"Thank you." A gem from Magic Johnson years ago for new businesses: don't sell what you like. Sell what the public wants. What you like may not be what the public wants.
Great content as always! Thank you for including number 4. I can't tell you how many times I run into this when someone is trying to sell a single card or a collection. It's even worse when you go out of your way to show them how to look at sold listings and they take offense because their junk wax era card is worth pennies on the dollar and they think you're trying to rip them off.
People seem to never factor in seller fees, shipping, or taxes when they talk about what they bought and sold a card for. Which all the things I mentioned could eat up all of one's profit.
I bought a card for $360 on Ebay the other day and then after relisting I had to turn down an offer for $450. After paying 7% tax and shipping, and considering basically 13% Ebay fees, I would have ended up losing money after purchasing it for $90 dollars less than the potential sale.
The thing I find myself explaining to new collectors a lot is that they assume any card they pull from a pack will be an automatic 10. There's a reason that only 0.5% of Joe Montana RCs grade a 10 and that only a single PSA 10 of Ryan/Koosman exists. Those sets were notoriously off center. Even with the modern cards where centering has improved, a lot of times the edges are chip magnets. Having realistic expectations is a big part of managing the ups and downs. I use an "expected value" calculation a lot when I'm evaluating things I buy for resale, especially raw to be graded.
Real info from a real dealer. This is the not so sexy info that people need to hear. I’ve been through every single aspect myself and you are the real deal. Great content as always. Thanks!
My oops has always been underestimating shipping. You need a merch store with a, "Death, taxes, and seller fees" shirt...maybe the grim reaper holding a scythe and a calculator? Great epi--thumbs up!
Would love to hear more about how you transitioned your eye filter to look for deals vs. look for things you've collected over the years. Great advice for sure to not have tunnel vision. My hunch is just dive in small to new markets to begin getting first hand experience is likely best. I recently did this when a Base set collection of Pokemon walked up to my booth - I've been only doing modern Pokemon with my kids so I bought the cards so I could physically get my hands on them. Got burned a little it seems, but I now firmly know the value of those cards.
This is why you're the best. You highlight the mistakes you made along the journey of becoming the card GOAT. It's not just about the big wins. I used to buy a lot of Panini unlicensed baseball because it was cheaper than the licensed stuff. Whoops. Humility and honesty are two things this hobby needs most. Thanks again Chris. Maybe my stash of Brien Taylor and Sam Horn will someday hit the jackpot, lol. We need an 80s/90s card documentary. I think we are now in a massive junk parallel era. This reminds me a lot of the 80s growing up buying junk wax except now we are paying far much more.
More like a return to a junk parallel era, LOL. Anyone remember "Pacific Trading Cards"? Since they had so many parallel cards in their sets, most of them ended up having the same value as the base card. Wanna guess who owns all their trademarks now? Yep, Panini. Now Panini has become a Godzilla version of Pacific.
@@batzarro Agree. Justin Herbert for example alone had over 700 cards in his rookie year put out. However it's only gonna get worse once the ultimate monopoly, Fanatics, takes over. They'll just print more and charge way more because there's no competition. And don't think Fanatics won't just strike an exclusive deal with PSA so that all grading would go through PSA. Pre graded cards or digital NFT would be the only options available. All the other grading companies would be bought out. There are no laws to prevent it. They're all non essential businesses. Lack of choice is the new norm. It's just one reason why I'm leaving the hobby soon after nearly 30 years. It's no longer viable to be a collector in this climate unless you're very wealthy. I'm on a Corolla budget, lol, not Tesla.
The Seller Fees…funny that you bring this up, because my wife has mentioned to me several times that “Why would you bother wasting your time to sell something for a few dollars?” My response is always the same…if I purchased the product for $2, and sold it for $6, then net profit after FEES comes to around $2. That 100% profit, and done many times over, I will turn my money into double its value. Just do it on the side, so other than shopping, listing, and packaging the items, which I do in my spare time, then I feel the extra income is well worth my “free time”.
Thank you so much for the advice. Ur a true asset to the card collection community. I’d luv for u to talk about the new eBay seller fees for the upcoming year 2022.
There are so many out there who don't get it when it comes to your final mistake. I've had this discussion with numerous people and none of them understand that the value of an item is what you can sell it for, not what people are asking.
You can ask whatever you want. But only the sales price matter. I have a neighbor who is willing to sell his house for $830K. The last sale for the equivalent property is $605K, the all-time high. He isn't a serious seller.
I've flipped couple Monster collections now. Awaiting graded cards returns. Time invested was a month full time. Say 3k. Learned mountain getting faster. I over price to and gotta turn over inventory faster. Not working. Important tips flippers need to know. Thanks young fella
Yep don’t pay attention to these other youtubers that are saying to key on certain singles . You buy collections or large lots and piece out . Biggest thing is building a customer base . You know what people are looking for and you find it . Don’t become attached to anything . That’s my definition of a flip, not trying to figure out who’s going to get hot .
