What card would you arrange financing to buy?
 

Interesting convo the other day among several long time collectors. I'm interested to know what this forum thinks...

Would you buy a card > $1,000 (or $10K, or whatever threshold you set) that you can't pay for in the near future, i.e. use a credit card or otherwise arrange financing, because the card is rare or its one you've always wanted in that particular condition or grade? If so, do you have any terms like, 1) must have the ability to pay off in six months, or 2) the interest rate must be below x%, or 3) its an item that you feel you can flip and make back all your money plus any interest?

Some have deeper pockets than others, but a few friends admitted to making payments for a long period of time to get their Cobb or Ruth or Jordan. Which card is the one you would honestly go into debt for? Not taking about some one time purchase from a desperate seller, but a card at fair market value. Any thoughts to share?

None!

None. Save up and buy it later.

0

None. I’m not going into debt for a cardboard picture. I don’t buy anything I cannot afford. No more than a small fraction of cash on hand should be spent on toys.

Good luck to those who bet more than the entirety of their resources on a card bubble.

If you're thinking about financing a card. It might be a better idea to sell every card you have in order to buy the card you so want. If you have to finance a card you cant afford the card. Sell what you have and then use the funds to buy.

No debt on cards. Have a card budget and stick to it. The temptation is to strong to go wild and get in trouble.

I love my wife, I love my life. None!

I have personally made deals that included me making a few payments over a couple months. I have also sold cards the same way. I have only done this with a few people I have known in the hobby for several years.

Man.

After all of our marvelous disputations about cashing out your 401k to buy cardboard, I figured there would be more takers here.

Plus you’ve got all of the new fancy vaults with their lending features that seem so enticing to lever up to buy some exciting pieces!!

Naturally, I’m in the “no bloody way” camp.

No, to financing but....
 

Terry Knouse Sr. sold me some great stuff (Just So etc..) around 2000, at a National. I didn't have the money at the time but had a great outsides sales IT job and knew it would be coming in. I asked if I could pay him for around 16k in cards, in 90 days. He said sure, take as long as you need to, and gave me the cards to take home. I think I repaid him in one month. Again, I believe that was the first time I ever met him. But to answer the question, no. :)
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What he said +1000. If you can't afford it, you don't need it.

I now believe I have reached a significant personal milestone...1,000 net54baseball.com posts! Yee ha!!!

I've bought cards on my credit card, but never spent so much that I can't pay off the card in full before the next payment is due. I don't think I could ever get to a point where I'm stretching payments over multiple months to buy a card.

Because every thread deserves a card, here's one that would at least make me pause and think about it

Higher end cards transact privately with different payment terms quite often. Some of the best cards are bought and sold among the collectors this way. Not CC, no interest, just payment terms among friends/collectors/dealers.

Absolutely correct!!

Another in the no way camp!

I’m at a loss as to why the answer to debt is a resounding no but the answer to draining retirement accounts and taking a huge tax hit to buy cards one can’t afford was a “yes!”. You’d think that kind of “everything all in on cards” mentality would produce a yes to both, or if common sense is applied a no to both.

I have used PayPal credit no interest for 6 months
Many many many many times

Yeah, sure. If you're one of the beautiful people of the (so called) "hobby" at that lofty level. I came to the conclusion I wasn't in that club when reality set in long, long ago. So go ahead and sell me one of the "best cards". When I can't pay up, Johnny Two Times and his ball peen hammer will pay me a little visit.

Okay. Probably not quite the same, but I did have a transaction that I paid in two payments over a couple of weeks. However, my motivation was simply to drive down the individual payment amount to drop below the threshold triggering my wife’s reporting requirements.

The REAL Johnny Two Times with the Hammer!

I wish REA Auctions had 6 months no interest

I'm like most others.............never!

The truth is that any of us would go into debt to buy a card if the deal is right. I'd happily draw down a $100,000 HELOC to get a T206 Wagner because I could flip it for a large multiple. Now, if you qualify it with provisos like I cannot flip it or it has to be purchased "at market value" (whatever that is; a whole other debate), then the deal doesn't make sense and my answer is "no". I would only go into debt to make money.

None!

Ditto! I'll never finance a card, but I've asked to make payments over a month or two. Sometimes to avoid the eye of sauron; other times, so that I could sell off a few other items to help pay for it.

Bill

So I think the retirement question was a yes is because technically, you own that money and are not in debt to something.

+1 Agree

I have done it both ways multiple times with people I met in the hobby and/or on this forum

Exactly! If you're working and using money you earned to buy cards, that is using after-tax money as well. Money you put into your 401K just hasn't been taxed yet, so what really is the difference, other than the timing of when you pay the tax on that money that you earned and is yours?

My wife refers to my collection mostly as 'pictures of old, dead men on cardboard'.

I could be wrong, but reading between the lines of the OP a little bit, I think the context/situation is one in which you've been jonesing for a card for a long time, and have a chance now to pick it up, but don't have the cash to make it happen.

Although not explicit in the OP, I (perhaps simplistically) assumed that we were talking about a market price, or at least something approximating market, maybe with a slight discount because we all love a good deal when we're buying.

Naturally, if you want to change the facts to an improbable/unlikely/fantasy situation, then the answer might change, depending on the precise opportunity that comes along.

The question is explicitly about cards at current, fair market value.

That’s how I describe it too. A little cognizance of the absurdity of the things we happen to like helps to keep things in perspective and not take it so seriously that one drains their retirement, goes into debt, or trades their first born to Satan.

Never.

Buying - absolutely never happen - never in the past - never in the future.

Selling - maybe I would accept payments if I've known them for a minimum of my entire life.

So I take it you're not a fan of the Little Mermaid selling her soul to the devil to fundamentally change who she is to chase after a boy she's never really met?

But maybe love is more important than cardboard!

As an expert on relationships*, that sounds like a perfectly healthy foundation to me. What could go wrong? If she changes herself to always be what he wants, she’ll never lose him!



* Do not ask for evidence or credentials.

This one
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I've made payments on items several times over the years but I've never paid any interest, and wouldn't.

Yes, I would ...
 

for an 1885 Sam Thompson Evansville Cabinet.

Looks like this one last sold a couple of years ago. Any reason why you didn't pick it up then, even going into hock for it?

Maybe the vault lending options weren't as generous as they are today?

Now I'm going to have to watch Little Mermaid. That's what it's about? :D

A big zero

Makes ya wonder if the food chain diagram needs to be redrawn, no? Humans are simply amazing.

To the OP, I would never finance a card purchase, liquidate a retirement account or use funds earmarked for another purpose to purchase a card.

I wasn't back into pre-war collecting when it sold.

Gotcha. Maybe it will come back around in the next few years, and we'll see if the price is right, even factoring in potential borrowing...

Maybe, my thought is that card will not see the light of day for a long time.

I’m 70. If I was single I might finance everything and let the CRC companies deal with it when I’m dust (used to work with banks and think very little of them).

But that’s not me. Cash n carry these days.

I wouldn’t buy anything that required a payment plan—I collect for fun but have huge responsibilities as a parent/spouse and wouldn’t jeopardize my family for cardboard. I did try to buy a card I couldn’t really afford at the time with the thought that I could sell something really liquid (52 Topps Mantle) after to pay back my savings account after. Ended up losing the auction and doubt that card will ever see the marketplace again in my lifetime. But such is life.

Wow Phil

I am drooling for that card.