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4/11/21 – 4/17/21
Total items in store: 2253
Items sold: 73
Gross sales: $3008.79 (up 57.4% from one year ago)
Net sales: $2137.13 (up 67.7% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $293.85 — 4 unique cards of former Miami Dolphins, and current Tennessee Titans, quarterback Ryan Tannehill (1 printing proof, 1 patch card with the Dolphins logo and 2 patch cards with letters from his name)
Lowest price sold (net): $8.51 — an 18 year old card with a piece of the helmet facemask from former Pittsburgh Steelers receiver (and Dancing with the Stars contestant) Hines Ward
I also had a wrong address returned to me this week, a rare autographed card of retired (and recently deceased) basketball Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn which was particularly desirable because of the set it was from, Panini’s Impeccable Championships which celebrates players who have won multiple NBA titles with an elaborate design. So autographs from this set carry a premium versus autographs of the same player from less desirable sets. I had priced the card high because of the set and sold it in early January for over $500 to a buyer who used a freight forwarder, very common with sports cards because so many buyers are outside the US, especially with basketball cards where there is a massive collector base in China and Hong Kong.
Of course, of all the packages to disappear, it had to be this one. The tracking stopped after a few days, and the lost package case I opened turned up in no information at all. Much to my surprise, the buyer never contacted me (likely because freight forwarders void eBay’s buyer protections) and I assumed incorrectly that the card had shown up in the buyer’s mailbox without any tracking update. I’m glad the package finally made its way back to me and hopeful that the buyer will respond when I reach out to try and find out their correct address.
My number of items sold was much higher than usual this week because I listed most of the cache of 150 hockey printing plates that I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, and have sold over 30 of them already which has more than covered my initial investment of $400. Most of the plates that sold were purchased within the first 24 hours of listing and many of the buyers user IDs have names like (player name)fan or (sports team) collector. Those collectors definitely fall into a category that has been discussed a lot on the podcast over the years — they get this intrinsic joy out of collecting and have money set aside for it every month and saved searches set up so when some random guy in New Jersey (that’s me) lists the plates of “their” player or team, they are ready to click the buy it now or send those offers and make the deal. These are the kinds of buyers I love to sell to. But it made for a very busy weekend. I brought 44 packages to the post office on Monday, which is as many as I usually have in a week. The last few days have been much slower, but I needed the break.
Hope everyone has had a great week.
Who are these people paying that kind of money for a nobody infielder on a crappy team who happens to get hot for a bit? Is this a weird bubble or has card sales been this way for a while?
Card sales have really been about speculation in one form or another since card companies changed things up in the late 90s and made cards about inserts and autographs and rarity (or perceived rarity) rather than completing a set. Plus companies have been coming up with new innovations for 20+ years now, and printing quality is greatly improved too. I don’t have any sentimental attachment to any of the cards I buy and sell, but I can see how someone might. A lot of modern cards are really neat looking, shiny and colorful. There are other sets, like Topps Heritage and Topps Allen & Ginter, which use designs of the sets from 50 years ago but using modern players and all the modern innovations (autographs, foil, numbering, jerseys, etc). So there is really a variety of different types of cards coming out every year.
So I can see how if the nobody infielder on your favorite team goes on a hot streak, someone might pay $20 or $40 for one of their autographed rookies especially if the card design is nice. Or an impulsive purchase if the player wins the game with a home run or something. There is that nostalgia factor. Those types of sales happen with some regularity. In fact, I had one this morning. Long-time NBA player LaMarcus Aldridge announced a sudden retirement due to a heart condition and I sold one of his cards at full price this morning almost immediately after the announcement.
Of course, full price on that card was $149.99, not $20 or $40. Is that all the bubble? I don’t know. I mean, it is fairly easy to buy an autograph of LaMarcus Aldridge for $20 or $10 or even less. But the one I sold this morning was a limited edition, stamped 1/1, the only one in that color from that specific set. Does that make that card “worth” $149.99? Well, the card hadn’t sold for the last year, so probably not. But it sold today, so maybe I had it priced right after all.
The prices of star player cards, especially their most premium rookies and autographs, have done nothing but increase over the last twenty years. Many to a dramatic extent. So I think a lot of these buyers are really speculators — the same types who play daily fantasy sports or buy and sell Gamestop stocks — and for many, buying cards is a form of gambling and obviously not everyone who gambles will end up a winner.
Why do dealers still bother with card shows if ebay is so incredibly lucrative, or is Covid the reason why ebay card selling has exploded?
I’m sure there are some dealers who only do shows but there are a lot fewer card shows, and card shops, than there used to be years ago. There are a few really large (think mega-mart size) card shops and a few card shows here and there. A big National card show every year in non-pandemic times. But most sales of single cards happens on eBay and through case breaks. I think that I might have posted this article about the sports card boom before, but in case I haven’t:
I’m confident that Covid has brought more people into buying cards but the basic principles behind the card bubble (prices rising and falling based on performance, speculators, higher quality sets and manufactured rarity) were present long before Covid. And Ebay is really the perfect marketplace for any sort of collector or seller of collectibles.
There is still plenty of untapped buying potential, too, as companies are just beginning to experiment with high-end cards for women’s basketball, golf, tennis and soccer. And most of those new sets have been very successful! So I would be surprised if the bubble completely bursts anytime soon.
Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t advocate buying up cards of any backup infielder who hits a few home runs. Those people are spending $100 today for cards that will probably be worth half that in six months and $20 or less in five years. But lots of people spend that kind of money on treasure that they donate to a thrift store or sell at a garage sale for a fraction of what it’s worth. So it makes sense there would be that same level of inefficiency with cards, or other collectibles, as well.