Thanks for sharing your experience. I believe another item to think about is taxes....and this is only going to become more significant with online sales now also including an income tax component (beyond the existing sales tax). I'm actually thinking about starting a company so I can write off my purchases to off set my sales.
Nice breakdown on both sides of the transaction. Another mistake people make is if they pull a good card out of a high-end box they forget to factor in the cost of the box just because there are other cards in the box but don't pay attention to. Your example of "cost of purchase" is spot on but describes a direct purchase of a single card - you can expand that out to cost to buy the box.
#2 is big...been trying to focus on quantifying as I continually optimize my listing processes (namely bulk listing 50+ cards at a time). My father and I actually had this conversation about a year ago and I quantified it then, but I never actually took action until about a month or 2 ago...a continuous process & actually very fun to try & push that "Hourly Wage" number up with different tatics/process/technical development. Appreciate all you do for the hobby man & was good to meet you at the Raleigh show. Stay healthy dude!
#2 is something that most people do not understand about everyday financial decisions. For example, driving 20 minutes away to save $.25/gallon for gas or going to different grocery stores because you can save $5.00 on buying different items from a different store. A very wise friend and mentor said to "know the value of your time". He said to take your annual Income (aka Gross Cash Flows) and divide it by the number of hours in a year (8760). This is the per-hour value of your time in dollars. Use this to compare the time you spend to save money. He said most people will not understand this trade-off. The more Gross Cash Flow you make the more your time is worth and it is not worth it to try to spend time to save money.
Hey dude, thanks again for the complimentary card knowledge. Your channel has truly been a blessing to new collectors, investors, and dealers like myself. Keep up the great work my guy!
Chris I have accepted seller fees as a necessary evil but when eBay tells you they going to manage your money and get rid of PayPal and it's good for you and then it is not good for you, it's frustrating. They are charging 12.35% in fees which on the surface looks better than the 12.99% that sellers were paying with PayPal but a 12.35% includes sales tax which means that every single transaction is higher than 13%. It's frustrating when somebody pees on your leg and tells you it's raining
There’s no listing/seller fees on OfferUp. There’s way more risk for a variety of reasons compared to eBay or COMC because they’re “protected” purchases. I’ve made a few great purchases on OfferUp, but I’ve had to put up with a bunch of travel hassles and sellers flaking out on the deal.
I like the section in 7:43 - just because a card is 'said' to be worth something or currently listed at a going price doesn't mean a dealer is going to pay for it at that price. (I watch a lot of Pawn Stars too) You got right to the point - you can't just snap your fingers and profits are there. You have to account for the time to list and FIND a buyer willing to pay for that item. I considered selling cards now but more to make room for more cards and get rid of unnecessary cards I don't even enjoy.
Loved the video. I think k we are all dealers when we make a good decision and collectors when we make a bad one. No one gets out of the hobby alive….😀
Thank you Chris! These are some great things to point out to anyone getting involved in reselling (not just trading cards). When looking for and making deals Listed price vs Sold price seems to be the biggest misunderstanding I run into with someone unfamiliar with the hobby and reselling in general! Was glad to see it make the list haha
The tunnel vision example is huge! If you go to a garage/yard sale and you're looking for vintage baseball cards, but someone only has vtg hockey cards at a great price don't walk away. Flip the hockey cards for vtg baseball cards.
Amazing content as usual! A few random thoughts/questions: 1) I’m glad you cleared up “in that order” in you questions video. I know many of us thought that was you philosophy on collecting rather than the order in which you did each. Not that it changes anything, but good to understand the true meaning. 2) going forward, would you consider leaving out the “Tiffany” version of your top 10 most valuable cards. I think a lot of us would watch your videos no matter what, but we’re trying to determine in our boxes of thousands of cards we have anything valuable. And if we bought a Tiffany set back in the day we would know what it is, a random Tiffany card wouldn’t just appear randomly in the middle of our boxes. But a 1990 topps Ken Griffey jr. might. Perhaps a preamble of Tiffany would dominate this list etc. but were excluded (similar to how you exclude other things). 3) In the coin world there’s a company called CAC. They simply put a green sticker on coins that meet their standards for that grade, and a gold sticker for a coin they feel are under graded. They maintain a data base/pop report online to verify. It might seem like this would not be a big deal, but they’ve been in business for a bit over 10 years and have absolutely revolutionized the hobby (I could explain it further but would take a long time). I know currently, PWCC does something similar for certain cards passing through their auctions. Q. - do you think the card hobby would benefit from something like this, particularly for vintage, where an independent 3rd party essentially grades the graders… I know, I know it sounds ridiculous but completely changed the game for coins.
Appreciate that comment and feedback. A lot of people asked to exclude Tiffanys from those lists so I will probably do that. I think the CAC idea for sports cards will definitely become a thing. As you mentioned, PWCC already does it and it adds tremendous value to the card, so I iamgine other such companies will emerge.
