I find sorting/selling single therapeutic. I get home from my 3rd shift job, pack my orders & go to bed. I sort cards after family time on the weekends at night. I enjoy selling cheap singles. I don't have to do this. My job pays great. I'm not making a lot of money selling singles. It's relaxing and I enjoy it. I just found your channel and binging videos while I work. Keep up the great work.
It is therapeutic and it’s become a way for me to expand enjoyment of singles. Our store is small and we just couldn’t get traction online selling sealed product only. We have almost become better at selling singles than packs. Packs have become the currency by which we trade for singles. (I get to add cherry 🍒 singles that I love to my personal collection and I get first choice!)
A man after my own heart, and some very good points. Within the hobby, there's an umbrella of activities that just come with it, so seeing that you could actually make some money, or at least comp some of your cost back is what got me into selling singles etc. and I'm doing very well so far! I just love having new 'toys' all the time as well :D
Excellent video with a great message man. I have been selling on and off online since 2020, I get more enjoyment than profit for sure. Maybe I can scale and make more? But the fun I have doing it solo is worth so much. Not to mention, without these types of sales, the hobby can’t expand! It’s all fun at the end of the day👊🏽
I’m really convinced there is a buyer for every card. Any time I think I have way to many singles of a particular card, someone will come and by one. The. Another person and so on. Supply gets eaten up!
I like doing what you described, buying cheap lots and picking a few cards I like then sell all the other to make my money back. It is very time consuming but I like it. Hugely satisfying slowly building collection for free and you never know what other people have. I found a Shining Gyrados in a binder collection I bought for 50 bucks.
It’s absolute part of the hobbie. When people complain that you make make more money doing other things like slinging burgers - sure - but I would much rather be sourcing cards! Agreed
Thank you for the content! I have been blessed with a good job that brings in good money, been collecting for years and recently going through my collection I found many duplicates so I decided to start an online store. While there is not much profit yet I also enjoy it as a pose to watching T.V Definitely not a waste of time!
My son and I started our store as an experiment and I got more and more interested along the path. I’ve got deeper and deeper and tend to enjoy it more as the way I participate. I really do like helping people with their collecting and have been assisting others find cards and connecting people. Some of the stories and discussions are interesting- so I like to share here.
Never seen your channel or videos before but I thoroughly enjoyed that video, and compelled me to comment. Very refreshing perspective of the hobby. I also flip cards and do like to make a small profit whenever I can and have always thought to myself that the time I spent doing it, I could've definitely made more money, as you say, pulling extra shifts or perhaps in another side hustle but those will never give the excitement and joy that comes with making a sale. Keep it up brother, subscribed!
Thanks for the sub! I think we are finding our niche in supplying "low value" cards to people who are working on their binder. My process to post cards for sale is to see if I have an inventory entry, add a unit -- otherwise I need to photo and type out the card details. Sometimes I'm entering 50 cards and it takes 20 minutes. Sometimes I'm entering 20 cards and it takes 50 minutes because they are all new. I'm always surprised at the number of different cards and variations in Pokemon. For some people, it would frustrate them. For me, it triggers my "interesting" reaction and I like doing it. You cannot like everything you do, but its good to do some things you like!
I needed this thank you I tend to focus on the money but your right it’s about the fun of seeing the cards you get finding a good deal and yeah if you can make a few bucks that’s great I really appreciate this video thank you
Sometimes you just got to get a lot of cards listed and even that can be stressful, but the concept of it being low profit work shouln'dt take away from the fact that it is just part of the hobby and a way to enjoy 'trading' part of the hobby
First time watching your videos. I can definitely relate. I started collecting again in 2019, and while sure it's nice to make a little money, my card sales mostly just make the hobby self sustaining so I can meet my collection goals. I work a normal 9-5, and collecting has become my therapy after work. I no longer get fomo or feel the need to buy a card right away, I can buy and sell at my own pace and just enjoy the hobby. Cheers!
Kai and I appreciate the view! We haven't reached the 'self sustaining' rate yet. We still have more cards that we can sell, but we are always picking away at re-homing this and that. Our FOMO is gone too. There is a sweet spot for picking up a card and its between 18 to 24 months from release. We are just starting to look for Chilling Reign for our binder. The RH will be difficult, but making that part of the hunt - that's the fun part.