I also have a tendency to be a perfectionist with my listings, Marty. But in building my inventory to 2000+ items, I have learned something really important.
Many buyers never look past the title of your listing. They may or may not scroll through all of your pictures. They don’t look at the description at all. I don’t know if this is 2/3 of buyers or half of buyers or less. But it’s definitely more than a few.
That’s not to say your description shouldn’t be accurate and your photos shouldn’t be as good as possible, of course! Those perfectionist tendencies especially come in handy with an item not described case.
But cases are also rare. I sell collectibles which is one of those niches where buyers are especially picky about condition, and I sell 40+ items a week, and I can’t remember the last case a buyer opened against me, knock on wood.
So keep in mind that a few pictures and a few sentences of description might be even more than you really need to get an item sold.
Remember that you can always go back and revise after an item is listed, too.
4/4/21 – 4/10/21
Total items in store: 2204
Items sold: 41
Gross sales: $2877.04 (up 76.8% from one year ago)
Net sales: $2066.36 (up 74.2% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $368.17 — 6 commemorative patch cards from the Horrors of War set
Lowest price sold (net): $7.76 — 1 of the 4 metal printing plates (used in the printing process of the card) of race car driver Brett Bodine
Loved the podcast this week. On the subject of unbreakable records, the story of long jumper Bob Beamon comes to mind. Obviously you can Google the details but this video provides a great summary.
Skip to 1:32 for Bob Beamon and his section of the video lasts about ten minutes. But I give my highest recommendation to the video creator, Jon Bois, who makes esoteric videos about sports that are both funny and well researched. This particular video is about the history of athletes named Bob (Bob Beamon among them) and touches on both famous and not-so-famous athletes.
It was such a thrill to wake up this past Tuesday to the $400+ sale of patch cards which are currently en route all the way to Germany. Horrors of War is an iconic trading card set from the 1930s and about ten years ago, one of the larger non sports card manufacturers did a reboot of the set. Like almost every other modern card set, the set was about the cool inserts, among them cut signatures of military generals, cards with pieces of uniforms from WW2 and earlier, and the commemorative patch cards (e.g. 25th infantry) like the ones that went to my buyer in Germany. I actually have a saved search for this set because it’s so collectible. I won a number of auctions for these patch cards last year, paying $20-$30 each for them, and have sold one or two a month in the $70-$90 range since listing them. But this was the first time I sold so many to one buyer.
My most profitable sale this week, like many baseball card sellers, was an autograph of new Detroit Tigers outfielder Akil Baddoo. I had purchased an autograph card of his at auction last year for $1.52 and until this past week, the card sat unlisted in one of my many ‘junk’ or ‘commons’ boxes. Two years ago, Baddoo was in class A (three rungs from the majors — AA and AAA are the next steps in competition) and didn’t even perform very well at that level. And there were no minor leagues last year because of the pandemic. But he was drafted to the Tigers this year, who are terrible, and after performing well in spring training, Baddoo got a chance to play in some games at the start of this season. And boy, did his career ever get off to a Hollywood beginning.
First game: home run on the first pitch of his first at-bat
Second game: two hits including a grand slam home run
Third game: single in the ninth inning to win the game
His team is still terrible, but if you are a Tigers fan or even a baseball fan, it is hard not to be charmed by his parents dancing in the stands every time he gets a hit and all the fans getting excited every time he comes up to the plate. So his card prices have risen dramatically. I dug out my autograph this week and listed it for $149.99 and within an hour it had sold for $140.
The wildest part is that this isn’t even one of his rarest or most desired autographed cards! The card I sold was manufactured by Panini, who does not have a license with MLB. His most desirable Topps cards, specifically the most popular set Bowman Chrome, have been selling in the hundreds and even thousands depending on desirability (basically design and rarity).
In all likelihood, this is the peak frenzy for Baddoo cards, and in a few months time prices will drop dramatically. Pitchers will figure out Baddoo’s weaknesses and some of his hits will travel into the other team’s gloves instead of over the fence. A new hot player will take the league by storm and collectors/speculators/whoever is paying these crazy prices will move on to someone else. This happens every year in every sport.
I actually sold another Baddoo autograph last year, a blue Bowman Chrome, for $17.85. At the time, I was happy with the $10 or whatever it was in profit. That same card is currently selling in the $300 range. That’s the best example of the sports card bubble for you. In a nutshell: these weird outlier sale values where speculators and “investors” buy cards based on an individual performance or series of games. I’m not sure I fully understand their motivations, but I’m happy to sell to these buyers a handful of times every week.
I’ll take the profits from my one sale and reinvest them in much safer bets. Bubble aside, most card values — the best players, the most desirable sets and designs — are much more stable and predictable. There are always new sets coming out and there are obvious patterns in the types of cards which retain value and those that don’t. Often I find my best deals based on a seller who does an auction instead of buy it now or doesn’t create the best listing.
But Baddoo hit another home run tonight, so maybe those buying his cards this week will get the last laugh. I wouldn’t bet on it, but I never would have guessed that my little $1.52 purchase last fall would have netted me over $100 profit, either.
3/28/21 – 4/3/21
Total items in store: 2224
Items sold: 50
Gross sales: $3178.85 (up 88.6% from one year ago)
Net sales: $2315.37 (up 126.9% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $311.17 — 4 authenticated autographs of former Supreme Court justices
Lowest price sold (net): $7.19 — Women at Work Vol. II softcover book
As expected, high dollar sales picked up this week with the start of the new quarter and new eBay bucks certificates. I will miss the daily 1% eBay bucks, that was about $150 back in my pocket every quarter since almost all of my sourcing is done through eBay auctions. Hopefully this means eBay will start rolling out 3% or higher eBay bucks promos more frequently.
