Glossary
What is store credit in a card shop?
Store credit is a balance a card shop owes a customer, most often issued when the shop accepts a buylist trade-in. Shops typically pay more in credit than in cash because credit is spent back in the store — and the balance should live on the customer account, not in a spreadsheet.
Store credit vs gift cards
Gift cards are purchased value. Store credit is value the shop owes after trade-ins, refunds, or owner adjustments. Well-run shops keep the two distinct, because they behave differently in accounting and in customer expectations.
Credit should be visible to staff at the till and spendable online, and outstanding credit should be reportable as a liability the owner can review before close, migration, or reporting.
Why shops pay more in credit than cash
Cash leaves the shop. Credit comes back through the door. Buylists commonly offer 40–70% of retail in store credit vs 25–50% in cash, which converts a trade-in into a future sale with margin attached — so most shops publish both rates side by side.
Why this matters in card-shop software
Terms like Store credit are not just vocabulary. They shape how a card shop models products, prices, customers, trade-ins, events, and marketplace listings. Generic ecommerce platforms usually treat these details as notes or custom fields; a TCG platform has to make them part of the workflow so staff can use them at the counter and customers can use them online.
Storefront Pro uses this kind of operational language throughout the platform: product records, buylist rules, POS screens, autopricing, deckbuilder results, and marketplace sync all depend on the same definitions. That consistency is what keeps inventory accurate when the same card can be sold in-store, online, or on a marketplace in several conditions at once.
Related terms
- Buylist — A buylist is the set of prices a card shop offers customers for cards they want to sell or trade in. Most shops publish two prices per card: a lower cash rate and a higher store-credit rate.
- 1Cart trade-in — A 1Cart trade-in is the TCG Sync flow that lets a customer buy cards and sell cards back to the shop in the same cart, in the same checkout. Buylist credit is applied instantly against the purchase total — no separate buylist site, no waiting for store credit to land before placing the order.
- Card shop kiosk — A card shop kiosk is a customer-facing tablet or desktop screen in the shop where customers can price-check cards, start a buylist submission, look up a decklist, or sign into an event without waiting for the till. Submissions queue for staff verification before any payout.
Run a card shop? Start your free 3-day trial — Storefront Pro is open for new stores now. Storefront, POS, buylist, deckbuilder, events, marketplace sync — all in one platform.