Tom's Card Manager - User Guide

Getting started

Tom's Card Manager is a single program that runs entirely on your own PC. There is nothing to install, no account to create, and nothing to sign up for. Unzip the download to any folder you like — your Documents folder, the Desktop, or a USB stick — and double-click TomCardManager.exe to run it.

Unzip the download. Right-click TomsCardManager.zip, choose Extract All, and pick a folder. Keep all the files together in that folder.
Run the program. Open the folder and double-click TomCardManager.exe. The main window opens showing the full Pokémon card catalogue — over 20,000 cards, already loaded.
Set up your store details (optional). If you plan to publish a store page, open Store › Store Page Settings… first and fill in your store name and contact line. You can skip this if you only want to track your collection.

First run

The download already includes the full card catalogue, so you do not need to download anything to get started — just open the app and start marking the cards you own. The catalogue holds the card names and set information; it does not yet know which cards you have. That is what you tell it (see Marking your stock).

Windows SmartScreen

Because this is a free app from an independent developer, Windows may show a blue "Windows protected your PC" box the first time you run it. This is normal for new software that is not code-signed. Click More info, then Run anyway. If you would rather check the download first, you can upload the ZIP to a free scanner such as VirusTotal before running it.

The main window

The window has three main parts:

The card grid fills most of the window — one row per card, showing its set, number, name, rarity, and how many you hold.
The toolbar across the top lets you filter the grid by Set, Search text, Rarity, Location, and sale Channel, with a Clear filters button to reset them.
The detail panel on the right is where you record what you own for the selected card — variant, condition, quantity, price, and location.

Everything is driven from the menu bar — File, Store, Sales, Collection, View, and Help. The main commands are covered below.

Two modes

The app works in two modes, switched under View › Mode: Sales (stock you are selling, with prices) and Collection (your personal collection, no prices). They are kept completely separate — a card can be in both at once. Most of this guide describes Sales mode; see Collection & trading for the differences.

Loading & updating the catalogue

The catalogue is the master list of every English Pokémon TCG card — names, set names, card numbers, and rarities. It comes pre-loaded, so you normally do nothing here. When new sets are released and you want them, refresh it:

File › Update catalogue online… downloads any new cards and adds them to your catalogue. It only adds new cards — it never changes or removes your stock, prices, locations, or sale history.

This is the only time the app reaches the internet on its own initiative, and only when you click it. The card data comes from a free public source on GitHub.

Good to know

An update can take a minute or two and shows a progress box you can cancel. Any cards already added before you cancel are kept.

Marking your stock

This is the core of the app: telling it which cards you have. Click any card in the grid, then use the detail panel on the right.

Select the card in the grid (use the filters or search to find it — see below).
Pick the variant from the dropdown: Standard, Holo, Reverse Holo, or Other.
Enter quantity and price for each condition you hold — there are three rows: Mint, Near Mint, and Played. Leave a row at zero if you do not have that condition.
Set a location (optional) in the Location box — e.g. "Binder 1" or "Box A". The dropdown remembers locations you have already used, so you can reuse them with one click, or type a new one.
Click Save. The card's held count updates in the grid.

Each variant keeps its own quantities, prices, and location, so a Holo and a Reverse Holo of the same card are tracked separately.

Quick sell

The panel's Quick Sell button records the sale of one copy at the shown price in a single click — handy for one-off sales. To record several at once, tick the cards in the grid and use Sales › Update Checked Cards Sold… (see Recording sales).

Unsaved changes

If you edit a card and move to another without saving, the app asks whether to Save, Discard, or Cancel — so an edit is never silently lost. If you see that prompt, choose Save to keep your changes.

Finding cards

With 20,000+ cards, the filters are how you get to the one you want. They all combine, so you can narrow down quickly:

Filter	What it does
Set	Show only cards from one set.
Search	Type any part of a name, set, number, card ID, or rarity. Multiple words all have to match.
Rarity	Show only one rarity (e.g. Rare Holo).
Location	Show only cards stored in one location.
Channel	Filter by sale channel where relevant.
In stock only	Under View — hide every card you do not currently hold. This is remembered between sessions.
Clear filters	Reset Set, Search, Rarity, and Location in one click. (The "In stock only" view is left alone.)

Click a column heading to sort by it. Use View › Check all to tick every visible card at once — useful before a bulk export or sale.

Checking eBay prices

The detail panel has an eBay button that opens an eBay search for the selected card in your browser, so you can gauge what it is selling for. Two checkboxes shape the search:

Current listings (not sold) — search live listings rather than completed ones.
Holo — add "Holo" to the search terms.

Which eBay site it uses (ebay.com.au, ebay.com, ebay.co.uk, and others) is set under Store › Store Page Settings…. The default is ebay.com.au.

