Building The TCG OS: a connected platform for trading-card collectors and vendors

The context

The TCG OS began with a conversation with an experienced Pokémon collector and seller whose growth was being restricted by the amount of manual administration behind the business.

Thousands of cards needed to be identified, photographed, priced and organised. Stock was being sold through eBay and at physical card shows, but the different sales channels were not connected.

Before attending an event, online listings often had to be removed manually to avoid selling the same card twice. Prices also needed regular checking because trading-card values can change quickly, making it difficult to keep a large inventory accurate.

The seller was spending so much time managing stock and listings that it was limiting how much he could sell.

EDP recognised that these were not isolated problems. Collectors, independent vendors and established card shops across the industry were dealing with the same disconnected processes.

The opportunity was therefore much bigger than creating an ecommerce website for one seller. It was to develop a connected platform built around how the trading-card market actually works.

What we did

EDP created the complete TCG OS platform, including the product strategy, brand, public website, custom application, user journeys, data infrastructure, integrations and supporting content.

The first live version was delivered approximately two weeks after the initial discovery meeting.

One connected operating system

The TCG OS was built around one shared catalogue, pricing system and central inventory.

Collectors can organise and value their cards, while vendors can manage stock across online and physical sales environments without maintaining several separate records.

The platform connects activity across:

• Online selling
• The TCG OS marketplace
• eBay
• Physical card shops
• Point of sale
• Card shows and events

When stock is sold through a connected channel, it can be accounted for against the same central inventory. This reduces repeated administration and lowers the risk of a card remaining available elsewhere after it has already been sold.

Card scanning, catalogue matching and bulk importing also make it faster to add existing collections and inventories.

Instead of repeatedly entering all of the information attached to each card, users can connect their own cards to the structured information already held within The TCG OS.

Automated pricing and collection management

Trading-card prices can move significantly over short periods, making manual pricing difficult at scale.

The TCG OS uses frequently updated market information to support card pricing, collection valuation and inventory management.

Collectors can monitor the value of their cards, see how their collection changes over time and organise cards into separate collections or portfolios.

Vendors have a more informed starting point for pricing stock without needing to research every card individually.

This replaces a combination of manual price checks, spreadsheets and disconnected collection apps with one structured view of the cards a user owns or sells.

Built for collectors, vendors and card shops

The platform was designed to support different parts of the trading-card market through one connected system.

Collectors can manage their cards, monitor values, track set completion and create wishlists.

Independent vendors can manage inventory and sell across several channels, while card shops can use The TCG OS as a broader operating system connecting stock, marketplace listings, eBay and in-person transactions.

The platform also supports the more specialised ways trading-card businesses operate, including trades, card buy-ins and transactions where cards and money move in both directions.

This allowed EDP to create something shaped around real industry workflows rather than forcing those workflows into generic ecommerce software.

AI-assisted card grading

EDP also created an AI-assisted grading tool within the platform.

Users can upload photographs of the front and back of a card and receive a preliminary assessment of areas including centering, corners, edges and surface condition.

The tool helps collectors and vendors make a more informed decision before paying to submit a card to a professional grading company.

It does not replace professional grading, but it gives users a faster way to understand whether a submission may be worthwhile.

A public platform built for visibility

The public-facing website and catalogue were developed as part of the platform rather than as a separate marketing layer.

Visitors can explore cards, sets and pricing information without creating an account, while collectors and vendors can access the private tools relevant to them.

The catalogue now contains more than 208,000 cards across over 2,300 sets and seven major trading-card games.

SEO and AI Search Visibility were considered within the platform structure from the beginning. Public pages for individual cards, sets and games create a substantial foundation for specific searches, while supporting guides help explain the platform and the problems it solves.

This makes The TCG OS both a custom web application and a growing source of useful, searchable trading-card information.

The outcome

EDP moved from the initial discovery conversation to the first live version of The TCG OS in approximately two weeks.

What began as a response to one seller’s workload became a scalable digital product for collectors, vendors and card shops.

The platform brings previously disconnected processes into one system, reducing the need to repeatedly enter card information, research prices, reconcile stock and update several sales channels manually.

Collectors gain a clearer view of what they own and how its value changes. Vendors can manage stock across online and physical environments with less risk of double-selling. Card shops gain a platform built around the specific transactions and workflows of their industry.

The TCG OS now supports:

• More than 208,000 cards
• More than 2,300 sets
• Seven major trading-card games
• Collector and vendor accounts
• Central inventory management
• Automated market pricing
• Marketplace and eBay selling
• Point-of-sale and card-show activity
• Trades and card buy-ins
• AI-assisted grading
• A large public, search-friendly catalogue

The platform continues to develop as new games, datasets, sales channels and user requirements are introduced.

Because the underlying catalogue, pricing and inventory infrastructure is connected, new functionality can be added without rebuilding the platform from the beginning.