sell on TCGplayer Without Losing Your Mind (or Wallet)
So, you’ve decided to sell on TCGplayer. Great choice. Or maybe a terrible one. TCGplayer is a battlefield, and if you don’t have the right strategy, you’ll end up broke and wondering why you ever thought selling a $1 common was a good idea.
1. Get Your Shipping Game Together Before You Even List a Card
You think you’re ready to sell, but do you have envelopes, bubble mailers, or boxes that don’t look like they’ve been through a tornado? Do you even know what size you need? Because if you’re slapping cards in random packaging, you’re in for a world of passive-aggressive 3-star reviews. And shipping methods? Yeah, you need those locked down. You don’t want to be the person paying $10 to ship a card that sold for $2. That’s not hustling. That’s charity.
2. Pirateship: The MVP You Didn’t Know You Needed
If you’re not using Pirateship to save on shipping, you’re leaving money on the table. Period. This is 100% necessary to anyone who uses more than plain white envelops (PWE). Pirateship gives you discounts. Pirateship is free. Put 2 and 2 together.
3. Know the Fees and Stop Pretending They Don’t Exist
TCGplayer takes a cut of your sale. You knew that, right? Their transaction fee and your shipping costs add up. Suddenly that $5 sale isn’t looking so hot. So before you even think about listing something, do the math. If the numbers don’t add up, maybe that card belongs in your trade binder, not on TCGplayer.
4. Shipping Cheap Singles: A Lesson in Pain
Selling a card for $0.99 sounds harmless. Then the shipping costs eats your profit faster than Snorlax at a buffet. If you don’t adjust your shipping costs for cheap singles, you’re basically paying buyers to take your cards. Stop doing that.
You need the right strategy. Charging for shipping until a “free shipping” $5 threshold is met can encourage more sales. Or keep things simple and set it up where you can never go negative. Or maybe have a loss-leader strategy. If you want to boost your ratings, list cheap singles intentionally. You might lose a bit upfront, but those 5-star reviews can bring in more sales when you list high value items.
5. Get a Printer, Unless You Love Suffering
Printing shipping labels at home is non-negotiable for anything that’s not a PWE. You need this for the shipping discounts, and it will save you a lot of time.
6. Scaling Up: The Big Leagues
Once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s time to level up. Start by asking yourself: Is selling $1 cards still worth your time? Probably not. At some point, your strategy may need to shift to higher-value items.
Scaling up is about efficiency. Maybe you invest in better shipping supplies. Maybe you use TCGplayer’s listings and checkout system on your own website. Yeah, that’s a thing. When your monthly website costs (including bringing in traffic) are less than TCGplayer’s monthly platform fees, it’s time to level up.
One last thing.
Selling on TCGplayer isn’t for the faint of heart. It can be a grind. But if you plan your shipping, understand your fees, and know when to pivot, you might just turn it into a legit side hustle. Or at least make enough to buy the cards you actually want.
Just remember: this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a hustle. It’s a game. Do it right, and you might just turn a hobby into a side hustle worth bragging about. Choose wisely.
