Hi so I've only been playing mtg for a couple of years and recently moved to a place with no mtg shops because they've all turned to full comic book stores. I want to try and open up a location and trying to lookup cost of things. One thing I'd like to do is to have some old sets up for sell and maybe draft so what would you guys recommend
Any reason why your local stores have all gone to full comic book? Is there a lack of players in the area that caused them to move to the more collectibles from the games? Just a thought that you should identify if your market really needs it.
From there, I would definitely just do a google search for costs to open a tcg store. There have been many articles written, and some business plans that would be a good start.
A friend of mine had put together a business plan for this and ultimately decided against it due to various factors in his area.
No they have players I've gotten to know quite a few and sold cards to them. They just wanted to become comic books. I have been doing my research because I'm not trying to go in and lose 60k. The stores (walmart cvs etc) that do sell mtg packs sell a good amount. The mtg players that I do talk to are interested in older cards so I figured if I can get my hands on an older set like avacyns restoration that would be a good way to open/raise funds
They might have had enough players, but did they have enough customers? That question you do not appear to have answered. If MTG was profitable in your area the stores that used to support and sell it would continue to do so.
For all of them to move away from selling MTG products as even a sideline and only sell comics very strongly signals that the area will not be able support a store dedicated to MTG. Unless you are able to overcome whatever issues they had, which are most likely going to be being unable to compete with Walmat in the sealed product market and being unable to get sufficient numbers of people willing to trade with them on the secondary market, you are going to have exactly the same issues but nothing to fall back on if the MTG side falls through as it did for the previous stores.
You need to do a lot more research than you appear to have done at present. Especially on your start up costs as I could very easily see you needing to sink approx 30K into the shop before you get your first customer, more if you want to stock the old cards. From there the ongoing expenses are just going to keep on mounting up.
As for the old cards you are very unlikely to get packs of old sets in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile. If you can, avoid them like the plague, those packs are going to have been sitting around in cases unopened since those sets were in standard. If they weren't opened then it means there was not a demand for them back then and there is not going to be a market for them now. All you will do is but stock that will sit around until the 1 person in the state who wants them turns up or you can manage to convince enough people to do a retro draft/sealed event.
If you want to sell the old cards it is going to be done as singles which means you will either need to have a large enough personal collection that you are willing to sacrifice to start your stock or get lucky with people cashing out the hobby willing to sell you there collections and hoping that you have enough money to do so and they have enough valuable cards you can then sell on to make it worth your while. Your final option for this would be to purchase the old packs and open them yourself but then you are running the risk of not opening sufficient money cards to sell that you can offset against your sunk cost purchasing and opening the sealed product.
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Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and start slitting throats.
- H.L Mencken
I Became insane with long Intervals of horrible Sanity
All Religion, my friend is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.
- Edgar Allan Poe
I think that Kahedron gave you some really good things to think about. Here are some thoughts:
1. It doesn't make sense to buy older cards or older sets just to have those cards: Unless the product is actually going to move out the door, it doesn't do you any good. You need to have an extremely good understanding of the wants and needs of the players in your market. If you have significant demand for Vintage, or Legacy, or Standard. Whatever formats are most popular, you need to make sure that you have the product to actually support those needs. Your focus should be more on the actual needs of your potential customers as opposed to just buying a set that is no longer in print because you can get it.
2. Can you compete on singles prices against online retailers: Are you able to be the online outlets for prices on cards? When I used to play regularly, I would never buy singles from local stores. I could always find a better deal online. You have to be sure that you are able to squeeze enough margin out of your singles to pay for the space that they take up in your shop. But you also need to make sure you are priced low enough that people are going to buy from you.
3. Do you have enough expertise with MTG and other CCGs or have people that you can trust to help you: When you mentioned Avacyns Restoration as an older set, I started to question your knowledge of the game. I am not saying this as a dig on you, but I wouldn't consider a set from 2005 to be older compared to sets that came out in 1993. Do you have the knowledge to know what cards are actually worth when someone comes in to sell them to you? Or to recognize scams with repacks or fake cards from older sets? This also goes to other CCGs. Do you have the knowledge of them or the right people around you to be the experts? You will need to be able to quickly evaluate singles or collections that come into your store to understand what they could be worth when you sell. You also have to understand where the market is heading. Do you know what cards make up the majority of the decks that see play in the different game formats? Understanding these things will be important in creating your buylists as new sets come out and certain deck archetypes are no longer seen as viable solutions. You may have just invested a lot of money in some product that is no longer worth what you paid for it.
4. Are you prepared to work at this for 16 hours a day and not get burned out: Right now MTG is fun for you. But will you still love it if you are working at it and struggling with running a business with it as well? You may find that when coupled with trying to make rent or payroll, that the game just doesn't have the same happy effect on you any longer. I know that was the case with the owner of the store I used to frequent 20 years ago. He was so stressed with running a business that he didn't enjoy it any longer and soon after he ended up selling off his assets because he didn't want to deal with it any longer.
