First-Time Setup

This guide walks you through creating your Sideboard account and getting your store set up. The whole process takes about five minutes — you’ll create your account, verify your email, fill out a one-page onboarding form, and land on your dashboard.

Step 1: Create your account

Go to app.sideboard.gg/register. The registration form asks for:

• First name
• Last name
• Email
• Password — at least 10 characters, with uppercase, lowercase, and a number

That’s it. No store name or billing details required to sign up.

Joining an existing store? If a teammate has already created your store’s Sideboard account and invited you, your invitation email will include a link with the invitation pre-filled. You won’t go through the onboarding form — you’ll join the existing organization directly.

Step 2: Verify your email

After you submit the registration form, Sideboard sends a verification email to the address you used. Open it and click the verification link to activate your account.

If the email doesn’t arrive within a minute or two, check spam. You can resend it from the page Sideboard left you on, or go to app.sideboard.gg/resend-verification.

You can’t sign in until your email is verified.

Step 3: Sign in

Once verified, head to app.sideboard.gg/login and log in with the email and password you just used. Tick Remember me if you’re on your own device and want longer sessions; leave it unchecked on a shared store computer.

If you ever forget your password, the Forgot password? link on the sign-in page will email you a reset link.

Step 4: The onboarding form

The first time you sign in (with no organization yet), Sideboard takes you to a short one-page onboarding form. It asks three things:

Store name

What your store is called. This is the display name shown around Sideboard. It also seeds your customer-facing buylist URL — you’ll see the slug derived from it.

Which catalogs are you interested in?

A multi-select chip picker showing all the games Sideboard supports — Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, One Piece, Star Wars Unlimited, Gundam, Disney Lorcana, Riftbound. Pick all the games your store carries (or plans to).

You can also type in games we don’t list yet (e.g. “Flesh and Blood”) in the Tracking something else? field. We use this to prioritize which games to add next.

This is a survey-style question — picking a catalog here doesn’t subscribe you. It tells Sideboard how to tailor your dashboard. You’ll actually subscribe in the next step from the dashboard itself.

Where are you selling today?

Another chip picker, this one optional. Tick the channels you currently sell through:

• Shopify
• CardTrader
• eBay
• TCGplayer
• In-person only
• Nowhere yet

You can add others (Facebook Marketplace, WhatsApp, etc.) in the free-text field. This helps Sideboard highlight the right integrations on your dashboard.

Click Create store when you’re done. Your organization is created and you land on the dashboard.

Step 5: The dashboard

Welcome to Sideboard. The dashboard is the home of your activation flow — a progressive set of cards that walks you through getting your store live:

1. Catalog interests — already complete from the onboarding form ✓
2. Browse a catalog — click into any game’s catalogue to see the cards before subscribing
3. Subscribe to your first catalog — pick a game and start your subscription via Stripe Checkout (see Adding your first game)
4. Stock your inventory — add your first card to inventory (manually or via CSV import)
5. Open for business — publish your first buylist so customers can sell to your store

The dashboard tracks where you are in this sequence and highlights the next step. Once all five are done, the activation region collapses and you’ve graduated to the steady-state dashboard.

You’ll also see:

• Your catalogs — once you’ve subscribed to one or more games, each shows up here as a card with quick links to its Inventory, Buylist, and Browse views
• Explore catalogs — every game you haven’t subscribed to yet, with a Subscribe button and a Browse → link to preview before committing
• Buylist orders need your attention — a banner that appears whenever customers have submitted buylist orders that aren’t yet processed

The left sidebar gives you persistent access to every section: Dashboard, Buylist Orders, Customers, your subscribed catalogs (each with collapsible Browse / Inventories / Buylists sub-nav), and the Add catalog entry point.

Step 6: Configure your store profile (when you’re ready)

Before going live with customers, take a few minutes to fill out the rest of your store profile. Go to Settings and work through the sections — store details, team members, integrations, billing, etc. See Settings overview for a tour of what’s there.

You can do this any time. The activation cards on the dashboard don’t depend on it.

Common setup mistakes to avoid

Using a personal email instead of a store email. Billing receipts, customer notifications, and team invitations all come from this address. A dedicated store email (like store@yourbusiness.com) keeps things tidy.

Skipping email verification. You can’t sign in until your email is verified. If your registration seems to have stalled, check whether the verification link landed in spam.

Picking only the games you sell today. The catalog interests question is forward-looking. If you’re planning to add Lorcana in three months, pick it now — Sideboard will tailor the dashboard accordingly and you can subscribe when you’re ready without having to revisit this form.

What’s next

• Adding your first game — Subscribe to a catalog and let Sideboard pull in the data.
• Adding products to inventory — Start tracking your stock.
• Creating your first buylist — Publish a buy offer for customers.

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