The store page

Tom's Card Manager can build a self-contained web page of your in-stock cards that you upload to your own website — a simple, searchable online store or want-list with no server or database needed.

1. Set your store details

Open Store › Store Page Settings… and fill in:

Setting	Notes
Page title	Your store or collection name, shown at the top of the page.
Tagline / subtitle	Optional line under the title. Leave blank to hide it.
Contact line	How buyers reach you. Leave blank to hide it.
Notes / info block	Optional free text (postage, terms, etc.). Leave blank to hide it.
Accent colour	The page's highlight colour. Click to change it.
Currency code / symbol	Drives the money display on the page (default AUD / $).

All of these default to neutral, blank values — the page shows your details, never anyone else's.

2. Generate the page

Optionally turn on Store › Self-host images if you want the page to include downloaded copies of the card images (rather than linking to them online).
Choose Store › Generate Store Page… and pick an output folder.
Upload the result. The app creates index.html and cards.json (plus an images folder if you chose self-host). Upload all of them together to your web host.

Attribution

Generated pages carry a small footer, "Generated with Tom's Card Manager — tomdahne.com". This is how a free tool pays its way — please leave it in place (it is a condition of the licence).

Updating your live store

To update the page later, change your stock in the app and Generate again, then re-upload the files. The page is just static files — there is no database on your server to manage.

Recording sales

Every sale is recorded so you keep a history and your stock stays accurate.

Sales › Update Checked Cards Sold… — tick cards in the grid first, then use this to record a batch of sales at once.
Quick Sell (detail panel) — records one copy sold at the shown price.
Sales › Undo Last Sale — reverse the most recent sale.
Sales › Undo Bulk Recent Sales… — review recent sales and reverse a whole batch or selected ones.
Sales › Sales Report (HTML)… — produce a self-contained report with totals, a dashboard, and period presets, opened in your browser.

Right-clicking a card in the grid also offers Update Checked Cards Sold and Recent sales for this card.

Collection & trading

Switch to View › Mode › Collection to track your personal collection separately from your sale stock. Collection entries work the same way (variant, condition, quantity, location) but have no prices — it is what you own, not what you are selling.

Want / Trade flags — mark a card as one you want or one you are willing to trade, using the panel checkboxes.
→ Sale — move a copy from your collection into your sale stock in one click when you decide to sell it.
Show filter — narrow the collection view to All, Owned, Want, or Trade.

The Collection menu produces three HTML reports, each opened in your browser:

Report	Shows
Wishlist report	The cards you have flagged as wanted.
Set-completion report	How complete each set is, including secret rares.
Trade list	The cards you have flagged as tradable.

Backups & your data

Everything you enter lives in one file, card_manager.db, next to the program. That single file is the thing to protect.

File › Back up database now — saves a timestamped copy into the backups folder. Do this regularly, and before anything major.
File › Restore from backup… — replaces your current data with a chosen backup. The app checks the file is a valid backup first and takes an automatic safety copy before swapping, so a bad restore can be undone.
File › Export inventory to CSV… — save your stock as a spreadsheet file for your own records.

Simplest possible backup

You can also just copy card_manager.db somewhere safe (another drive, cloud folder, USB) at any time the app is closed. That one file is your entire collection, stock, and sale history.

Files & folders

Everything the app uses sits in its own folder, next to the EXE. Nothing is written elsewhere on your PC and nothing is sent online.

Item	What it is
`TomCardManager.exe`	The program itself.
`card_manager.db`	Your data — catalogue, stock, collection, sales, locations. Back this up.
`settings.ini`	Store-page settings (title, contact, currency, eBay site).
`prefs.ini`	Small interface preferences (toggles you have set).
`backups\`	Timestamped database backups you create, plus automatic safety copies.
`cache\`	Card images cached for the detail panel. Safe to delete; it refills.
`debug.log`	A diagnostic log (see below). Only written when the log toggle is on.

Troubleshooting

The app won't open

Make sure you extracted the ZIP fully (do not run it from inside the ZIP viewer) and that TomCardManager.exe and its files are together in one folder. If Windows SmartScreen blocked it, see the note under Getting started.

An update or generate seems stuck

Both show a progress box with a Cancel button. Cancelling is safe — an update keeps the cards already added, and a cancelled Generate leaves your existing store page untouched.

Sending a diagnostic log

If you report a problem, turn on Help › Write debug log, reproduce the issue, then send the debug.log file from the app's folder. The log records what the app did, with no personal data. You can turn it off again afterwards.

Still stuck?

Support for this free tool is best-effort, from one developer. Get in touch via the feedback link below — bug reports and feature requests are welcome too.