What are some tips on making money in this hobby?

[kailes2872]

Like real estate and most other things, the money is made on the buy. Cash is collected at the sale.

Also (as stated above) cash is made on the cut. Money is made on cucumbers when they are sliced into pickles. That is why you see advertisements for sets, near sets, bulk lots, etc. When you have the cash to outlay that someone else doesn’t have and can parse that lot or set out card by card you can make money on it but the money is made on the time and effort and is often time offset by postage, fees, and effort. It quickly turns into a minimum wage job.

I heard it said about auto racing and while not a perfect analogy because some do very well, it is said that the best way to make a small fortune in racing is start with a large fortune and then start a race team.

I don’t have the haggling gene to make a low offer that allows me the 50 points of margin to cover 20 points in fees 5-10 points in portage and supplies, 5 points in damages and fraud so I can squeeze out 15 points of margin that is only worthwhile if I am doing enough volume to justify that it becomes a second full-time job. I got into this hobby because I love the cards and the memories that it brings. If I had to go that route, it would quickly become unenjoyable

One member buys multiple sets of a year upgrades that way into the best possible set he can put together and then sells the duplicate sets that are lower grade for close to his initial investment and adds value. Even lower grade 50’s sets can be pricey so it takes capital but, to me, it seems a great way to build value in the collectiom.

Good luck

[pbspelly]

I am reminded of that old joke about how to make a small fortune on Wall Street - start with a big one.

[Fballguy]

Find a guy getting a divorce and desperate for cash.

Or a guy about to go to jail.

I've had luck with both.

[joshuanip]

Buy the cards you want to collect and put your effort and real money in the market. If you don’t have time for that SPY works just fine, it beats ~98% of the managers out there.

[tiger8mush]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

Find a guy getting a divorce and desperate for cash.

Or a guy about to go to jail.

I've had luck with both.

Were you charged a bp?

[Touch'EmAll]

Buy upper tier high demand HOFers at reasonable fair market values (occasionally a little below), hold long term, BINGO! Short term you need to get a good low price to begin with - can be tougher than you think.

[ALR-bishop]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

Find a guy getting a divorce and desperate for cash.

Or a guy about to go to jail.

I've had luck with both.

I have been looking for cards on ebay, at shows, in flea markets and at estate sales. Apparently I should be hanging out down at the court house

[barrysloate]

The one problem the OP might have is that only he and about 5000 other collectors are trying to do the same thing, so it's a bit of a competitive market.

Quality baseball cards are in high demand and generally easy to sell. That's the good news. The problem is how do you buy cheap enough to turn a profit? That is the difficult part.

My best advice, as someone who has been doing this for 36 years, is to learn as much as you can and work hard at it. Somewhere along the line, good things will happen.

[invest]

I have been collecting football cards for decades, but I got into collecting graded vintage RC's of HOF's many years ago after visiting Rich Muellers site

http://www.baseballcardinvestment.com

It is a lot of the same advice many people have already given, but when I was starting out I knew who the star players were but didn't know which of their cards were the most collectible. Some pre-war iconic players have very tough to find RC's or no clear ones you can readily find.

The site was a great resource. Those players and their respective cards seem to appreciate in the long run.

Troy

This is how I've operated over the past seven years since I got into collecting specifically vintage cards and I've had some modest success (as in my collection has nearly been completely funded by having flipped cards over this time period). I work in education so I can definitely relate to having limited discretionary funds

1) Study the market of the players you're interested in and know the values of those cards in the range you are thinking of buying like the back of your hand. That way when you see what appears to be a good deal you can act quickly. Key cards of blue chip HOF'ers are a good starting point

2) Only, or almost only, buy cards that you'd be happy owning your entire life and passing on to family members. This will satisfy the collector in you and separates you from just being a business. I've had more great cards go through my hands than I currently own, but the one's in my personal collection will hopefully be passed on to my son one day

3) Buy multiples of cards that you believe are a good value when possible for investment purposes and for your own personal collection. Nothing worse than owning one copy of a card that's exploded, especially if its a player you collect (in my case 1947 Bond Bread Jackie Robinson)

4) Know when to take a loss. I overpaid and owned a really nice M116 Wagner Blue background in SGC 60 for over a year before I listed it on BST and it was clear to me that I had overpaid by at least $1200-$1500. Eventually I took the loss but rolled that money into an E121 Ruth that I was able to sell within weeks and make all that money back, plus an extra $2k

5) Contact sellers when a price is solid and ask if they are able to do any better. This will piss off about the same percentage of sellers who end up knocking off an additional 10% from my experience.

6) Sell when you want to not when you need to. Obviously you don't want to be in a situation that you need to sell cards to remain afloat

[x2drich2000]

As with most things in life, there are a many different philosophies on how to make money selling cards. Sure, everyone loves the idea of hitting homerun and double or triple their money on a single card, but if it takes 2 or more years of holding the card and tying your funds up, that may not be the best approach. Instead, you could look at having a smaller profit percentage per card but a higher turnover rate. Your particular time frame, finances, effort, risk tolerance, etc would likely influence the way you approach it.

As an example, buying 1 card for $100, holding for a year before selling for $140 results in a 40% profit. You could make that same 40% profit by buying a $100 and selling if for $110 and repeating this every 3 months.

[drcy]

Be an expert in sell prices, then you know when something is a deal.

Expand beyond baseball cards.

Frankly, I thought a couple of posts in this thread were crap.

[mechanicalman]

I believe if you want to buy "big boy cards" (your words, not mine), I think your time and capital will be better invested in places other than cards. In my observation, people can make a ton of money selling stuff they DON'T have passion for. I've heard of many housewives who earn 7 figures selling crap on Amazon because they fill a market need. There is no gap in the market for people re-selling sports cards.

That said, if you're intent on playing the flipping game, I might suggest a different route. Instead of going after the premium quality cards, buy the worst cards of a certain grade (which typically go for a lot less than high end cards) and then price it on eBay at or just below the average prices for HE cards. So, a new, less savvy buyer might see your off-centered Cobb 5 priced below one that just sold at a high from PWCC, and he might think he should snag it. This seemed to the model of Mike Dinero (though I don't see his listings anymore.) Other folks on the board seem to do this is as well, so perhaps there's something to it. I'm speaking only from observation, not experience.