TCG-Bay

The story

Collectors don't want to wrestle with a complex system; they want to see their collection and trade their cards. TCG-Bay starts from that premise: a marketplace and collection tool so accessible that the scan button does the work. Lefief built TCG-Bay as our own platform, with ourselves as the first client. It was a way to prove, in a real production environment, that we deliver end-to-end SaaS: from AI-driven scan flows through multi-tier subscriptions to EU-VAT-compliant payment flows. What grew out of it is more than a product: it became the foundation we now use to build client work in the same categories (AI vision, marketplaces, regulated payment flows), with the sharp edges already smoothed out.

Considerations

• Claude Vision for centering detection (unique)

  On every scan, the platform sends the card photo to Claude Vision with a purpose-built prompt that measures border asymmetry. No off-the-shelf grading model does this; competitors deliver raw scans, we deliver collector-grade grading data.

• Collector-first UI

  The platform shows what the collector wants to see, not what the database knows. No forms, no forced tagging: scan → recognise → confirm → into the collection. Database complexity stays invisible, and every screen is optimised for what a collector is actually doing in that moment.

• Auto card detection and quick grading

  On top of Vision: heuristics that recognise set, number and variant, plus a quick-grade flow that combines state, surface and centering in three taps. A deliberate quality-of-life investment that makes manual entry unnecessary, so collectors keep their rhythm.

• Competitive credit-pricing model

  Four plans (Basic / Collector / Pro / Reseller) plus standalone scan packs (100 / 500 / 2,500 / 10,000). Monthly and yearly, Belgian OSS-compliant including 21% VAT, with a fair-use cap on Reseller that triggers overage or Enterprise. Pricing as product design, not as an afterthought.

• Stripe integration with EU compliance

  Stripe Tax included, OSS filing across 27 EU countries, automatic VAT calculation per buyer location, the Customer Portal for self-service (cancel, plan switch, payment method), idempotent webhook handling, signed signatures, and an audit trail in the database. Compliance-heavy payment flows you don't pick up from a tutorial.

• A real test environment and deploy pipeline

  A separate .env.test with Stripe test keys, Vitest for units, Playwright for end-to-end scan-flow tests, dotenv-cli for environment isolation, and deploy:test / deploy:prod scripts. Every change goes through the same production pipeline; no "works on my machine" deploys.

• eBay policy-compliant with a distinct market position

  Competitors like PriceCharting and CardMarket serve historical estimates; TCG-Bay shows what a card is actually selling for right now, through the eBay Browse API with affiliate tracking. That demands strict adherence to eBay's Marketplace Account Deletion policy, rate-limit discipline, branding rules and correct EPN attribution. We read the policies thoroughly before building, ruling out any risk of revocation, and we deliberately picked the "live listings, not estimates" angle because it is more honest in substance and cleaner legally.

Result

Imagery

Possible extensions

How TCG-Bay could grow further.