My average sales price was quite high this week. That’s as much a reflection of how my scavenging has changed over the last few years as anything else, and it’s reflected in my highest and lowest price sales this week.
The low price sale was a book! A leftover from my weekends spent scavenging library sales. I am a big reader and library sales are/were such a joy for me, as long as there are not too many Amazon people with the scanners there. Almost everything is a buck or two, and there’s so much trash but always a few treasures and sometimes some truly amazing stuff. I used to have a full bookcase of books and media (CD’s & DVD’s) listings, but over the last year that’s dwindled down to half a bookcase (if that). And honestly, in terms of time to profit ratio, I may love buying things for a buck and listing them for twenty, but that’s a long haul to making $xxxx a week. So library sales may not be a part of my scavenging strategy post-pandemic.
But up until the last couple years, those low-dollar items were all I could afford. As sales improved, I was able to start investing in better inventory and more long-tail items like most of us do. That is what led to my highest price sale this week, sheets of stamps which were autographed by former Supreme Court Justices.
I bought these autographed stamps a year ago (maybe more?) in auctions from one of the sellers I regularly buy from whose selling strategy is to run thousands of auctions every week. That kind of strategy is not for me, but it’s very common among trading cards sellers in particular and often they’ll dabble in other stuff like Pokemon cards (which I know nothing about) or autographed memorabilia/documents/etc. I always get a little interested and bid a little higher when I can “add on” to my auction haul with something that’s a little outside my comfort zone. Learning about all this cool stuff is one of the best parts of being a scavenger.
There are a few main companies who do autograph authentication and all of the stamps I bought were authenticated by the same company. Beyond that, I compared the autographs to other examples (because even the authenticators make mistakes sometimes) and the autographs looked like other autographs by these Supreme Court justices. So even though I didn’t get the autographs authenticated myself, I was confident that they are authentic. So I figured if I could get these autographs for $50 or so each, it should be fairly easy to make money on these autographs. How many signatures could there possibly be of these Supreme Court Justices from decades ago?
I didn’t win all of the auctions I bid on (story of my life) but something like 8-10 of them. This was probably one of the first handful of times where I was able to spend $300 or so and didn’t need to make an immediate sale to get some or all of that money back. So I priced the stamps high to where if they all sold, I’d double my initial investment plus make a few hundred extra. I figured I could wait a while and see what happened.
It’s easy to get impatient after you have items that you’re sure will sell and you don’t get an offer. Not even a nibble. No activity. Nothing. And of course that’s what happened, and of course I got impatient. So I tried putting these stamps on sale. Once I got a watcher or two, I tried sending offers to buyers. I tried listing them on auction with a starting price that I would be happy. I sold two of them over the last 18 months or so, but that didn’t even cover my initial investment. It can be a little disappointing when you think you’ve found cool items and they just don’t sell…
Then, in the course of a single day, all those feelings change because the one buyer you were waiting for finds your listings. Just like that, I’ve covered my initial investment, almost doubled it in fact, and most of all got reminded the most important Scavenger Life Manifesto lesson. List it and forget it.
It still boggles my mind that someone will spend $300 (or more!) on the perfect things for their collection, but it’s very obvious from the buyer’s feedback left that they are a serious collector of historical artifacts and autographs. Who knows if my buyer ever would have been able to find these particular autographs if I hadn’t listed them. I’m sure their collection isn’t complete yet, but they were probably just as happy to buy these stamps as I was to sell them. And that’s kind of cool to think about.
Doublythumbs,
As a former book flipper who misses library sales terribly, I have to tell you how impressed I am with a $275 sale on an ex-library book! Looks like you got a great price, too, with a lot of comparables (in terms of condition) in the sub-$200 range.
I watched and enjoyed the Queen’s Gambit show, but never would have guessed there would be such a market for the book it was based on, even a first edition. But chess is a very niche subject and prices on niche things (especially limited things like a first edition or first printing) can always surprise you.
3/21/21 – 3/27/21
Total items in store: 2275
Items sold: 58
Gross sales: $2766.48 (up 146.7% from one year ago)
Net sales: $1931.96 (up 138.3% from one year ago)
Highest price sold (net): $132.64 — an autographed hat button rookie card of former Washington Football Team quarterback Dwayne Haskins, now on the Pittsburgh Steelers, from Panini’s expensive National Treasures set
Lowest price sold (net): $3.53 — another rookie card of Australian NBA player Joe Ingles — $8 best offer going all the way to Australia (I paid just over $1 for the card so technically it’s profit but yikes)
This week felt slow throughout, and that culminated in an extremely slow weekend this past Friday/Saturday/Sunday — typically I have 25-30 packages to bring to the post office on a Monday, but this week I only had a dozen. I’m not even a little upset about it — this last year has been so tremendous for me, but also a ton of work. This weekend had to be my first in months with less than 20 packages to do, so it almost felt like a break. I’m eager to take a true break in a month or two once I’m vaccinated and have gotten through some of my many unlisted boxes of cards.
Tracking these numbers has been so useful to me, not only to give me kind of a feel from week to week but also to help me notice trends. For example, as much as it makes me somewhat happy that I can package up a basketball card of an obscure player in New Jersey and send it in a padded yellow envelope which makes it all the way to Australia in a few short weeks, I either need to raise my shipping rate to Australia (which is already $15) or, more realistically, never take an offer below $10 on an international package.
