A complete UK business guide and 13-sheet margin calculator for anyone starting a rip-and-ship trading card business on Whatnot or TikTok Shop — sourcing, pricing, tax, fulfilment, and the numbers, all worked out for you.
Hover the card. That foil shine is the only thing about this guide that isn't fully worked out for you.
Not a listicle. A sequenced path from "I have an idea" to "I'm scaling case orders and grading my best pulls" — with a Quick Start summary up front if you want to launch fast and read the depth later.
One workbook. Change your cost price once in Assumptions and it flows through every calculation automatically — margins, tax, break-even, stock alerts, all of it.
Every fee, cost, and rate in one place — Whatnot and TikTok Shop fee structures included, both kept current.
See exactly which platform nets you more profit on your real numbers, box by box.
Full per-box breakdown with a recommended spot price, grossed up for every fee.
An at-a-glance margin view across your whole product line.
Log every stream — the sheet flags automatically when a price needs adjusting.
Automatic low-stock alerts pulled straight from your sales log — never get caught out mid-stream.
Proves exactly how much more bundles earn than singles, and finds your ideal bundle size.
Charts across every stream — sell-through and profit, by product and over time.
Tracks real cash in vs out, and turns green the moment you've recovered your investment.
Works out whether splitting a bulk collection into singles is actually worth your time.
Compares box vs case-level buying so you know exactly when scaling up pays off.
True landed cost for direct imports, plus how much to save from every payout for your tax bill.
Every figure below is worked through in the guide with the maths shown, not asserted.
The advertised ~9.5–10% masks a per-item flat fee that can hit 27–31% of revenue on cheap spots. The guide shows exactly why bundling fixes this — and the calculator proves it with your own prices.
From single-box-friendly Tier 1 suppliers through to what it actually takes to get an official distributor account — verified against Companies House, not scraped from a forum thread.
A high-turnover, modest-profit business like this one can cross MTD thresholds earlier than people expect. The guide flags exactly when that applies to you.
Most cards aren't worth grading. The guide gives the real breakeven rule — 2–3× cost in expected graded value — instead of vague "send your best pulls off" advice.
Pay once. Every future update to whatever you buy is included for free.
Delivered instantly after purchase — an .html guide file and an .xlsx workbook, both yours to keep and edit.
No. The pricing formulas, distributor tiers, fee breakdowns, and tax content apply to any sealed trading card product — Pokémon, sports cards, Magic: The Gathering, and beyond. The worked examples use a Japanese Pokémon set because that's what sells well right now, but every formula is product-agnostic.
Yes, deliberately. HMRC registration, VAT thresholds, Royal Mail rates, UK distributor names, and UK consumer law are all covered specifically rather than genericised — that's what makes the numbers actually usable instead of a rough international average.
Any modern web browser for the guide, and Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers for the calculator. No add-ons, plugins, or subscriptions required.
You never need to write a formula. Every input cell is clearly marked; you type in your numbers and the rest calculates itself. The guide's Quick Start section also gets you moving without reading everything first.
No. This guide is written by Route 1 Rips, based on direct experience running a live rip-and-ship business — not licensed, endorsed by, or affiliated with Whatnot Inc., TikTok, or any trading card publisher.
Everything above for one payment, ready the moment you buy.
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This is an instantly-delivered digital product. Under UK distance selling rules, the standard 14-day cooling-off right typically doesn't apply once digital content has been downloaded, since buying confirms you're happy to receive it immediately. That said — if something's genuinely not right, email us within 7 days and we'll sort it out. We'd rather you were satisfied than technically within our rights.