Great video! I’ve been collecting for 40 yrs and I’ve learned A LOT in last couple years and a lot of that is your videos. The market and collecting has changed 1000% over last few years and I didn’t realize it. Thanks for you knowledge as it has been very helpful. Thanks for sharing!! God Bless!!
I created an excel formula where I input the cost of the item and shipping. It calculates the tax and totals the “cost”. On the “selling” side I just input the expected sale price. It deducts the seller fees and calculates the potential net profit and ROI%. If the price to purchase fits in my goal ROI% for the item I will purchase. It’s not exact because the sale price could vary, but it definitely cut down on mistakes I was making by overpaying.
Thanks to your channel, I already avoided making some of these mistakes when I started less than a year ago. The time aspect will be the toughest part for me to eventually smooth out. Thankfully, I already do eat (and enjoy) my vegetables! Well done, Chris and thanks for more great info!
Great informational video, Chris. These are very important lessons to learn, even if you're just starting to sell cards from your collection. When I first started selling on EBAY and Beckett Marketplace back in 2000, I learned all these lessons the hard way.
The last two words of wisdom apply to collectors also when you may want to sell knowing you cannot get around sellers fees a getting the best idea what your collectible will sell..
great video. unless you figure fees you will be underwater. cad with 50% mark up will get 25-30% after fees. can be rather rough. Thanks for the knowledge
The hardest part for me when it comes to selling is shipping. I charge for first class that way I make sure the card is shipped in a bubble mailer and gets to the buyer safe and sound. Problem is that turns people away. I also add extra (decent) cards in to even help protect more. I've done free shipping or cheap envelope shipping before but I worry the card might show up damaged and tracking is not available. The buyer can say they never received the card, even if they did.. I just sold a $5 card with free shipping but I went ahead and paid for first class on my own to ensure the card gets there safe. I technically lost money on that sell.
Interested to hear more about what you have to say on this. I have been in a similar conundrum...I was super excited about eBay standard envelope, but then about 1 in 50-60 cards wouldn't show up and I'd have to communicate & send a refund. In addition, cards would take weeks to show up sometimes & it was a lot of back & forth which takes up a lot of time & the shipping delays can damage reputation. I stopped doing that for about 4-5 months, then I said "no one is buying my lower end stuff at $3.75 shipping" & I fired it back up. I just shipped out 50 cards in one weekend, so I will have to report back with any issues over the coming weeks. I find for my collection/inventory, I need to be able to sell those $1-10 cards on eBay & to your point, you lose too much money shipping first class.
UPDATE: it is not going well...I believe since USPS isn't doing a good job of scanning these that there are some buyers claiming that they didn't receive because USPS isn't showing delivered. What I'm doing is cutting the threshold in half & hoping that helps. I just lost $20 on one card today and I'm pretty frustrated overall with the amount of cases coming in between $10-20
Point #3 is an ABSOLUTE and a GREAT point. Yes - people need to understand that fees can KILL you......booth or table fees must always be taken into account. It does cost money to make money. What we have learned is that the bigger the show...the bigger the fees....but often bigger the sales. Some other comments: If you do a show...I would HIGHLY recommend having inventory from as low as $1 to $1000 or more. Have SOMETHING for everyone.... cheap stuff usually helps you MAKE the show. If all you have are EXPENSIVE items...you really do limit yourself and your clientele. Don't be afraid to have diversity in your inventory....weird stuff....is often popular and you have people looking for it. "Limiting" - What is that? Well, your typical comic collector is a male...and especially with cards. What I and my wife deal in attracts young, old, rich, poor, and both MALES and FEMALES. Often I've seen other dealers with their thumbs up their ass while I and my wife are raking it in as we sell to both SEXES throughout the show. Comic shows have got better though....MORE FEMALES are coming in....and our sales have been looking much brighter over the years.
I just started as a seller myself for side income. I have sold $21,000 so far in 75 days on ebay. 126 sales so far. I've learned a lot already and have also been a collector for over 30 years on and off. Dont over pay is my motto even though I still do occasionally. Deals are extremely hard to find now. I have been fortunate selling ohtanis that I actually bought two years and a year ago that quadrupled in value. Most everything else has been extremely hard to turn a profit. I do best lately with hot new rookies. Have to be a good speculator and hold the cards for a month or so and let the market go nuts on that players cards then unload. I made huge mistakes holding cards instead of selling while that player was hot. Pete Alonso has so far been my worst investment of all time. Trevor Lawrence is becoming my second worst
When it come to baseball... Akil Badoo, Jonathan India and you can never go wrong with Guerrero Jr. Ohtani is thru the roof already, other then finding his stuff in a garage sale its gonna be hard to turn a decent profit.
Thanks for another great video Chris. Question: what are the easiest ways to ascertain the actual selling price of something on eBay where the best offer is accepted? Very frustrating and surprising that eBay has never (unless they have changed recently) made this an easy task. When they simply have the asking price crossed out, but don’t list the actual selling price, I feel that this can potentially incorrectly inflate the apparent sales value history. Thanks!
