Hitting the Kill Switch

Cardsphere has always offered users a way to protect themselves against price spikes. Given the volatility of card prices, we knew that being able to limit offers was something that all traders deserved. That’s why it was available when we launched, and remains a feature available to all users.

Today, we’ve introduced even more protection: the ability for the community to collectively protect itself from spikes and drops caused by bans, unbans, reprints, and buy-outs by reporting affected cards as soon as such information becomes available. Trading for such cards will be temporarily suspended when enough votes are collected. Informally, we’ve been calling it a “killswitch”. Here’s how it works.

On each card page, there’s a link you can click to report an issue:

When you click the link, you’re reminded of the valid conditions for reporting a card:

Once a certain amount of users report any printing of a card within 24 hours, no trading for any printing of the card will be allowed until either:

• an Admin releases the card for trading
• the number of users who have reported the card within 24 hours drops below the threshold used to pause trading

Why is Cardsphere relying on human input to pause trading? Can’t you use an algorithm?

An algorithm can only act on data it already has, and by the time Cardsphere has the updated prices, traders could have already had unwanted transactions committed. On the other hand, the founders and community can react immediately to announcements to protect people.

How many users in what amount of time triggers trading to pause?

If you’ve been active in the Cardsphere community for any amount of time, you know we’re deeply committed to being transparent. We have a certain number in mind, and we want to experiment with it to make sure we’ve set the best threshold. Once we’re satisfied with the results, we’ll likely share the information.
Behind the scenes, we’re monitoring how the kill switch gets used very closely. Please make sure to review our Terms of Service with have been updated to cover specific notes.

Should I use this feature to report price discrepencies?

No. A “kill switch” is for significant events. If you feel our pricing on a card is wrong, please let us know in Discord, Reddit, or by emailing contact@cardsphere.com instead.