Born To Be A Collector (TCG Card Shop Simulator)

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Just what is it with people playing a game where all you do is set up shop for cards, check-in cashiers, opening cards themselves, and selling the rarest ones at whatever prices possible? Honestly, maybe not playing Pokémon in IRL would be my biggest regrets so far.

If I just knew how crazy this whole card collecting business has gotten in the past few years. TCG Card Shop Simulator has similarities to the trading site, despite no confirmations. It's just a simple and endless simulated experience running a shop where you sell cards that are spoofs of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering, etc. Almost literal with endless expansion.

It's not super rich in terms of content, in-depth and complex mechanics, it's just a game I know that have done this years ago, only managing to cash in on a new trend. Doesn't mean it isn't fun, keeping it a balance between engaging in card collecting hobbies to micromanaging my shop.

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This one is a fat lie, quitting your day job in this economy? You mortgaged the house your grandmother gave. But then again, this could be set in a city where it's affordable like Chicago or Seattle, then again I could be wrong. Why is this part bothering me again?

Yeah, you're not immersed super into the game world because there's nothing much going on outside buildings, car as background textures, there's even invisible walls that limit exploring outside the 10-meter perimeter from the shop. Everything happens on the inside, which kind of sucks considering you could maybe get along with the neighborhood.

Starts small, just stock up on basic card packs, change the sign to open, and just wait till customers come around, oh yeah, I can dictate pricing. Just pressing, market price will already list, yet it's also possible to manually adjust or increment increase or decrease by 10%.

If you know basic economy, it's better to sell a teensy bit less than market price at first, this is a way to bring more customers. Word of mouth, and after depleting the stock easily, just wait till the money flows and then boom. Oh, also the shop level, increasing XP unlocks more to buy stuff out like bigger card packages, shelves for new items, and ones to sell rare cards of my picking.

Also, quick question; Do you have a good KB/M setup? You'll need it. I don't know how, but it feels like if I don't do the check-up fast enough. Customers will get dissatisfied. They pay either through cash or credit card. Why not just put up a QR sign for Venmo, and easily check out? There's also the matter of hygiene, you see those guys with green spew coming out of them? Yeah, spray those guys. Don't leave them hanging. It unlocks after shop level 5 thankfully.

A number of invincible factors into one makes the money, it's basically running a store, and waiting till the customers flow by till you've figured out a data, and get everything worked out. But that shop level unlocks multiple things, including merchandise, stuff like board games, accessories, and so on.

So what else can a card shop do? Well, allow people to battle out with one another. Charging dollar each seat. In due time, expanding it further means adding all of this, allowing more profits to accrue. Then again, the number of people I'm seeing coming and going makes me wonder if anyone's complaining about not finding any snacks and drinks vending machines.

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What's there to like? Well, it's simple, it designed well to serve its purpose, and I am a sucker for sims sometimes. This was really addictive, taking hours of my time. It's not an easy game to play, especially with a number of responsibilities left for me.

I was just in day 7, and found out I didn't pay for the rent and electricity. I had an enormous chunk of cash I saved, but it keeps getting spent. It's not like I put on something new, and my shop is immediately going to get it sold. There are times I got seriously lucky, like getting a 350 USD Tetramon card. That is ridiculously expensive.

Lastly, I should mention, this is an early access game. Probably a number of things I want like customer identifiers to visit my shop in recurring basis, and sale events would be nice. I can't wait to fill up the shop with all different levels of booster cards. And open up more rarer ones for bragging rights. Even though in reality, none of this will mean much.

Unless they decide to pull a Steam Marketplace thing, and a literal cash cow in the end. Then again, some people have too much time on their ends, even to play something as a bit barebones as this. But giving it time, it'll definitely be something worthwhile. I can tell.

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