Awesome channel! Quick question. Seems grading now costs so much. It isn’t even worth it unless you really have something special. Why pay $100 to grade then sell for $50? Thanks for input all.
Question Chris - I'm curious what adjustments you feel will be needed in how you track cards, collections, etc. with respect to buying/selling and profits in 2022 as IRS gets more hungry for 1099s being handed out by PayPal and ebay and other sources for any transactions that sum to greater than $600 per entity? I'm trying to determine how I will track and inventory sufficient to allow to account for buying costs and selling costs to reduce and accurately report profit for taxes. Interested in your thoughts...
I have always reported everything to the irs so it doesn’t impact me personally in any way. It’s something will just need to be accepted as a new piece of the equation
Hi Chris. You mention you do not document in detail. Can you describe how you navigate proving your cost of goods sold to the Tax Man, especially if you pay cash without a receipt. When I filled out my 1099, they called my revenue pure profit and didn't recognize any of my cost!!! Have you ever had any issues with this, and if not, how do you prove cash expenses that are cost of goods sold. Thank you.
(This is not tax advice) A 1099 form only reports money given to you. It does not handle deductions for expenses. It's up to you to properly account for and deduct cost of goods sold as well as any other business expenses (mileage back and forth from shows, sellers fees, computer equipment used in your business, etc) on a schedule C or what ever tax form(s) apply to your situation. Bottom line: You absolutely can deduct the cost of the asset(s) you sold and selling expenses.
How do you document a cash purchase at a card show when no one gives receipts of purchase. Also for card that you purchased many years ago what is your cost basis. I find the proof of cost basis to be the most challenging part of business.
@@topps5761 Yes!!! This was exactly my question. I would love to see an answer to this. A local cash deal with no receipt means your provable/documented cost basis is zero. If everyone is hoping that a cost basis with no proof will be accepted, that is a shaky ground to operate on! My understanding is that even a non-cash payment though venmo/paypal/etc. is not valid proof of a cost basis.
@@RanalL72 Write up a quick bill of sale. You could even print up a couple in advance and bring to shows etc and just leave a blank spot to write down what is being sold and at what price.
Thanks as always. Question for you. If you were looking to buy a large quantity of PSA graded cards from a retailer, what would be a fair offer that likely would be accepted. There are about $10k in cards I am interested in purchasing from a retailer and would like to avoid paying the full price. Would a 10% discount be reasonable to ask for? 15%?
I got 4 totes full of baseball cards but they're worth nothing because they are not graded. That's the message i get. No problem 200,000 baseball cards make good kindling.
"Thank you." A gem from Magic Johnson years ago for new businesses: don't sell what you like. Sell what the public wants. What you like may not be what the public wants.
Great content as always! Thank you for including number 4. I can't tell you how many times I run into this when someone is trying to sell a single card or a collection. It's even worse when you go out of your way to show them how to look at sold listings and they take offense because their junk wax era card is worth pennies on the dollar and they think you're trying to rip them off.
People seem to never factor in seller fees, shipping, or taxes when they talk about what they bought and sold a card for. Which all the things I mentioned could eat up all of one's profit.
I bought a card for $360 on Ebay the other day and then after relisting I had to turn down an offer for $450. After paying 7% tax and shipping, and considering basically 13% Ebay fees, I would have ended up losing money after purchasing it for $90 dollars less than the potential sale.
@@Bibleguy89-uu3nr yeah that's sadly how it goes.
The thing I find myself explaining to new collectors a lot is that they assume any card they pull from a pack will be an automatic 10. There's a reason that only 0.5% of Joe Montana RCs grade a 10 and that only a single PSA 10 of Ryan/Koosman exists. Those sets were notoriously off center. Even with the modern cards where centering has improved, a lot of times the edges are chip magnets. Having realistic expectations is a big part of managing the ups and downs. I use an "expected value" calculation a lot when I'm evaluating things I buy for resale, especially raw to be graded.
Great one. Definitely a mistake a lot of people make
Real info from a real dealer. This is the not so sexy info that people need to hear. I’ve been through every single aspect myself and you are the real deal. Great content as always. Thanks!
My oops has always been underestimating shipping. You need a merch store with a, "Death, taxes, and seller fees" shirt...maybe the grim reaper holding a scythe and a calculator? Great epi--thumbs up!
Great, great points, that alot of people wouldn't realize. The best sports card channel by far
Would love to hear more about how you transitioned your eye filter to look for deals vs. look for things you've collected over the years. Great advice for sure to not have tunnel vision.
My hunch is just dive in small to new markets to begin getting first hand experience is likely best. I recently did this when a Base set collection of Pokemon walked up to my booth - I've been only doing modern Pokemon with my kids so I bought the cards so I could physically get my hands on them. Got burned a little it seems, but I now firmly know the value of those cards.
Another gem mint video of wisdom from experience.
