Cost + timeline + your credentials, what am I actually getting?

Realistic ranges for a toy + game DTC store at $500k-$10M GMV:

• Audit: $499 fixed-fee, 5 business days, ~20h @ $25/hr. Catalog mix + age-grade + compliance gap review, Q4 demand model from last 3 years of data, pre-order workflow review, written platform-fit recommendation.
• Build: $4,999 fixed-fee, 6 weeks, ~200h @ $25/hr. Catalog with age-grade + cert attributes, pre-order + waitlist, gift wrap + greeting card cart add-on, Klaviyo + Postscript SMS, Q4 hosting + cache + scheduled rules, Hyvä storefront, 30 days post-launch ops.
• Custom enterprise: quoted in 24h. Multi-region toy safety (US + EU + UK + AU), collectible secondary market, TCG tournament platform, subscription / hobby box, ERP + PIM (Akeneo / Pimcore) integration for 50,000+ SKU catalogs. Typically $25k-$80k + retainer.
• Hosting: $400-$1,500/mo on Cloudways / dedicated. Toy needs over-provisioned for Q4 surge, assume 8-12x normal RPS for 4 days. CDN (Cloudflare / Akamai) mandatory.
• Ongoing retainer: $1.5k-$5k/mo for through-Q4 ops, monthly secondary-market sweep, compliance audit before new product lines.

My credentials: Adobe Certified Magento + Hyvä developer, 7+ years shipping DTC toy and hobby builds, projects across US / EU / UK / AU / IN. Past work includes a 12,000-SKU collectibles store on Hyvä (Lighthouse mobile 94, INP 80ms), a Pokemon TCG-heavy LCS with native pre-order + waitlist, a hobby-box subscription with ~$3M ARR. Public reviews on Upwork are clickable on the testimonials slider above.

I do not push Magento on every store. If you’re a pure LCS under $500k GMV, Crystal Commerce / Tabletop Tycoon is probably a better fit. If you’re a $50k Etsy / Shopify Basic side-hustle, Shopify is enough. The cut where Magento clearly wins is $1M-$2M+ GMV with at least two of these: pre-order workflow, multi-region, compliance complexity, secondary market, or subscription box.