// TCG Card Shop Simulator has Taken Over my Life

This is not a review, it’s a warning. If you play TCG Card Shop Simulator, it may take over your life.

I picked up this game after generously receiving a gift card from one of my good friends. I’d heard a couple of months back from a co-worker that it was really fun, and that she was addicted to it. I laughed. “Sounds fun,” I said.

Little did I know.

// Build Your Store

TCG Card Shop Simulator is exactly what it sounds like. You run your own card shop. You open up business with $1,000 and a shelf to fill. You’ll order products, stock the shelves, check out customers, and grow your business.

It immediately gets its hooks in you as people flock to the store to purchase your goods – which are going to be packs of cards at the start of the game. The card game is called Tetramon, an obvious spoof of Pokémon in many ways.

As you earn money from selling your wares, you can purchase more fixtures for the store, tables for people to game at, and licenses to sell new and more expensive products.

It’s a constant game of one more thing, one more thing.

You can arrange the store how you like. I eventually settled on a big card wall at the back with hundreds of packs on display, a corner near the window for gaming tables, and some racks for card sleeves and plushes in the front of the store.

You’ll also need to account for the location of your cash register and of course, all of your boxes of overstock yet to hit the shelves.

My favourite area is the display for solo cards. You can put your most valuable cards on display for people to come and purchase.

How do you get individual cards, you ask? Well, by ripping packs.

// Ripping Packs

This is where the game pulls you deeper. You buy bulk packs of cards to sell, but you can also open them. Alongside running a (hopefully) profitable business, there is a collection aspect. There are a ton of different Tetramon, and each one has 12 varieties of card. Different rarities will equal different prices.

This scratches the same itch as opening real packs, or even ripping your daily packs in Pokémon TCG pocket. The only difference is, here, you have crates full of cards at your disposal.

// But I Want Brand Name

If you love the concept but can’t really connect with the knock-off Pokémon, don’t worry. There is a mod available that rebrands absolutely everything into Pokémon. You’ll be selling Pokémon cards, plushes, Game Boy games, tins, play mats, and more. Thanks to this YouTube video for the directions.

The mod includes 12 different, real Pokémon cards from the TCG game for each Pokémon. So far, they have up to gen 4 included. All in all, there is something like 5,000 different cards to collect. And I. Can. Not. Stop.

Each time I order a box for the shop, I order one for myself. I’ll sit in the back of the store after-hours with the lights off simply shredding through dozens of packs, chasing those new cards to fill out my binder.

I’m not sure how long it would take someone to get all the cards – I assume quite some time. They also offer higher rarity cards with different art beyond the initial set I already mentioned. I have so far only collected 1 of those in about 17 hours, which is because a customer sold it to me.

As you level up your shop, you will unlock new products, which include rarer packs with more coveted cards. It will be quite a journey to collect them all.

// A True Sim

TCG Card Shop Simulator isn’t just an excuse to rip packs. As the name implies, there are a lot of sim aspects that I think are quite well done.

You are in total control of the pricing. Each day, market value will fluctuate. It’ll be up to you to adjust your prices and determine how much above or below market value you want. If something can’t stay on the shelves, bump it up a bit. If something is sitting stale, drop it down.

You’ll have to take your boxes of product and restock the shelves when they’re cleaned out. Your life will be much easier if you set up an organization system for your overstock, but you can also leave it in a mound of cardboard stuffed behind the cash register like an animal. 

You’ll be manually operating this cash register, counting change, and processing credit card payments. That is, until your business has grown enough to hire an employee. For a processing fee and a daily wage, you can get people to come handle tasks in your store.

Hired Help

They can run the cash, restock the shelves, or go around and adjust the prices.

I hired the cheapest guy available. Frankly, he sucked. He was too slow on cash, and everyone he helped left the store displeased. He dropped my store rating from a 4.7 all the way down to a 4.4 in his week of employment. So I terminated him.

But I look forward to the day when I have expanded my shop and income enough to have a few capable employees. That way, many of the tasks needing to be done every day will be automated, and I can focus on ripping packs and ordering products.

The Line Must Go Up

Speaking of expanding the shop, this is a gradual process. New licences are very expensive. Additional fixtures ain’t cheap, either. You’ll need to carefully consider when to spend on these things, and when to invest more into stock.

The larger your store grows, you’ll also be on the hook for higher rent payments. Oh, and don’t forget the electricity bill.

One of my favourite – and most realistic – aspects of the game is the abundance of stinky dudes. These stink bombs come into the shop with a cloud of noxious green smoke around them. You’ll need to have spray deodorant on-hand in order to spray them down. If you allow these biohazards to wander freely in the shop, it will affect your rating as other customers complain.

I’ve invested in two automatic scent spray machines in my shop. One near the door and one near the gaming tables. These will spritz the stinkos automatically when they walk by.

// Final Thoughts

Should you play this? If what I’ve described to you sounds appealing, then yes. If you like either collecting cards or sim games, I think it’s worth a shot.

The game is not all that expensive, and currently boasts a 97% Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam. It’s in early access, so you can expect the updates to keep on rolling out over time. Looking back over their history, the devs seem to frequently put out updates. The plan is to launch 1.0 after about a year in early access.

I fired this game up on a Friday night. Over the course of that weekend, I logged 17 hours manning my shop and ripping packs.

I have absolutely got my moneys worth already, and I don’t plan on closing up shop for some time.