This is why you're the best. You highlight the mistakes you made along the journey of becoming the card GOAT. It's not just about the big wins. I used to buy a lot of Panini unlicensed baseball because it was cheaper than the licensed stuff. Whoops. Humility and honesty are two things this hobby needs most. Thanks again Chris. Maybe my stash of Brien Taylor and Sam Horn will someday hit the jackpot, lol. We need an 80s/90s card documentary. I think we are now in a massive junk parallel era. This reminds me a lot of the 80s growing up buying junk wax except now we are paying far much more.
More like a return to a junk parallel era, LOL.
Anyone remember "Pacific Trading Cards"? Since they had so many parallel cards in their sets, most of them ended up having the same value as the base card.
Wanna guess who owns all their trademarks now?
Yep, Panini.
Now Panini has become a Godzilla version of Pacific.
@@batzarro Agree. Justin Herbert for example alone had over 700 cards in his rookie year put out. However it's only gonna get worse once the ultimate monopoly, Fanatics, takes over. They'll just print more and charge way more because there's no competition. And don't think Fanatics won't just strike an exclusive deal with PSA so that all grading would go through PSA. Pre graded cards or digital NFT would be the only options available. All the other grading companies would be bought out. There are no laws to prevent it. They're all non essential businesses. Lack of choice is the new norm. It's just one reason why I'm leaving the hobby soon after nearly 30 years. It's no longer viable to be a collector in this climate unless you're very wealthy. I'm on a Corolla budget, lol, not Tesla.
The Seller Fees…funny that you bring this up, because my wife has mentioned to me several times that “Why would you bother wasting your time to sell something for a few dollars?” My response is always the same…if I purchased the product for $2, and sold it for $6, then net profit after FEES comes to around $2. That 100% profit, and done many times over, I will turn my money into double its value. Just do it on the side, so other than shopping, listing, and packaging the items, which I do in my spare time, then I feel the extra income is well worth my “free time”.
So helpful! Every video from your channel deserves GOLD STARS!! 🌟 🌟
Death, taxes and seller fees 🤣😂🤣 I love it!! Chris always has great lines like this in his videos
There's also cost of supplies and shipping, the card doesn't magically appear at the buyer's house.
Thank you so much for the advice. Ur a true asset to the card collection community. I’d luv for u to talk about the new eBay seller fees for the upcoming year 2022.
Thanks for everything man. You’re the goat of TH-cam card investing. Somebody needs to turn you into a trading card
There are so many out there who don't get it when it comes to your final mistake.
I've had this discussion with numerous people and none of them understand that the value of an item is what you can sell it for, not what people are asking.
You can ask whatever you want. But only the sales price matter. I have a neighbor who is willing to sell his house for $830K. The last sale for the equivalent property is $605K, the all-time high. He isn't a serious seller.
Great video as always. I’d love to see an Early Dealer Mistakes Part 2 video follow-up :)
I've flipped couple Monster collections now. Awaiting graded cards returns. Time invested was a month full time. Say 3k. Learned mountain getting faster. I over price to and gotta turn over inventory faster. Not working. Important tips flippers need to know. Thanks young fella
You're right on about turning inventory over. After spending the first part of my career in big box retail I can say with certainty, turns are king!
Yep don’t pay attention to these other youtubers that are saying to key on certain singles . You buy collections or large lots and piece out . Biggest thing is building a customer base . You know what people are looking for and you find it . Don’t become attached to anything . That’s my definition of a flip, not trying to figure out who’s going to get hot .
Thanks for sharing your experience. I believe another item to think about is taxes....and this is only going to become more significant with online sales now also including an income tax component (beyond the existing sales tax). I'm actually thinking about starting a company so I can write off my purchases to off set my sales.
Nice breakdown on both sides of the transaction. Another mistake people make is if they pull a good card out of a high-end box they forget to factor in the cost of the box just because there are other cards in the box but don't pay attention to. Your example of "cost of purchase" is spot on but describes a direct purchase of a single card - you can expand that out to cost to buy the box.
Great point
Yes, do a part two for sure! Thanks for the video.
#2 is big...been trying to focus on quantifying as I continually optimize my listing processes (namely bulk listing 50+ cards at a time). My father and I actually had this conversation about a year ago and I quantified it then, but I never actually took action until about a month or 2 ago...a continuous process & actually very fun to try & push that "Hourly Wage" number up with different tatics/process/technical development. Appreciate all you do for the hobby man & was good to meet you at the Raleigh show. Stay healthy dude!
I love this. 4:40: Basic economics lesson which most desperately need---stats rarely what they seem.
Top-quality information there. Would love to hear more about the mistakes you've learned from over the years. Keep up producing that quality content!