I could probably go on and on about this topic. But I really think you have a lot to think of.
You are probably looking at an investment of at least $80-100k between your inventory, store build-out, POS, rent, and working capital for 6 months if you want to make sure your store is successful. Are you ready to invest that kind of money into this hobby?
From there, I would definitely just do a google search for costs to open a tcg store. There have been many articles written, and some business plans that would be a good start.
A friend of mine had put together a business plan for this and ultimately decided against it due to various factors in his area.
- Matt
For all of them to move away from selling MTG products as even a sideline and only sell comics very strongly signals that the area will not be able support a store dedicated to MTG. Unless you are able to overcome whatever issues they had, which are most likely going to be being unable to compete with Walmat in the sealed product market and being unable to get sufficient numbers of people willing to trade with them on the secondary market, you are going to have exactly the same issues but nothing to fall back on if the MTG side falls through as it did for the previous stores.
You need to do a lot more research than you appear to have done at present. Especially on your start up costs as I could very easily see you needing to sink approx 30K into the shop before you get your first customer, more if you want to stock the old cards. From there the ongoing expenses are just going to keep on mounting up.
As for the old cards you are very unlikely to get packs of old sets in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile. If you can, avoid them like the plague, those packs are going to have been sitting around in cases unopened since those sets were in standard. If they weren't opened then it means there was not a demand for them back then and there is not going to be a market for them now. All you will do is but stock that will sit around until the 1 person in the state who wants them turns up or you can manage to convince enough people to do a retro draft/sealed event.
If you want to sell the old cards it is going to be done as singles which means you will either need to have a large enough personal collection that you are willing to sacrifice to start your stock or get lucky with people cashing out the hobby willing to sell you there collections and hoping that you have enough money to do so and they have enough valuable cards you can then sell on to make it worth your while. Your final option for this would be to purchase the old packs and open them yourself but then you are running the risk of not opening sufficient money cards to sell that you can offset against your sunk cost purchasing and opening the sealed product.
- H.L Mencken
I Became insane with long Intervals of horrible Sanity
All Religion, my friend is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.
- Edgar Allan Poe
The Crafters' Rules Guru
1. It doesn't make sense to buy older cards or older sets just to have those cards: Unless the product is actually going to move out the door, it doesn't do you any good. You need to have an extremely good understanding of the wants and needs of the players in your market. If you have significant demand for Vintage, or Legacy, or Standard. Whatever formats are most popular, you need to make sure that you have the product to actually support those needs. Your focus should be more on the actual needs of your potential customers as opposed to just buying a set that is no longer in print because you can get it.
2. Can you compete on singles prices against online retailers: Are you able to be the online outlets for prices on cards? When I used to play regularly, I would never buy singles from local stores. I could always find a better deal online. You have to be sure that you are able to squeeze enough margin out of your singles to pay for the space that they take up in your shop. But you also need to make sure you are priced low enough that people are going to buy from you.
3. Do you have enough expertise with MTG and other CCGs or have people that you can trust to help you: When you mentioned Avacyns Restoration as an older set, I started to question your knowledge of the game. I am not saying this as a dig on you, but I wouldn't consider a set from 2005 to be older compared to sets that came out in 1993. Do you have the knowledge to know what cards are actually worth when someone comes in to sell them to you? Or to recognize scams with repacks or fake cards from older sets? This also goes to other CCGs. Do you have the knowledge of them or the right people around you to be the experts? You will need to be able to quickly evaluate singles or collections that come into your store to understand what they could be worth when you sell. You also have to understand where the market is heading. Do you know what cards make up the majority of the decks that see play in the different game formats? Understanding these things will be important in creating your buylists as new sets come out and certain deck archetypes are no longer seen as viable solutions. You may have just invested a lot of money in some product that is no longer worth what you paid for it.
4. Are you prepared to work at this for 16 hours a day and not get burned out: Right now MTG is fun for you. But will you still love it if you are working at it and struggling with running a business with it as well? You may find that when coupled with trying to make rent or payroll, that the game just doesn't have the same happy effect on you any longer. I know that was the case with the owner of the store I used to frequent 20 years ago. He was so stressed with running a business that he didn't enjoy it any longer and soon after he ended up selling off his assets because he didn't want to deal with it any longer.
I could probably go on and on about this topic. But I really think you have a lot to think of.
You are probably looking at an investment of at least $80-100k between your inventory, store build-out, POS, rent, and working capital for 6 months if you want to make sure your store is successful. Are you ready to invest that kind of money into this hobby?
- Matt
These are the decks that I have constructed, and are ready to play:
01. Ankh Sligh to be exact.