How to Price Sealed Products and Single Cards

Build note: Tested in TCG Card Shop Simulator Version 1.0, Build 1.02, on Windows PC on September 21, 2026. Controls and balance may differ after patches or on consoles.

You know the scene: the register keeps chirping, customers leave with armfuls of packs, and somehow the till still looks like it lost a bar fight. Sales revenue is not the same as profit. If your labels trail behind the market or barely cover replacement stock, a busy shop can work all day for pocket lint. The fix is a short pricing routine you can repeat without turning your cozy card store into a full-time spreadsheet dungeon.

Check the Market Before Touching a Label

Market value is the game's current reference price for an item or card. Open your phone and select TCG Price. Use the item tabs for sealed stock and accessories. Switch to the card tab for singles; the gear button lets you choose which card set to view. Select the bar-chart button beside an entry to inspect its recent price history.

Market values are recalculated overnight, and play-table events can affect related packs and cards. Your shelf label does not update itself when the market moves. It can stay tied to an older price until you or an employee refreshes it.

Check TCG Price before opening the shop.
Walk to the product shelf or Card Table and interact with its price label.
Select Market Price to replace the stale number with the current value.
Apply your chosen markup once, then use rounding if desired.
Check the final price and finish the change.

Do this daily for fast sellers and expensive singles. A full-store sweep every few in-game days is usually enough for slower stock unless an event or sharp market move gives you a reason to act sooner.

Price Sealed Products for Steady Turnover

For booster packs, boxes, and other sealed products, begin at current market value. New shops can test one +10% press on a dependable product line. This keeps the test easy to read: either the extra profit helps, or the fuller shelf tells you that sales slowed.

Before raising a price, calculate the product's cost per unit. Divide the Stock Order case price by the number of sale units inside. That gives you a base unit cost. For a tighter estimate, spread the order's shipping charge across those units too. Shelf price minus this estimated unit cost is your gross profit per sale. Gross margin is that gross profit divided by the shelf price; neither figure includes rent, power, or wages.

Decision	What to do
Reliable seller with thin profit	Rebase to Market Price, test one small markup step, and watch it for two full shop days.
Shelf empties early	Add stock or shelf space first. If supply is secure, test one higher step.
Product barely moves	Return it to Market Price for two days before deciding whether the product itself is weak.
Near-market price still loses money	Stop tying up cash in that line until its order cost or market value improves.

Higher markup earns more from each completed sale but lowers price acceptance. Lower markup can move more units and return cash faster. Customer funds also matter, so even a fair price does not guarantee that every shopper who inspects an item will buy it. Aim for the best total profit your traffic and stock can support, not the most heroic number printed on one label.

Price Single Cards as Individual Tickets

A single is one loose card placed for sale on a Card Table. Start each newly listed single from its current market value, even if you have sold that card type before. When the same card type returns to a table, it can reuse its prior listed price. That old price becomes risky after the market drops.

Place the card on the Card Table.
Interact with its label and select Market Price.
For an ordinary duplicate, test one modest markup step.
For a valuable pull, check the final dollar increase, not just the percentage. A small percentage can add a huge amount to an expensive card.
Leave the card for two complete shop days before changing it again.

Singles do not behave like identical boxes of stock. Their values and the amount customers can afford vary. A monster pull can fund the next expansion, but it may need patience—or a price closer to market—to find a buyer. If it is a collection trophy, deck copy, or display favorite, keeping it is also a perfectly good use of the card.

Do Not Stack Percentage Presses by Accident

The manual percentage buttons work from the price currently displayed. Repeated presses therefore compound instead of adding simple percentage points.

Suppose a booster box has a market value of $10.00. Pressing +10% once gives $11.00. Press it again and the game adds 10% to $11.00, producing $12.10. A third press produces $13.31. That is 33.1% above market, not 30%.

Always press Market Price before starting a new manual test. Then press the percentage button only as many times as intended. Check the final price after rounding, because rounding can nudge the real markup above or below your target.

Run a Two-Day Markup Test

Change one product line at a time so the result means something. Record its opening stock, current market value, shelf price, and estimated unit cost. Run two full shop days at your current price. Then rebase the label to Market Price, raise it by one small step, and run two more full days with similar opening hours and stock levels.

Count units sold and estimate gross profit as (sale price minus unit cost) multiplied by units sold. Use this rollback point for the test: return to the last price if unit sales fall by about 20% or more and the higher price does not produce more gross profit. Roll back early if several customers start complaining about the price. Traffic changes from day to day, so treat this as a practical test, not a permanent law carved into the Card Table.

Set Employee Pricing Without Losing Your Singles Strategy

Manual repricing and employee repricing do not use the same percentage logic. In the employee task menu, Set Price applies one flat markup to current market value. An employee setting of +20% targets 120% of market; it does not imitate two compounded +10% button presses. The employee controls move in five-percentage-point steps and can also apply rounding.

The Set Price task includes an option controlling whether the worker may change individual card prices. Use that switch deliberately:

For sealed stock, assign Set Price with your sealed-product markup and turn off card repricing if singles use a different plan.
For singles, configure the price options inside Restock Card and enable its card-price option when you want newly placed cards priced automatically.
If a valuable single has a hand-picked price, keep employee card repricing off or the worker may replace it with the standard markup.

Workers still travel from label to label; this is automation, not wizardry. Put Set Price in the primary task slot before opening if you need a full sweep. A secondary pricing task behind a busy register job may wait while the queue performs its usual retail hydra impression.

Fix the Price Signal You Are Seeing

If price complaints are frequent: Rebase the problem labels to current Market Price. Lower them by one step and check whether an employee is applying a different markup than you intended.
If products sell out too fast: Confirm that you can afford and store more replacement stock. Then raise only that line by one step and observe it for two days.
If margins stay low: Calculate the estimated unit cost, including a share of shipping when it matters. Test one higher step on strong sellers, but pause any line that cannot cover its cost near market value.
If a valuable single sits unsold: Refresh its market value, remove compounded markup, and test it at Market Price for two full days. If it still sits, rotate it out or wait for customers with larger budgets rather than slashing every card in the case.

If the till is nearly empty, use the quick recovery play: refresh your three fastest sealed lines, price them at current market value, keep them stocked, and stop changing expensive singles for two days. That restores clean cash-flow data and gets money moving again. Once the shelves are paying their way, resume small markup tests and keep building the polished local card shop you actually came here to run.

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