TCGplayer at GAMA 2026: Recap

This year’s GAMA Expo, the largest gathering of hobby game industry professionals, was an exciting opportunity for TCGplayer to share exclusive information about what’s to come, host two educational seminars, and announce the winner of the 2025 Hobby Shop of the Year. We also focused on our sellers and gathering feedback through hundreds of meetings to better understand how we can help you succeed.

Index
Seller Gathering
Seminars
Programs & Tools Showcased

TCGplayer Seller Gathering
We hosted a retailers-only Seller Gathering in celebration of the seller community, where fellow retailers and TCGplayer employees all had the opportunity to connect. During this event, we shared what’s coming soon, provided more in-depth context on our strategy, and celebrated the 3 finalists for Hobby Shop of the Year. If you couldn’t make the event, here’s our recap:

1. Introducing the Roca Sifter
   

   1. The news: We’re excited to announce the launch of the Roca Sifter, a new robotic solution designed to make identification, sifting, pricing, and listing inventory easy.
   2. What this means for you: The Roca Sifter is priced at $799 (plus $25/month service plan), with units shipping in September 2026.
   3. Tell me more: The Roca Sifter offers multiple options when it comes to sifting, making it easy to organize your bulk and identify valuable cards quickly. With industry-leading technology, you can accurately separate foils from non-foils and further sift by price, color, type, and rarity. To make it even easier, the Roca Sifter can identify cards in multiple orientations and sift sleeved cards. Designed with a compact footprint, the Roca Sifter fits perfectly on your countertop. By processing up to 1,800 cards per hour you’ll quickly turn your unknown inventory into known profit. Learn more about the Roca Sifter and purchase yours today!

2. TCGplayer Managed Inventory
   

   1. The news: We’re excited to announce a pilot of our new TCGplayer Managed Inventory program.
   2. What this means for you: By the end of Q2, we plan to pilot a TCGplayer Managed Inventory program under TCGplayer Direct with a select group of sellers. Sign up here if you are interested in participating in the TCGplayer Managed Inventory beta.
   3. Tell me more: This program will allow sellers to send any cards they want to our Authentication Center before they are sold, with TCGplayer using our economies of scale to cost-effectively handle storage, shipping, and customer support. The goal is to reduce seller operational overhead while ensuring a consistent buyer experience.

3. Labyrinth Games Recognized as 2025 Hobby Shop of the Year

   1. The news: We’re excited to announce that Labyrinth Games is the 2025 Hobby Shop of the Year.
   2. What this means for you: Hobby Shop of the Year is a way that TCGplayer recognizes and rewards local game stores that have gone above and beyond to support the community. This is an annual program, so stay posted to learn when applications for Hobby Shop of the Year 2026 are open.
   3. Tell me more: Labyrinth Games and Puzzles, located in Washington D.C., is a hobby shop dedicated to bringing education and play to their community. Through programs like the Labyrinth Teacher Fund and by collaborating with local organizations, the store helps foster learning and connection beyond classroom settings. Our two finalists were Brick City & Games and TKO Toy Company. For an in depth look at our winner and finalists, check out their full Seller Stories articles: Meet Labyrinth Games & Puzzles; Meet Brick City & Games; Meet TKO Toy Company.

We’re excited to share with you a full video recording of the Seller Gathering keynote.

TCGplayer Seminars: In Summary

1. Mastering the Marketplace: Seller Insights and Strategies
   Mason Berry of Card N All Gaming, Alex Zummer of Galactic Toys & Games, and James Chase Geary of TCG Bulk Kings joined together in a fireside chat-style panel to share their best practices and business strategies with other sellers.
   
   Check out the full video recording of the seminar.

2. Mastering your Inventory with Automation
   George and AnaMilena Machado of Pro-Play Games get in the weeds talking about their daily operations and workflows using Roca. This includes sifting, sorting, categorizing, pack-building, card distribution, and more.
   
   Check out the full video recording of the seminar.

TCGplayer Programs and Tools Showcased at GAMA
While at GAMA, TCGplayer was excited to showcase various tools and programs in our booth. These included:

1. Roca Sifter
   We're excited to announce the launch of the Roca Sifter, a new robotic solution designed to make identification, sifting, pricing, and listing inventory easy. The Roca Sifter sifts 1,800 cards per hour and has a compact footprint, so it fits perfectly on your countertop. With the Roca Sifter, you can:

   1. Sift TCG's by foil, price, color, type, rarity and more at up to 1,800 cards per hour
   2. Accurately separate foils from non-foils with industry-leading technology
   3. Read cards in multiple orientations
   4. Sift cards in most premium sleeves
   5. List cards on the Marketplace with just a few clicks
   6. Directly integrate with Scan & Identify
      
      Get Started with Roca Sifter: If you're interest in purchasing a Roca Sifter, check out our Roca Sifter website page for more information, including performance, capacity, specifications, and pricing.
      
      
      
      
      
2. Roca
   Image recognition and automation technology that quickly sorts and alphabetizes your Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, Disney Lorcana, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and One Piece Card Game cards.
   1. Autonomously sort and index 1,000 cards in just two hours
   2. Labor cost saving of up to 80%
   3. Over 50 unique programmed sorts and sifts
   4. Digitize and upload inventory to TCGplayer or eBay
      
      Get Started with Roca: If you're interest in learning more about Roca or purchasing a Roca Sorter, schedule a call with us.
3. Scan & Identify
   Scan & Identify allows you to mass import images for identification and seamlessly add the items to your inventory. Designed with an intuitive interface, this tool is built for scale and speed, offering features like bulk actions, batch pricing, and more.
   1. Bulk actions and batch pricing lets you handle large volumes of cards quickly and efficiently
   2. Powered by Roca Vision, which has process over 700 million cards with an accuracy of 98%+
   3. Add cards to TCGplayer inventory directly from their images, with or without prices
   4. Scan & Identify supports Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Disney Lorcana, and One Piece Card Game cards.
      
      Get Started with Scan & Identify: If you're a Pro Seller, you have automatic access to this tool –– no need to opt-in. If you're interested in using Scan & Identify but you aren't a Pro Seller, we encourage you to reach out to us for more information.