TCG Card Shop Simulator lets you live the dream of opening your own shop selling booster packs, table games and accessories while collecting thousands of rare cards. Running a store isn’t easy—here’s everything you need to know about this unique experience.
TCG Card Shop Simulator Guide – Packs, Scents, Workers
Basic Controls
| a key | function |
|---|---|
| TABLE | Open your phone, used to buy stocks, manage events, expand your store, etc. |
| R | Open the card album Open boxes (holding a box) Open packages (while package lasts) Rotate furniture (after taking furniture) |
| Q | Pick up/hold items (use this feature to pick up boxes to store or throw, and to hold cards to open) Place items on shelves |
| E | Rotate furniture (after taking furniture) |
| C | Plug in furniture (after picking up furniture) |
| Right mouse click | Take items from shelves (use this function to take cards from shelves to open) |
| Left mouse click | Pick up/hold items (use this feature to pick up boxes to store or throw) Place items on shelves, ground or in the trash |
How to buy stocks
You can buy stocks using two phone apps: Tabletop and Stock Order. Table Top is a stockist only for tabletop games, while Stock Order allows you to buy a wider variety of goods (Booster Packs, Accessories and Figurines).
You must make a one-time purchase for the license to purchase stock in specified quantities. There are separate licenses for stock at larger quantities, but don’t rush to buy these in the early game when you don’t have a lot of shelf space. They become useful only when your store has grown a lot, because it saves time from having to save and unsubscribe multiple orders.
In the early game, you can buy stocks as needed. Later, it becomes too time-consuming to keep buying stocks during the working days, so you can keep excess stocks in Warehouses. Workers (or yourself) can easily stock items from the Warehouse Shelves directly to the customer-facing shelves.
How to set prices
After storing an item on the shelves, don’t forget to set a price as early as possibleespecially during storage in the middle of a sales day. If you forget to set a price for a new item, it will sell below market value, and you will lose money.
You can click the Market Price button to get the ideal selling price for the item, and it’s up to you to adjust in 10% increments or decrements. It’s important to know that the market price of each item changes daily, so I suggest checking every two in-game days to make sure you’re not over- or under-pricing your goods. Customers will be dissatisfied if your prices are too high! It’s up to you to decide on your pricing, but a common strategy is to sell items that are often bought in bulk (like booster packs) at market price, and novelties for a small markup.
Click the bar graph at the top right of the price UI to check each item price history. If you buy a lot of stock in advance, there is a chance for you to lose profit even when you sell at Market Price, especially if the value of the item depreciates over time.
How to throw away boxes
Empty boxes will clog your store and leave a mess. Dispose of them by picking them up and taking them to the bin just outside the store. Click on the trash can to remove the boxes you are holding. Do not use the Q key as it will place the boxes on top of the bin instead of inside it.
You can also buy Bins from the MY DIY app on the phone to have trash cans more conveniently placed inside the store.
How to open packs and collect cards
Part of the TCG store ownership experience includes collecting and selling rare cards. You can open packages directly from the shelves by following the steps below:
- Use the left mouse button to pick up to eight card packs (press the button to collect quickly).
- Press the R key to open a package.
- Hold the left mouse button to peel the package open.
- Click the left mouse button to see the cards you received in each pack. You can hold the button to speed up the animation.
The game will inform you of the value of each card and the total value of the pack you have opened, but note that card values change daily. You can choose to keep them for your collection or put them up for sale on a Card Table.
How to check reviews
Open your in-game phone and select Reviews to see all customer reviews over time. Browsing these regularly will help identify what you need to improve in your store. Common complaints include bad smells, high prices, and slow service, which you should address quickly to avoid losing more customers in the future.
How to get rid of bad smells
You can easily identify smelly customers from the green scent indicator that follows them around. If you do not manage the odor situation of your shop, other customers will be dissatisfied and leave a bad review. Fight bad breath by buying the Auto Odor M100 from the MY DIY application on the phone. After placing it in the store, load it two Cleaners taking them off the shelf and clicking on the machine. These act as air fresheners that remove bad odors.
don’t forget click on the Auto Odor M100 to turn it on. The two bars indicate the amount of Cleaner remaining. You only need to refill with new Cleaners when the bars are fully depleted. One Auto Odor M100 is not enough to remove bad odors from the whole store, so you will need to put several depending on the size of your store. At Shop Level 40, you’ll unlock the T1000 Auto Scent, which can cover a wider range. I strongly recommend placing these machines near Gaming Tables because customers who use them tend to stay for a while.
How to fix a wrong change
You can round up the change by a few cents/dollars to save time, but the game will flag when you’ve entered too much or too few. When you enter the wrong physical change, you can fix the problem with right clicking on the value you want to withdraw from the change tray. For example, if you accidentally click on a $50 bill, you can retrieve it by right-clicking on the $50 bill on the tray.
This only works for the exact denominations you initially put on the table. So if you insert five $1 bills and want to delete them, you can’t right-click on $5 bills—instead, you have to right-click on the $1 bills. on the tray one by one
If you enter the wrong value for card payments, click the X button in the POS terminal to delete numbers one by one. Note that you must manually click on the decimal for payments that include it.
How to turn on the lights
The shop gets quite dark at night. Turn on the lights by clicking the light switch near the door. I recommend turning off the lights during the day to conserve electricity and reduce your electric bill.
How to pay bills
Running a store isn’t free — you have to pay rent, utilities and workers’ wages regularly. On the phone, tap the App Pay Bills to check your current balance and due date. The balance increases in each in-game working day but it is not due to interest; the bill naturally increases as the days of operation increase. Be sure to pay on time to prevent problems like losing lights.
How to hire workers
When you reach Shop Level milestones, you can hire workers by phone through the go Recruitment application. Workers will automatically service the checkout counters and restock from excess store stock (from boxes on the ground or in Warehouses; they will not buy new stock with your cash). It’s necessary to have workers so you can spend time opening packs to build your card collection or find ultra-rare cards to sell for big bucks.
While early game workers are extremely slow, they can be helpful in the afternoon when there are very few customers in the store. Don’t depend on slow workers in the morning and evening or you may get bad reviews.
How to start store events
You can initiate TCG tournament events in your store with the Manage Events app on the phone, in which customers can participate through Play Tables. You can edit the event format to customize the experience, but each event will have an upfront cost that will automatically be deducted from your cash each time you open the shop (except for the free event). It’s a good idea to choose your preferred event format before opening the store.
Remember that stores can only have a maximum of 28 customers at a time. After about six to nine tables, the game’s AI will often bar more customers from sitting until others leave. I suggest keeping about six tables maximum to still get a decent flow of sales from in-and-out customers. If you are trying to fully maximize sales profit, you may want to get rid of Game Tables because having customers stay for a while will reduce foot traffic.
How to make your store bigger
If your store is getting a little tight, you can expand with the RENO BIGG app on the phone. Each store expansion costs a few hundred dollars but is considered a permanent, one-time cost. However, rental prices increase with each store expansionso be careful not to overextend yourself when you don’t have a lot of savings!
For more on this game, check out our compilation of TCG Card Shop Simulator Cheats and Console Commands here on Pro Game Guides.
