How we handle your information.

Shopping bag recovery

When you update your bag, an essential Secure, HttpOnly browser cookie lets this browser recover a completed update if its response is lost. The cookie lasts up to 14 days after use. The current tab keeps a random operation reference and a review-needed flag until you finish or acknowledge a review; neither grants access on its own. The private database stores digests of the browser owner and request, status and timestamps, and encrypted local bag-session references. Confirmed references can be recovered for seven days; expired encrypted references are removed in batches during later bag use. Non-authorizing operation identifiers and digests remain to prevent repeated requests. Recovery records are not sent to analytics or advertising services.

Public Tavern Rip activity

Completed paid Tavern Rip awards may appear in the public activity feed for 24 hours, showing the sealed-pack quantity and time. Before checkout you can choose an optional nickname; the browser sends only three asterisks and the last three characters. The full nickname is not sent or stored. Blank or short nicknames and older pulls appear anonymously as three asterisks. The public feed does not show your account, payment, order, private receipt, location, or contact details. The masked suffix stays attached to the private purchase record for consistency; the underlying order and award records follow their normal retention requirements.

Information we collect

The website inquiry desk collects your name, email address, optional phone number, contact preference, selected topic, topic-specific details, message, server timestamps, status, and staff actions needed to respond. It accepts no files. If you deliberately start Tavern Chat, the site collects your first name, email address, selected topic, current public page path, conversation messages, timestamps, status, and staff assignment or actions. Chat contact details, message text, employee-supplied action labels, and approved TCG Tavern page links are encrypted in the private database; the browser receives only a random, Secure, HttpOnly access token and the database stores its digest. Short-lived misuse-prevention records contain keyed, non-reversible digests of your normalized email and, when Cloudflare supplies it, network address; neither the inquiry nor chat database stores the raw network address. The reservation desk separately collects the details needed to operate its queue. The My Tavern Wishlist and saved activity keep only bounded references to public products, Quest Board leads, and public events in your browser when you deliberately save them; the site does not attach that list to Patreon. As a guest, Tavern Passport exploration also stays in your browser. If you explicitly connect a Shopify customer account, TCG Tavern stores a random local account ID, a keyed non-reversible digest of Shopify’s immutable account subject, encrypted OAuth access, refresh, and sign-out tokens, opaque session-token digests, timestamps, your selected approved avatar identifier, and bounded Passport facts: public Tavern areas, the areas you explicitly mark, up to 24 public product handles, a capped search count, and two coarse saved-activity flags. Account achievements are derived from those bounded facts; the site does not record passive time-on-page. Shopify’s encrypted sign-out token may contain identity claims, including an email claim, until the Tavern session expires or you sign out; it is never rendered as a Tavern profile field. You may explicitly import that browser’s guest Passport after sign-in; it is never merged silently. The account tables do not store readable name, email, phone, mailing address, search words, or time-on-page. Website order summaries are requested live from Shopify. If you use the account-linked Portfolio, recent physical purchase lines may also be copied into the private Tavern account using only non-contact order and line identifiers, order number, product and variant identifiers, bounded SKU and item names, quantity, non-sensitive payment and fulfillment state, line-item cost basis, and purchase timestamp. Manual portfolio entries may store item identity, quantity, condition, acquisition date, and optional personal cost basis. Addresses, contact details, payment credentials, customer notes, and customer-entered cost