitely a worse fit if you intend to rent extremely expensive cards. However, even the most expensive Legacy decks I saw online capped at around 550 tix, so a rental limit of 850 tix implies an interest in renting multiple expensive decks at once.

Buying/Selling Tickets

One nice perk to Cardhoarder is that you don’t need to be approved for loans to sell Tickets to them. Their rate is also currently set at $0.79, which is superior to what Manatraders offers to anyone that isn’t subscribed. If you already have a Manatraders account though, you’re getting slightly better rates there (0.80 base), plus working your way towards relevant loyalty bonuses down the line.

However, Cardhoarder is an outright terrible choice to buy Event Tickets from. Even with my loan-approved account, the rate here is inferior to simply buying Tickets directly from WotC in-client, so don’t bother.

Other Features

Cardhoarder has two neat features you can make use of outside of renting/selling Tickets; a deck builder and a card binder function. The card binder is especially handy for managing an extensive online collection, as you can upload .DEK files and track your prices/cards online.

Their deck builder is also solid and works similar to the one from Manatraders, though it lacks the convenience of being able to immediately view and rent 5-0 League decks from a single tab.

How Signing Up/Using It Works

You'll need to first get approved by Cardhoarder before you can begin renting. I was rejected the first time I applied, then approved afterwards. This involved a bit of an email chain where I had to provide some extra information to a (polite and responsive) staff member, as well as digitally signing an online lease. If that seems like a lot for renting digital pieces of cardboard, you’re not alone.

Once you’re approved, you’ll then need to send some amount of tickets to one of their bots as collateral. You can then begin renting, which is best done via the deck builder on their website. Simply import or type up the cards/deck you want, then click “Rent” and one of their bots will ping you for the trade.

Which Site Is Better Value?

I mathed this out above some, but to recap:

• Cardhoarder is more efficient than Manatraders for renting smaller amounts of tickets, though even at just 150 tix you’re only saving about $1.
• Both sites' loyalty programs are fairly similar, with Cardhoarder offering better short-term discounts and Manatraders offering a larger variety of bonuses long-term.
• Cardhoarder is better to sell tickets to if you aren’t actively subscribed to Manatraders, but offers no benefits on this front to those who have signed up.
• Manatraders can save you money on purchases of 100+ Event Tickets, as you’ll be paying 0.93 per 100 with them. Cardhoarder charges above MTGO rate, so there’s no point in buying Event Tickets on-site.

The Verdict: Which Site Is Better?

I imagine that most users will have a better experience with Manatraders, and as such I am recommending it over Cardhoarder. Most of Cardhoarder’s advantages feel fairly minor, and the program generally requires some extra legwork via its lengthier sign-up process and custom rental limits. Cardhoarder’s greatest perk over Manatraders is its superior efficiency for lower cost decks, especially if you don’t plan on sticking with the service for years. If that appeals to you, you may as well try to get approved immediately, as you wouldn’t want to be waiting on email chains the day before your MTGO tournament!

For my purposes though, I’ll be sticking with Manatraders for my rental needs.

Wrap Up

Gold Rush | Illustration by Eric Wilkerson

And that’s my breakdown of Manatraders and Cardhoarder! Both sites offer their own advantages, though how much those perks mean to you and your specific goals will impact your overall experience. I’m definitely in favor of Manatraders, but you may find that Cardhoarder is more your style, especially if you run lower cost decks or don’t plan to stick with a rental service long-term.

Which service do you prefer: Manatraders or Cardhoarder? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

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