How to Stock and Price a Trading Card Vending Machine
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Once the machine is placed, what you put inside and what you charge decides how it performs. This guide covers sourcing product, thinking through pricing, and keeping the machine stocked.
What you can stock
Trading card machines handle a range of sealed products: booster packs, booster boxes, elite trainer boxes, sports cards, and graded slabs on larger models. Coil spacing is adjustable, so you can run different product sizes in the same machine. Our larger models are built to fit a mix of packs, boxes, and slabs.
Where to source product
- Wholesale distributors and regional wholesalers: A common source for sealed product at operator pricing.
- Retail sources: Some operators buy from retailers that carry sealed product, though margins are usually thinner.
- Authorized sources: Buy from reputable, authorized suppliers, so you know the product is authentic and sealed.
How to think about pricing
Start with your cost, then work outward. For each product, consider:
- Your cost per pack or box
- Card processing fees on cashless sales
- Any venue share or rent you agreed to pay
- What competing shops charge for the same product
- Demand for the set: Popular or newly released sets can support higher prices than older ones.
A simple way to check a price: subtract your cost, the processing fee, and any venue share from the sale price. What's left is your margin on that item. As an illustration only, if a pack costs you $8 and you charge $15, you'd subtract processing and any venue share from the remaining $7. This is a way to do the math, not a forecast of what you'll earn, and results vary by location and product.
Because you control pricing remotely, you can adjust as costs and demand change, without visiting the machine.
Keeping it stocked
- Watch your inventory remotely: The dashboard shows real-time sales, restock alerts, and inventory.
- Restock on a schedule: Match your visits to how quickly the location sells, and refill the fastest sellers first.
- Plan for variety: A mix of price points tends to keep the machine interesting to repeat visitors.
Get started
Compare models on our trading card vending machines page, read our post on what a machine costs, or book a free call to talk through your setup.