What I Learned in My First Year Selling Pokémon Cards: A 2025 Recap

Getting Started in a Small Market

My journey began with a decision made on vacation: I wanted to build something besides my main job. As a fan of the hobby, turning Pokémon cards into a business felt right. My biggest concern was my location. Switzerland is a small market with only 10 million people, a fraction of the size of the US or larger European countries. I wasn't sure if a business focused only on Switzerland could succeed.

Despite that, I decided to move forward. People are interested in Pokémon all over the world, and I figured you can make it work anywhere if you put in the effort. I wanted to start small and not risk a large amount of capital until I figured out how to actually sell the cards.

The First Big Bet: Bulk Cards and a Sorting Machine

I started with about 30,000 bulk cards I had acquired. My first major decision was how to handle them. Instead of buying more card inventory, I put my initial capital into a card sorting machine. The idea was to get my bulk listed efficiently, as I knew I couldn't handle that quantity manually.

Looking back, buying a sorting machine so early might have been overkill. Perhaps buying more single cards would have been a better use of funds. However, it did allow me to build a massive, searchable inventory on Cardmarket via TCG Power Tools, which I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. This early decision had both pros and cons.

Early Hurdles: Listing Caps and Building Trust

Once I started listing, I hit my first real blocker. Ricardo, the Swiss equivalent of eBay, had a listing cap of 200 cards for new sellers, which I could only increase by 100 each month. This was a frustrating limitation when I had thousands of cards to sell.

Like any new business, it started slow. No one knows you, so you have to build trust. I learned quickly that two things are critical: fast shipping times and friendly, professional communication. If you can fulfill customer expectations and even go beyond them, you start building a positive reputation, which is the foundation of the business.

The 'Light Master Set' Experiment: A Costly Lesson

I had an idea to create what I called "light master sets"—sets containing just the common, uncommon, and rare cards from my bulk. My plan was to buy the few missing cards for each set on Cardmarket to complete them.

This turned out to be a bad idea. Buying singles from multiple sellers meant paying for shipping on each order, which quickly ate into any potential profit. I was often breaking even or even losing money on these sets. Furthermore, the demand for these partial sets wasn't much higher than the bulk price per card. It wasn't worth the time or money.

It was a lot of wasted hours. I was sitting for hours in the evenings at my table picking cards. This was a learning from my side that this was not really worth doing.

Pivoting to Singles and Leveraging Bulk Sales

After the master set experiment, I shifted my focus. The sales from my bulk inventory were covering my monthly expenses (around 250 CHF) and generating some profit. I started using that money to buy entire collections, which gave me an inventory of more valuable single cards.

I also learned to be smarter with my bulk. The better cards—trainer cards, holos, and especially cards from older sets—can sell very quickly and for good money. Some bulk cards can be worth $5 to $10. Selling these off first provided quick cash flow to reinvest in the business.

The Advantage of a Large, Organized Inventory

While the sorting machine was a big upfront cost, it allowed me to build an inventory of around 60,000 listed bulk cards. This became a competitive advantage. I'm now one of the largest bulk sellers in Switzerland. Buyers who need a large number of different cards will come to me, even if my prices aren't the absolute lowest, because they can get everything in one order. It's an advantage I wouldn't have without an efficient way to list tens of thousands of cards.

Building a Real Business: The Shopify Store

Towards the end of the year, I focused on building my own Shopify store. This was a strategic move to start building a direct customer base and own the relationship, collecting email addresses and marketing directly to my buyers. It's about building a long-term asset, not just selling on marketplaces.

Setting it up came with its own problems. I got banned by a payment provider for a week because I used the wrong business category for trading cards. It was a headache, but it's good these things happen when you're small. Losing a few sales is better than losing hundreds of orders if this happened when the business was larger.

Creating an Integrated, Multi-Channel Sales System

My system is now fully integrated. I have my inventory synced across three sales channels: Cardmarket, CardTrader, and my Shopify store. Whether it's bulk or singles, every card is available on all platforms.

When a card sells on one platform, the inventory is automatically updated on the others. This prevents overselling and allows me to maximize my reach without creating extra work. This setup gives me a solid foundation for scaling the business in 2026.

Final Takeaways from Year One

My initial goal of hitting $50,000 in profit in the first year was optimistic, and I won't reach it. But the business is on a clear uptrend, and I've learned more than I ever expected.

• Expect to Fail: Not every idea will work. The master sets were a failure, but a valuable lesson. Don't be afraid to try things and be ready to move on if they don't work.
• Adapt Quickly: The market and your own understanding will change. I shifted from pure bulk, to master sets, to singles, to a multi-channel approach. You have to be flexible.
• Find What Works for You: What works for a seller in the US might not work for me in Switzerland. You have to figure out your own path based on your location, capital, and what you enjoy doing.
• Just Get Started: The most important thing is to begin. You'll face problems, but you'll figure out how to solve them. It's better to fix problems in a small, growing business than to never start at all.