TCG Empire opens warehouse to meet Temu sales demand

TCG Empire started as a small venture, with founders merging personal trading card collections and selling at local card shows. Now, the company is a major seller on the Temu online marketplace. The business focuses on trading cards from franchises like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, though founder Joshua Howell said Pokémon dominates sales. Howell launched TCG Empire in January 2024 after working for another card company and flipping cards for 13 years. By March 2024, the company had a physical store and an ecommerce site.

Initial growth was slow, but things changed when TCG Empire opened its own storefront and secured product distribution. Temu became a key factor in accelerating the business. Howell noted that the platform helped scale operations faster than expected. The company primarily uses its website for bulk card sourcing, allowing customers to send large collections for purchase. However, most sales come from external platforms like TCG Player, eBay, Amazon, and Walmart. “It’s easier to get your name out there if you’re on a site driven by trading cards,” Howell said.

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TCG Empire began selling on Temu in September 2025. Temu simplifies fulfillment and listing creation compared to Walmart and Amazon, where high fees and poor margins make direct sales less attractive.

Temu’s fulfillment system offers better pricing than other platforms. The warehouse is just two miles from the nearest U.S. Postal Service location, enabling daily pickups and drop-offs. Howell said shipping costs on Walmart for similar products are sometimes double what Temu charges. “Fulfilling ourselves is more cost-effective,” he added. The company also benefits from Temu’s ability to optimize carrier pricing, which helps maintain competitive margins.

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TCG Empire’s growth includes custom Pokémon bundles, which combine loose cards, sealed packs, and boxes. Each bundle includes “hits,” or highly desirable cards. For example, a booster box might contain up to 16 hits, though TCG Empire currently offers three per pack. Howell, who grew up collecting Pokémon cards in the ’90s, noted that older sets had even fewer hits. “These bundles guarantee something cool,” he said, contrasting them with the unpredictability of opening packs.