A Pokémon Card Business After 6 Months: A Realistic Look at Growth and Numbers

The Six-Month Check-In: Where the Business Stands

After six months of selling, the business has moved from selling off a personal collection to actively buying collections and singles. The focus for November was figuring out the next stage of growth, which means moving away from total reliance on marketplaces and building a more independent brand.

The Strategic Pivot to an Independent Shopify Store

The long-term goal is to build an independent business with its own customer base. Relying solely on marketplaces like Ricardo (a Swiss equivalent of eBay) or Cardmarket means you're always dependent on their traffic. A dedicated Shopify store allows for direct customer contact through newsletters and building organic traffic, which is a more sustainable business model.

The Inventory Challenge

The biggest hurdle for the Shopify store is inventory depth. With only 350 single cards listed, a few large orders could wipe out the selection. Customers need to hit a 30 Swiss Franc (~$40) order minimum for shipping, which often means buying 10-20 cards at once. To solve this, I've been buying collections heavily. I have about 200-250 valuable cards ready to list, with another large collection on the way. The goal is to get the Shopify store up to nearly 800 cards to provide a solid foundation for growth.

Driving Traffic: From Marketplace Customers to Your Own

With the Shopify store live, the next challenge is getting customers to it. I've focused on two simple, low-cost methods to convert buyers from other platforms.

Using Flyers in Outgoing Orders

I designed a small flyer that offers a 10% discount for signing up for the newsletter on my Shopify site. I include one of these in every outgoing order, especially the high volume of orders from Cardmarket. This has already driven some new sign-ups and sales. I estimate that about 10-15% of the people who receive a flyer are taking action, which is a solid start.

The Power of a Small Email List

By mid-November, I had four active newsletter subscribers. For Black Friday, I sent them an email offering a 12% discount. The result was surprising: two of the four subscribers made a purchase. A 50% conversion rate, even on a tiny list, showed how powerful it is to have a direct line to your customers. Both of them had made their first purchase through the flyer promotion, and this was their second order.

Diversifying Inventory Beyond Singles

To make the Shopify store a real destination, it needs more than just single cards. I've been exploring ways to add sealed products and graded cards, but both come with their own challenges.

The Sealed Product Dilemma

Getting a direct account with a distributor isn't possible right now; they have too many customers and demand is too high. So, the only way to get sealed product is by purchasing it within larger collections. I've acquired over 30 blisters and some ETBs this way. These will be listed on the site, but it will be a small and inconsistent part of the inventory since I can't source it reliably.

Getting Cards Graded with PSA

Direct submissions to PSA from Switzerland are currently blocked. As a workaround, I'm using a local store that acts as a middleman. They batch submissions and handle the international logistics. The cost is higher—25 Swiss Francs (~$30) per card, which is about $7-$8 more than a direct submission would be. Despite the cost, I sent a batch of 33 cards to PSA. This was an experiment to get a 'Graded Cards' section started on the shop, even including some lower-value $10-$15 cards to see how they perform.

Integrating Bulk Inventory with TCG PowerTools

A huge operational improvement this month was getting the TCG PowerTools sync for Shopify activated. I was already using it to list bulk cards on Cardmarket and CardTrader, and now Shopify is connected to that same inventory pool. This instantly added 4,700 unique bulk card listings to my Shopify store.

The sync wasn't plug-and-play. I had to do some custom development on my Shopify theme to properly handle the tags TCG PowerTools uses for filtering. I also added features to show stock levels on the main product grid and allow customers to add multiple copies to their cart without leaving the page, which is a much better user experience for bulk buyers.

November by the Numbers: Revenue and Profit

With Shopify now becoming a central piece of the strategy, I've adjusted my reporting to reflect that. Here's how the numbers broke down for November.

• Listed Value (Singles >$1): $3,200 (+25% vs. Oct)
• Listed Value (Bulk): $17,000 (+7% vs. Oct)
• Monthly Fixed Costs: $230
• Total November Revenue: $960
• Total November Profit (after costs): $320

Revenue by Platform

The most interesting story in the revenue numbers is Shopify taking the top spot in only its second month of real sales.

• Shopify: $420
• Ricardo: $260
• Cardmarket: $210
• CardTrader: $45

Sales on Ricardo slowed as I stopped listing manually, waiting for the automated sync. CardTrader sales also slowed, making me question its value for the weekly fees if sales don't pick up. But the Shopify revenue, driven by the flyers and Black Friday email, shows the new strategy is already paying off.

Six-Month Financial Summary and Key Takeaways

Looking back at the first six months, the business is profitable and on a good trajectory, even if the initial goal of $50,000 in a year looks very difficult to achieve.

• Total Revenue (6 months): $7,100
• Total Profit (6 months): $2,760

The key takeaway is that building an independent channel works, but it requires a multi-pronged approach: driving traffic from existing marketplaces, diversifying your product catalog, and having the right tools to manage inventory efficiently across all channels. The next big project is to figure out how to sync single cards with images via TCG PowerTools, which would unify the entire inventory management process.