#2 is something that most people do not understand about everyday financial decisions. For example, driving 20 minutes away to save $.25/gallon for gas or going to different grocery stores because you can save $5.00 on buying different items from a different store. A very wise friend and mentor said to "know the value of your time". He said to take your annual Income (aka Gross Cash Flows) and divide it by the number of hours in a year (8760). This is the per-hour value of your time in dollars. Use this to compare the time you spend to save money. He said most people will not understand this trade-off. The more Gross Cash Flow you make the more your time is worth and it is not worth it to try to spend time to save money.
So true
Hey dude, thanks again for the complimentary card knowledge. Your channel has truly been a blessing to new collectors, investors, and dealers like myself. Keep up the great work my guy!
Chris I have accepted seller fees as a necessary evil but when eBay tells you they going to manage your money and get rid of PayPal and it's good for you and then it is not good for you, it's frustrating. They are charging 12.35% in fees which on the surface looks better than the 12.99% that sellers were paying with PayPal but a 12.35% includes sales tax which means that every single transaction is higher than 13%. It's frustrating when somebody pees on your leg and tells you it's raining
Just getting started professionally collecting, awesome video and community thank you!
There’s no listing/seller fees on OfferUp. There’s way more risk for a variety of reasons compared to eBay or COMC because they’re “protected” purchases. I’ve made a few great purchases on OfferUp, but I’ve had to put up with a bunch of travel hassles and sellers flaking out on the deal.
I like the section in 7:43 - just because a card is 'said' to be worth something or currently listed at a going price doesn't mean a dealer is going to pay for it at that price. (I watch a lot of Pawn Stars too) You got right to the point - you can't just snap your fingers and profits are there. You have to account for the time to list and FIND a buyer willing to pay for that item. I considered selling cards now but more to make room for more cards and get rid of unnecessary cards I don't even enjoy.
Loved the video. I think k we are all dealers when we make a good decision and collectors when we make a bad one. No one gets out of the hobby alive….😀
Thank you Chris! These are some great things to point out to anyone getting involved in reselling (not just trading cards). When looking for and making deals Listed price vs Sold price seems to be the biggest misunderstanding I run into with someone unfamiliar with the hobby and reselling in general! Was glad to see it make the list haha
The tunnel vision example is huge! If you go to a garage/yard sale and you're looking for vintage baseball cards, but someone only has vtg hockey cards at a great price don't walk away. Flip the hockey cards for vtg baseball cards.
Amazing content as usual! A few random thoughts/questions:
1) I’m glad you cleared up “in that order” in you questions video. I know many of us thought that was you philosophy on collecting rather than the order in which you did each. Not that it changes anything, but good to understand the true meaning.
2) going forward, would you consider leaving out the “Tiffany” version of your top 10 most valuable cards. I think a lot of us would watch your videos no matter what, but we’re trying to determine in our boxes of thousands of cards we have anything valuable. And if we bought a Tiffany set back in the day we would know what it is, a random Tiffany card wouldn’t just appear randomly in the middle of our boxes. But a 1990 topps Ken Griffey jr. might. Perhaps a preamble of Tiffany would dominate this list etc. but were excluded (similar to how you exclude other things).
3) In the coin world there’s a company called CAC. They simply put a green sticker on coins that meet their standards for that grade, and a gold sticker for a coin they feel are under graded. They maintain a data base/pop report online to verify. It might seem like this would not be a big deal, but they’ve been in business for a bit over 10 years and have absolutely revolutionized the hobby (I could explain it further but would take a long time). I know currently, PWCC does something similar for certain cards passing through their auctions. Q. - do you think the card hobby would benefit from something like this, particularly for vintage, where an independent 3rd party essentially grades the graders… I know, I know it sounds ridiculous but completely changed the game for coins.
Appreciate that comment and feedback. A lot of people asked to exclude Tiffanys from those lists so I will probably do that. I think the CAC idea for sports cards will definitely become a thing. As you mentioned, PWCC already does it and it adds tremendous value to the card, so I iamgine other such companies will emerge.
Great video! I’ve been collecting for 40 yrs and I’ve learned A LOT in last couple years and a lot of that is your videos. The market and collecting has changed 1000% over last few years and I didn’t realize it. Thanks for you knowledge as it has been very helpful. Thanks for sharing!! God Bless!!
I created an excel formula where I input the cost of the item and shipping. It calculates the tax and totals the “cost”. On the “selling” side I just input the expected sale price. It deducts the seller fees and calculates the potential net profit and ROI%.
If the price to purchase fits in my goal ROI% for the item I will purchase. It’s not exact because the sale price could vary, but it definitely cut down on mistakes I was making by overpaying.
Great idea!
Thanks to your channel, I already avoided making some of these mistakes when I started less than a year ago. The time aspect will be the toughest part for me to eventually smooth out. Thankfully, I already do eat (and enjoy) my vegetables! Well done, Chris and thanks for more great info!
Was cool meeting you in Raleigh!
You're the man sewell! No veggies... ever! You can have my gold star
I need some extra gold stars as I have not been eating my vegetables either
Best sports cards channel out there. Thank you for your continued wisdom. Happy Holidays my friend 🤙🏽
Great info Chris! Would love to see a part 2 or even 3!
