Card Shops and Businesses

I've been going to game stores since fourth grade, but never really thought much about how they stay in business and exactly how they work. While it may seem obvious, it's rather cool when you think about. For starters, stores start by getting cards for less than they sell them for. My local store gets a case of six boxes for $430, and sells packs at four dollars each. There are 36 packs in a box, so if they were to sell all of the packs, they would get $864 and double their money. Of course, these packs are also used for drafts and tournament prizes sometimes, where they barely make any profit, but draw people to the store. Even with the board games, they typically get their products for what they sell them for. This remains true when they buy cards from players. They usually offer a little under half of what they sell them for, and much less for bulk rares and commons. Still people who no longer want their cards and want some extra money will come to sell their cards.

Most of their sales came from booster packs, which people usually buy 5 of, but they also get a lot of money from bulk commons that they sell for 10 cents (they buy for 10 cents an inch), and dollar rares that they buy for 10 cents. The cards are cheap because most people don't want them, but oftentimes players will just browse through the binders and get a lot of cards that the shop pretty much paid nothing for. Also, players who trade cards in can get a little bit more in store credit, so usually, they don't lose money at all. Even so, they aren't the busiest store with 6 or 7 buyers on a regular week day and about 20 on weekly tournament days, but still, they've been there a few years and seem to be doing fairly well. After talking to busier stores, I basically got the same information except that they had more people coming by. The majority of buyers were teenagers and college age, but tournaments can draw in a variety of ages, as anyone who wants to play will go. Most players find stores by using Wizards' store locator, so anyone who wants to play can find them. Prereleases and larger tournaments will draw in many players.

The stores I talked to primarily sold Magic and trading card games, and while I understand how the business works, I'm still a bit surprised that they sell enough to cover bills and employees. I didn't really get any of that information, so I am still kind of confused in that regard. I guess it depends on the popularity of the store.