> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://course.pokesignal.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Read This First

> What this course will help you decide, what it leaves out, and the best route through it.

Selling a few cards can be improvised. Running a card business cannot. Once you intend to
make repeatable sales, you need a way to decide what to buy, what each sale will cost, how
quickly the cash should return, and how much work the operation can absorb.

This course is about those decisions. It will help you test whether the business fits your
life, understand its basic economics, and build a small operation you can actually control.
It will not tell you which set is about to rise or which card to buy this week.

## What you will build

The course moves from intent to economics to execution. By the end, you should be able to:

* separate a personal collection from inventory that is expected to sell;
* calculate what you can afford to pay before making an offer;
* choose an inventory lane that fits your cash, time, and knowledge;
* create routines for sourcing, listing, fulfillment, and financial review;
* protect business cash and recognize the risks that could stop the operation;
* decide whether to add capacity, build demand, or keep the operation deliberately small.

This is useful whether you have never sold a card or already have a seller account and a
pile of unlisted inventory. New sellers will get a sequence. Existing sellers will get a way
to diagnose the part of the business that is currently unclear or unreliable.

## Choose a route through the course

If you are starting from scratch, read the first three parts in order.

1. **Foundations** asks what belongs in the business, what a realistic first year looks like,
   what resources you already have, and how to test the work with real sales.
2. **The Economic Engine** separates revenue, profit, and cash, then turns costs and target
   profit into buying and pricing decisions.
3. **The Product Classes** compares singles, sealed products, bulk, and graded cards before
   helping you choose a primary lane.

The remaining parts are easier to use by need:

* Go to **Operations** when the flow from purchase to shipment is breaking: inventory waits
  to be inspected, listed, located, sold, or shipped.
* Go to **Staying Alive** when the numbers are hard to see, business money is mixing with
  household money, or one failure could put the operation at risk.
* Go to **Growth** when the current process works and you are deciding whether to add tools,
  people, demand channels, or a larger commitment of your own time.

The capstone turns those decisions into a 90-day operating plan. The appendices hold formulas,
definitions, and the research method so you can return to them without rereading the course.

## Scope and limits

This is not an investing course. There are no price forecasts, product picks, or promises that
the market will reward patience. It is also not a platform setup guide. Screens, fees, and
program rules change too quickly to make a durable course out of button-by-button instructions.

This edition is written for a US-based seller. If you operate elsewhere, do not assume its
tax, business-registration, consumer, shipping, or platform details apply. Verify them for
your location and circumstances, and use qualified professional advice where the stakes
justify it.

Numbers in the course have one of three jobs: they are inputs to a reusable calculation,
clearly labeled examples, or dated reference points. A fee or turnaround time is not a law of
nature. If a current number matters to your decision, check it again before acting.

The course is free and has no advanced tier waiting behind it. Use it in order, enter at the
chapter that matches a live problem, or decide that the business is not a fit. If you are
beginning at the beginning, continue to [Chapter 1.1](/chapters/1-1-the-merchant-mindset) and decide which of your cards, if any,
are actually available to the business.