Shortboxed vs ArbLab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shortboxed
This app is a trusted marketplace and auction platform for buying and selling comic books. It offers tools like a price guide and portfolio manager to facilitate easy, safe, and fun transactions within a community of collectors.
- Buy and sell raw or graded comic books
- Quick and easy listing submissions
- Customer support handled by the platform
- Fair market value data and sales history
- Portfolio manager for inventory and collection
- Free price guide with extensive sales data
- Community content, guides, and giveaways
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What is Shortboxed? Shortboxed is the most trusted marketplace and auction platform to buy and sell comic books. In addition to a thriving community with tens of thousands of buyers and sellers, there are also free tools and resources such as a price guide, portfolio manager, extensive data, and quality content to make buying and selling easy, safe, and fun. How does buying and selling work? For the marketplace, vetted dealers, comic shop owners, and collectors list their comic books for sale on Shortboxed while buyers browse and discover tens of thousands of comic books, both graded and ungraded. When someone buys a book, the seller receives an order confirmation with a pre-paid shipping label. Sellers get paid once the book is confirmed delivered. Our seller fee is a flat 10% - no hidden fees or shenanigans. Super simple! For event style auctions, approved sellers send in their books to Shortboxed before an auction is curated. Once the auction event is live, buyers can bid on items until the closing time. Once an auction event ends, winners will receive an invoice to pay before receiving their items. Shortboxed Features Sell raw or graded comic books - you can submit raw or graded comic books for sale on Shortboxed, with all raw books verified by Shortboxed before being delivered to the buyer. Buy and sell with confidence! Quick and easy submissions - take a couple pics, add a price and any additional info as needed, and that’s it. We take care of the rest, including exposure to tens of thousands of potential buyers across the U.S., Canada and U.K. We handle customer support - have an issue with an order? Our attentive team will take care of any questions or order issues. No more endless back and forth between buyers and sellers - we take care of everything so you don’t have to. Fair Market Value data - make informed buying decisions with our fair market value range, sales history, and indicators that show you if a book is a good deal. Portfolio Manager - manage your For Sale inventory and your Personal Collection all in one place with the Portfolio Manager. Organize your collection and track the value of your Portfolio for free. Price Guide - look up recent sales history with our free price guide featuring over one million recent comic book sales across multiple platforms. Did we mention it’s free? Amazing content - check the app often for new content from the community, how-to guides, collector spotlights, free giveaways, newsletters, and more! Ready to buy and sell? Please read the FAQ in-app or on Shortboxed.com for a complete list of all the buying and selling policies. Download Shortboxed today and connect with our community on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @shortboxed and on TikTok @shortboxedcomics.
ArbLab
This app analyzes graded Pokemon card listings from eBay, instantly comparing them to market value to show potential profit and ROI. It helps users track their investments, including the potential benefit of re-grading cards.
- Instant profit/ROI analysis on graded card listings
- Market value comparison for graded cards
- Watchlist for tracking card values over time
- Portfolio management for investment tracking
- Analysis history for past decisions
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ArbLab helps you find undervalued graded Pokemon cards before you buy them. Paste an eBay listing for a CGC- or PSA-graded card and ArbLab instantly compares the listing price to current market value for that card and grade, showing you the profit and ROI if you bought and resold it -- including whether re-grading at a higher tier is worth it. FEATURES - Listing Analysis: Get an instant profit/ROI breakdown on any graded eBay listing. - Watchlist: Save listings and track their market value over time, with a link back to the original listing. - Portfolio: Log what you paid, track grading costs, and see your unrealized and realized profit on every card. - History: Every analysis you run is saved, so you can revisit past decisions and compare notes. ArbLab offers free access with limited daily analyses, plus Pro and Premium subscriptions for unlimited analyses, the Watchlist, Portfolio tracking, batch scanning, and alerts. Subscriptions are billed monthly or annually through your Apple ID and can be managed or cancelled any time in Settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internal/terms/site/itunes/customer/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Shortboxed at free against ArbLab's freemium. Shortboxed also leads on ratings volume (865 vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). ArbLab's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 10 days). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ArbLab holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shortboxed has 865 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Shortboxed ships an update every 10 days, ArbLab every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shortboxed | ArbLab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (865 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 89.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 865 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 58 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shortboxed LLC | CHASE JAMES WIDNER |
Customer experience
Shortboxed
ArbLab
Bugs and requests
Shortboxed
Reported bugs
2 issues- Network issues causing failed uploads
- Glitches with payment processing
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to ask sellers questions
- Separate page to view auctions bid on
- Cheaper shipping options
- Feedback/community section
ArbLab
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Shortboxed
No in-app purchases
ArbLab
No in-app purchases









