TCG Card Shop Simulator

TCG Card Shop Simulator

82 ratings
Make Bank, Open Packs: Proven Strategies for Card Shop Efficiency
By Swanny
This guide dives into essential tips and tricks to help you streamline your card shop's operations, boost profits, and free up more time for opening packs. Learn how to manage customers efficiently, optimize shop layout, and implement smart strategies to keep your business thriving while you enjoy the thrill of cracking open packs.
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Summary
These tips and tricks are designed to help players enhance their store during the early access period. While many discoveries will come naturally through gameplay, some players prefer a hands-off approach, allowing the shop to run smoothly while they open packs at their leisure. By focusing on optimizing store profitability, this guide enables players to concentrate on single card sales and building their collection.
Managing the Morning Rush for Maximum Tournament Profits
If your shop has play tables, it's crucial to get the morning rush through the cash register quickly. Leaving a slow-speed employee at the register will delay customers from sitting at the tables, ultimately reducing your tournament earnings. To avoid this, consider stepping in to handle the register for a few customers when it gets backed up. Just remember, if you don't assign your employee a new task, they'll automatically return to cashier duties once you're finished.
Rounding Prices: Speed Up Transactions
If you have an employee running the register, rounding prices can make transactions up to three times faster, as it eliminates the need to count out every penny. Before pressing the "Round" button, consider any markups you've applied. For example, if a 10% markup brings the total to $20.50, rounding down to $20 might encourage sales more than rounding up to $21, which could exceed a customer's budget.

For single card sales, rounded prices can sometimes exceed market value by 20% or more, particularly if the final price is around $10. Customers may occasionally say, "I’ll have to think about this" or "I’m too broke," but as long as they don't complain that it's "too expensive," the item will eventually sell. Keep in mind that high-ticket items, like a $2,000 card, may take longer to sell—even at market price—until the right customer comes along.
Market Pricing: Balancing Profit and Sales Speed
In most cases, your inventory is sold above its unit price, but setting prices effectively depends on your sales strategy. If you’re aiming for faster XP, pricing items below the market rate can lead to quicker, bulk sales, boosting your XP. However, be cautious: pricing at the unit cost won’t cover bills or shipping expenses. Keep in mind that a slow cashier can bottleneck this approach, limiting the number of daily sales. Alternatively, setting prices above market value results in slower sales but higher profit per item. Generally, a markup of +10% is unlikely to upset customers and can significantly improve your store's profitability.
Optimizing Store Cleanliness: The Double M100 Strategy
Placing an open box of cleaning spray near the entrance can be a quick fix for chasing down smelly customers. However, as the game progresses, this can become time-consuming and disruptive. You might notice that the M100 cleaner isn't as effective as you'd like or that placing multiple units around the store is too costly.

A more efficient solution is to set up two M100 cleaners right by the entrance and arrange your furniture to funnel customers through this area. This setup ensures the cleaners cover more than 99% of customers, as long as they are regularly stocked with cleaning spray. Before long, you’ll find that store cleanliness becomes an automated process that you barely need to think about!
Maximizing Storage: Upgrade to Full-Size Storage Racks
Always prioritize upgrading your storage racks to full size. This not only streamlines stocking operations but also provides a clearer overview of your store’s inventory needs. Early in the game, you’ll need every bit of storage space available, and half-sized racks simply can’t hold enough items. Additionally, having a variety of products in your store encourages employees to restock more efficiently and sets you up for future expansion. Don’t be afraid to sell furniture in the store that is taking up too much space for its use.
End-of-Day Routine: Clearing Out for Late-Night Sales
At the end of each day, it's crucial to kick customers out of the store to maximize profits. Head over to the playing tables and press the "Move" key to make everyone get up. While some customers will leave right away, others might head to the register to make last-minute purchases. This simple action not only clears the store but can also lead to unexpected sales, boosting your overall profits before closing up for the night.
Pack Opening Tips: Further Suggestions
Open packs in whatever way brings you the most joy. This guide is here to help optimize your store, not to dictate how you should have fun in the game.

