RetroBase vs POS
You don’t need a new POS. You need what comes before it.
Your POS rings up the sale. RetroBase runs everything before it, from intake to ready to sell. They’re not rivals. A retro game store runs both, and each does the job the other was never built for.
Front of house
Your POS
The sale
Back of house
RetroBase
Intake to ready-to-sell
Not a replacement: the half your POS was never built to cover.
The misunderstanding
“We already have a POS.”
It’s the most common thing we hear, and it’s fair. Every store needs a POS, and yours is probably doing its job well. But a POS is built for one moment: the sale. It rings up a game that’s already ready to sell.
The misunderstanding is thinking the sale is the whole job. For a retro store, most of the work happens long before a game reaches the counter, and that work has never had software of its own.
The missing half
Everything before the sale
A game a store buys can’t sell the day it arrives. First it has to be tested, cleaned, repaired if needed, priced by condition, and photographed. Between each step it waits.
None of that happens at the register, so none of it gets written down. It lives in someone’s head, and what lives in a head gets dropped. That’s the missing half: the work between the buy and the shelf, where a retro store’s margin is actually made.
Where each fits
Two systems, two halves of the store
Front of house
Where a POS fits: the sale
- Checkout
- Payments
- Receipts
- Completed sales
Your POS already solved this, and it does it well.
Back of house
Where RetroBase fits: everything before it
- Intake
- Testing
- Cleaning
- Repair
- Pricing
- Photos
- Ready to sell
The intake-to-shelf pipeline: the half that never had a system.
The handoff is clean: RetroBase gets a game ready to sell, then your POS rings it up.
One item, start to finish
Follow one game to the shelf
Here’s a single trade-in moving through the back of house, and the exact moment it becomes your POS’s job.
Example item journey. A loose Pokémon Emerald for Game Boy Advance, market value $150, moves through intake, testing, cleaning, repair, pricing, photos and a final check in RetroBase until it is ready to sell. When a customer buys it, the store’s POS rings up the sale.
Pokémon Emerald
Market value
Intake
A loose Pokémon Emerald comes in on a trade.
Testing
It boots and saves. The battery still holds.
Cleaning
Label and cartridge contacts are cleaned up.
Repair
No repair needed this time. It passes.
Pricing
Priced at $150, market value for a loose copy.
Photos
Photographed, ready for the shelf.
Final check
One last look, then it goes out.
Ready to sell
On the shelf. When a customer buys it, your POS rings it up.
Everything above is RetroBase. Only the last step, the sale, is your POS.
Side by side
Who does what, and what they do together
Read it as a division of labour, not a scorecard. Your POS owns the sale; RetroBase owns the work before it. The Together column is where a store actually runs better.
| The job | Your POS | RetroBase | Together |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front of store | |||
| Checkout & payment | Handles this | Not its job | The POS rings up the sale |
| Receipt | Handles this | Not its job | Proof the sale is done |
| Completed sale | Handles this | Not its job | Where the item’s journey ends |
| The intake-to-shelf pipeline | |||
| Trade-in & buy intake | As a transaction | The item enters the pipeline | Offer at the counter → into intake |
| Testing, cleaning, repair | Not its job | Tracked, stage by stage | Keeps the item moving toward the shelf |
| Grading (optional) | Not its job | Condition on the record | The grade travels with the item |
| Pricing by condition | Entered by hand | Market value in context | Priced once, sold in your POS |
| Photos | Not its job | Shot and attached to the item | Ready for the shelf and any channel |
| Final check | Not its job | The last look before it goes out | Nothing reaches the shelf half-done |
| Ready to sell | – | The finish line | The moment RetroBase hands off to the POS |
| Team operations | |||
| Who owns each item | Not tracked | Every item has an owner | No item is nobody’s job |
| Assigned tasks | Not its job | Assign the next step to staff | Any staff member knows what’s next |
| Bottlenecks | Invisible | Makes what’s stuck visible | Stalls get seen and cleared |
| Progress visibility | Stock counts only | Live pipeline status | The full front-to-back picture |
| Work history | Sales history | Every stage: who and when | One record from intake to sale |
| Handoff to the POS | |||
| Ready-to-sell item | Rings it up | Hands it over ready | A clean handoff |
| The sale itself | Fast and correct | Item details already complete | No re-keying, no guesswork |
| Hidden revenue | Sees finished stock | Surfaces value stuck in the back | Revenue no longer hidden in unfinished work |
Not a contest, a division of labour. Keep your POS. Add the half it was never meant to cover.
Keep your POS. Add everything before the sale.
We’re building RetroBase with a small group of retro game stores. Founding stores get early access and a direct line to the team building it.
Free while we onboard founding stores. No credit card.