Officially been 1 year since I dove into this hobby! Made a lot of mistakes and learned a ton along the way. My hope is this video serves as some good insight for people who are brand new to the hobby. Comment what you think!
A key niche I have found for grading is find the cards that are sub $20 raw but sell for $60-100 as a psa 10 and 30-40 as a 9. That niche is a good area to learn how to grade on relatively low risk cards, with a good % ROI for those that gem.
I think this is a spot on comment cause with these you can usually at least break even on 9 and as long as you can do that then make money on a 10 you’re in pretty good shape
@@DanielsonSportsCards my goal is that 90% of the card I sent would at least break even on a 9. If a 9 is selling for raw prices, I won't bother unless it's a definite 10. It's also worth selling/consigning grading rejects right away because, as you said already, cash flow is important
Thanks for watching!! Yeah singles all the way. Singles are tough enough to flip to make a profit. I did find as I tracked all my data, I did about 4x better on sealed football cards than basketball though
Yes but I enjoy buying sealed and adding that stuff to my collection and I don't care about value, but people that want to turn the hobby into a business are ruining the hobby. They're going to run the hobby into the ground then move onto something else to flip.
I've started collecting again around 4yrs ago, and you are absolutely 💯 % right about everything you said.. The MOST IMPORTANT THING that I've learned is knowing when to sell and hold a card.. Which would go under where you said, #4 "Hype Drives Value." Or right after, #5 You buy cards that you plan on selling 6 months later(or somewhere along that time frame). If you listen to what he says in this video and follow through, you WILL BE successful..!!🔥🤑🤑
I would just add..MAKE GOOD RELATIONSHIPS in the Hobby. Don't just be a lone warrior. When people know you and the kind of stuff you like, It helps both in finding good stuff and moving your stuff. And people and dealers are more likely to work with someone who they genuinely know and like, and have a history with. And that can work both ways. Very good video.. wish I saw this my first year in 2019,lol.
Ah very well said! Friendships are important, and it’s important to not view others in a competitive way. Friends are good, the more relationships the better. Great comment
It’s important to be good to people and to be patient and understanding with online sellers and buyers. Without kindness, there is not that much joy in all of this. It takes a lot of energy to build relationships. But I do think it’s true that you get from it what you put into it.
Besides buying in the offseason, I like targeting holy grail cards, like, say, Lebron, when his team is playing poorly or on the verge of missing the playoffs. Despite his HOF status, people overreact as if the card is a literal stock and the price will drop. Timing those things have helped in getting legendary cards for cheaper than max value.
Ah that’s so smart!! My two two grail cards right now I want to get soon are PSA 10 LeBron Topps Chrome and the 2009 Steph Curry. Seems like LeBrons stuff has fallen a bit? But yeah that’s super smart
Hobby is heating up 🔥✅️...I collect as much as I sell, and its becoming harder to find many of the cards I would PC, and when they come up on auctions they have been selling for much more than I am used to seeing. Think investors are getting smart and investing more in Singles rather than packs/boxes.
Great advice. I have been following these rules for years and it has worked for me. Buy low and sell high. Selling graded cards is much easier than selling ungraded cards. I sell cards when the hype is the biggest for a player and have had great success.
Just came across this video in my feed. Really enjoyed it. Well thought out, practical, and makes a lot of sense. Just subscribed… Looking forward to seeing what other videos you have.
I appreciate this video. It all rings so true to me. I got back into this about a year ago too. I’m very small scale, but trying to hustle a few cards to make the hobby self-sustaining. I’m not there yet, but I’ve come a long way. I think an important point to make is that you have to spend money to make money. Spending money doesn’t mean you will make money, but it is often the case that higher cost singles have a higher ceiling for margin in the long run. They also have an implicitly higher risk if the hype doesn’t sustain.