Fantastic !!! looking forward to part 2
Great informational video, Chris. These are very important lessons to learn, even if you're just starting to sell cards from your collection.
When I first started selling on EBAY and Beckett Marketplace back in 2000, I learned all these lessons the hard way.
Awesome video as always Chris! Forgot to tell you I wasn't going to be at the Philly show but hopefully it was a good turnout! Talk soon -Nick (REA)
Great information. Think this type of information is also good for buyers as they also will have a better understanding of the sellers perspective.
Planning for and paying federal and state income tax. Plan for and it and pay it. Most new "dealers" do not plan for this at all.
The last two words of wisdom apply to collectors also when you may want to sell knowing you cannot get around sellers fees a getting the best idea what your collectible will sell..
Really informative, Chris. Looking forward to part 2 🙂
So helpful as usual. You’re the best Chris thank you for sharing your knowledge
great video. unless you figure fees you will be underwater. cad with 50% mark up will get 25-30% after fees. can be rather rough. Thanks for the knowledge
amazing advice Chris,.. i have been guilty on all points
Great content. Your delivery is always great. 👍👍
Great video, very helpful.
Great Video, hands down your best work!
Thanks for the knowledge
Thanks for this video Chris and for all the videos you post.
The hardest part for me when it comes to selling is shipping. I charge for first class that way I make sure the card is shipped in a bubble mailer and gets to the buyer safe and sound. Problem is that turns people away. I also add extra (decent) cards in to even help protect more. I've done free shipping or cheap envelope shipping before but I worry the card might show up damaged and tracking is not available. The buyer can say they never received the card, even if they did.. I just sold a $5 card with free shipping but I went ahead and paid for first class on my own to ensure the card gets there safe. I technically lost money on that sell.
Interested to hear more about what you have to say on this. I have been in a similar conundrum...I was super excited about eBay standard envelope, but then about 1 in 50-60 cards wouldn't show up and I'd have to communicate & send a refund. In addition, cards would take weeks to show up sometimes & it was a lot of back & forth which takes up a lot of time & the shipping delays can damage reputation. I stopped doing that for about 4-5 months, then I said "no one is buying my lower end stuff at $3.75 shipping" & I fired it back up. I just shipped out 50 cards in one weekend, so I will have to report back with any issues over the coming weeks. I find for my collection/inventory, I need to be able to sell those $1-10 cards on eBay & to your point, you lose too much money shipping first class.
@@carysportscards7982 I really am interested in a follow up to this. Please keep me informed!
UPDATE: it is not going well...I believe since USPS isn't doing a good job of scanning these that there are some buyers claiming that they didn't receive because USPS isn't showing delivered. What I'm doing is cutting the threshold in half & hoping that helps. I just lost $20 on one card today and I'm pretty frustrated overall with the amount of cases coming in between $10-20
Point #3 is an ABSOLUTE and a GREAT point. Yes - people need to understand that fees can KILL you......booth or table fees must always be taken into account. It does cost money to make money. What we have learned is that the bigger the show...the bigger the fees....but often bigger the sales.
Some other comments: If you do a show...I would HIGHLY recommend having inventory from as low as $1 to $1000 or more. Have SOMETHING for everyone.... cheap stuff usually helps you MAKE the show. If all you have are EXPENSIVE items...you really do limit yourself and your clientele. Don't be afraid to have diversity in your inventory....weird stuff....is often popular and you have people looking for it.
"Limiting" - What is that? Well, your typical comic collector is a male...and especially with cards. What I and my wife deal in attracts young, old, rich, poor, and both MALES and FEMALES. Often I've seen other dealers with their thumbs up their ass while I and my wife are raking it in as we sell to both SEXES throughout the show. Comic shows have got better though....MORE FEMALES are coming in....and our sales have been looking much brighter over the years.
Great video Chris.
Very Helpful Chris, getting back into hobby n dealing thx for info!
My biggest mistake was that I got involved during the Junk Wax Era. Now I am indeed loaded with "junk". Thanks, Score and Donruss.
Realistic expectations yes. What about tax as well?
Great video! Thanks for the info.
I also have four albums of like 15 .20 whole teams all the players
I just started as a seller myself for side income. I have sold $21,000 so far in 75 days on ebay. 126 sales so far. I've learned a lot already and have also been a collector for over 30 years on and off. Dont over pay is my motto even though I still do occasionally. Deals are extremely hard to find now. I have been fortunate selling ohtanis that I actually bought two years and a year ago that quadrupled in value. Most everything else has been extremely hard to turn a profit. I do best lately with hot new rookies. Have to be a good speculator and hold the cards for a month or so and let the market go nuts on that players cards then unload. I made huge mistakes holding cards instead of selling while that player was hot. Pete Alonso has so far been my worst investment of all time. Trevor Lawrence is becoming my second worst
When it come to baseball... Akil Badoo, Jonathan India and you can never go wrong with Guerrero Jr. Ohtani is thru the roof already, other then finding his stuff in a garage sale its gonna be hard to turn a decent profit.
