I’d call it impossible in this case. The shrinkage cap is too low and the employee leverage is too high even if the wage wasn’t below the poverty line which it would be. The margins are simply not there.
1 Like
This scenario reminds me of every Timmy’s Emporium video Rudy makes. Still do think it makes sense for a preexisting marketplace to open up to the Japanese side of things.
1 Like
I can maybe see it happen but I remain skeptical. Less so than when executed as a solitary business, this still smells of trying to run a lemonade stand like a Walmart.
If we just look away from the archival nightmare of cataloging everything and maintaining profitable (not merely sustainable) levels of inventory, the demand itself is volatile. Japanese interest is still highly inflated, both speculative and consumer demand.
Building a venture based on the current western japanese demand (or even more misrepresentative, the E4 perception of western japanese demand) sounds like bad business. Why play around with this grenade when there are oodles of much safer, much more profitable ventures out there?
What I am referring to specifically is a tcg player type business that has sellers and buyers who utilize its platform already. All they would need to do is add additional templates for sellers to utilize. They would not have to worry about the margin on the cards as they get a fee regardless. I should have been more clear. We do have a biased view being on e4. I would argue, however, that the recent uptick in Japanese interest is not just a fad. About 90% of my inventory is Japanese cards/merch and my sales this year surpassed my 2020 numbers by approximately 50%. I end up discarding much of my Japanese bulk as it stands. I wouldn’t necessarily use this service because of time constraints/lack of margin but I am sure many would.
This is the one method with a chance at succeeding, I agree. Still think it may be more trouble than it’s worth though.
1 Like
The cost involved to have experts build their registry and understand what’s going on when disputes arise would be substantial.
Why go to the effort when the product isn’t even sold in North America?
They could definitely do it, there’s other things that are a higher priority.
Shouldn’t be too hard for tcgplayer to add listings for Japanese set cards. They do it all the time with new English sets.