Also true. And you make your money on your buys. You can’t sell something above market value, but you can buy bellow market value. I’ve done well buying bundles from people and selling off the singles. But you’re right if you have a $30 card and it goes up in value 20% that’s only $36. The doesn’t even cover cost of shipping , fees etc. but if you have a $300 card that goes up 20% in value now you’ve got $60 in profit to work with
Great vid - I have only been in the grading/slabbing game for about 6 months but have come to most of these same realizations. About to take a fat stack of 10s to my first in person show and see how it goes! Look forward to following your content.
Hey thanks for watching! Good luck at the show! Look for some good trades too if you can trade cards you are up on into cards that are down like Joe Burrow etc that's a good way to do it too, not just sales
Earned a follow from me, I’ve been collecting for about a year now as well and I wish I would have known these commandments, found out the harder way. Now I pretty much only collect PSA 10s prizms lol
100% agree! I started watching people open packs last year. I ended up buying some boxes myself. Wanting to hit big cards, but ideally athletes i enjoy. You end up getting so many base cards and some decent cards, that you're not even fans of those players LOL. I went to Ebay, and been collecting my favs only for enjoyment and not looking to make $. I have a good selection of new 2020-2023 Currys and others, but i LOVE old school cards more. Its weird these new cards are sick, but i dk theres something special about holding a Flair Showcase or a Refractor from 1997 etc. It really cool finding old cards from your childhood you didnt even know were around. I have a nice sized collection of Favre Refractors, Shaq, Vince Carter, etc. Maybe when I get too old, ill then look for $$ when my girls get near to college. We will see... But the Favre cards I may keep forever lol
A lot of hate for flippers here, it seems. I personally believe flippers are one of the primary drivers keeping this hobby going. A lot of personal collectors don’t sell much because they’re buying what they want to keep and occasionally sell. I think the most disruptive thing in the hobby is live breaking. I’ve heard traditional card shops complain about product scarcity because the breakers are getting all of the boxes and they can’t compete with breakers on pricing. But I’m not even sure breaking is bad. The greed of the card companies is driving a lot of this stuff. Without breakers a lot of folks can’t even get in on new products because they are so expensive. Maybe it’s a chicken and egg thing. It’s hard to tell who is driving what. But flippers are the conduit for collectors to get what they want.
Some great points!! Breaking is interesting, it does allow for people to get into products they wouldn’t otherwise get in to. But at an addition premium. You are already fighting losing odds on opening a box, then add the markup of a breaker and it’s really hard to win ha. The last break I bought into I paid $55 for a slot and got 4 non rookie base cards ha. Last break I ever tried. From the distributors standpoint though, you want to give your product to whoever is selling the most of it and hobby boxes sit on the shelves in hobby shops until someone is willing to drop $1,000 but breakers are flying through product which is why they are winning the business of the distributors. I agree with you though about flippers, important part of the hobby.
Great question! You know I’m still playing with the format, but in general I’d track your purchases and expenses in a way that makes sense for you and is easy for you to manage.
Buying rookie cards is not necessarily the way to go!! Collecting what you like is mostly the way to go. Some people like sets, some like teams. So many ways to go.
Oh for sure! I agree. My thought process with rookies from a flipping standpoint was they can’t print more rookies. More autos will come out, more downtowns more cool inserts. But rookies are truly limited (even if they are still over printed)
Thank you for the advice using a spreadsheet vs ol school method of writing #11 could be what to do with bad scandals (aka Wander Franco) cards seems to be always one big one a year
Ah you know I have no idea I feel like that's why I don't try and go too deep into one player in case of something like that. Sometimes just how it goes I guess :(
I know this sounds dumb and irrelevant, but would you happen to have a blank slate copy of your excel sheet? If not - I'll start working on mine by looking at brief pictures you have. I have one made however it's not anywhere near your level of detail. Great video!