Another great video. Thanks
Love this video thank you for the content!
Cooper KUPP is buying me a new bathroom thanks to optic!
Another great video!
Keep doing what you do. You’re awesome !!!
Do you have another source of income besides selling cards?
Mine is lol...cusetown merriman
I make a little bit off the youtube channel but otherwise no
“Take what the defense gives me.” 🔥 😃
I have some really rare cards that I don't know how to go about selling them.
Awesome video 😁👍 reality .. homework 😂
Gold 🌟
Thanks for another great video Chris. Question: what are the easiest ways to ascertain the actual selling price of something on eBay where the best offer is accepted? Very frustrating and surprising that eBay has never (unless they have changed recently) made this an easy task. When they simply have the asking price crossed out, but don’t list the actual selling price, I feel that this can potentially incorrectly inflate the apparent sales value history. Thanks!
I use 130point.com to find the actual sale prices of ebay best offers
Thank you for the response and info!
Awesome channel! Quick question. Seems grading now costs so much. It isn’t even worth it unless you really have something special. Why pay $100 to grade then sell for $50? Thanks for input all.
Question Chris - I'm curious what adjustments you feel will be needed in how you track cards, collections, etc. with respect to buying/selling and profits in 2022 as IRS gets more hungry for 1099s being handed out by PayPal and ebay and other sources for any transactions that sum to greater than $600 per entity? I'm trying to determine how I will track and inventory sufficient to allow to account for buying costs and selling costs to reduce and accurately report profit for taxes. Interested in your thoughts...
I have always reported everything to the irs so it doesn’t impact me personally in any way. It’s something will just need to be accepted as a new piece of the equation
You will have to keep track of shipping costs, packaging, fees, and refunds, besides the cost of the cards.
Biggest mistake?
You guessed it: displaying my cards in the trunk of a Toyota Camry.
Great video
Hi Chris. You mention you do not document in detail. Can you describe how you navigate proving your cost of goods sold to the Tax Man, especially if you pay cash without a receipt. When I filled out my 1099, they called my revenue pure profit and didn't recognize any of my cost!!! Have you ever had any issues with this, and if not, how do you prove cash expenses that are cost of goods sold. Thank you.
(This is not tax advice) A 1099 form only reports money given to you. It does not handle deductions for expenses. It's up to you to properly account for and deduct cost of goods sold as well as any other business expenses (mileage back and forth from shows, sellers fees, computer equipment used in your business, etc) on a schedule C or what ever tax form(s) apply to your situation. Bottom line: You absolutely can deduct the cost of the asset(s) you sold and selling expenses.
I document all my sales and costs for tax purposes. I just dont track individual collections anymore.
How do you document a cash purchase at a card show when no one gives receipts of purchase. Also for card that you purchased many years ago what is your cost basis. I find the proof of cost basis to be the most challenging part of business.
@@topps5761 Yes!!! This was exactly my question. I would love to see an answer to this. A local cash deal with no receipt means your provable/documented cost basis is zero. If everyone is hoping that a cost basis with no proof will be accepted, that is a shaky ground to operate on! My understanding is that even a non-cash payment though venmo/paypal/etc. is not valid proof of a cost basis.
@@RanalL72 Write up a quick bill of sale. You could even print up a couple in advance and bring to shows etc and just leave a blank spot to write down what is being sold and at what price.
show ur whole collection.
High rollers please!!
It will be back next week!
ooo nice video & I got a gold star too :)
Thank you!
Outstanding video and happy holidays to you
Thank you! Im mentioning you in my Monday video
@@collectorinvestordealer thxs
Thanks as always. Question for you. If you were looking to buy a large quantity of PSA graded cards from a retailer, what would be a fair offer that likely would be accepted. There are about $10k in cards I am interested in purchasing from a retailer and would like to avoid paying the full price. Would a 10% discount be reasonable to ask for? 15%?
It all depends on the seller. 15% off of a $10K purchase is certainly a reasonable request, although not every seller would take it.
Buy cards from the 20s to 70s that’s what real men handle
Tried to check you out on ebay but there's nothing listed. Do you still list on there? Btw your content is great. Appreciate you.
My Ebay store is closed at the moment as I am out of town
Lets go
Excellent share
How are you able to be a dealer living overseas. I figured the shipping fees would hurt a lot. You must have to get creative.
Its definitely a challenge but I have learned to navigate it
Whats your choice for selling if it were between Ebay and COMC?
I prefer COMC for singles and ebay for lots
@@collectorinvestordealer Thank you for replying!
You da man Chris !
That’s because tony learns from his mistakes
I got 4 totes full of baseball cards but they're worth nothing because they are not graded. That's the message i get. No problem 200,000 baseball cards make good kindling.
Mistake # 1 don't get high on your own supply
Your the bedt