??Making Money??

[heroesandhobbyz]

All of the last 3 posts (since my last reply) are dead on! James, your practice is well known, but it takes a lot of preparation time and planning to pull it off for profit. When you work a few jobs and have a family to take care of, it becomes even more difficult. The auction sites are great for the little guy, but have just about killed card shops in the real world, still not sure if that is a bad thing :o), and you still pay part of profit to the site. It is also true that you must decide between one or the other. This time around, I am NOT collecting star cards from everyone in the league(s)...This time, I am only collecting my TEAMS.

So, do any of you guys still persue vintage, or just the new stuff?

Steve

[HDGOP]

At the same time of being a collector, what is the best way to make money in the card business? Any tips or suggestions wouldbe great.

1. Collect underwear
2. ?
3. Profit

[HDGOP]

Alternatively, here's another way to do it in baseball. I can't stand baseball, so this is easy for me.

Buy Bowman, Bowman Chrome, or whatever is loaded with rookies. Sell off the big hot rookies now. Sell off all the other stars, GUed, and hot autos. Keep the rest. Next year or two years later, when the hot RCs from today have died down, a new batch will be popular. Sell those and keep what remains. After about six years, you are left with some commons, but have gotten the most out of your product several times.

I just got back into the hobby after 4-5 years and most of the hot RCs from 98 and 99 Bowman when I left are dead now, and new ones have sprung up.

I wanted a 95 Bowman's Best Juan Encarnacion RC more than anything back then, but I didn't feel like bidding $25 or more, and it was hot back then. Just won one today for $.99. I will finally own the card, five years too late.

[HDGOP]

Just thought of something else...

If you want to make money and still enjoy your collection, collect something that nobody else wants. This sucks if you are a huge Manning fan, but I personally have always enjoyed the role players more. I have no use for Jordans, Bonds', or Mannings, but I love getting those rare Rick Fox, Juan Encarnacion and Cade McNown cards. I enjoy my collection just as much as a Jordan fanatic does.

To each his own.

But honestly, if you are in this for the money, you are going to be disappointed. There is no money in this.

[trampus]

I was going to post what HDGOP said but he read my mind and did it first.

I paid $70 for a box of Bowman Jumbo and looked up all the GU/auto's I pulled out of it and the 4 of them are selling for about $40. give or take a lil'. I got even less out of the box of 2003 Honor I paid the same price for. So obviously I'm not going for profit here.

If you really want a chance at making a little cash then I'll give you my tip that I'm going to use for my next box. Save up and buy something that guarantee's cut signatures or HOF relics. It'll probably backfire for me and I'll end up with crappy players, but you might get a Williams or Ruth.

PS: I also agree there's no money in this, except on very rare occasions. For every $100 you make you'll probably have to spend $200. There's other things† you can make a much bigger profit from by buying and selling, but you won't be able to collect anything for 10-20 years afterwards, besides tattoos.

†: I'm not into that, please don't PM me asking for tips.

[heroesandhobbyz]

But honestly, if you are in this for the money, you are going to be disappointed. There is no money in this.

Both of you (HDGOP & Trampus) brought up some good points, but I don't agree with the above. There IS money in this. You just need to be lucky and focused on working it like a business.

For the newbies out there, look at it this way. By purchasing a pack of cards you are simply PLAYING THE LOTTERY! The downsides are that you pay more than a $1 for a chance, and that you can't win millions, but the advantage is that you get some very fancy ticket "stubs" worth keeping!

Just my 3 cents worth!

Peace,
Steven

[Star_Cards]

There absolutely is money in this. You just have to find a nitch and go. If you buy in bulk you can get card at a much cheaper price. The trick is, you have to locate an outlet for everything you buy. They are out there but you have work at it.

Of you're buying wax and loking to turn a profit, it's next to impossible if not totally impossible.

m

[jaybiddyforeal]

there is alot of money in this.......this "hobby" provides me with a chance to do what i love in collecting cards and allow me as a 17 yr old not to work at checkers or shoprite like all my friends do. sit here....talk to you guys......make some trades and alot of friends along the way.....take about 3 hours from my life and lpace some hot stuff on ebay and make 300$ and i dont even lose anything i like that much. its such a perfect job....

james

[jaderock]

For those that actually put in the effort and TIME AND find the right, somewhat underexposed, niche, you can make money in the card biz (star cards and jaybiddyforeal are good examples). It's not easy though. For myself, I don't like the risk vs the reward, so I collect what I like (Mark Brunell) and not worry about making $$$.

Here's a semi related question. I bought several Dontrelle Willis #1/1 (2 autos, 1 patch) and several Low serial #'d autos (#/5, #/10) back in 11/04 and 12/04 because I worked in Alameda - when should I sell?

Am I too late, Now, or later? What are the chances that he'll bounce back? He's still 13-5 and doing very well.

[Sheesh]

Although I haven't made any money yet, I have recently come into a stock of 3 million cards. Some of have suggested that I not take much time and catalog the sets; however, since most of the stock is already in sets, entering manufacturer, year, and card number to a pre-made software program won't take that long (relatively; I'm looking at a 3 year window). As a result, I will not only have sets, but information on the database where I can quickly identify and pull the high value cards when those cards raise in value and then strategically sell them.

Anyway, I agree that it might be hard to get rich, but if you have enough inventory I bet you can definately make a few hundred bucks a month.