One other note (why not) on the high priced sale. Here is my listing in case anyone’s curious what a $100+ modern football card looks like. A couple tidbits about the card, and type of card, in particular.
First is that the player on the card, Dwayne Haskins was a first-round quarterback picked a mere two years ago (so he’s quite young) but is not off to the best start to his career. In fact, he’s already been released by his original team and signed on with a new one for a much lesser contract. This was all because of his own boneheaded mistakes, the types most young people make but obviously there is a bigger microscope when you’re a pro athlete. Haskins broke Covid protocols a few times and made some incredibly poor plays. Maybe he could have gotten away with one or the other, but with both issues, the team was so frustrated that they actually released him midseason, quite rare in football and especially for young quarterbacks. Haskins is a backup on his new team, which has already said they’ll give him a chance but expect that he makes no mistakes. So he’s a young player with some potential (higher prices on his cards) but has by no means shown the most potential (so lower than same-age players who are succeeding) and probably one mistake away from being cut again (lower prices still since he’s on a short leash). In a year, the card could be worth significantly more (if Haskins has gotten a chance with his new team and is flourishing), about the same (if he hasn’t played much) or significantly less (if he has made more boneheaded mistakes and his new team parts ways with him). That’s too much volatility for my taste.
Part of why this card was so expensive is the set it’s from, National Treasures, which in 2019 ran over $1000 per 4 card box. This year’s National Treasures set was even more expensive and next year there are expected to be quarterbacks taken with the #1, #2, #3 and #4 picks in the draft for the first time in NFL history, and prices will go up accordingly. Despite the hefty price tag, many of the cards from these boxes are regular autographs or jersey cards which regularly sell for $20 each or less. A hat button card is one of the “nicer” and lower numbered inserts, and if the player were more successful than Haskins it would sell for multiple hundreds, potentially thousands if the player is a real star. While the Haskins card is a nice one, it’s by no means the most unique or interesting card in the set — for example, this booklet card (not my listing) with jersey swatches from about 25 rookies or this cut signature card (also not my listing) of Fred Rogers, yes the TV presenter who was everyone’s favorite neighbor.
Last, the Haskins card was actually damaged in multiple places even though it’s just a few years old. I bought it that way, from an eBay auction a few months prior when Haskins’s card values were at their lowest, right after Haskins had been released from his first team and while he was still looking for a team to take a chance on him. The most noticeable damage happened primarily because of the card’s thickness — at some point as it bounced from place to place before it ended up (temporarily) in my ownership, it developed a slight tear beneath the button inset. I disclosed that tear, along with the card’s other flaws, in multiple places in my listing and waited for the right buyer to come along who wanted the card despite its imperfections. This level of damage makes the card practically worthless to some collectors, but my experience is that not every collector is out for a card in gem perfect condition, even if a lot of people involved in the sports card bubble will focus on grading and condition. I sell a few graded cards every week, and I understand the appeal of them. But mostly I sell imperfect, ungraded modern cards that are unique or interesting in some way, and I try to make an honest listing with good pictures and package them like they are special to me since they’re certainly special to the buyer. (knock on wood) that’s worked well for me for a few years now.
I spent more time taking photos than listing this week (nice to have that luxury) but I’m looking forward to getting some listings done tomorrow or Wednesday while listening to the podcast. Happy start of the new quarter, everyone. I hope you all have a great week of sales with buyers spending all their eBay bucks in your store.
3/14/21 – 3/20/21
Total items in store: 2295
Items sold: 84
Gross sales: $3178.98 (up 200.3% from this week last year)
Net sales: $2153.19 (up 226.4% from this week last year)
Highest price sold: $187.74 — an autograph rookie refractor (refractor = shiny) of Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager graded 9 mint
Lowest price sold: $11.97 — a plain, unadorned rookie draft card of Australian basketball player Joe Ingles, who was not drafted and only has a few rookie cards
Last week, my sales were slightly higher because I had about 10 sales of $75-$100 and 10 sales of $100 or more. This week was much more typical (at least for crazy stimulus sports card bubble times): 8 from $75-$100 and 4 over $100.
Even when I sell 84 items, I never have 84 packages to send out because I always have a few buyers who purchase multiple items. This week, I had one sale of 12 items to one buyer for $170 less Canada shipping and fees.
All 12 items were different hockey players printing plates. Printing plates are the various colors (black/yellow/cyan/magenta) used in stamping ink on the cards. Most manufacturers insert printing plates plates as a “hit card” every x number of packs or boxes, often with an accompanying autograph from the player, or a piece of their jersey. A few manufacturers use the plates to create a new product, like the Panini Plates & Patches set. You receive at least one printing plate and patch card in every Plates & Patches box, but the name is mostly branding. There are lots of regular cards beyond the plates and patches cards, though “regular cards” in most sets in 2021 often have an autograph, a piece of jersey and/or some kind of foil/colorful design and serial number.
