Making money in the Hobby (CDN user)?

[Stryfex]

With something like magic the gathering (a trading card game for those that don't know) there are legitimate opportunities for making money within the hobby. r/mtgfinance on reddit is a good community/resource for working that out

That whole concept basically doesn't exist in hockey. There is a tiny bit of a gamble where it's possible to get a card in a pack that is worth way more than the cost of the pack but the frequency of that happening is so unbelievably rare

[Sharky94]

The best way for a person in the hobby to turn $160 into $30 is to open wax.

+1000

Just say NO!

[cardscardscards]

The only way you'll ever make money busting wax is if your name is Upper Deck.

[RGM81]

I mean, in theory, if you bust a case and you hit something big plus can move it and the fluff stuff, you can come out ahead I'd say at least half the time. I've seen it happen with friends where they just love to crack and flip so that it can pay for the next one. But that's the level where you have to break now to have a real chance. Single boxes are a total crap shoot.

[bakemeister52]

It is a big gamble in making money in Hockey these days. You can do better trading.

[10-4 collector]

I used to buy buy cases and come out most of the times even. With the canadian $, this is almost impossible now. I'm not buying much now. Money down the drain.

[Ray33]

If you want to make money in this hobby, I suggest you get into the basketball market.

[pwskelly]

A friend of mine owns a card store. He's a diehard hockey fan but 95% of his store space is Magic, Pokeman, and a whole bunch of other crap that I cannot even describe. As many others have stated, hockey cards are the worst hobby to INVEST in.

The only way I think you could make money in hockey is to buy a bunch of McDavid RCs and sit on them for about 20 years and hope that he continues to be successful. Even then, you might at best double your money. There are far more lucrative opportunities to make money however.

[Absolutebeauty]

There two ways I have actually been able to MAKE money in this hobby:

1. Check COMC periodically for the latest e-pack release (typically a month after release or so, or before a new product is launching). Often times many of the big spenders on there will dump their e-pack stuff to COMC and want to move it quickly so will mark it on the cheap. Have found some amazing deals on there that I just posted to eBay and sold for a lot more than I bought it for.

2. Buy lots (as in a large bulk group) of relic or auto cards and sell them individually on eBay. I've found the best way to do this is to mark them for a reasonable BIN price if they're low to mid end. Auctions on low end cards too often end up unsold or at a minimal price. High end generally do better at auction as I think people are adverse to paying three digits for a card with no "say" in the price, which is what auctions provide them. In fact, many times auctions end higher than BIN sales anyway. For example, I had a nice Ryan Kesler Cup Patch auto /50 up at BIN for $60 for a week and nobody touched it. Listed it for auction and it sold for $120.

Anyway, those are the only ways I've found that give you an actual chance to turn a profit in this hobby.

[Manny]

I think you can assume that the price of (edit: some) rookie cards will go up...The 2009-10 YG set, guys like Karlsson and Marchard went from $20 to $80 in 5 years? There are other examples like the Crosby YG.
If it isn't because the player did better than expected, it is because of inflation and other metrics. We're lucky that in today's market rookie print runs are under 25,000 for the set, unlike the 80's and 90's where it was a few million?.

But unless you're young and don't mind waiting 25 years, it's pretty hard to make money right now, which is what people want.

If you're looking to invest I'd recommend rookies, and a lot of patience.

Just my opinion.