Featured Listing: A Successful Trading Card Game and Collectibles Ecommerce Business

About the business

Tell us a little about yourself. What’s your background? How did you start the business?

My name is Trevor Soffin and I grew up in the 90s loving Pokemon, Dragon Ball, etc. I suppose I’ve been something of a collector my whole life. I work full-time managing a Sales Department at a freight brokerage. So for the last 10 years, my experience has been in the logistics space. I am also a volunteer firefighter.

I’m Zach Humphrey a game enthusiast with a background in performing arts, sales, and data analysis. For the past 10 years, I’ve worked primarily as a sales manager in logistics, helping sales reps approach and close complicated proposals. While we grew out of the business, I took on the role of streaming, social media posting, fostering relationships with LGS, and being the “face” of sorts for the brand. We Quickly grew in these online and in-person communities being Admins, trusted resources, and well-trafficked streamers.

Back in 2020, we used to drive around to big-box retailers looking for Pokemon cards. They were sold out everywhere and we were not happy with the experiences we’d had ordering these products from places like eBay or Amazon. Oftentimes, products would arrive at us poorly packaged and damaged. One day, we decided to start an LLC and apply for the distribution of Pokemon cards and gained approval. At that time, the only goal was to sell Pokemon products to our friends who were also sick of driving around searching for them. But things quickly snowballed and as we grew, we treated customers the way we wanted to be treated. We invested in 200lb test boxes of appropriate size and have always included ample protection for the products in the box. Customers would receive their order from us fully bubble-wrapped in a sturdy box and would often provide positive feedback about how impressed they were with that level of care. We made it a priority to respond to customers within a few minutes if they reached out via email or the instant chat function on our website. These are just a couple of reasons that customers have stated they keep coming back to us and we believe that these sorts of things have contributed to the incredible growth we have seen since we began the business. It has become more than we ever dreamed it would be.

As an eCommerce business, where are your products made?

China, Japan, and the USA

What can you tell us about your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Being that our store is less than 3 years old, it may be difficult to accurately determine CLV at this time. Since we have spent less than $600 total on ads, our CAC is quite low when you consider that we have sold products to over 1,800 customers via Shopify alone.

How have you marketed the product and where are your customers originating from?

We have utilized Facebook Ads, our store’s Facebook page, Instagram, SMS, Shopify Email Marketing, Discord, and in-person events such as Comic Cons. About 59% of our Shopify store’s traffic is direct per Shopify Analytics. About 21% comes from Social and 20% from Direct traffic.

Is the asset on your listing owner-operated, how much time does it take to run the business, who else is needed on the team, and what is automated?

Owner-operated by myself and Zachary Humphrey. Combined, we spend approximately 10-15 hours per week running the business. The only significant automation in place is product listings that are synced to marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart Marketplace, and Google Marketplace.

What does someone need to do to continue operating the business in its current form?

Primary tasks include placing orders and preorders with our wholesale distributors, maintaining/updating the website with inventory, maintaining sufficient stock of packaging materials, customer service, fulfilling orders, and communicating with the customer base through various channels such as Discord and Facebook.

Growing the business

Can you list a few opportunities for a potential new owner to continue growing the business?

Expand to global sales via Shopify, eBay, Amazon, etc. instead of the US alone. Invest in Google/Facebook/Amazon ads much more heavily to increase traffic. We have moved away from this investment over time and have grown via word of mouth and other free marketing tactics such as our Facebook page and Discord. Expand into other properties. Our distributors carry so many more properties than what we currently sell. Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh are two examples. Gain approval to host tournaments. We were recently approved by Metazoo to do so and are one of the few websites to have gained that right. Open a brick and mortar store which will provide access to some properties that require a retailer to have one in order to gain approval for wholesale distribution. Magic the Gathering is an example there as well. Consider Amazon FBA for appropriate products. Expand the purchasing and processing of bulk. We would be happy to expand on any of this information with a potential buyer.

What has been the evolution of this asset since its launch?

The two of us started this business with approximately $4,000 in initial investment. We bootstrapped it to where it is now without ever investing more of our own personal capital in the business. Allocations of Pokemon and other TCG products from distributors are determined primarily by the spending history a retailer has with them and the length of the relationship. Since Pokemon’s product supply has not met the demand these past two years, most products are allocated and as time goes on, we’ve seen our allocations increase. Where in the beginning, our allocations were quite small (our first inventory order was about $250), and our allocated product invoices are now upwards of $8,000+ when new allocated products become available. This means more sales revenue as inventory increases. We expect that trend to continue as our spending continues to increase. We have found that our customer base continues to grow and is quite loyal. We maintain what we consider a relatively healthy return customer rate. This business began as a hobby. It has grown to a point where we have had to limit our growth due to the fact that we both have full-time careers.

How does this business make money? What are the current revenue streams?

We place orders for inventory with our distributors as needed and as new products become available. Pokemon, in specific, creates new products every quarter so we consistently open preorders to our customers when we receive confirmed allocation numbers from the distributors. Primarily, we sell our products through Shopify, eBay, Amazon, and TCGPlayer. Customers consistently reach out and ask us to buy their Pokemon card bulk. We have a standard form with our pricing on it that they can submit to us. If accepted, we sort the bulk, pay the customer for it, and sell it to a 3rd party company. We also sell higher-value cards within these bulk submissions on our TCGPlayer Pro Seller account. We sell individual cards on consignment on occasion and charge a fee. We have participated as a vendor at several large Comic-Con events which are typically 2-3 days long from a Friday to a Sunday. The largest had 15,000 visitors.

What marketing channels are most profitable for the business?

SMS, our Facebook page, and Discord.

How does the business currently acquire customers and what is your breakdown for marketing costs?

Our store’s Facebook page, related Facebook groups, word of mouth, Google search, and Instagram, primarily. We also drop a business card in every order placed on Amazon, eBay, and TCGPlayer to direct those customers to our Shopify Store in the future. We have spent very little on ads and have not invested in them in quite some time.

How big is your current team? How many people does it take to run this business?

Two people but could be run by one in the current state.

What’s the reason for selling your business on Flippa?

We started this business as a hobby because we enjoy collecting ourselves and products like Pokemon cards can be difficult to find in big box stores due to demand. We both have full-time careers in which we are heavily invested and the business has grown to the point where it is no longer just a hobby and there is significant growth potential that we do not tap into because of time constraints.