What are some tips on making money in this hobby?

[ronniehatesjazz]

Originally Posted by Vintageclout

Exactly! Spend strong money on the “best of the best” for Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb, Jackson, etc. rarities and then put them away for several years. For baseball’s most iconic players, todays retail is tomorrow’s whokesale. Show a little patience and you WON’T be disappointed.

Sadly this is all too true. Ruth Goudeys were going for ~$1k or so in the 1-2 range a few years ago. I held off thinking they would come back below four figures only to see them catapult to $2k+ since. Iconic cards will always be in demand and the higher grade the better. There still are quite a few value cards out there right now. IMO any Jackie rookie is very undervalued right now. The same could be said about Mays 51 Bowman and perhaps even the 52 topps. Also T201’s are currently very under appreciated right now and I think collectors will “wise up” in the future and prices will rise as a result. The Cobb/Jennings card is one of the most undervalued cards in the hobby and is a total steal (no pun intended).

Then again you could always mortgage your house, flip a 52 mantle, and be living on a private island in the West Indies in a few short years.

[toledo_mudhen]

Buy Low - Sell High

[Johnny630]

I stick with other ways of making money, however if you have some discreationary money/patience, you may wanna give this a try. I know it's not sexy, in fact it's rather boring as hell, you maybe saving for a long time until the right time to buy comes. If the right time does not come hell you will still have a nice chunk of cash to do whatever the heck you want!! Most probaby think this idea is way out in left field.

Save your money up until the next resecisson. Wait for people to panic like Buffet. Buy the highest eye appeal graded Ruth/Mantle/Jackie/Clemente. Do not buy overgraded ugly cards with early grades, a lot of these were gift grades. I also like to buy virgin cards without vcp history.

If you land a few killer cards hoard them away for 10 years plus if not more.

This stratagey may only land you a handfull of cards in a 5-10 year strech, in the long run I've been very happy.