Transparent by design.
You always see how the number was reached. Every order on The Card Pyramid is built from four moving parts — the cards you took, the decks we broke, the stock you stressed, and the orphans you rescued. Metering runs through @suluk/cost and bills through Stripe Billing Meters, so the total is the math, not a guess. ▲
The formula
Card subtotal + Deck-break fee + Inventory-stress fee − Orphan offset = Final total.
Card subtotal
The cards you actually picked.- 6 picks across the catalog
- Priced per single, per layer
- Sealed decks priced whole
- No hidden per-item markup
Deck-break fee
A fresh deck had to be opened.- Charged once per sealed deck cracked
- Red or blue Bicycle® 808
- Skipped if stock already open
- The cut that starts the fall
Inventory-stress fee
Your order leaves awkward stock.- Triggers on low-liquidity leftovers
- Higher near the apex, lighter near the base
- Reflects the damage to remaining stock
- The higher the cut, the higher the cost
Orphan offset
You rebalanced the pyramid.- A credit, not a charge
- Adopt cards nobody else wants
- Clears Fragments & the Bagholder Market
- The lower the layer, the stranger the bargain
A worked example
Six picks, one red deck cracked, a little residual mess, four orphans adopted.
Card subtotal
Six singles pulled from across the layers — aces, a court, a matching joker.
+ Deck-break fee
A sealed red Bicycle® 808 had to be opened to fill the order.
+ Inventory-stress fee
The picks left an awkward, low-liquidity residue in remaining stock.
− Orphan offset
You adopted four orphan cards that rebalanced the pyramid. A credit back.
Final total
£7.20 + £3.50 + £1.20 − £1.00 = £10.90. Every line shown at checkout — no surprises.
What each fee pays for
Deck-break fee
When the exact card you want only exists inside a sealed deck, we crack a fresh Bicycle® 808 to get it. The fee covers that deck — charged once, never per card. The higher the cut, the higher the cost.
Inventory-stress fee
Some orders leave behind stock nobody can easily sell — a half-run here, an orphaned index there. This fee reflects the damage your order does to what remains. Pull from the base and it barely registers.
Orphan offset
The opposite of stress: when you take cards that rebalance the remaining stock — clearing Fragments or the Bagholder Market — we credit you back. The lower the layer, the stranger the bargain.
The "pyramid scheme" is a joke about pricing — every order pushes cards down the pyramid. There is no investment, no financial return, and no recruitment. We just profit by managing the fall better than you want to.