Hey thank you so much!! My spreadsheet kinda sucks honestly ha. But dm me on IG I can send it to you. I’m gonna rework it though it was my first version and I think it’s clunky
thanks! You know I feel my spread sheet needs work first. It's still pretty clunky and un organized, so I'll probably make a 2.0 before I consider making a video about it
For sure! I've never tried that. I'm sure that's tough. I feel like my eye is getting good at telling whats a potential 10, what's a 9 and what's an 8. Where I feel like it gets really tricky though is being able to tell what's a 5 vs a 7. Or a 4 vs a 6. I would have no idea.
Been back into the hobby for a bit now but decided to get into it a bit more serious and try to make it a little side business. I really liked how you talked about the spectrum of flippers/collectors. I like to consider myself a mixture. Great video
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate it. Yeah for sure I’m like 95% on the flipper side but I’ve got a little collector on me as well. I’ve found so many people are a mixture as well. Finding out what people like to PC is good as a seller too especially when you are at a card show
@@DanielsonSportsCards I still have it. Also just pulled the Connir Bedard hockey card last week. That things goes for easy $500. Luckily I'm probably still in profit from all the packs I bought since starting lol
i bought lots of nba hoops back in 21-22, Mostly chasing for my PC but also sold the base cards in my antique shop. Now my antique shop has closed and im left with tons of cards i dont want. Im trying to sell it wholesale and so many flakes.
Yeah hoops is a tough set man. The reality is something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and people just don’t want base cards sadly. I give them away to kids
The grading comment is what took me from someone that thought he could casually buy and flip cards for sport......but have quickly realized that it's PSA 10 or bust for most cards at my level and I'd rather just buy a few cards for the PC here and there and leave flipping to someone with more attention to detail, able to stomach loses & able to time the market appropriately.
Great comment. Yeah It's not been easy, I'm still trying to really find my groove as a flipper. I just enjoy the process. I am comfortable with the losses. Really I look at PSA 9s as a waste product, like the sawdust coming off the saw. Just part of the deal. I think the trick is those two things you pointed out, a really careful eye and timing market. It's a TON of work though ha I'd probably make more money just working a part time job somewhere as a hobby, but I enjoy the process and the risk. Having fun doing it
Nice video. Well done--thanks. My biggest tips, related to eBay, would be I) submit documentation as a reseller so that you don't have to pay sales tax (very fast and easy) and II) use Gixen for snipes.
Thanks for the kind words! I need to figure out that documentation thing I still pay sales tax on ebay ha. Even though I'm set up as a business. And I'll have to check out Gixen!
Yes you are totally correct that is what I meant. I actually have bought some sealed product to keep sealed will see how that goes! Looking like 2023 will be a really great NFL draft class
You know, my spread sheet is always evolving… started out really rough and has gotten better. I would say I’m pretty far from having a dialed in template ha I should try and spend some time refining it
Would you 100% recommend getting that Donruss complete set box? Thanks for the help though, this has been kind of hard to get into because I’m horrible about knowing how to spend my money.
You know I bought three boxes, I ripped all three and out of it found 6 cards I’m going to grade. The rest I’m selling raw. So it’s messy, probably not worth the time in the long run I had hoped all the cards could be good condition and I could send in like 15 cards from it but so many of them had bad centering or dinged corners
flipping is tuff..and alot of work.. buy vintage and pre war cards and simply holding them is the best investment.. many of the modern players are busts.. that is more like gambling.. buy the vintage or even modern ESTABLISHED HOF players in any sport and just hold them.. that is the best investment… and not alot of work…. just have fun enyoing owning those cards...
Great points. It is a ton of work and it’s like playing hot potatoe, you gotta dump the cards before they crash in value ha. I want to invest in some vintage, would be interested to see some data on how they perform over time like is it a 5% year over year growth?
@@DanielsonSportsCards yeah hot potato is a good way to describe flipping.. lol… each vintage/pre war player seems to have its own path of growth… but from a sports prespective vintage and pre war baseball perform the best from past history.. many people say football is the number 1 sport in america and think football will catch up tho… there is not alot of vintage basketball to even choose from… vintage hockey in high grades of bigh HOFs is does really well to but not the lower grade stuff...
