I see certain questions on a regular basis. The answers to the most important of these questions become full-fledged articles. Others don’t need that much attention, but they do need some time. Here are the ones that come to mind first.

How do I set a weekly buying budget?

One way is to set it as a fraction of your previous week’s sales. If you do $4,000 in sales, set your buying budget at 50% or 60% of that figure ($2,000 or $2,400). Divide that figure between your different categories so that you’re not spending the whole amount at Alliance and then wondering how you’re going to restock your snacks, Magic singles and t-shirt rack.

This policy is very important, and you should seek to fine-tune it as you learn your store and adjust it as you go so that it helps you meet your store’s needs. In your first year or so, expect your inventory to grow, both in response to increasing sales, and as needed to expand into new categories or product lines. Budget for and plan for your inventory increase instead of letting it happen by accident.

How do I handle CCG singles?

The number of ways stores handle CCG singles is approximately equal to the number of game stores that sell CCG singles.

First, should you even sell singles? Selling singles opens up new theft opportunities, and it’s very time-consuming. Either aspect might be a deal-breaker for you. On the other hand, singles can add high-margin sales, increase your sales volume, and give your company a competitive edge.

Second, which games deserve singles sales? If you sell a booster and a starter box of each set of a particular game, that game wouldn’t be a good candidate. For that matter, booster sales might not be the best indicator in any case; game play and tournament activity might be a better indicator. Start with your busiest (or best-selling) game first. If you’re happy with the results, you might wish to expand your singles sales to other games.

Many stores deal only with current tournament-legal rares in a binder, organized alphabetically by set, in order by collector number, or whatever is easy for you and your customers to handle. These cards might be under a glass display case or behind the counter, available only on request and not to leave the counter. Commons and uncommons might go in a bin or box, for anything from a nickel to a dollar a card.

Larger stores, or stores that focus on CCGs, might have everything in a binder, including commons. They might have a binder for every set all the way back to M:tG’s Alpha (I did).

Price competition can be intense for singles. Many stores use some sort of index pricing, comparing the prices at online resellers and choosing what works best for their store. Others price the singles themselves, based on their knowledge of the game and the perceived play value (and its subsequent demand). Most stores adjust their prices up or down according to what’s currently winning tournaments.

For absolute simplicity, you could simply price cards according to rarity, with all commons the same price, all uncommon the same price, and all rares the same price. This strategy might work best for low-competition games, regional favorites, isolated markets, or low-volume CCG sales in general.

You might buy your singles from your customers, buy them in collections, or open booster boxes.

If you buy singles from customers, do you offer cash or credit? Credit is better for you, while cash gets you a greater selection from your customers. You could use a mix: anything over $20 has to be credit, for example, or you only pay cash for a select list of rares. If you buy a collection, you might offer a static buy price according to the number of cards in the collection, sift through them looking for exceptional cards, or negotiate each purchase individually. Opening booster boxes gives a good diversity of product and a reliable supply; it also gives you an influx of new cards that your players need. On the other hand, it’s relatively expensive and can leave you with multiples of unwanted rares.

How do I set a schedule?

You need at least one person on duty for each hour you’re open. You might need to plan on time before you open to set up, count your drawer, receive inventory, or whatever. Likewise, you need to plan on time after closing for cleanup, paperwork, making the deposit, and other after-hours chores.

The tricky part comes when you have multiple people working for you. When should one shift end and another begin? When do you need to overlap so that you have more than one person on duty? How much work should you expect out of one person?

You get your double coverage from the overlap between the opening and closing shifts. Your opener might come in at 9:30 AM to get the store ready to open by 10:00. Your closer might work until 10:30 PM (half an hour after you close). Look at your sales records to find out when your busiest time is. If it’s between 5 PM and 7 PM (which is common), schedule your opener to stay until 7:00, and bring your closer in at 5:00. From 5 to 7, you’ll have two people on duty.

You might have an odd sales pattern at your store. The most likely is that you have an unusually busy midday—usually because you’re near a crowded business district and people stop by on their lunch break. In that case, you might need somebody to come in just for 2 or 3 hours. If your peak business begins at 6:00 PM and continues all the way up until close, you might need to schedule two closers. During slow times, one could work the counter while the other does chores.

The rule of thumb says that a clerk can handle about $100 an hour in retail sales, but that figure varies widely. In big-box retail, for example, it’s a slow clerk who rings up less than $1,000 an hour during the holiday season. Look at your schedule and judge from your own experience how much you can expect somebody to ring up without help. It might be $100, or it might be $200 or even higher.

How much cash should I have for my cash drawer?

When you first start, you should have $75 or $100 in 5s, 1s and loose change. If you spent heavily on advertising and promotion before opening and can reasonably expect a higher-than-average soft opening, you might increase the amount up to $150 or even $200. If you plan to buy used goods at the counter, you might need to keep your cash on hand higher.

Your cash drawer should always be light to minimize the loss from robberies. Anything less than $150 is a good idea, and the less you have, the better. Total cash on hand can be higher than what you keep in your drawer, though. You can keep a couple of hundred dollars available for petty cash and inventory purchases in a safe, locked in your office, or elsewhere.

How can I thank you for all your help?

Pshaw! That’s an easy one. Buy my book when it comes out. It’s contracted and with a publisher. I’ll let you know when we have a release date, and all that.