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I have been really locked in on buying inventory for my card business lately, with almost every order averaging at or below my $2 COGS threshold. It’s nice to make a change and stick to it. What’s surprised me is that this has still allowed me to make occasional more expensive purchases. But $0.99 winning bids and combined shipping can really stack up when you buy a lot. I always knew that, but it’s a different way of thinking to apply it every day. I have a max bid in my head for certain categories of items, and I stick to that number without exception. Focusing more on the team-sorted lots that I sell on eBay has been helpful, too. I have kind of developed a running inventory in my head where I knew, for example, last week that I needed one Detroit Lions autograph to finish off the 10 card lot that I want to list. So I was willing to go to $3 or even $4 for one of them. Interestingly enough, I won two Lions autographs: this Andre Ware Tristar cut auto for $1.37 and this Ennis Rakestraw from 2024 Topps Finest for $3.31. Now I can make two lots and kind of have a “budget” in mind as I sort through my box with Lions cards in it to make each lot.
Outside of the cards, I added another full sized bat to my growing bat corner. This 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers commemorative World Series bat cost me $35, but there are a lot of solds in the $75 and up range which makes sense, considering this was the World Series with the famous Kirk Gibson home run. I also picked up a few old Dodgers yearbooks in the same order for under $5. I have a bad habit of sitting on items like these and just never listing them. But I’m going to work really hard this summer to shed that skin. Identifying why was important: I don’t like listing anything below $20. I may change my mind about that depending on how the economy looks a few months from now, but for now I’m trying to focus on $30 and up items.
This Tech N9ne drink mixer is right on that $30 threshold, but there’s a (poorly) signed CD in there and another promo CD which should each net me a few bucks trade-in at the local record store, and all I had to spend was the $0.99 winning bid plus a few bucks shipping. This was a 39 item order which cost me just over $72 in total with most of those wins cards for team lots at $0.99 each, and a few for resell, with maybe the biggest prize 14 1970s Sportscaster cards at less than $1 each. These will cost me a few bucks each to send to consignment, but I would be stunned if the big names like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and OJ sell for less than $10 each. I love oddball vintage sets like these and would have happily paid 3x my winning bid. The beauty of auctions.
What did you find this week?
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Just on my way up to collect a couple of lots from an auction house I haven’t dealt with before. My next-door neighbour asked me to leave some bids on cigarette cards. He won one lot- half of it seem to be Brooke Bond tea cards- for £30. Must be a market for cigarette cards- some lots went for over £150.
The other lot is a collection of German stamps- that’s for me. It’s got some hyper-inflation period issues which have been cancelled. A bit of a learning experience this one. It appears that these stamps are much rarer used than mint, so long as the stamps actually were used, and not cancelled to order for collectors. German philatelists insist on a certificate of genuineness for each stamp.
In another auction, on Saturday
Worthless?
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In another auction, on Saturday
Worthless?
1988 — right in the middle of the period (mid 1980s to early 1990s) where it should all be used in kindling or blasted into space. Well, 99% of it anyway. Uncut sheets are sometimes worth a second look. A key player’s rookie, or a sheet from a hard to find set, can push values from the $10 range to $25 and up. That’s not the case with yours. High supply is what drives down sports collectibles from the 1980s and 1990s, but uncut sheets have a second problem: little demand. I think it’s because they’re annoyingly large compared to the standard individual trading card.
I’ve bought and sold a handful of Brooke Bond cards through consignment, though the only one I currently have in my port is this 1970 Viking ship PSA 5 which cost me $3.04 through a live auction. Nice looking card for a 5 grade. Brooke Bond really loved their animals cards, but my favorite BB set is the 1987 Unexplained Mysteries set. I’m a sucker for a good (un)natural phenomenon, like Cities in the Sky.
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Ha! Went for £18, so as the bidding would have gone 10, 15, 18, there were two bidders.
It’s possible that’s the view from the Cabot Tower in Bristol . The two rectangles would be the towers of the cathedral, and the spire (as it says on the card) St Mary Redcliffe. The big buildings in the foreground might be tobacco warehouses.
John Cabot led an expedition to Newfoundland in 1497, which is why he’s got a big tower overlooking the city. Nanook of the North would have met him as he stepped off the boat 🙂
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