These tips and strategies are designed to help optimize your card shop and enhance the gameplay experience. Since the game is still in early access, updates may bring new features and strategies. Feel free to share any additional tips or strategies you’ve discovered in the comments below. Your insights could be valuable to others and help everyone make the most of their time in the game. Happy trading and pack opening!
27 Comments
Ameladol 4 Sep @ 7:05pm 
This is a solid list, but personally i like the tables.

I have 9 in the shop at the moment and I just unlocked the "Holo Heaven" event style that costs $700 a day to run, but it makes $3000-$6000 in profit daily. Which is free money that has no stock attached to it.

So i can have a shop with 4 staff members, the maximum shop upgrade for level 43 and still make solid profit each day while keeping a large variety of stock.
blackknight24 30 Mar @ 8:22am 
Tun the lights on around 6pm-7pm to save on the power bill!
blackknight24 30 Mar @ 8:20am 
I fixxed my cleanliness problem with 1 G500 length-wise (not width-wise), at the entrance. NO ONE gets by with the 'yellow ick'.
Louie the Loveable Lungfish 18 Mar @ 7:02am 
Hey there , thanks for the work. I wanted to let you know that this website has copy and pasted your guide and claims it.

https://yekpeak.com/tcg-card-shop-simulator-tips-tricks-for-beginners/
Mur 3 Oct, 2024 @ 6:06pm 
Removing your tables will get you more customers that buy stuff. Tables are good in the short term to give a stable income to buy products but later you should just sell them.
R-taFicial 25 Sep, 2024 @ 11:07pm 
Although I agree that people should open packs in any what they feel would be the most fun to them, the collections are drastically different in value, and if you're hunting for specific cards, the chances for rarer cards slightly increase with the type of packs you're opening. If you're looking for maximum value, opening Legendary packs are the best way to earn money and get foils. If you're looking for exp, opening packs from a set you don't have a lot of cards with is the best option. I know people claim that a foil anything is a 1/20 chance no matter what, but I've had better odds with legendary card packs, and so did the discord group charting their pulls.
Everyone plays games differently, but for a standard guide this is pretty good advice for people starting out. I hope I helped out a little bit more. Good explanations of concepts in the game!
R-taFicial 25 Sep, 2024 @ 11:07pm 
I didn't see anything on here about never turning the lights on because it just costs money and doesn't effect your customer ratings or anything, or adding your rare cards to a case to bring in more NPCs because they come to look at your collection then end up shopping/ playing games in your store. I think they'd be good things to add to your list.
R-taFicial 25 Sep, 2024 @ 11:06pm 
So when you kick customers out at the end of the day, you're actually hurting your sales. The timer for their play doesn't stop when the clock does. I've tested this out and kept the same event to make sure it was accurate. While people shopping in your store is random, they still have the chance to shop regardless if it's past 9pm as long as you don't turn off the closing sign. They just don't enter the store after 9. Individual people waiting for another person to play cards with after 9 is an acceptable person to kick off the tables though. This could be a arguement of time vs value, but if you're going for the highest profit of the day and don't care about waiting a few extra minutes (let's be honest, you're opening packs anyway), then it is worth it to let them play their games out.
Shieko 25 Sep, 2024 @ 10:54am 
I am also Testing to use the pauper early and stock up on a lot of common packs while the price rises the prices of all higher tears will drop therefor the price to buy them will be lower. only sell common singles. sell some higher rarity packs so the customers are happy they get what they wanted. and at the right time go for increasing the Element type Events to sell rare and above singles of that type at best after you stocked up on Fire decks too. that means Rare and above packs will be cheap to buy and the singles will be up on specific Elememt Types.
Shieko 25 Sep, 2024 @ 10:53am 
Nice Little Guide there Swanny. I was thinking about the Customers that are still sitting on tables at 9pm. will they generate more Money when you let them Play since the Time has stopped?

Other then that i have one thing to add: it is crucial to have a product on every spot of any shelf and at best always filled up. (thats why i prefer the shelf's with more Space at one Spot) Because Customers will come in and walk up to shelf's with empty spots as their Targets being unhappy and then straight leave. They will buy less from a spot if there is less items then they would have taken from it.

I have tested this on day one buying as many Bossters as possible and always keep the shelf loaded. ( At Market Price or 10% up) and i was able to make the Money back on day one being above $1000.