basis are never used as market evidence or offer inputs. If you use the account-linked Slab Vault, we store the card name, game, set and card number when supplied, language, grader, grade, certification number, optional legacy provider lookup reference, private or First Look setting, lifecycle revisions, a minimized link to any staff-prepared quote, and an immutable receipt if you accept an offer. The browser-only slab calculator does not transmit or store the market reference you type. Customer views of an approved private first offer contain only the Tavern reference, cash or trade type, amount, and expiry. When an official licensed market-data connection is active, a signed-in customer may see only the current normalized value, confidence, provider timestamp, and derived planning guides for the exact slab identity saved to that account; provider asset identifiers, adapter provenance, contract data, raw payloads, comparables, and staff evidence stay staff-only. If you separately accept physical custody terms, we store the linked slab, actual custodian, accepted intake and outtake fee quotes, versioned terms and fee schedule, custody status and timestamps, digests of provider and acceptance references, and an append-only owner action history. ALT is identified as the independent custodian when that program is active; saving a slab alone does not create physical custody. The master-owner support desk accepts only an exact opaque Tavern account reference, records an immutable access receipt with the purpose and optional case reference, and does not provide a customer email or name directory. The separate Quest Journal stores an opaque session-token digest, private inquiry or reservation references, a reservation proof digest, expiry times, and operational timestamps in TCG Tavern’s private database. Its customer view excludes names, email addresses, phone numbers, messages, customer notes, and staff notes. If you connect Patreon, the membership desk stores the Patreon user and TCG Tavern member identifiers, campaign and entitled tier identifiers, tier titles, status, free-trial or gift indicators, limited charge-status and renewal timing, continuous-membership start, eligibility result, verification time, and digests of opaque session tokens. If you attach Patreon to My Tavern, it stores one private link between those opaque account identifiers. Rotating Patreon OAuth access and refresh tokens are encrypted at rest and used only to recheck that membership; badges and avatar unlocks are derived from the verified tier and continuous-membership date. Short-lived Patreon abuse counters store a keyed non-reversible digest of the Cloudflare-provided network address, not the raw address. The desk requests only Patreon identity and membership entitlement. It does not request Patreon email, address, payment-card details, or campaign member lists. The grading and card-cleaning intake asks for your name, phone number, optional email address, card details, requested grading company and tier, and cleaning interest. If you apply to the Trade Guild, the private account stores your business name and type, optional business website, region, expected purchase range, application and review status, tax-treatment status, terms version, and timestamps. An approved account also stores Shopify’s opaque company, company-location, and company-contact references so checkout can use the correct B2B purchasing entity. Staff keeps only a secure internal reference to the signed resale-certificate record plus the minimized verification basis, checklist version, and review time in the website database; the certificate itself must remain in the approved private business record system. Wholesale checkout records retain the opaque account and offer references, quantity, approved unit price, subtotal, terms version, Shopify draft-order reference, result, and timestamps. A custom Quest checkout retains the exact catalog and offer references, title, SKU, quantity, customer price, fulfillment choice, terms version, account link when signed in, Shopify draft-order reference, an encrypted secure-invoice link, status, and timestamps; it does not copy an address, contact detail, or payment credential. If you email us, we receive the information you choose to provide. We do not ask for payment-card details, passwords, or account credentials through these paths.

