Condition, Condition, Rarity, Rarity

[steve B]

Excellent points Everyone especially Barry and Jim.

Knowing which stuff to take a loss on is a key thing in the points the guy gave me. He's also very good at networking to turn stuff quickly, sometimes before he gets it back to the shop.

If I was more of a dealer, I'd probably bail on easily replaced inventory like lower grade common t206s. But I'd also be buying the truly difficult stuff and expect to keep it for a few years. I wish I had the money right now for some of the really great stuff. But there's a budget, and I've never gone into debt for cards. If I can't buy it with cash on hand I just can't buy it. So for me there's no pressure to sell either for profit or loss.

The problem a lot of dealers get into aside from common startup mistakes like not setting aside tax money is not having enough money to work with.

At one shop I used to go to the owner gave me the rundown on what finished him off just before he closed. Started with about 50K, and bought inventory. Like nearly anything issued that year, plus a couple colections of older stuff. About a month in, the better older cards were gone and the "new" stuff wasn't new anymore So the remaining got spent for more new cards. Next couple months the new cards were bought on credit. And he still bought every product offered. Only a few had any lasting saleability. At about the 1 year mark he had no money, big inventory, and no available credit. So the below cost sales began. Had to do that to raise money for the next batch of stuff. And older cards were out of the question. At about the 2 year mark he had no money, nearly no inventory, and a load of debt.
And that was without taking a paycheck during the 2 years.

Cards or any sort of collectibles is a tough business. I've a lot of respect for the abilities of anyone that manages to survive let alone make an actual living at it.