Frequently asked questions

ArkEx is a peer-to-peer Pokémon card trading platform for collectors in the UK. You build a digital vault of cards you're offering for trade and cards you want, and ArkEx automatically finds other members whose offerings match your wants — and vice versa. When a mutual match is found, you can propose a trade directly with that person.

ArkEx is currently open to collectors based in the UK. New accounts go through a brief approval process — once approved, you're placed on a short probation period while you build up your trading history, then promoted to full active status.

ArkEx charges a small service fee to help cover the costs of running and maintaining the platform. The fee is calculated based on the rarity of the cards involved in your trade — rarer cards carry a slightly higher fee.

Of everything collected, 10% is donated to The Sick Children's Trust, a cause we're proud to support. The remainder goes directly towards keeping ArkEx running, improving the platform, and expanding to new collectors.

Some trades are also subject to an escrow fee. This covers the cost of processing and onward postage when cards are routed through ArkEx escrow rather than sent directly between traders. Escrow is required in two situations:

• Your account is new or has a low trust score
• Any single card in the trade has a value exceeding £99

Beyond these fees, the only other cost is any postage you and your trade partner agree to cover between you.

ArkEx is a new platform and is still in beta. During this early phase we manually review every new account before it goes live — this lets us keep a close eye on the community as it grows and make sure everything is working as it should.

You'll receive an email as soon as your account is approved. Once live, you'll start on Probation status, which comes with a small trade limit while you build up your reputation with the community.

Your vault is your personal card library. For each card you mark whether you're OFFERED (available to trade away) or WANT (looking to receive in a trade). You can mark both at once if you'd trade a duplicate of a card you already own.

ArkEx compares your WANT list against every other member's OFFERED list, and your OFFERED list against every other member's WANT list. A match means another trader has at least one card you want AND wants at least one card you're offering — a genuine two-way opportunity. Matches are shown on your Matches page, ranked by how many cards overlap.

Go to My Vault (the first item in the nav). Browse or search the card catalogue, then toggle each card to OFFERED or WANT. Changes are saved instantly. You can also browse by set or search by card name.

We intentionally hide card prices within the trading experience. Although ArkEx uses live market data behind the scenes to weight each card and help ensure trades are fair, we don't want the platform to feel like a marketplace driven by money.

Our goal is to get back to the good old days of trading — swapping cards you love for cards you've always wanted, based on what matters to you as a collector, not what a price guide says.

You can start a trade from two places:

Matches page — open a match to see the cards that overlap between you and that trader. This is the quickest way to find the right person to trade with.

Trades page — from here you can also initiate a new proposal directly if you already know who you want to trade with.

In both cases, select which cards you want to offer (from your OFFERED list) and which you want to request, add an optional message, and send the proposal. The other trader will be notified by email and in-app.

Yes. If you receive a trade proposal you're not happy with as-is, you can decline it with a counter-offer — proposing a different set of cards. The original sender will see your counter and can accept, decline, or counter again.

Once both sides agree, the trade enters the delivery phase. Each person packages up their cards and posts them to the other (or arranges a trusted venue drop-off). You then mark Shipped within ArkEx. When both parties confirm they've received their cards, the trade is marked Complete and trust points are updated.

ArkEx supports two delivery methods:

Direct postage — you and your trade partner post the cards directly to each other using tracked or signed-for mail. Royal Mail Signed For or Special Delivery are recommended for higher-value cards.

Trusted venue — both parties drop off their cards at an approved card shop or venue. An escrow address is provided and the venue holds the cards until both sides have deposited.

Trusted venues are physical locations (typically card shops or community game stores) that ARKEx has hand selected based on their reputation and online reviews as safer places in the Pokemon TCG community to meet and exchange cards. They are not handling cards on your behalf, but they can help you avoid sharing your home address and add an extra layer of safety when meeting another trader.

A trade is complete when both parties have marked that they have received their cards. At that point, trust points are updated for both traders and you can leave each other feedback. The trade will appear in the Completed section of your Trades page.

Once both parties have agreed to a trade it becomes binding. Please make sure you physically have the card in hand and have discussed and agreed all the details with your trade partner — including condition, delivery method, and any other expectations — before you hit Accept.

If a genuine mutual agreement to cancel is reached, use the in-trade chat to coordinate. If something has gone wrong after cards have been shipped, raise a dispute rather than attempting to cancel.

Trust points are a reputation score. They go up when trades complete successfully and you receive positive feedback. They go down when disputes are upheld against you. New accounts start at 0 and gradually build a positive score through honest trading. If your trust score drops below 0 your account is automatically suspended.

Newly approved accounts start on Probation status. During probation you can trade normally but have a lower simultaneous trade limit. Once you've completed a handful of successful trades your account is promoted to Active status with higher limits.

A dispute is a formal complaint about a trade that has gone wrong — for example, cards that never arrived, arrived damaged, were the wrong item, or weren't as described. You can raise a dispute once a trade is accepted and at least one party has shipped their cards. You cannot dispute a trade that is still in the proposal stage.

When you raise a dispute:

1. Open — Your dispute is submitted with a reason and optional evidence.
2. Awaiting response — The other trader has 48 hours to respond.
3. Under review — ArkEx admins review both sides and any evidence.
4. Resolved — The admin issues a decision: Upheld, Rejected, or Partial.

If the accused party does not respond within 48 hours, the dispute is automatically upheld in the raiser's favour.

An upheld dispute results in a trust point penalty applied to your account. Repeated upheld disputes can cause your trust score to go negative, which triggers an automatic account suspension. All decisions and penalties are recorded for audit purposes.

Account suspension is automatically triggered when your trust score drops below 0, usually as a result of one or more upheld disputes. While suspended you can log in and browse, but you cannot initiate or interact with trades. Contact support if you believe the suspension is in error.

Card data — names, sets, images, and rarity — is sourced from the Pokémon TCG API. Market pricing data is pulled from TCGPlayer (US market) and Cardmarket (European market) and is used internally to weight trades fairly. Prices are not displayed to traders; they work in the background to help keep trade proposals balanced.

No. ArkEx uses market data to weight trades fairly under the hood, but we don't enforce strict equal-value trades and you won't see prices during the process. Collectors often value cards differently — you might happily trade a technically higher-value card for one you've wanted for years. The final decision is always yours and your trade partner's.

ArkEx currently supports the main Pokémon TCG card range (physical cards). Pokémon Pocket digital cards are excluded. Support for additional TCGs such as Lorcana and Magic: The Gathering is planned for future releases.