Have I mentioned how high the cost of buying a box of trading cards is in 2021? Each five card box of 2020 Plates & Patches football cards will set you back at least $375. That’s over $60 for each card, and Plates & Patches is not even a premium expensive brand! It’s pretty run of the mill average in terms of pricing. The most high-end boxes run $1000 or more for a box of 5-10 cards, so you can do the math at how absurdly expensive a 12-box case gets. Most collectors don’t get their cards through buying boxes anymore. They either buy or trade for individual cards or purchase “their” team (or player) in “box breaks” or “case breaks.” Here is a very well-written article on case breaks that explains the process better than I can.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/05/04/breaking-the-fall-sports-cards-and-the-pandemic
I know what breaks are, but I’ve never participated in one since it’s basically all luck. No need to take a shortcut and gamble when I already have a system where I can make money as long as I put in the work. I originally purchased the plates I sold this week through various eBay auctions last month, all from the same seller. This is very common with trading cards, most sellers use auctions, but it’s an inefficient way to sell and prices vary a lot. I suspect many eBay trading card sellers need to sell this week to pay for their purchases next week. In fact, I was like that for a few years. It’s only this past year where I’ve truly broken out of it, somewhat from the increased demand (more people buying cards) but mostly from smarter buying habits.
Like these plates. The 12 plates I sold this week cost me just over $5 each, and even after shipping to Canada and fees, I made a tidy $90 profit. I had each plate listed at $20 and I had already sold some other plates at that price. But I had the flexibility to go down to $15 or even $10 and still make a profit, and whenever I get a buyer who sends me a bunch of offers at the same time, I’m always inclined to take it.
I have a new lot purchase of over 100 plates in the mail which I’m looking forward to. Sadly, this will probably be my last cache of plates until next year’s sets come out. But at least I went out with a bang. I got very lucky with my winning bid and only paid about $3.50 for each plate. Most will get listed at $20 with a few at higher prices if the players are collectible or popular. A handful will sell within twenty-four hours of listing, as collectors often focus on a certain player and set up saved searches (e.g. ‘Mario Lemieux plate’) to alert them to new listings so they don’t miss their players’ cards (especially the rare ones) before another collector snaps them up. They have to be quick, especially with the most desirable cards. I’ll make back my initial ~$400 investment with the first 25 or so that sell, and then the rest is all profit.
I loved this week’s podcast so much. Inspiring and grounded at the same time. It’s so important to find something that’s worth putting in the extra time and effort on, like the thoughtful things you include for guests who stay at your Air BnB’s.
3/7/21 – 3/13/21
Total items in store: 2330
Items sold: 65
Gross sales: $3751.23 (up 98.5% from last week & 122.7% from this week last year)
Net sales: $2713.97 (up 112.6% from last week & 140.8% from this week last year)
Highest price sold: $222.49 (A copper rookie card numbered to 49 from the popular Panini Select set of Tennessee Titans star running back Derrick Henry)
Lowest price sold: $9.88 (two different authenticated autographs of old-time Dodgers and Giants ballplayers from back in the 50s and 60s — both to the same buyer)
I have been doing eBay off and on (but mostly on) for close to ten years now and full-time (in hours if not income) for close to four years. I have had occasional weeks with sales numbers like this (and a few higher due to one-off very expensive items) but this week was consistent in a way that felt unusual. Every day had sales over $100 and three days (Sunday, Tuesday & Saturday) were over $500.
I feel like 65 to 75 sales in a week is probably the upper limit as far as a “reasonable” workload for a one-person, or two-person, business. But maybe it’s higher. I have a lot of inefficiencies that could improve my process, like getting a label printer instead of hand cutting each label one by one. (I know, I know…just get a Dymo already…but I hate buying things at full price!)
I had 10 sales this week of $100+ and 10 sales in the $75-$100 range. I have been working hard over the last year to spend more on high quality inventory since it takes the same amount of time to list an item for $20 as it does for $100 or more. Fortunately, with modern sports cards there are tens of thousands of auction listings every night, so it’s a matter of finding the right stuff and then winning the auctions. Of course, both these things are easier said than done!
I noticed this week that a lot of the items sold, especially the higher dollar sales, fall into one of two categories.
1. Cards that were purchased individually at auction anywhere from a month to a year (or more) ago and the “value” of the card has increased or decreased since.
For example, I sold an autographed rookie card of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who was in the news this week because the team signed him to a massive contract. I originally purchased the card this past fall, around the time Prescott had an unfortunate injury which caused him to miss the remainder of the Cowboys season. The team played terribly without him, and predictably his (and most players on the team) prices went down. Then interest in Prescott cards went back up this week upon news of the massive contract.
2. Cards that were purchased as a part of a lot, or poorly listed/titled in some way.
For example, the Derrick Henry card (my highest $$ sale above) was purchased at auction on a very small, niche collectors site that only has a few hundred auctions running total at any given time. I’m not sure why anyone lists an auction outside of eBay when the pool of buyers is exponentially bigger on eBay, but a lot of card sellers and collectors only use Facebook Marketplace or collector’s message boards or Instagram and harbor a hatred towards feeBay because of the one time where they had a case decided against them or a Paypal hold against them or something. I’m sure you know the type. I like eBay, so I use eBay.
But different platforms draw different types of collectors and if you’re a smart buyer (or seller), you can use those discrepancies to your favor. In the case of the Derrick Henry card, the seller’s title (when I originally bought it) didn’t include a lot of information that modern card buyers value: primarily the set name (Panini Select), the ‘features’ of the card (a copper prizm rookie card, or RC) and its serial numbering (which is basically how companies have “created” scarcity and perceived value in pieces of cardboard). I can still remember first seeing the auction listing for the card and realizing I might get it for a great price. And I did!
Now a few months later, my eBay buyer purchased the card for around the same price as other completed sales (maybe even a bit lower!). They could have found the same card (or a similar one) like I did if they spent a long time hunting for an auction that’s poorly titled, or trawling through every weird site, but sometimes as a buyer you want something right now and you don’t want to go through all those hoops. That’s where I like to think I ‘add value’ as a seller. That and my meticulous packaging!
