What is TcgSniper
TcgSniper in a nutshell is a price watching tool that was released in 2019 for popular trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh.
TcgSniper allows you to get alerts on the sales and price drops for tcgplayer specific products and singles so that you can then “snipe” whatever deal you want!
Simple, right? Out of the box you can set up 15 different alerts and can even raise the limit higher if you subscribe to their plus plan for five dollars.
On top of this, TcgSniper has expanded their support from more than just a few games, as their support now extends to all card games and non-card game collections on tcgplayer.
We interviewed the creator of TcgSniper [Johnathan] to ask about his amazing product and talked to him about several other important topics such as: “What made you want to make TcgSniper?” and “Is there anything you wished to have done differently for TcgSniper?”
Find out more about TcgSniper and its creator Johnathan in this article.
The creation of tcgSniper
Jonathan Hosein made TcgSniper originally as a side project.
He loved the idea of making useful apps and the challenge of being a solo entrepreneur, so this became a practical move for him since “It's easy to launch webapps rather than a brick and mortar store.”
An issue that arose during the development of TcgSniper was that Johnathan hadn't made software that wasn't part of a class before.
It was actually his first attempt at making an app that wasn't a calculator app in a university class.
“When you're learning how to program in school, you're in a vacuum running everything locally in your integrated development environment,
(IDE: An environment where one can compile and test code.) so it's rare to have a university class to teach you how to deliver software to the market / open world".
“That was one of my biggest challenges. I know what a variable is and I know how to somewhat design a user interface but how do I actually get this out to the world and market this?
It's a learning experience that I had to learn as I went”.
Another major issue that he dealt with came in the form of functionality. “I don't play Magic:The Gathering, Pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh.”
He had Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards because of the shows, but staying in tune with the rapidly changing market, need for new software,
and finding out what the users needed was a bit challenging, but over time he learned to adapt to these rapid changes.
Is there anything you wished to have done differently for tcgSniper?
When you were in the middle of creating TcgSniper was there any decisions that you thought were great ideas,
but when you look back at now wish you could have done differently?
“I was really paranoid about malicious users trying to get around certain rules or trying to use my system in ways it wasn't designed for.
I turn in result made things[the experience] difficult for no reason. I was very paranoid that people would sign up for my site and create millions of alerts on my site
and flood the tcgplayer api. This would result in a ban on my account due to someone else's actions."
“Another problem that I had was, that I required a phone number in order for members to sign up and it worked,
but it created a barrier between the site and potential users who were weirded out by their phone number being required.
We've gone back to fix these things, but it's something that I wished that I'd done differently”.
Did you learn anything from the choices that you made? “I had to learn to not fix problems before they became problems (don't be reckless),
but your time is much better spent making things that your users are going to love/hate”.
Any advice for people?
After going through all the challenges and triumphs with TcgSniper,
do you have any advice for people who want to make their own apps, websites, or other products in the trading card game (TCG) sector?
"Don't fight fraud or fix problems that aren't apparent as problems you need to focus in on that one problem that you are trying to solve.
Mine was people want to know when deals are available almost immediately. Every line of code I make needs to be marching towards that.
You can always come back to those “problems” if you write them down. Focus on things people want and love.
Also, don't get hung up on technology that you're using. The user doesn't care if you're using the latest and greatest tech; they can't tell.
They care about if it looks and feels good to use. The best language/framework/whatever is what you're going to be what you're going to be the most productive in.
Get something out the door and into users' hands and see what they think. USE THE TOOLS YOU”RE COMFORTABLE WITH".
What's Next?
We've talked about the past of tcgSniper and a little about the present but what's next in store for tcgSniper?
“In the near future, I would love to see TcgSniper become accessible as an app.
I also would like to see it become multi-market supported, which won't be soon, but we are making baby steps towards this goal.
I don't believe that users care where a card is coming from, though they might have a preference for tcgplayer, as it is a trustworthy site,
but there are many other trustworthy sites out there. So for some users, they might just want to know where they can get a card for 2 dollars somewhere.”
Free style
I've asked you several questions already but now I want to give you some time to talk about somethings that you want to talk about. What would you like to talk about?
"[I] Love hearing back from users.. As of last night we just got an email of someone saying that they were able to get a Commander deck for ten dollars off of market price and thank you.
I was really happy knowing they got a good deal and it warms my heart when users send me stories like this".
As an ending question how can readers find you and tcgSniper?
"Come on over to tcgsniper.com, register, reach out to us on our live chat in the bottom right or email us or join our Discord here".
tcgSniper Discord: Discord
tcgSniper website: tcgsniper.com