Scavenge of the week February 16-22, 2025

My big scavenge of the week was a 100 item combined shipping order from one of the two huge card consignment sellers I buy from every week which averaged $2.11 per item all-in. I love keeping that per item cost around $2.50 and I did even better than that on this order. Plus, my order included this green prizm /8 autograph rookie card of Memphis Grizzlies star Desmond Bane for $26 which should sell around $100 and this baseball signed by San Francisco Giants shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald for $7 which should sell around $50.

I love orders like this with a few big ticket items because it gives me more flexibility with the $1 and $2 card purchases which make up the bulk of my business. I don’t need to hold out for the highest sold price ever on the cards I send to consignment. I can take a couple bucks profit, even as little as $1 profit sometimes, and every so often I’ll luck into something that sells for $10 or $15. That’s pretty much the opposite model from lots of consignment sellers who set ridiculous high prices and run frequent large discounts, basically perma sales. It’s not a model which makes a lot of sense to me, but it must work for some people because it’s very popular. Still, I think pricing to sell is the main reason why my consignment port has grown and flourished over the last couple years, to the point where keeping that pipeline flowing has become the main focus of my reselling business. It’s a nice life and I hope it keeps going well this year because I’ve been really enjoying it lately!

I paid up for a couple of really interesting signed footballs from the other big consignment seller I’m always buying from. This Ohio State football from the 1997 Rose Bowl cost me $60 and this Northwestern football from 1996 set me back $40. Both on the high end of what I was hoping to pay, but both a little under my absolute max. I was following my gut here, as there are never a ton of team signed items in Terapeak from a specific year, and they can be kind of hard to search for anyway.

My biggest factor in buying these was that I don’t think auctions are the way to go with unique items like this. I’ve done well with Ohio State cards since they won the college football championship this year, and I think that will increase the buyer pool on a vintage (or “vintage”) team signed football like this. Northwestern is on the other end of football success, as they’re traditionally not a great team. If you are a Northwestern or Ohio State fan with deep pockets, and you like memorabilia for your office or display collection, an item like this would have to be fairly high on your want list. A ball signed by most of all of the team from a championship season? I mean, come on, that’s a collector’s dream item if I ever heard of one.

I still have to remind myself that it’s okay to pay up for these big ticket items. I’m looking forward to getting these in and the whole listing process. It will be fun researching the signatures to see who all the scribbles are. I already know there are some coaches on there and everyone from future NFL stars to college backups. I’m going to price them high and stick them on my memorabilia shelf until they sell. Hopefully they won’t be there for long!

On the cheaper end of purchases, probably my favorite buy of the week was this set of 1973 Auburn Tigers poker cards. I should be able to flip these for a $20+ profit sealed if the strong Terapeak data is an indication. But I am going to crack the deck and send the cards to consignment instead. I predict that I will do even better with these than I’ve done with my most profitable sports playing card set to date, the kitschy and wonderful 2020 Baraja del Jugon Spanish basketball card set. Steve Kerr as Wyatt Earp (?) is my favorite card from that set, but there are a lot of good ones.

What did you find this week?