TCG Card Shop Help

[Doom_Shaman]

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to help me with this.

K so i am starting up my own nerd haven ish shop. it is going to have places to play yugioh, magic the gathering, D&D, and a couple other games. I intend to sell booster packs/structure decks/game needs. this is the BASIC premise.

The intricate details:
-Players will be able to trade cards with the shop. This is my favorite idea. Say a player of any game in highschool wants to build a deck. they grab some booster packs but dont get the cards they need. it sucks being on a budget and playing TCG's of any sort. Anyway. say that person got a couple of decent cards that just werent what they were looking for. The shop would have many cards on display, and you could trade the cards that you didnt want, with ones you were looking for.

-Players will have access to Judge officiated tournaments for both Yugioh and Magic the Gathering. Along with a Dungeon Master for D&D games. or they can just loiter and play for fun

-Snack machines and Soda machines will be located on site for player conviance.

-Security cameras will be set up to discourage/catch any potential card thiefs

-And a program will be available that players can use to print proxy YCM cards that are deemed not broken by the shop for a small fee. These proxies will not be allowed to leave the shop due to legal issues and would be for fun only

SO for market research purposes would you come to this shop?

Thank you to anyone who replies. i will award + reps for your help/ opinion.

[Doom_Shaman]

bump

[King Ninja Steve]

I would defiantly go here. It seems like a really chill place to be and I agree that trading with the shop would be fun.

[Enma Ai]

I would go, it seems like a cool idea. Perhaps you could sell other things like duel mats etc.

The store would have to have a big open ground area to set up places for all of the games on display, unless you have certain days of the week that each game will be featured eg. Mon, Wed and Sat for Yu-Gi-Oh!, Tue and Thu for D&D, Fri and Sun for MTG or some similar layout like that.=, as it would be hard to maintain all games at once, especially in a confined area.

I would also have staff members who are extremely familiar with card rulings and all that kind of stuff to judge at 'official' tournaments and not ones set up by players (unless requested).

I'm not sure how the trade cards with the shop would go; for example, 10 people in the store buy 3 boosters each, all want BLS or Tour Guide but didnt get him due to rarity, so they trade 7 cards for BLS from the shop or something like that; I doubt the store would be able to have multiple copis of any card players might suddenly want.

I'm not too sure on how you plan printing the cards so I won't comment too much on that, the only thing I would say is that if you DO manage to do it, players A and B must look through each others deck and make sure none of the cards are game-breaking if they are custom (or get staff to check). You should also save peoples cards in the store so they can use them next time (if they have a membership).

Overall seems like a good idea, the only thing you HAVE to do is go around your local area / place you are setting up the store and survey a lot of people to see would they go or not. No point setting up a store if nobody is willing to go.

[Doom_Shaman]

Thanks for all the feedback Dark Rose. I intend to have certified judges available for both Yugioh and Magic the Gathering, as well as staff members familier with other less common TCG's (Pokemon, Bakugan, Chaotic, Etc)

The way i have the idea planned in my head for trading, is doing research as to what are the most sought after cards in the game currently. For example, Tour Guide and Solemn Warning. I would have these cards and probably up to the top 10 best selling cards of the current set in stock 5 at a time. If you are willing to wait, the shop will order any cards you want as long as you propose your trade upfront and it is accepted.

I anticipate enough floor space to be able to play all of these games at once. The space I am looking at is 1400 Square feet. We would hold Official Tournaments for the two major card games on Sundays and Saturdays respectively, and we would be required to have certified judges on site so that winners can attain a regional rank.

The printing of cards is actually fairly simple. All we will need as a printer able to print on a a fairly thick piece of photo paper. All cards would be examined by our staff. for example a level 4 monster with 3000 ATK and no drawback wouldn't be printed. It would be entirely for the sake of fun so we wouldn't allow broken cards to be used.

And I am currently doing demographic research to see if there is a customer base in the area. I personally know 6 people who have said they would hang out here every day. All of them are over 30 (Yeah old nerds XD) So I'm confident that i can find enough people to make the business run.

[Doom_Shaman]

bump

[Legend Zero]

Don't you need approval from Konami to hold such official tournaments?

[Simping For Hina]

And wouldn't permission from the card makers be established as well?
Just printing a card would be wrong if you didn't make it :/

[Doom_Shaman]

@Legend Zero: if someone is certified as a judge, you are allowed to hold official tournaments as long as you are registered to do so.

@Daemon: you are right there, it would be wrong. However, how it would go would be people using cards that THEY have created. so if i wanted to use:

[img]http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/9226/106350x.jpg[/img]

because its mine i would be able to as long as it was deemed not broken. I could not however follow your posts, find a card i like and print it.

[Legend Zero]

Yeah, registered. What is the process for getting a shop registered anyway?

I wish you the best of luck. If it was close by I would probably be interested in a job. XP

[Doom_Shaman]

you have to have a certified judge on your staff. it may require a permit as well but i havnt 100% figured it out

[.Ash]

Sounds like a really awesome idea.

The entire set-up sounds really good, the trading especially (and the YCM/Proxy stuff just sweetens the deal).

Hell, I'd go because it's a card shop with a snack machine. :]

[Doom_Shaman]

@Skizo: thats valuable feedback. thnx, lol

[Ieyasu Tokugawa]

Just make sure you have basic business ideas set, like running costs and profit/loss, as well as making sure you have enough of a target market to break even at least.

[Doom_Shaman]

Thnx fot the tip Miror B. I am currently doing demographic/marketing research for this business. if it doesnt work out then ill move and set up shop somewhere that the demographic is more helpful

[Doom_Shaman]

bump