TCG Singles is shutting down: Everything you need to know (and some things you may like to)

Hey there Vault Dwellers. I’ve come with you today to announce the closure of TCGSingles: Powered by Vault Games, our second-hand trading card arm of Vault Games. It’s a decision we haven’t come to lightly but one we needed to make.

Our Magic: the Gathering inventory has been picked up by the awesome folks over at MTGMate.com.au so if there were cards you wanted but were yet to get, head on over there to make an order.

Our remaining Star Wars: Unlimited and Pokemon Trading Card Game inventories are being dealt with by our team. 

If you have any store credit currently outstanding on the TCGSingles.store:

Your account details have been passed to our main Vault Games system and a gift card equal to the value of store credit you have in our system will be issued to you. You will be able to use this gift card in-store at either of our locations, and online at http://vaultgames.com.au/

If you are a Mythic Commander subscriber:

The Mythic Commander league prize store credit will now be rewarded for the main Vault Games store. You will be able to use this prize store credit on sealed Magic: the Gathering product, Vault Games events, or anything else from the store.

If you have an outstanding card order to pick up:

Your order will still be available for pickup for up to six (6) months from today. After that, outstanding orders will be considered abandoned and will either be sold to recover costs associated with storage and administration, or disposed of.

If you would like us to ship your order, please reply to your order confirmation email as soon as possible to arrange and pay a shipping invoice.

If you have buylist cards waiting to be picked up:

As per our Buylist Policy, they will be available for up to six (6) months from today. After that, outstanding orders will be considered abandoned and will either be sold to recover costs associated with storage and administration, or disposed of.

So, that gets the details out of the way, let’s answer the other question you may be asking… WHY?

A majority of our inventory has always been Magic: the Gathering cards, and the stability of the prices of those cards meant we could take a risk with the more volatile secondary markets of Pokemon and Star Wars: Unlimited. Recently though, due to the massive increase of product releases, subsequent reprinted cards, and the shifting player base, it became apparent that the scale TCGSingles was operating at was not sustainable. We were faced with two choices…

The first… we invest a considerable amount of money (upwards of $100k) expanding inventory and facilities, along with a significant number of unpaid labour hours to get TCGSingles operating at enough of a scale that we wouldn’t be losing money… or…

And the second… we shut down TCGSingles: Powered by Vault Games.

It’s no secret that the last two years have been tough financially, particularly for niche luxury retailers like tabletop hobby stores. The realities of the current economic environment means that today, we have to make the second choice. The singles team are still part of the Vault family, and you will still see Piper and Trent working around the Brisbane store. The work these two have put into the singles business has been phenomenal and we want to make sure everyone knows that.

Ultimately, Vault’s priority always has been, and always will be, the community, and that means we sometimes have to make decisions that ensure the doors remain open for that community.