You know my spread is just something I made when I first started. I think I’m gonna try and revamp it as it has some inefficiencies but yeah just something I made
First watch and subscribed Also grade cards yourself I went to my local store they clearly stole form me and no way to prove it unless you send #ed cards with them.
Dude, submitting to PSA can be tough...I've sent some 1998 Donruss Crusades that were immaculate and I was sure would grade Gem 💎 mint, but came back 7 or 8s....some sets are impossible to grade.
Yeah I've had a few that shocked me. I'm trying to get really disciplined in only sending really well conditioned cards, sometimes I have those rose colored glasses with my favorite cards but gotta be willing to not sub it if there are issues. I had a DK Metcalf rookie come back a 5 that I thought would gem ha
New to collecting, appreciate the video! At card shows do tables usually accept trades or also buy? Would like to know in advance so i dont possibly look like a fool walking around with my little box asking people if they trade 😂
People will trade all the time!! When trading up (trading a ton of lesser valuable for smaller amount of more valuable) people will tend to want extra value. But yeah trades are normal, though not everyone does
I appreciate your content and insight. However, I have more negative experiences than positive when it comes to flippers at card shows. They expect you to give them a deal but they won't give you one. They can be pushy and sometimes dishonest. Agreeing to comps is often annoying as well, because they will only find the data that backs up their price, but refute any data you bring to the table when you come up with your price. A lot of these vibes ooze from the card youtubers that you see at every show too.
Yeah 💯 My experience running tables I’ve run into a lot of people like that. Had I guy that wanted my Lamar Jackson Donruss PSA 10 for $80 (comping $100-120) and I was talking about maybe trading down from it into the exact same card in a PSA 9 plus some cash and he wanted $50 in cash value for the 9…. lol he wants my 10 at 80 and values his 9 at 50… idiotic. I don’t know the “answer” to this other than acknowledge it’s a thing. When someone is just trying to lowball pressure me I just say “no thanks, I’m better off holding that card.” I always try and be fair, but yeah lots of annoying slippers. Especially on IG too I do a lot of deals there and people just want all your stuff at 70% ha and when you want to buy their stuff they want 130% 😂
@@DanielsonSportsCards that’s A ok. I just don’t think it should be suggested to someone new. In baseball, the base card has already been killed. It’s absolutely worthless. With prizm it’s liquid, but it teeters on the edge of even being worth flipping. For someone new I’d suggest topps SSP’s, Topps Black or Independence Day parallels, Topps Chrome Gold refractors, Prizm numbered or ssp parallels, and the panini case hit stuff. If you’re on a budget Topps Gold. I wouldn’t suggest anyone buy into silver prizms if they’re new because I think people need to be aware of psa population reports and learn how to gauge those. And if you’re buying silver prizms, you aren’t looking at pop counts at all. So I definitely wouldn’t suggest base to someone new
Cool video but the first point flippers being good for the hobby retail flippers are horrible for the hobby for a number of reasons.. they are the reason that when nice sets come out you can never get them on the store shelves because they will be at the restock when it's happening and take all the product off the shelf.. to sell it for a 3x mark up..look what happened for 2023 Donruss football Mega boxes they came back out of the woodworks to sell them online for $150 a box when you could have picked them up in the store for $40 a box $45 a box at Walmart.. it prices people out of the hobby especially children who would only be getting these boxes in store.. but these flippers take retail that's supposed to be more affordable and turn it into near hobby prices... yes I understand that retail scalping has died down quite a bit but whenever a premium set comes out and especially if it's one autograph per box on average the scalpers crawl out of their sewers once again and it still happening today or if there's some giant rookie Chase with a very valuable rookie they usually come out and horde the boxes example Monopoly football this year or these guys run their bots online so you can't get one rookies and stars longevity box... This is destroying the hobby it's sucking the fun out of people trying to get cards because not everyone can make an effort to check everyday multiple times a day it becomes tedious especially when you've done it for years! I think flipping when people who buy singles online and grade cards there's nothing wrong with that.. my problem is retail flippers they actually hurt the hobby more than anything.. we had cards when we were kids the packs were $2... When I started collecting flipping was bad in 2020 terrible the flippers just got smarter they hide in their holes until the right release comes out and they always come back just like with PS5s... That was my only grievance but enjoyed your video...