A premium membership interest request records the tier you want to discuss, an optional note about what would make the membership useful, the disclosure version, and your no-charge acknowledgement. It does not create a subscription, reserve a seat, activate benefits, or authorize payment.

Mail-in buylist records

If you use the account-linked Mail-In Buylist, we store the Mail-In ID, card identity snapshot, seller-stated condition and quantity, optional expected price, selected pricing service, tracking if supplied, terms version, lifecycle timestamps, staff verification results, customer-safe reason text, immutable offer and payout-option economics, the selected method, fee and net, legacy rate evidence when a historical time-limited option used it, an in-store appointment window when applicable, and opaque settlement or return evidence references. The buylist database does not store your readable name, mailing address, payout recipient, wallet address, identity-document image, banking details, payment credentials, private staff notes, raw provider payload, or margin. Required destination, seller-identity, and transaction records remain in the separately approved secure system referenced by staff. Buylist records and append-only custody, offer, acceptance, appointment, settlement, and return evidence are retained as needed for the transaction, disputes, accounting, fraud prevention, legal reporting, holding periods, law-enforcement holds, or a verified privacy request.

Private collection analytics

When you choose to save a graded card in Slab Vault, you may also save an acquisition date and personal cost basis. Those bookkeeping values stay account-scoped, appear in your private export, and are never used as market evidence or to calculate a Tavern offer. Estimated change is calculated only when that exact slab also has a current customer-displayable licensed estimate; stale or unavailable estimates are excluded. The site does not present realized gain until a completed settlement ledger exists, and it does not expose historical provider values unless the provider agreement explicitly permits that use. A resale-readiness label describes recorded identity, evidence, First Look, offer, and inspection states; it is not a liquidity score or promise of sale.

How we use it

We use inquiry and live-chat information to route and answer customer questions, continue an active sales or service conversation on the website, keep a confirmation and status history, prevent automated or excessive submissions, and manage follow-up. Staff may send a validated TCG Tavern page link in chat; customers build their own cart and complete payment through Shopify checkout. We never ask customers to send payment credentials in the conversation, and chat rejects common card-number patterns, but no automated filter can recognize every bank detail, CVV, password, authentication code, or crypto secret. Names, emails, and order numbers typed into chat do not prove identity. Until the site has a server-owned order verifier, every order chat receives only generic guidance; private order details and changes stay inside My Tavern or Shopify’s secure order-status flow, including when the chat is linked to a signed-in customer account. The Quest Journal lets the browser that submitted an inquiry or opened a reservation’s private link retrieve a limited status view without matching records by name or email. We use a private Slab Vault record to show the signed-in customer that exact slab across devices. Staff cannot source a slab from the Vault unless the customer separately enables First Look for it; that permission can be withdrawn and does not give TCG Tavern exclusivity or a right of first refusal. We use Patreon entitlement information to confirm current paid-member access, determine eligibility for any active preferred member pricing, recheck it at least daily and at a known renewal boundary, prevent duplicate member-priority requests, apply a member-only visual theme, and derive tier or longevity cosmetics without relying on screenshots or email matching. We use Trade Guild information to review business eligibility, configure taxable or verified resale treatment, show only approved private volume offers, prevent discount stacking and replay, and create an exact Shopify invoice after rechecking account status, price evidence, SKU identity, allocation, and live inventory. We use reservation information to operate the separate request queue, and service-intake information to review the request, clarify options, and communicate next steps. An inquiry, chat, reservation, intake submission, saved slab, First Look opt-in, or Trade Guild application does not itself create a purchase, service agreement, appointment, custody record, or authorization to charge or begin work.

Website, commerce, and form providers

Customer inquiries, live-chat conversations, reservation requests, Quest Journal sessions, membership entitlement records, account-linked Slab Vault records, consent history, minimized offer links, and their operational histories are stored in the website’s private Cloudflare-hosted database. Tavern Chat uses a Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax cookie containing only a random access token; the database retains only its digest. An account-linked chat token is accepted only for the same authenticated Tavern customer account. A guest chat remains tied to possession of its browser cookie even if that visitor later signs in, so end the chat or clear site data before sharing the browser profile. After a chat starts, the browser stores a non-sensitive active-chat hint so the same website can quietly check for replies while the customer continues through public pages; the hint contains no identity, message, order, or payment data and is removed when the conversation ends. The Quest Journal uses a separate cookie with the same security attributes. Inquiry or chat confirmation references do not provide public access to the stored message. If a native form submission needs correction, the site may place an encrypted, HttpOnly draft cookie on the device for up to 10 minutes so the entered values can be restored after the redirect. Patreon verification uses separate Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax flow and member-session cookies. Short-lived misuse-prevention and OAuth-state records expire after their operational window. The reservation desk’s private confirmation link contains a separate secret, should be kept private, and can open a status session for up to 90 days after submission. Patreon processes the account authorization and membership response under its own terms. For an approved custom Quest offer, TCG Tavern creates the minimized Shopify Draft Order and encrypts its secure invoice link; Shopify processes checkout, payment, tax, fulfillment, and order information under its own terms. The browser-only slab calculator does not call a market provider or transmit the value entered there. A licensed JustTCG server connection remains disabled unless TCG Tavern has a paid commercial plan, reviewed display and derived-guidance rights, the committed policy version, official technical documentation, and a server-only credential. If activated, it receives the minimum exact card identity, grader, and grade fields needed to return a current grade-level market observation and provider-reported range. That observation is not an appraisal of one certification. PSA certification lookup remains a separate identity service, while ALT may separately act as an independent physical custodian only when that custody program is active. The service intake is hosted by Google Forms, with responses stored in TCG Tavern’s Google Workspace and linked response records. Patreon, Google, Shopify, JustTCG, PSA, ALT, and Cloudflare may process technical information under their own terms when you use their respective services.

