Cards = Investments

[tiger8mush]

Originally Posted by Ulidia

Remember, also, that when buying a high value card, you're typically paying a higher price than anyone else is prepared to. And of course, the thing that all too many overlook are the buy / sell spreads of buying and selling cards which are prohibitive from an investment perspective - for example, you buy a card at $100k in auction? Given premiums etc, you'll need to sell it for a considerably larger amount just to break even.

Good point. So lets you buy a card at auction (more than anyone else is willing to pay, of course) for $1k. Then lets say 15% buyers premium of $150 + $20 insured shipping. So you have $1,170 invested in this card. You hold the card for 5 years as investment and then decide to consign it to an auction company that has 0% sellers premium. You spend another $20 to ship to them, insured. $1,190 now. So the card has to sell at auction for AT LEAST 20% higher than it did 5 years ago just for you to break even. You are taking a risk that it sells lower, you are NOT GUARANTEED it'll sell for that price. Did you also spend extra $ on home insurance for the card or a safety deposit box? So if you want to make 10% in 5 years (only 2% a year), it'll have to sell for at least 30% higher than its previous hammer price. Heck, inflation is higher than 2% a year! So even then you are probably losing money.