Hahaha love this comment, love the imagery of the sewers and dark holes lol. You’re a great writer ha. You know when I was talking about flippers I wasnt thinking as much about this aspect. More just singles. You make some great and valid points. My retort would be this - value is created from supply and demand so when certain sets come out with high demand, but supply remains the same it creates scarcity, which in turns increases the value. This is good for the hobby. I do not think Panini or any printing company should then increase print runs to keep up with demand on those sets. Now I know that’s not what you are suggesting. It is very unfortunate that certain sets get gobbeld up. However a good alternative for kids would be for them to buy some of the sets with less demand like Absolute or something. They can still get the players and teams they want without paying the premium for optic or Prizm. Idk I’m not sure what the best solution is, I aknowledge these are good points, not sure the best solve.
@@DanielsonSportsCards I hear you and agree about overprinting not being the solution.. and I could even see coming at it from the perspective of a business person but I'm just coming from the perspective of a collector that has to go through great challenges to get retail cards to open many times a lot of effort and the great effort with so many failures with little success to actually get nice sets at times can suck the fun out of this... But I understand you were talking more about flipping singles and there's nothing wrong with that.. my thought is a sealed retail flipper is more of a scalper than anything... But I enjoyed the video and I meant no disrespect or anything this is just my opinion on retail flipping having had to compete with a lot of these guys for the past 4 years getting cards has been the least fun part of this whole thing... Unlike the fellow collectors out here who help each other out those guys usually fill their carts and run to the cash out.. we've even had vendors get fired out here for taking everything to sell everything premium like the nice Chrome sets.. but again I enjoy the discussion and I mean no disrespect to you.
@@DanielsonSportsCards appreciate that but honestly I'm a subscribe to you seem like a good dude plus I'm having a good day I just pulled it downtown and an awesome autograph!
@DanielsonSportsCards yeah they're the worste for sure. Growing up "low income" these are the people who should be getting robbed in principle, lol. It's tempting but I'm a law abiding citizen so they get a pass from me they're just lucky were a bunch of nerds. If they were in a more seedy industry they'd be run out of town so fast..
You know a few people have asked me. I feel like my system still needs a lot of work, but once I fine tune it to a place that I feel for confident sharing withe the world I'm gonna make a video about it
Yes, a few people have pointed that out, that is 100% what I mean to say I should have been more clear. Buying to open is bad. Buying to hold and flip is a good play
That’s a great question, again I’m not an expert, but I’d say two things: - if you purchase and sell only higher end cards you can probably make it work. $20 shipping on a $20 card will be pretty card to make a profit. But $20 shipping on a $400 card doesn’t matter as much. I’d recommend staying super narrow and have just a handful of more valuable cards. - you can also utilize eBay vault where you don’t physically have the cards in your possession, and therefore they don’t need to ship. While I think this is a good method to make money it’s also takes a lot of the fun out of it because I like having the cards in person
How do I go about finding the value of a card? I just bought a willie mays #600 card for $25. It's in what I would call "perfect condition". I see them going anywhere $150 to $5000 for the same cards. Any advice? Thanks!!
Sell it for the highest is better since it vintage.look at different places who would buy it or if you already got a set price you looking for then sell it.up to you
What is your main source for purchasing raw cards in the hopes of grading them? ebay, card shows? My fear is that someone is selling raw because they don't feel it would grade well.