Optional analytics and advertising measurement

TCG Tavern uses a consent-controlled measurement system for selected public content and shop pages. If you choose Analytics, Google Analytics may receive a sanitized page path, a broad page type, public product names and handles, public prices, and consented shopping events such as viewing a product or adding it to a cart. Google may set pseudonymous browser identifiers and optional analytics cookies; our browser configuration requests a 90-day maximum without extending it on each visit. Query strings, URL fragments, form values, customer contact details, private references, staff activity, exact inventory, cost, and margin are excluded. If you separately choose Advertising measurement and that feature is configured, Google Ads may process campaign, device, and pseudonymous identifier information and may set campaign-measurement cookies for up to 90 days. Personalized advertising, remarketing, Google Signals, and automatic collection from forms are not part of the initial configuration. Your device stores the privacy choice for up to 180 days so the site can honor it, and then asks again. Google may receive technical information such as browser, device, and network information when its tag is allowed to load.

Sharing

We do not sell personal information for money or rent inquiry, reservation, Slab Vault, or service-intake information. Authorized buying staff receives only exact slab identities with First Look enabled and portfolio items for which the customer starts a trade-in review or accepts an offer, not the rest of that customer’s portfolio or Shopify profile. We may share information with authorized TCG Tavern personnel, technology providers that host or support the request, a grading, payment, event, analytics, advertising-measurement, or fulfillment provider when needed for an approved purpose, or another party when required to protect rights, safety, or comply with law. Some privacy laws may define certain consented advertising disclosures more broadly than an ordinary sale; you can keep that optional processing off through Privacy choices, and we conservatively honor Global Privacy Control by disabling optional measurement.

Text messages

TCG Tavern sends conversational SMS messages only to people who text START to (949) 688-0820, select the optional SMS consent checkbox on our contact form, or give verbal consent during a phone call. Messages may include replies to customer questions, event registration or appointment reminders, order and pickup updates, store-hour or location information, and service notifications. Message frequency varies, typically 1–5 messages per request. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out at any time or HELP for assistance. Consent to receive text messages is not a condition of purchase.