I really don’t mind it - as long as I’m not rushed. I had to tell a few people to wait till after Christmas 🎄 due to being backlogged with just estimating value.
Never watched your channel before but watched this and felt compelled to comment. I agree with you. When I was younger, I collected Pokemon and played Yugioh and Magic the Gathering. Now, in my mid-30s, living away from home, I don’t have any play groups or anything like that so buying and flipping singles is my way of staying involved. Additionally, I am able to set it and forget it. Once the card is listed it stays that way until someone buys it. That may not be today. It may not be this year even, but IF someone chooses to buy it, cool. Flipping cheap singles may not be super profitable when accounting for time invested but I enjoy it and I’m happy to provide this service to the gaming/collecting communities who shop on eBay and TCGPlayer.
I think it’s a sign the Pokémon market is back to its normalcy that everyone talked about. We started our ‘business’ selling singles and getting allocated product in late 2021. It took me about a year just to get accustomed to it (how to advertise, etc) and known to some local collectors who wanted to trade in cards. I don’t mind taking in 1$ card for 75cents then making a quarter (eventually) whereas I might not have made the sale. The whole circle ⭕️ of the trade in, checking out the card, listing, making the sale, shipping - if it felt like something I didn’t want to do - I would close up our small business.
That's a great point and articulates how I feel when I come accross this sentiment. I guess a challenge that exists, is that there are a lot of tasks in the Pokemon market (collecting and playing) that are not profitable when you look at just time and money. Love getting players that 50cent card they need. Love helping someone with RH. You need to value the activity more than the net results sometimes.
i see both sides. it'd be awesome if i knew people who play competitively and would give me a list of cards they want. my bulk is meticulously organized, pulling cards for people would be easy and enjoyable. although when i think of listing cards online, all i see is little to no profit for cards less than $5. or for cards with higher profit potential, i foresee people complaining that their order was lost/damaged/stolen so they could file a complaint and try to get a high value card for free. online seems like a headache no matter what. i'd like to do in-person card shows, but vendor tables cost more than what i anticipate in sales. thanks for creating a video that stayed on topic, has great points, and wasn't longer than it needed to be. i'm new here and looking forward to checking out your other videos.
Truth is - if you are a ‘store’ you need to expect lost packages. 99% of packages reach their destination. If one disappears - I assume there is something wrong with a persons postal route and I need to avoid mailing them things any more. Any package I cannot lose $$$… I use tracking
I love going through my bulk and organizing and reorganizing and trading with people 🤗 Sure it's nice to make some money selling, but I really love just helping others out with the bulk I'm not using. I've been collecting since I was a child, about 20 years now, and remember how difficult it was for me to build decks when I played competitively because I couldn't afford to just keep ripping packs to find what I needed. I want to be the person now that can help someone else out if I can 🤗
I have a small group of players (folks who go to regionals) who will get me to do bulk searches every once in a while. I'm tempted to start accepting bulk in trade in... but I haven't made that jump yet. Deck building can be hard. I remember in early lost box times, people couldn't find sable eyes. I had to reach out to my 'collector' crew and ask them to search their bulk for sableyes! I do think playing is one of the cooler ways to engage in the hobby. I just don't have the time!
I do singles because it's part of stock management. I do masters set so I break a reasonable amount of packs. Problem is if i am lucky then i get all common/rare in 40-60 packs If not I start to buy/trade singles. Eventually you‘re left with a huge bunch of worthless cardboards...😢 Doing singles concerts that cardboards into a 10cent value than waste...
Singles are more and more part of the success of our little pokemon business. I have some customers who like to rip, but don't want to do the work to sell. Trade ins are a huge part. 90% of my web orders are singles only these days. My big customers will trade in singles at 75%. I enjoy it. I know its a lot of work - but I don't mind the process now. I'm always looking for ways to speed things up though. Once I have a card in inventory, its quick. I'm still spending a good amount of time imaging cards. I prefer the actual image over stock images 100%. I don't image every card, but once I have a copy - just inventory updates. The only 'bulk' i've had success with is RH and playables. Still a lot of bulk cardboard sitting around.
Sorry to say - but it’s a Chinese knockoff. The place I bought it from has disappeared- but isn’t it beautiful? There has to be an original somewhere but I haven’t been able to find it even with reverse image search! It’s one of my favorite non card pieces.