This is a great question. Gems can be found anywhere, but there are a few things to consider: 1) If a seller - whether online or in-person - has both graded and ungraded cards, you most likely won't want to buy their raw cards. Especially if you look at their PSA slabs and you see a lot of identifcation numbers that arer eally close together like from the same batch, you can tell they submit. So if they thought it would gem, they would have sent it in. 2) There are sellers online that only sell raw cards. If you can find a good seller that does this, they are a good source. People also will sell singles on Whatnot that are strait out of packs. As sad as it is, often times a great place to get deals on singles are from people who have ripping problems that need to fund their next box, and might not have the patience for grading. 3) My experience is at shows it's hard to find gems. but there are vendors that only have raw, and those are worth looking through. And at shops you can find gems in the dollar range of $5 - $15 raw cards. These often times don't have enough value for a shop to scour over each one, they are gonna focus more on grading higher value cards. But a $10 card in a PSA 10 can be $100 if you are getting the right cards. 4) I've also had some success from facebook market place. Local people. I've bought multiple gems from random people on facebook.
I’m a collector/flipper. Idk if a card is selling for a high amount, I’m gonna sell it, but if I rip something and pull cards of players I like. I keep them for my PC.
For sure. I think the thing with ripping is theres the cards that sell for high, the cards you want for your PC, and then EVERYTHING else ha. My problem with ripping is you get way too much of the 'everything else' category. Stuff that's not valuable on the open market or in the PC. Junk. So I'm left feeling it's best to just buy the isolated cards you want for your PC, wait out the cards that are high and buy singles with good flipping potential.
@@DanielsonSportsCards yea you are pretty spot on, but ripping is a rush tho cuz you have the possibility of hitting something big. I have been grabbing more singles lately though.
That’s a really good point, also a reason why I’ve been using SGC more. Not exclusively but the margins are there and I can get 2-3 orders flipped in the time it takes to get one back from PSA. The 9.5 grade helps to, the downside is the SGC 10 doesn’t have quite as high an upside.
Also with Hall of famers (Baseball and Basketball) their values aren't as great because they're in sets every year, especially their autos. Theres too much supply of course. Hype sells, you see it more in football QBs or the top Rookie(s) in Basketball.
Like many people out there, I have a decent collection in my basement of cards from the 80’s, 90’s, and even some 70’s all sports. I have very little interest in sports anymore and nobody to pass them onto. I’m not interested in spending time going through the value of everything and just want to get rid of them getting a little cash in return. I understand how much work it would be for a buyer to go through everything and sell them piece by piece to make money, so I’m fine with selling the lot at a deep discount. Are their buyers out there that buy in bulk just like a storage locker hoping to find some great values? Or is going to a card shop or card show my best bet?
Based on prizm overprinting since 2019, maybe it will become not "the right rookie card" anymore. I mean cannot hold the price, becuase of too many supply in the market.
Yeah I’m worried about that for sure… for me as a flipper it needs to hold value for 3 months before I sell it. But as an industry as a whole there are some big problems of over printing. But the price always finds its place based on supply and demand, I think because there is such a high supply, in 5 years when people might not be collecting Joe Burrow (because the collectors already have them and there’s 5 years worth of new shiny QBs jn the market) I expect the high supply of his Prizm will drop the price as demand fades away and they become not as liquid. Super Bowl win would of course change that in burrows case
Yeah I've been getting that impression. Which is something to consider when selling too because often times you'll be selling to a flipper. I try to leave meat on the bone for a risky flipper rather than time to try the market to the precise peak of a cards value
That PSA 10 Burrows rookie is worth $30? But it cost $25 to grade it, and maybe wouldn't get the 10. Then there's whatever you spent to get the Burrows. Something doesn't compute in this ultra-modern junk slab business.
Yeah it’s just overprinting and too many sets. Massive supply outweighs even a high demand. His prices are also down even the luminance will get to $50 once he starts playing again.
I despise repacks the whole concept is corrupt to me. I feel flippers do sell to each other all the time though, I try and sell a card early on its way up to leave some opportunity on the table for flippers