I hope the buyer makes a lot of money on the card next season (and they might, if the value of Henry’s cards increase like they have during his last 2 excellent seasons), but I’m always happy to sell now and move on to the next purchase. The only way that all of this is sustainable is by putting in the work week in and week out.
NFTs have gotten big in music too, and sometimes the music NFT’s are attached to something physical, like a limited edition vinyl or future concert tickets. Here’s an article I read about that.
https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/music-nfts-timeline-kings-of-leon-grimes-3lau-1138437/
the kinds of people who spend hundreds or even thousands on something purely to own it — to say it’s theirs — have such a different way of looking at things than we scavengers do. Obviously I can only barely understand this mindset, since like all of you I’m the type who hunts for good deals and bargains and researches everything. I don’t really know what it’s like to not think that way. We’ve all built our eBay businesses around these skills, and also at some point got attracted by the idea of “owning our time” as Jay and Ryanne have called it.
But for many others (the types who are buying NFTs for $$$$ for sure), the relationship between time and money is completely different, even close to the opposite. Everyone’s balance of what they value, even within this forum, is probably a little bit different, too.
Temudgin, Believe it or not the Top Shot stuff is not completely novel! Companies have tried digital cards for over 15 years now…the first being eTopps which was not exactly a success. Another main card company, Panini, developed a fairly successful “blockchain” insert that has a bit of popularity. Some collectors want to collect every card of a certain player so the digital stuff is kind of an extension of that…particularly among urban millennials who may not have the physical space for a traditional physical collection.
At least Panini’s blockchain inserts allow you to “add” digital cards to your “digital collection.” Don’t ask me to try and explain what a Top Shot collection would look like. I read about it on the collectors forum I hang out in, and thought it sounded bizarre. Particularly because many of the video clips are like…a steal or dunk in the third quarter of a relatively meaningless game. It would be one thing if all the clips were legendary players or amazing plays. But obviously there’s demand for more than that, at least for now!
I can’t imagine Top Shot will retain its popularity, or anything like current prices, in the short-term future (like when fans can go to live games again), never mind a few years from now. But I’m sure many would say the same thing about modern cards, yet cards have had their own little niche market for 20+ years and that market is clearly growing. And a lot of the card innovations that were initially looked at with skepticism (like ultra-expensive $10,000+ boxes or boxes with only one card in them) have stuck around, so anything is truly possible.
I posted my numbers in last week’s thread for the first time, and though I haven’t listened to this week’s podcast yet, I want to maintain that positive momentum!
I mostly sell modern sports cards, so my sales numbers are nice but my inventory costs are high, often 1/3 of my sales or even slightly more.
2/28/21 – 3/6/21
Total items in store: 2274
Items sold: 54
Gross sales: $1889.91
Net sales: $1276.52
Highest price sold: $144 — an autograph of Civil War general Thomas Henderson
Lowest price sold: $13.24 — A numbered sketch card of late Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay from the hilariously expensive Topps Transcendent set
This week felt relatively ‘slow’ (I use that term lightly) and that feeling is reflected in my sales which are down 30% from last week. In reality, this is something like an average week for me over the last 15 months, and it (mostly) all evens out.
I had listed a few non-sports cards early this week, not a niche that I deal in very often. With how eBay’s search engine works, it’s probably not a coincidence that I saw a number of non-sports card items sell. Two war-related autographs from the same set (both to the same customer, obviously a collector of some kind), a few other non-sports autographs, and even a couple of media items from my library sale days. Boy, do I miss library sales. They weren’t all that profitable but it was a great way to spend a weekend morning.
A little anecdote about modern card collecting/speculating: I sold two autographed cards of Taylor Heinicke this week for about $40 each.
A big part of why these sales happened is because of this week’s news that Washington Football Team had released quarterback Alex Smith, an older player who is close to retirement after a long and moderately successful career. This elevates the mostly unproven Heinicke to become Washington’s starter next season, unless or until Washington acquires a new quarterback. (They probably will, but for now, let’s not worry about that.)
Heinicke had only played in a few games before this season in a mostly itinerant career, but he was forced into action near the end of the season because Alex Smith was hurt and his injury caused him to miss more time than the team hoped. Unfortunately for Washington, they had to keep playing their schedule even though they didn’t have their best quarterback. To nearly everyone’s surprise, Heinicke almost led Washington to a victory over Tampa Bay in their playoff matchup, making a few truly outstanding touchdowns in the process. During the game, and ever since, his few cards have skyrocketed in price, with autographs seeing the biggest bump. Unknown players tend to have less cards than those with high draft pedigrees, for fairly obvious reasons. (Generally speaking, no one wants a card of the third-string running back.)
I had purchased a number of Heinicke cards for a few dollars each before Washington’s playoff game on the chance he might get an opportunity. Most of the time, these little gambles don’t result in making or losing very much, at least for me. I happened to get very lucky this time. This is a whole niche within modern cards called ‘prospecting.’ While I did very well with Heinicke cards, I am a guppy in a sea of sharks who may spend thousands of dollars on one particular rare autograph of the next surefire star. Often these players are teenagers, or just out of college. But their athletic potential is sky-high and so are their card prices.
Maybe someday I will be one of those speculators buying and selling thousand dollar cards. I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t have predicted this level of sales a few years ago, so who knows. Heinicke money will pay for groceries this week, though. Thanks, Washington Football fans.
