everything a commissioner asks, and the answers
Questions
The first three are the ones every commissioner asks in the same order. The last group is the one most sites leave out: what is not built yet.
on this page
The three you are already asking What the cards are The money Setting it up Your data and ours What is not built yetThe three you are already asking
Is this crypto?
No. There is no token, no blockchain, no wallet, no market and no cash value. A card cannot be bought, sold, cashed out, staked or wagered — not by a manager, not by you, not by us. Packs are earned from what actually happened in your league, and the only money anywhere near Shortprint is one Season Pass paid once by the commissioner. We took the hobby's grammar and left its speculation behind on purpose.
Do we have to move our league?
No. Your league stays on Sleeper, Yahoo, ESPN or the spreadsheet you already keep, under the same name, with the same rules and the same history. We read the results. Nothing about how your league runs changes, and if you stopped using Shortprint tomorrow your league would not notice.
How much work is this for me?
Ten minutes, once. Two minutes to name your host and paste the league link, zero while we import your history, and about eight to paste one link into the group chat — most of which is answering wait, what is this. The whole thing is laid out on how it works.
And what do I do every week after that?
Nothing. There is no lineup to check, nothing to score, nothing to post and nobody to chase. The only thing you do weekly is rip your own packs, which is the part you would do anyway.
What the cards are
What is a Shortprint card, exactly?
A trading card about something that actually happened in your league: a manager, a club, a matchup, a blowout, a heater, a photo finish, a champion, a wooden spoon. Real card stock grammar — a front, a back, a number, a print run — drawn from your league's own results rather than from a licence.
Who is on the cards?
The people in your league and the clubs they run. The core set is managers and clubs. A draft card will name the professional player somebody actually picked, because that is a fact about the pick — but the subject of the card is the manager who made it.
Why are there no NFL or NHL player cards?
Those names and faces are licensed, and the licences belong to Topps, Panini and Fanatics. It is also not the interesting part. Nobody in your league will ever care about another printed rookie card; they will care that there is exactly one card of the week they lost by eighty-four points, and that somebody else is holding it.
What do "short print" and "one of one" mean?
The print run: how many copies of that design exist, ever. A common design is printed to twelve, so everyone can hold one. A short print is one of six, an insert one of three, and a one of one is exactly one, forever. The champion, the runner-up and the wooden spoon of every season are one of ones. Scarcity is the stake — the only way to get a card somebody else pulled is to trade them for it.
How big is a season's set?
The demo league's 2026 set is 321 designs and 1,622 copies, with seven one of ones. Your league's set is built out of your league, so your numbers are your own — more seasons and more managers make a bigger set. The whole checklist is public inside your league from day one, with the designs nobody has pulled yet fogged out.
What happens on day one?
Every season of history you have becomes a numbered series before a single pack is earned. Ten seasons becomes ten series, each with its own champion and wooden spoon as one of ones. This is the part that surprises people: the league's whole past is on the table the first time anybody opens the link.
What do my managers actually do?
Tap the link, see their own week written from their side, and rip the packs their results earned. Then build a binder, chase a set, put five cards in a display Case, and trade with each other on the Wire. It lives on a phone, in the five minutes after the group chat lights up.
Can managers trade?
Yes, and it is the reason most of them come back. Trades run on the Wire: only cards somebody actually holds and has revealed, both sides accept, and open offers expire after a week. There is no money in a trade — cards for cards.
The money
What does it cost?
$12 a manager for the season, draft night to draft night. A twelve-manager league is $144. The four common sizes are laid out on the price.
Who pays?
One person. The commissioner buys one Season Pass and it covers the league. We do not bill twelve people, and a manager never pays for anything, ever. Most commissioners fold it into dues, where it is $12 on top of whatever a head already pays.
Can a manager buy packs?
No, and this is the rule the whole product is built around. Packs are earned from results. There is nothing for a manager to buy — no packs, no cards, no currency, no upgrade. If money could buy a pull, none of the pulls would mean anything.
Can I sell a card, or cash one out?
No. There is no market, no cash value and no way to convert a card into money. Cards move one way only: by trade, inside your league.
Is it a subscription?
No. One number, once a season. No monthly billing, no tiers, no per-feature upsell and nothing that renews quietly in February.
What happens when the season ends?
The set closes. It becomes that year's numbered archive series and it never changes again — which is exactly what makes a champion card worth holding. Next season mints a new set.
What if we do not renew?
Nothing you earned is taken away as a punishment. What a dormant league keeps access to, and for how long, is one of the things we are still writing down rather than guessing at in public — see what is built, and ask us directly if it matters to your decision.
Setting it up
Which hosts do you work with?
Sleeper, Yahoo, ESPN, or a spreadsheet. Be aware of how that works today: for the first cohort the import is done by hand, by us, from the league you point us at — you are not connecting an account or installing anything. The automatic Sleeper and spreadsheet import is being built for the 2026 season and is listed honestly on what is built.
Our league is on a spreadsheet. Is that a problem?
It is the opposite of a problem. Shortprint exists because of a spreadsheet: ten years of a league kept in one, and then cards made out of it. Bring your spreadsheet.
Our league is new and has no history.
Then day one is one series instead of ten, and you start keeping the history now. Nothing else changes — the set still mints every week of the season you are about to play.
Do my managers need accounts?
No. No password, no app to install, no sign-up. Each manager gets their own link from you, and tapping it is the whole of signing in.
Can I see it working before I ask my league for money?
Yes, and you should. The demo league is a real twelve-manager season played forward, with its managers' names changed. Everything on it is the product, not a mock-up: the checklist, the binders, the packs, the trades.
Your data and ours
What does the form on this site store?
Nine fields, each one listed with the reason it exists on what we keep. No IP address, no cookie, no analytics profile, no advertising network, and nothing sold or passed on.
Who can see our league's cards?
The people in your league. A league's cards are visible inside that league, and a card's public link is something a manager chooses to share into a chat, not something we index.
One of my managers does not want to be on a card.
Then they will not be. Mail us, or tell your commissioner, and that manager comes off the set. Nobody is on a Shortprint card against their wishes — the cards are about people who are in on the joke, or they are not worth printing.
Do you sell data, or train anything on our league?
No, and no. Your league's results are used to make your league's cards. That is the whole of it.
What is not built yet
Is Shortprint a finished product?
Not yet, and we would rather you knew that from us. The card engine, the binder, the packs, the trades and the commissioner's desk are all built and running — you can play with them on the demo league right now. Self-serve import and billing are being built for the 2026 season. Nothing physical is in production yet. The full list, in three columns including the things we will never build, is on what is built.
Am I buying something when I fill in the form?
No. There is no payment, no card details and no account. The form is an ask: it tells us your league exists and what it would cost, and we answer it by mail from a real person.
What if you never ship?
Then you have paid nothing, because nobody is charged until their league is actually printed. That is the only promise worth making at this stage and it is the one we are making.
My question is not here.
Ask it. hello@shortprint.cards goes to one inbox, read by the person who built this. More on contact.
Still the easiest way to decide
Open the demo league on your phone and see whether you would post one of these into your group chat. That is the whole test.