A pricing strategy for card shop singles

Decision 1

Pick the number you price against

Every consistent pricing strategy starts from a reference price. For most stores selling in US dollars that is TCGplayer's Market Price. TCGplayer compiles it from recent sales completed on TCGplayer.com, which makes it a measure of what cards sell for rather than what sellers ask. The listed median, by TCGplayer's own explanation, is the median of current listings only and can sit well above what people actually pay. More in TCGplayer Market Price.

Then decide where you sit against it. There is no right answer, only a choice that should match how you sell:

• At market. Simple to explain, and fair to customers who check prices on their phone at the counter.
• A little under. Moves stock faster online, where buyers compare. It costs margin on every sale, so pair it with a minimum.
• A little over. Pays for the convenience of buying today, in person, with no shipping. It works best for cards people want to play this weekend.

In Synq this is the rule's Modify by percent. The setup offers -10%, -5%, Market, +5% and +10% to start, and a rule takes anything from -99% to +1000%.

Decision 2

Price each condition

Played copies sell for less than Near Mint, and how much less varies by game, card and demand. You can price played conditions two ways:

• From each condition's own market price. A Lightly Played copy follows what Lightly Played copies sell for. It tracks reality, but cards that rarely sell in played condition may have no price of their own.
• From Near Mint, less a percent. Every condition is a fixed step below Near Mint. It is predictable and easy to explain, but ignores the market where played copies are in high demand or hard to find.

Synq does the first by default and falls back to the second: a played condition with no market price of its own uses the rule's percent below Near Mint. If you leave a condition's percent empty, that condition isn't priced and keeps the price it has.

Decision 3

Set a minimum from your cost

A rule that follows the market follows it down too. A minimum, or floor, is the price a card never goes under, whatever the market does. There are two useful kinds:

• From your cost. What you paid, plus or minus a percent or an amount. It stops a falling market from selling a card at a loss. It only works for cards with a cost recorded, so set one when you add or import them, or give every new product a default cost as a share of its market price in Settings.
• A fixed amount. For cheap cards whose market price is a few cents. Pulling, sleeving and shipping a single costs you the same whatever it sells for, so a floor keeps the cheapest cards worth selling one by one.

Both can be the same for every condition, or set per condition. A card with its own minimum keeps the higher of its own and the rule's. Rules have a minimum but no maximum.

Decision 4

Round your prices

Prices straight from a formula end in odd cents. Rounding gives them clean endings: .99 and .49 read as deliberate prices on a shelf tag or a product page, and whole numbers make cash at the counter quicker.

Round up rather than to the nearest when you sit at or below market, so rounding never takes margin away. Synq offers no rounding, round up to x.49, round up to x.99, round up to x.00, and round to the nearest x.00. Rounding and minimums work in your store's currency, after the conversion from US dollars, so the endings are right in any currency.

Decision 5

Decide when to reprice

Synq's catalog takes in TCGplayer market prices once a day, so repricing more than once a day won't pick up new market prices. Whether you reprice every day depends on what you sell:

• Every day. For games and sets that move: new releases, cards seeing play, anything people check before buying. Run it before you open so the counter and the website agree all day.
• Some days. For slower stock, so prices don't shift under customers who are still deciding.
• Once. For a sale, say: the rule runs that day and its schedule ends.
• By hand. After a big buy, or when you change a rule, run it yourself and check the result.

Whatever the schedule, look at the preview before the first run of a new rule. It lists every price that would go up, go down or stay the same, and the cards with no market price.

Single cards

When a card shouldn't follow the rule

Some cards are better priced by hand: a high-end card you watch yourself, one you bought at a price you want to hold, or a local favourite that sells above market in your area. In Synq these are exceptions. A card can follow its own formula (market, market plus a percent, or market minus a percent), have its own minimum, or keep a price you type in, which excludes that condition from rules so no run changes it.

Editing a price in Synq's Inventory sets that exception for you. Editing it in the Shopify admin doesn't, and the next run of its rule overwrites it. See Exceptions.