Banjomoon, You wrote:
Thanks for taking a look! But but…that same Jordan/Johnson card is worth upwards of $400 if it is graded as a gem mint 10!!!
If you have an eBay store, you can use Terapeak to see the last year of sold listings, rather than 90 days. So you can see how prices have changed. In cards, the differences are quite striking. Here is the last year of listings for the Magic vs. Michael card in a PSA 10, sorted from oldest to newest.
But now I’m going to try and deflate this bubble once and for all.
I haven’t really discussed what makes a PSA 10 (or similar high grade) valuable. The crux is that many cards are not in perfect condition straight out of the pack or box or set. Often it is because of the way they’re printed, centering or surface problems. But even minor handling can result in small, almost imperceptible corner or edge issues. This is true of all cards, not just yours.
I’ll use my own store as an example. I have 46 PSA graded cards in my store from sets made in 2016 to present — meaning these cards are all 25 years newer than your Jordans, with a few from 2020 sets, so less than a year old. You might think that all of these cards would be prime candidates for grading and that all would be in near perfect-condition. Want to take a guess how many of them are graded PSA 10?
8. 8 out of 46, and these are newer cards from an era where many cards enter into the collecting world when they’re pulled from packs and boxes on camera (it’s known as “case breaking”) and immediately sent off for grading. A 10 is a rare grade, period. 9’s and 8’s are much more common, and the ‘flaws’ aren’t always something that affects the card’s eye appeal.
Next, a little bit about the grading history of your card in particular. PSA has population reports which allow you to see how many cards have been graded from a particular set and received certain grades. This is the link to the 1991 Skybox set; your card is Michael vs. Magic #333.
https://www.psacard.com/pop/basketball-cards/1991/skybox/45429
Of the 584 graded, you can see about half have received a 10. But here’s the real problem…
Your same Magic vs. Michael card in a PSA 10 a year ago (before the current ‘bubble’) regularly sold for $30 – $50. Now? Most sales are in the $200-$300 range with a few outliers a bit higher. What a difference a year makes. However, that’s for a PSA 10. The range for a PSA 9 — just one grade lower! — is very different. Every single sale is less than $100 and there have been sales in the last month (during the current bubble) for under $20, which is less than grading fees cost (never mind eBay fees and shipping costs).
Finally, let me offer you my unsolicited two cents on the condition of your Michael vs. Magic card. I can only zoom in so far, but even with that limitation, I have an opinion on one area of the four (centering, surface, edges and corners) that graders look at. The centering looks off left-to-right, meaning that the image on the card is printed slightly left of center. PSA 10 centering is 60/40 in either direction, at worst. Look at the width of the white border on the left versus the right. I’m confident that centering is worse than 60/40.
I can’t tell what the corners or surface are like, and you didn’t provide a picture of the back of the card, so that’s as much as I can offer. But in my non-professional opinion, just based on the left-right centering, your card is “not likely to gem,” to use the jargon of collectors.
So… are you still confident that your card’s “value” is $400…or $200…or $100?…and that its value will continue to go up in the six months it will take you to send the card for grading and get it back…and that it will receive a PSA 10? If you are, then send it in. But consider how many people have done so in the last year, and will do so over the next six months based on the very information you’re considering.
One other thing. Your Michael vs. Magic card — and almost any card from the late 80s/early 90s — is incredibly easy to find. If you don’t believe me, look at the sports cards for sale on your local Craigslist or FB Marketplace listings. It’s a guarantee that you will find many listings from that late 80s & early 90s. You might even find the same exact Michael Jordan cards. You know who’s selling them? Someone like me who has known they were basically freely available for the last 20 years, and will soon be basically freely available again.
Collectors are not paying inflated prices for these cards, regardless of grade. I know this because anyone who collected cards in the 90s has cards like this laying in their closet in what they call “junk boxes” or “common boxes.” This is why a year ago that the same card was selling for $30 – $50 — basically the grading fee, plus a couple bucks for the high grade and the fact that it’s Jordan. It’s a nostalgia thing. But this particular card has no nostalgia factor compared to an 86-87 Fleer Jordan rookie, or another early Jordan card, or any of the fancy Jordan cards that have come out in the last 25 years: autographs, cards with a piece of Jordan’s jersey in it, or intricate inserts like the ones I linked in my previous post. Those are the kinds of cards that someone who collects Michael Jordan wants. They don’t want “a” Michael Jordan card, they want a specific Jordan card because it’s from a popular set or it has a crazy design or another desirable attribute. Cards from the early 90’s didn’t have any of those features yet, and they were printed “to the moon” as the Gamestop people would say.
It’s all speculators who are buying these high grade base cards, the kinds of people who buy crypto one week and Gamestop the next and have heard that cards are now “hot” but will sell as soon as they find the next shiny object to move on to. If you can make a couple bucks off them by selling your late 80’s and early 90’s cards now, do it and don’t think twice about it. But please don’t get stuck holding these cards for six months, or worse, waiting for them to come back from PSA having spent $30/card on a bunch of PSA 7’s and 8’s. Grading companies will happily take your money to grade any card in any condition. They surely made millions of dollars in grading fees from people who heard cards were “hot” this year. Don’t fall into that trap.
If you want to “invest” in cards for grading, I would recommend not doing that. But if you still insist, my suggestion is to do research on cards from any era except the late 80’s and early 90’s. Take the time that you would spend looking up the values of your 80’s and 90’s cards, and look up vintage hockey sets, or modern soccer, or late 90’s basketball inserts like the ones I linked in my last post…the possibilities are basically endless. eBay is truly a mecca for collectors, a 24 hour flea market / hobby shop with auctions ending every night for 20+ years. It’s really cool to see the scavenger world and even the crypto-investors take notice.