Retention and deletion

We retain inquiry and live-chat contact data only as long as reasonably necessary to answer the conversation and handle an active transaction, dispute, misuse review, accounting requirement, or legal obligation. Staff reviews resolved and closed conversations monthly and de-identifies customer-provided information when it is no longer needed for those purposes. A chat access cookie expires after no more than 30 days. Chat de-identification removes the account link, contact details, public-page context, transcript text, TCG Tavern page links, and browser access while preserving a non-identifying operational audit. Inquiry de-identification similarly removes the customer’s name, contact details, message, context, private note, and any Patreon member identifier on the reservation. My Tavern Wishlist and saved activity entries expire locally after 180 days. Guest Passport progress expires locally after 365 days without a qualifying action and can be reset from My Tavern. Customer OAuth state expires after 10 minutes and customer sessions after no more than 30 days; expired sessions are removed during later account use. The selected avatar remains with the pseudonymous Tavern account until it is changed, the account is deleted, or a verified deletion request is completed. Account-linked Passport facts remain with the pseudonymous Tavern account so they can sync across devices, and may be deleted on a verified request. Only the 16 most recent guest-import receipts are retained per account. Removing an item from the active Portfolio hides it from current holdings; minimized purchase provenance and append-only lifecycle history may remain while needed for order reconciliation, an accepted-offer audit, disputes, accounting, legal duties, or a verified privacy request. Removing a slab from the active Vault immediately disables First Look and hides it from the customer’s active list; the minimized slab and consent history may remain while needed to preserve an offer audit, handle a dispute, prevent replay, meet accounting or legal duties, or respond to a verified privacy request. Customer-entered slab market references are never retained. Licensed normalized observations from an authorized server connection are never displayed after 72 hours; they may be deleted to meet provider-contract retention terms or a verified privacy request, and the permitted retention period must be recorded before that connection is enabled. Quest Journal sessions and inquiry grants expire after no more than 90 days; reservation grants expire with the private reservation status session, normally after 30 days. Removing a Journal card deletes that browser session’s grant, and clearing the Journal deletes its server session and browser cookie. Patreon OAuth state expires after 10 minutes, entitlement evidence expires after no more than 24 hours or at an earlier known renewal boundary, and the local member-session cookie expires after 30 days. An account-attached Patreon link and encrypted rotating tokens remain only while needed to maintain that requested connection. Disconnecting Patreon deletes the local membership link and encrypted credentials when storage is available, but it does not rewrite an active reservation; that reservation’s Patreon member identifier remains until the terminal record is de-identified. Short-lived rate-limit counters stop applying after their window and are removed during later submissions. Quest offer and checkout records remain append-only while needed to enforce allocation, recover payment, reconcile the resulting order, handle a dispute, meet accounting or legal duties, or answer a verified privacy request; a deleted account cannot resolve the retained opaque account reference. Trade Guild applications may be deactivated or de-identified when no longer needed, but resale certificates, related invoices, shipping records, and minimized wholesale checkout evidence are retained for at least four years—and longer during an audit, appeal, dispute, or refund matter—to meet tax, accounting, fraud-prevention, and legal obligations. A deleted Tavern account cannot resolve the opaque account reference retained in that audit evidence. Reservation, commerce, service-intake, analytics, and advertising-measurement records follow their separate operational and provider retention settings. TCG Tavern’s launch standard for Google Analytics event-level data is two months unless a documented need and privacy review supports a change. You may ask us to correct, delete, or de-identify information, subject to records we must retain by law.

Children and minors

The online intake is not directed to children under 13. If you are under 18, ask a parent or guardian to review the request and consent before you provide personal information or arrange to leave or ship property with TCG Tavern.

Your choices

You may reject all optional measurement, choose Analytics and Advertising measurement separately, or change a saved choice at any time through Privacy choices in the site footer. Global Privacy Control keeps both optional categories off on the device sending that signal. Necessary security, cart, account, and preference storage cannot be disabled through the measurement control. A connected Tavern account syncs Passport stamps, your selected approved avatar, the private Portfolio and Slab Vault, recent verified Shopify purchase lines, and live Shopify order summaries across devices. First Look is off by default and can be enabled, disabled, or avoided separately for each slab without disabling pricing or the rest of My Tavern. Wishlist, saved activity, and the limited Quest Journal remain device-bound: anyone using the same browser profile can view them, so clear them before sharing the device. Guest Passport progress is also browser-bound until you explicitly import it after signing in. You can reset guest Passport exploration, change your avatar, remove Wishlist items, saved events, active Portfolio items, active Slab Vault items, individual private Journal records, clear either browser-only area, sign out of a Tavern account, or avoid using them. Clearing the Quest Journal removes private access from that browser; it does not delete the underlying inquiry or reservation record. Connecting Patreon is optional. It remains standalone unless you explicitly attach it to My Tavern, and you can disconnect the local membership link from the membership account page. You may email support@tcg-tavern.com instead of using the website inquiry desk or Google Form. To ask what information we have, request a correction, deletion, or de-identification, or raise a privacy concern, use that address. We may need to verify that the request concerns your information before acting on it.

