TCG Card Shop Simulator Guide – Controls, Prices, Events

TCG Card Shop Simulator lets you live the dream of opening your own shop selling booster packs, tabletop games, and accessories, while also collecting thousands of rare cards. Managing a store isn't easy—here's everything you need to know about this unique experience.

TCG Card Shop Simulator Guide - Packs, Smells, Workers

Basic Controls

Key	Function
TAB	Open your phone, used to purchase stock, manage events, expand your store, etc.
R	Open the card album Open boxes (when holding a box) Open packs (when holding a pack) Rotate furniture (after picking up furniture)
Q	Pick up/hold items (use this function to pick up boxes to stock or throw, and to hold card packs to open) Place items on shelves
E	Rotate furniture (after picking up furniture)
C	Box up furniture (after picking up furniture)
Right mouse click	Pick up items from shelves (use this function to take card packs from shelves to open)
Left mouse click	Pick up/hold items (use this function to pick up boxes to stock or throw) Place items on shelves, the ground, or in the trash

How to purchase stock

You can purchase stock via two phone apps: Table Top 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). Both are accessible from the get-go, but you will want to mainly stock Booster Packs, as customers buy these a lot, and you can also open them to get cards for yourself or to sell.

You need to make a one-time purchase for the license to buy stock in specific quantities. There are separate licenses for stock at larger quantities, but don't rush into buying these in the early game when you don't have much shelf space. They only become useful when your store has expanded by a lot, as it saves time from having to keep track of and unbox multiple orders.

In the early game, you can purchase stock as needed. Later on, it becomes too time-consuming to keep buying stock throughout the work days, so you can keep excess stock in Warehouse Shelves. Workers (or yourself) can easily stock items from the Warehouse Shelves directly to the customer-facing shelves.

How to set prices

After stocking an item on the shelves, don't forget to set a price ASAP, especially when stocking in the middle of a sale day. If you forget to set a price for a new item, it will sell under the 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 couple of in-game days to ensure that you aren't over or underpricing 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 often purchased in bulk (such as booster packs) at market price, and novelty items for a small markup.

Click on the bar graph on the upper right of the price UI to check each item's price history. If you purchase a lot of stock in advance, there's a chance for you to lose profit even when selling at Market Price, especially if the item's value depreciates over time.

How to throw boxes away

Empty boxes will clog up your shop and leave a mess. Throw them away by picking them up and taking them to the trash just outside the store. Click on the trash can to dispose of the boxes you're holding. Don't use the Q key as it will place the boxes on top of the trash can instead of inside it.

You can also purchase Trash Bins from the MY DIY app on the phone to have more conveniently placed garbage cans inside the store.

How to open packs and collect cards

Part of the TCG shop ownership experience includes collecting and selling rare cards. You can open packs directly from the shelves by following the steps below:

1. Use the left mouse button to pick up to eight card packs (hold the button to collect quickly).
2. Press the R key to open a pack.
3. Hold the left mouse button to peel the pack open.
4. Click on the left mouse button to see the cards you got 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 opened but do note that card values change per day. You can choose to keep them for your collection or place them for sale on a Card Table.

How to check reviews

Open your in-game phone and select Reviews to view all customer reviews over time. Browsing through these regularly will help identify what you need to improve in your shop. Common complaints include bad smells, high pricing, and slow service, which you should quickly address to prevent losing more customers in the future.

How to get rid of bad smells

You can easily identify smelly customers from the green odor indicator that follows them around. If you don't manage your shop's odor situation, other customers will be dissatisfied and leave a bad review. Combat bad odor by purchasing the Auto Scent M100 from the MY DIY app on the phone. After placing it in the store, load it up with two Cleansers by picking them up from the shelf and clicking on the machine. These act as air fresheners that eliminate bad odors.

Don't forget to click on the Auto Scent M100 to turn it on. The two bars indicate the amount of Cleanser left. You only need to refill with new Cleansers when the bars are fully depleted. One Auto Scent M100 is not enough to eliminate bad smells from the whole store, so you'll have to place quite a few depending on the size of your store. At Shop Level 40, you'll unlock the Auto Scent T1000, which can cover a wider range. I strongly recommend placing these machines near Play Tables as customers who use them tend to stay for a while.

How to fix wrong change

You can round up change by a few cents/dollars to save time, but the game will flag when you've inputted too much or too few. When you input the wrong physical change, you can fix the issue by right-clicking on the value you want to retract from the change tray. For example, if you accidentally click on a $50 bill, you can retract it by right-clicking on the $50 bill on the tray.

This only works for the exact denominations you initially placed on the table. So if you input five $1 bills and want to remove them, you can't right-click on a $5 bill—instead, you must right-click the $1 bills on the tray one by one.

If you input the incorrect value for card payments, click on the X button in the POS terminal to delete numbers one by one. Do note that you have to manually click on the decimal for payments that include it.

How to turn on the lights

The shop gets pretty dark at night. Turn on the lights by clicking on the light switch near the door. I recommend keeping the lights off during the day to conserve electricity and reduce your electric bill.

How to pay bills

Running a shop isn't free—you have to pay rent, utilities, and worker salaries regularly. On the phone, click on the Pay Bills app to check your running balance and due date. The balance increases on every in-game work day but it isn't due to interest; the bill naturally increases as the days of operation increase. Make sure to pay on time to prevent issues like losing lights.

How to hire workers

When you reach Shop Level milestones, you can hire workers on the phone through the GO Recruit app. Workers will stand outside the store until you give them tasks, such as manning the checkout counters and restocking shelves from excess store stock (from boxes on the ground or on Warehouse Shelves; they will not purchase new stock with your cash). It's essential 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 rushes or you may get bad reviews.

How to initiate store events

You can initiate TCG tournament events in your store via 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 every time you open the store (other than the one free event). It's a good idea to choose your preferred event format before opening the store.

Keep in mind 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 disallow more customers to sit until others leave. I suggest keeping around six tables max to still get decent sales flow from in-and-out customers. If you are trying to fully maximize sales profit, you may want to get rid of Play Tables as 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 via the RENO BIGG app on the phone. Each shop expansion costs a few hundred dollars but is considered a permanent, one-time cost. However, rent prices increase with every shop expansion, so be careful not to overexpand 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.

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