Proxy Cost Comparison

In the last couple of years, I’ve picked up playing a certain collectable trading card game. Designing and building decks, as it turns out, is as about half the fun of the game. But this is an expensive hobby.

I play almost solely at home, and I value variety as I explore the game. I’m not thrilled with the prospect of playing online, and that isn’t viable for my partner, so I now have a secondary hobby of making proxies. I’ve been experimenting with methods and learning from the community. One of the biggest questions is of cost as there’s half a dozen ways of making or buying cards.

So I made a spreadsheet that figured this out for me, but as spreadsheets always go, it got a bit messy and at times convoluted. Maybe you think this would be easy, but alas, it is not. There are different pricing models, shipping and tariff concerns, supply changes, alternative tooling and sellers, and per-unit costs at play, not to mention that each method has different requirements and results.

I’ve extracted what made sense to me and built this comparison tool to help anyone else going on this journey.

How to Use

Each of the three columns represents a printing method. Besides picking the preconfigured defaults, you can configure:

DIY Methods (Fixed + Consumables)

• Fixed Costs: One-time purchases like printers, corner rounders, die presses, cutting mats
• Consumables: Ongoing costs like ink, paper, laminates. Enter the cost per bundle and yield (how many units you get per purchase, so a $17 bundle of 100 sheets of paper probably nets you 100 * 9 = 900 cards)

Service Methods (Tiered Pricing)

• Check “Use tiered pricing” to switch
• Order Tiers: Define available sizes (e.g., 30-cards, 72-cards, 192-cards) with their prices
• Order Shipping: Specify shipping costs for the order. You may be able to use an estimate or revisit after the tool calculates the best order size for you. This is split out because it can be significant.

Target Quantity

If you have an idea of how many cards you’ll need, set this to determine an efficient way to order for tiered methods (shipping may throw a wrench into this) or costs using fixed and consumable costs for DIY methods.

Chart Max Quantity

Controls the max on the x-axis and calculations to see comparisons through a greater number of cards

The tool calculates total cost and cost-per-unit for each method. If tiered methods produce a different quantity than your target, a warning will appear. The tool determines the best order size for tiered methods vs the target quantity and breaks down the price and price per card for each method.

The Charts

The first chart shows total cost vs quantity for all three methods. Breakeven points are listed below the chart, showing where one method becomes cheaper than another if at all on the chart. The second chart shows the per-card breakdown for all three methods.