So many great tips in this thread. I am curious about one thing, Julie.
I need to take my reselling to the next level if I’m ever going to make enough to do more than just “get by.”
Are you just “getting by” because you’re not listing enough? Or is there a different problem? In other words, if you have a ton of unlisted inventory that you know sells fairly quickly but you can’t bring yourself to get it listed, that’s one problem. But not having enough inventory to make $xx a week is a different problem.
I bring this up because I struggled with this for a while. I was constantly just getting by, especially when I had to purchase new inventory. That would just eat up so much of my profits! What actually got me to the “next level” wasn’t any particular productivity hack, but becoming a better scavenger. Buying smarter, using my inventory space better, etc. I’m not selling many more items per week than I used to, but my average sales price is higher because I’ve stopped messing around with so many listings that are <$20, even if they are easy to buy, store and list.
I try and keep Retro Treasures WV’s first suggestion in mind as much as I can.
Don’t get bogged down in the details. “good enough” is good enough.
If it’s sheer quantity of listings that you are after, then apply this tip pretty judiciously. Don’t worry about taking 12 pictures or making every pictures perfect — just take enough pictures to show the item and get it listed. Same goes for the description, research, etc. I’m not suggesting to cut corners, but you have to keep in mind that when your item sells (whenever that eventually is), it’s possible your buyer may not even read the description or look at the pictures!
eBay also has a helpful ‘notes’ feature underneath items, so if you skip a needed photo for example, you can make a note and then go back to it.
A few other tips that might be helpful:
1. My productivity has increased significantly since I’ve started bullet journaling, and specifically using habit trackers to keep up on ‘regular’ eBay tasks.
2. Take care of your mental health! I know all too well the pressure of feeling like you need to list, list, list all the time, especially when your profits aren’t there. But taking a night or two off to recharge can do wonders.
I am going to try to apply these tips myself and I hope you (and everyone) has a great and productive week!
Hi Banjomoon,
Here is the top row of the cards that you have from left to right.
Michael Jordan vs. Magic Johnson 1991-92 Skybox #333
Michael Jordan 1991-92 Skybox #307
Michael Jordan 1991-92 Skybox #39
Michael Jordan 1990-91 Hoops #65
Michael Jordan 1990-91 Hoops All-Star #5
The bottom row are similar years and sets.
All of this info is easy to find even if you don’t know cards at all:
You can find the year by looking for the copyright on the back, usually at the bottom of the card. Or just add one year to the last year of stats on the back of the card.
The manufacturer (Hoops, Skybox, etc) usually puts their logo prominently on the front (and back) of the card.
And the card number within the set is usually on the back of the card, often in the top right corner.
I’ll stick with the top left card Michael vs. Magic as an example.
The last sale of that card was today for $2.80 + $1.59 shipping. A PSA 9 version sold for $43, but the bare minimum cost to grade a card is around $25 — $20 grading fees plus shipping. So what is the seller’s actual profit on that PSA card (assuming they are the ones who graded it) considering all costs and eBay fees? Not much. And grading comes with no guarantees. You may receive a 9…or even a 10!…but more likely an 8, or 7, or lower. The difference between grades is so slight — it can be slight off-centering from left to right, or top to bottom, or minor wear to the edges or corners. Not things you would notice unless you really study the card.
It’s also important to know that cards changed dramatically in the mid-1990s. Manufacturers started using different technologies like holograms and acetate and die-cutting, which led to cards that look like this.
And SPX is just the tip of the iceberg as far as “fancy” Jordan cards.
I intentionally selected raw (ungraded) insert cards as examples to show that there is tremendous demand for certain cards, regardless of grade. Incredibly, this is still just a small glimpse into expensive cards from the late 90s until today. But you can see that by 1997 or 1998, cards from 1991 looked aesthetically plain and boring. That, along with the overproduction, is why they don’t hold as much value today compared to stuff from a few years later.
There are always exceptions — key players or sets or error cards. But in general, if you have cards from the late 80s and early 90s, they do not sell for much. Regardless of grade, player, condition or worst of all, what a well-meaning friend or relative tells you they are or were “worth.” This is true for a lot of cards from the 60s and 70s and 90s to 2000s as well. Not all of them! But for the most part.
Jordan is a great example because he was such a legendary athlete that there are still cards made of him in sets that were released this year. But that doesn’t mean those cards are all valuable. Some, like this plain base card, sell for pennies.
Others, like this shiny orange foil card numbered to 99, can eclipse $100 or more.
Big picture: you can sell the Jordans in your photo for a couple bucks each, maybe $20 as a lot, maybe a few dollars more if you list them soon as an auction and get lucky with multiple bidders competing. But you will be competing with hundreds, if not thousands of similar listings. Seriously: there are over 25 thousand sold listings for Michael Jordan card lot, and over half (almost 10,000!) sold for under $15. And he’s a legend. What do you think cards of lesser players are generally worth?
PSA and other grading companies currently have backlogs of millions of cards because it is common knowledge that cards are hot right now. So by the time you get your cards back, regardless of grade, there will inevitably be many more like them.
The irony in all this is that cards are extremely hot right now. But it’s not the cards that have been sitting in a closet for thirty years. It’s the cards from very recently (the last 25 years) that someone like me has an intricate knowledge of which sets, and players, and card attributes are coveted. Or the cards which are true heirlooms (think 1950s and earlier) where there are just not that many which have survived all these years in great condition.
