Howdy and thanks for watching. The margins to TCG accessories can very widely depending on the discount level you currently have with your distributors as well as what brands you're carrying. On average, you could figure on a 45-50% margins on average, but if you work directly with BCW then they have some quality economy level lines that have some great margins if you have the funds to invest in larger quantities. Hope that helps a little.
Thank you for all of the advice brother, I’m trying to start online selling only on a platform with a limited budget, not to concerned with insane profits, do you have any advice as to where to start? And how to do it?
Thanks for watching and asking such a great question. I've done very little with online sales as I was always more focused on the instore portion of my stores, but I did have a pretty good run with TCGPlayer.com and, at our peak, we were doing around $1800 a week in singles sales, which was awesome for a while, but being a brick and mortar game store that didn't go to any events to buy singles and replenish our stock, it didn't take long before our stock levels got to a point where my local customers started to complain. If you're doing strictly online sales then you likely won't have to deal with that, and I'm kind of assuming that when you say "online store" that you're talking about opening a TCG online store selling singles and sealed product. In that case, your first step is going to be to get setup with a distributor so you can get sealed product to sell and to open for singles, unless you already have a large selection built up. I've never done it, but I understand that there is a different process that distributorships go through when setting on an online store versus opening a brick and mortar store. Next, you'll likely want to get setup with online card database. I've used Crystal Commerce and BinderPOS and they're both pretty good. I ended up siding with BinderPOS because, at the time, they had a setting that would auto-update card pricing. You would do some basic setup on your side with markups and percentages and then BinderPOS will auto-update those prices as they go up and down based on some averages from TCGPlayer (I think). Crystal Commerce may offer it now, it's been a few years since I've worked with either, but that is an option. If you want to keep your intrastructure as low as possible then there's always the option of opening an eBay or TCGPlayer store where you basically just sell as an online store through those outlets, which is great for the captive audience it provides, the downside is that there's stiff competition at every turn and with an online store all you can really do is lower your prices or offer incentives, unlike a brick and mortar store that can offer better atmosphere, better customer services, etc... Not sure if that's helpful, but hopefully it is. If you're not doing TCGs then things change a little, but the main point is going to be to get setup with a distributor once you have your business plan and model done so that you can a source for the items you're looking to sell, unless you're going strictly with singles and you plan on hitting up events and cons and getting a both to buy singles and collections.
What kind of margin is there for TCG supplies like sleeves, binders, and card pages?
Howdy and thanks for watching. The margins to TCG accessories can very widely depending on the discount level you currently have with your distributors as well as what brands you're carrying. On average, you could figure on a 45-50% margins on average, but if you work directly with BCW then they have some quality economy level lines that have some great margins if you have the funds to invest in larger quantities. Hope that helps a little.
Thank you for all of the advice brother, I’m trying to start online selling only on a platform with a limited budget, not to concerned with insane profits, do you have any advice as to where to start? And how to do it?
Thanks for watching and asking such a great question. I've done very little with online sales as I was always more focused on the instore portion of my stores, but I did have a pretty good run with TCGPlayer.com and, at our peak, we were doing around $1800 a week in singles sales, which was awesome for a while, but being a brick and mortar game store that didn't go to any events to buy singles and replenish our stock, it didn't take long before our stock levels got to a point where my local customers started to complain.
If you're doing strictly online sales then you likely won't have to deal with that, and I'm kind of assuming that when you say "online store" that you're talking about opening a TCG online store selling singles and sealed product. In that case, your first step is going to be to get setup with a distributor so you can get sealed product to sell and to open for singles, unless you already have a large selection built up. I've never done it, but I understand that there is a different process that distributorships go through when setting on an online store versus opening a brick and mortar store.
Next, you'll likely want to get setup with online card database. I've used Crystal Commerce and BinderPOS and they're both pretty good. I ended up siding with BinderPOS because, at the time, they had a setting that would auto-update card pricing. You would do some basic setup on your side with markups and percentages and then BinderPOS will auto-update those prices as they go up and down based on some averages from TCGPlayer (I think). Crystal Commerce may offer it now, it's been a few years since I've worked with either, but that is an option. If you want to keep your intrastructure as low as possible then there's always the option of opening an eBay or TCGPlayer store where you basically just sell as an online store through those outlets, which is great for the captive audience it provides, the downside is that there's stiff competition at every turn and with an online store all you can really do is lower your prices or offer incentives, unlike a brick and mortar store that can offer better atmosphere, better customer services, etc...
Not sure if that's helpful, but hopefully it is. If you're not doing TCGs then things change a little, but the main point is going to be to get setup with a distributor once you have your business plan and model done so that you can a source for the items you're looking to sell, unless you're going strictly with singles and you plan on hitting up events and cons and getting a both to buy singles and collections.
@@RetroDojo wow thanks for taking the time to write that I appreciate it a lot, very helpful and informative
@@fictionaltalesbymm3905 you're welcome. Glad it was of some help.