I found it on alibaba when I was getting promotional material made for my vending booth. The canvas prints were impulse buys and I cannot even find the receipts anymore. They aren’t official Pokémon product but they are prints of some amazing art.
Recently took in about 600$ in singles (200 cards from 75 cents to 15$) we Vend sometimes and it’s nice to have a good selection. I did a huge sale (20% off tcgplayer prices) on Black Friday weekend. Needed to replenish even if they are just rainbow and gold cards.
@@TKKCollector I’m a fan of rainbow card n golds. Rainbows is how I got into collecting. Bought my son a pack, pulled rainbow Peony, then I was hooked!
It's not "retail", it's being organized! I enjoy opening packs and finding cool cards. I hit a wall a while ago when I just had to get organized because I had too much bulk. I finally just posted and made my first sales on tcg player. I think it's a wise idea to be organized in how you take in cards! Decide what you want to aim for to feel satisfied with your collection and sort the rest into bulk, sell individual now, or sell individual later piles. For me, the goal isn't to make money, it's to keep the cost of buying booster boxes and chasing cards low. If I end up making a profit overall (I probably won't but still) then my participation in the hobby was free for that period. And that's tough to beat. Also I have a day job but it does not pay overtime and there's a lot of overtime so I like the chill experience of sorting cards, and selling them is very rewarding.
Selling cards is rewarding. Sometimes I will take in big lots of cards and think to myself - oh no - now I have 10 50cent promos… these will never sell… only to get 3 or 4 orders over the next few weeks. People buy singles more than they buy packs (but spend more on packs ) so we really like having the flexibility to offer decent value to people - no matter what the card. Trading is part of the hobby and buying and selling is just using currency and effort to make things easier.
New to your channel and love the topics! 🔥😎 just started my own channel and you gave me a great appreciation outlook for participating in the hobby even though I do talk a lot about value I love Pokémon first and foremost 🔥🤓😎 Thank you I’ll def tune in to your videos 🙌🏽 💯
It’s okay to think about value because it is a ‘trading’ card game. Pokémon encourages people to trade cards. Cold hard cash (and store credit) is just the intermediary step between trades. It’s hard to get someone to trade 10 dollar cards for a 10 dollar card. Trading 10 cards for cash allows you to make the transaction for the 10 dollar card a lot smoother. I don’t mind people talking about value. Stick in the word ‘trade’ in the value conversation and it makes a lot more sense.
i am amazed to see the prizes that you wrote on each card. Here in Europe the cards are wayy more expensive. I Would buy that binder instantly for 150€ and have a huge profit by selling singles cheaply in a single day.
These are all prices from TCGplayer. I was even quite conservative. If the price was 7.80$. -- I put down as 7$. Values can add up quick for that binder for sure. Some people just get 'done' and they just want to cash out quickly. One big transactions where they don't optimize. This is where the average collector can see value, buy and re-home to add a few dollars worth of collecting value to their own collection. Climb the money ladder!
I'm a 40 year old guy who's been sitting on collections from dragonball z, magic, star wars etc for years, I enjoy cards and yes I'm selling stuff and making money on tcg and ebay but I agree it's about doing something you enjoy with your time.
Selling dupes and rehoming cards is so enjoyable even if your ledger is showing negative on the transaction. I like getting people the cards they ‘currently’ want. Do what you like and love! ❤️
@TKKCollector your video really resonated with me, the RU-vid algorithm thought we should connect so you've got one more subscriber, keep up the positive messages
My sons well into Pokemon. I sell the rare’s he has already and singles too mainly back to the store or eBay for guess what more packs. I have no interest in making profit from singles but if I make enough for 5 packs my son is over the moon and that’s enough.
This is awesome. I’m really trying to find the time to get my RH stacks up for sale. I’ve searched myself and reverse holos of specific cards are harder to find (here in Canada) that the ultra rares. So few people can put in the work for 50cents. I want to so that I can get people their master sets.
Is there a Subreddit or forum about selling TCGplayer? I started selling bulk singles on TCGplayer and I did not think I would get so many orders of people buying one 10 cent card.
We’ll charge flat rate 5$ shipping for all our order. 2$ card - 5$. Booster box - 5$. Shipping is expensive in Canada and I am always surprised when people just want the card. Sometimes you are doing more of a service making the card available- even when it is a 50cent card - than getting the value out of the piece of cardboard.
