First feedback, and a question: could this sell?
The morning after the first build, I showed the preview to a friend who trades and sells Pokémon cards at shows. His reaction was simple: it looks great.
That changed the question from "is this a fun project" to "could people buy this?"
One server, many customers
The first version assumed each display would run its own copy of the software, with each owner signing up for their own pricing account. That's a lot to ask of someone who just wants a price board. The better design is one central service:
- You sign in to TCG Marquee, not to a pricing service.
- The server fetches prices for everyone, so a card that ten people own is priced once.
- The display just shows what the server sends, so it can be simple, cheap hardware.
That also means the pricing costs are shared, which is what makes a small monthly price possible.
I wrote to Scrydex to ask whether this kind of use was allowed on their plans, put together a parts list for a sellable version, and kept building while I waited to hear back.