Security and updates

We use reasonable administrative and technical measures intended to protect information, but no internet service can guarantee absolute security. We may update this notice as the website, forms, or services change. The effective date below identifies the current version.

My Tavern tour preference

The optional My Tavern dashboard tour stores only its version, whether it is dismissed, in progress, or completed, the last step number, and an update time in that browser for up to 365 days. It contains no account identity, page contents, search words, or time-on-page; it is not sent to TCG Tavern or analytics. You can restart the tour at any time, and clearing this site’s browser data removes the preference.

Licensed slab estimates

A certification-number match identifies a provider record; it does not create an exact current price or authenticate the physical holder. If a separately licensed market-data connection is activated, a signed-in customer may see only the current or refresh-due normalized point estimate, provider-reported range, confidence, source label, provider timestamp, and a bounded recent history for the exact card, grader, grade, and certification number saved to that account. Every displayed history point must independently pass the same license, range, confidence, identity, and 72-hour freshness gates; all older or disallowed values remain hidden. A cash-buy guide appears only for a current high- or medium-confidence range that stays within one published tier. Provider identifiers, adapter and contract provenance, raw payloads, comparables, and staff evidence remain private. Estimates and planning guides are not offers. If TCG Tavern later completes a verified purchase of the slab, an append-only disposition ledger preserves the public settlement reference, proceeds, optional saved cost-basis snapshot, calculated realized result, and time. The processor or in-store evidence reference and recorder identity remain staff-only reconciliation data.

Quiz Hall and Adventurer’s Ledger

The TCG Picker works before sign-in and begins with a short-lived, server-signed quiz challenge. At completion, its answers may be sent over the encrypted connection solely to verify the displayed result and issue a signed completion receipt valid for up to 30 days; the server stores the receipt record, not the raw answers or score vector. The Magic quiz keeps ordinary play choices only in volatile page memory until a customer explicitly asks to save. Either quiz uses short-lived session storage only after a visitor explicitly chooses Sign in to save, and the handoff contains only the minimal result and signed receipt needed to repeat unchecked save choices after sign-in. After seeing a TCG Picker result, a visitor may separately choose to keep the minimal result, Wayfinder’s Mark, version details, completion and expiry times, and signed receipt on that device for up to 30 days, even when account saving is unavailable. Raw answers are never written to localStorage. After sign-in, the site previews those exact remembered fields and imports nothing until the customer explicitly asks; the server verifies the live receipt, rejects alteration or cross-account reuse, and reports whether the result was added, already present, or restored after deletion or replacement. The device copy can be cleared at any time. Quiz answers, results, favorite games, stamps, titles, and Ledger routes are excluded from marketing and advertising analytics. A signed-in customer may separately choose to save a versioned result and independently choose to save a small derived play-style vector. For Magic, that vector contains only five mechanical color scores and is not a personality profile. Raw answers are never stored in the account database. The private Adventurer’s Ledger may also store receipt-backed completion records for four non-purchase quests, their stamp and title unlock provenance, up to five customer-selected favorite-game sigils and order, private-preview choices, and one active title or none. Unlocking a title never displays it automatically, and the site does not publish customer profiles. The Explore quest requires two distinct destination marks that the customer explicitly chooses and then a private Passport preview; passive page views never count toward that quest. The Ledger provides controls to view and delete each saved result, delete each preference vector, change or remove sigils and title choices, or reset all Ledger records without deleting orders, collections, the account, or the earlier Tavern Passport. A reset leaves only a non-content generation counter so a save already in flight cannot recreate erased Ledger data; that counter is included in verified account exports and is removed with the account. Saved result provenance and receipt-consumption records are included in a verified account data export.