Do whatever makes you happy in life - everything doesn't need to be valued how much money you make out of it. (Like you explain here work time spent vs. selling singles on free time)
Agree on doing what makes you happy. Sometimes single selling does rob you of time -- which is absolutely the most precious commodity! Balance was something I had to learn (from my wife/significant other). Kai also has shifted a lot of his focus to roblox as he tries to learn roblox programming. (and spend his robux)
Dude you price every card Starting at 5 bucks and higher, you dont sell cards for 50 cents or a dollar or chicken shit money. You dont follow tcg or any other low ball service/ platform you price based off condition, investment potential and supply and demand. most of these cards anymore, arent even being made. Ive been doing this for 13 years. maximize your profit, there your cards you can do whatever you want them too. You buy low sell high. You make the rules. In the words of my Father, "I would Gladly overpay for quality Rather then under pay for shit " NOT ONLY THAT BUT DUDE you have the power. You have the power to change the market. All it takes is 1 person and then a movement starts. These amazing artworks that are under priced, all of a sudden can transend circumstances and change the way pokemon are sold. Imagination is key to this business And this isnt my side hustle i do this full time as a independent dealer in person and i make a lot of money and i enjoy doing it. If you dont have a 5 dollar bill then get lost. Thats how i run things
Out market doesn’t support this in Halifax Canada 🇨🇦 but it’s an interesting approach. 300 dollar cards definitely sell - but I have a much easier time selling 30 ten dollar cards. Sourcing is an issue in the local Halifax market. Absolutely be interested to hear more about it from you.
There is a lot to enjoy with bulk. Sometimes when I see myself adding 15 Pikachu Celebrations cards to my inventory - I wonder -- who's gonna want 15 Pikachus? Well, people are always out there! Connecting with them is the hard part.
@TKKCollector I come for the vintage toys and collectables business..I see the majority of people in the card biz ,get in debt and only see the money. I see a lot of them steel and lie.
@@edstoy-o-rama4004another Pokemon business owner I know is frustrated that he’s being undercut constantly online. He is online only too - but gets so mad. Other online stores are selling for less than distribution prices. He sees facebook people selling authentic product for less than distributors pricing. There is some real shade over the industry. It’s broken or it draws in people who make bad decisions sometimes. I’ve been trying to figure out a business model that is sustainable in the long run. Forced allocation of bad product can put people underwater. There is a get rich quick mythos in cardboard - when really it’s struggling to stay afloat. Desperate people do desperate things for sure.
I tend to only use ebay for more expensive items. In Canada, we don't have the PWE cheap option and cards can go missing. With bad buyers you can end up losing out on the cost of the card and shipping without tracking. It can be costly.
I don't like the idea that singles are worthless. Most card stores will sell mint condition singles for $0.25 each minimum. They buy the bulk for a penny each, and sell them for a 2500% mark up. In the worst case scenario, you can be guaranteed to sell them to card stores for a penny each. If you spend time, then you can easily sell them for an average of 15 cents each on tcgplayer. . I think the main problem are the ignorant collectors who think they are making a profit selling their rare hits. Anyone with any common sense knows that opening packs guarantees a loss of average asset values. It's basically gambling. Personally, I enjoy gambling by opening packs (I know it loses value $$); but I'm actually trying to collect the entire set for my binder, and I only sell my doubles. . TL,DR - In short, DON'T LISTEN TO PEOPLE OPENING PACKS TO SELL THE RARES.
I agreee with you. We started our store selling RH from Vivid Voltage (only after Fusion Strike did we get a distributor agreement in place). We don’t have access to sell on tcgplayer in Canada and I really enjoy selling Singles. As an “online”, shipping is more reasonable for singles too! Our online prices for sealed are high because of brutal shipping rates in Canada- but offer steep discounts to people doing local pickup. I’ve been very tempted to start buying bulk. I feel I would need to shift from manual sorting to automatic- but we will see.
Anyone who doesn’t find the actual cards in the Pokémon trading card game worth their time is in the wrong hobby. Go work or invest in stock to make money. It’s easier and the community will be much happier without you around.
There is no denying there is a ‘market’ around Pokemon ‘trading’. There are some making profit and participating full time. Pokemon is the only company who is ‘printing money’ for sure.
