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Hobby vs Full Time Income
bowlarama
Posts: 169 ✭✭
I enjoy this hobby so I buy cards/sets that I like but I also sell other cards, sets and lots on the side. It allows me to make a few bucks while I grow my personal collection.
My questions for the forum members are:
Do you earn a full-time income buying & selling sports cards?
How feasible would it be to earn a full-time 6 figure income in the hobby?
How would you go about doing it?
Thanks...
1
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Not sure about all of your questions, but one draw back for me would be going to all the shows in many different cities. If it were a full time gig, you would have to be at a show somewhere probably 40 weekends a year, maybe more. I'm sure some full-time dealers can provide some of their guidance. I like resting at my house on most weekends.
Agree, now retired and collecting is one of my hobbies.
This....and
Do not be a small, full timer in this industry when the economy goes into recession. Prices will fall as most collectors will reprioritze their income and choices....don't be left holding onto inventory like in 2008-2010. Recommend staying the course as a hobby and invest time and money elsewhere.
I've dreamt about this from time-to-time, just like I've dreamt of becoming a financial advisor. My friend is a financial advisor, and he says "investing is just not as much fun when it's your job." I think the same would hold true of dealing sports cards. i think a lot of the fun would disappear.
Also, you'd need a strong consignment presence to make that steady paper. But how would you compete with the big consignors (PWCC, Probstein, etc...) who often get top dollar for their cards? The big margin would be on the big cards, but a consignor would probably always want to go with whoever gave them best hope of high prices (and paid out quickly).
I'd love to open up a shop when I retire, not so much to make money, but to have something fun to do and have an opportunity to talk to a bunch of collectors. But, I think making six figures in the card industry is about as it easy as it would be in the poker industry ... not very easy.
You should start out doing it part time to get a good idea of what you are getting into.
I have bought entire collections before and it's a royal PITA to get your initial investment back. The last one I bought was in 2017 for 2K. It was probably worth 4K to 6K, I am just now breaking even on the 2K a year and a half later.
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
"How would you go about doing it?"
The old adage, it takes money to make money fits perfectly where sports cards are concerned. Which is why it remains a hobby for me only
If I wanted to make significant money selling cards, I would have to deal in a sport that I don't have a personal interest in. I like baseball, so I'm afraid I would rip and/or hoard baseball and not make a profit. Say for example I got a great deal on a bunch of 80, 81, 82 baseball wax boxes and some early 80s football wax. I could probably flip them both for a quick profit, but It would be hard for me to let go of the baseball because I might want to rip in search of a Rickey or Fernando or Ripken rookie. I don't have a personal interest in football so I would be able to part with the football wax without a second thought.
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
My favorite thing to do on Ebay is to buy a large lot of cards, break it up, resell part of it on Ebay, and break even or make a profit, sometimes a nice profit, and then keep certain cards from the lot for my personal collection. I could do a dissertation on this, suffice to say it is much harder to successfully do than it was say ten years ago for a multitude of reasons.
In my opinion, perhaps the easiest way, possibly the only way when starting out with no connections, is to open up a small B&M shop, do a lot of constant advertising in the area, and hope enough folks walk in to dump their card collections for some quick cash. Would be wise to also accept coins, other collectibles, jewelry, etc. You would need to really bone up on the marketplace, how to spot counterfeits, etc. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
So in my opinion the answer is yes, feasible to earn a full-time 6 figure income in the hobby, but only if you're prepared to do a lot of hard and smart work, and I do mean a lot.
I’ve been flipping for almost 10yrs with a full time job and have only made more selling cards just one year thanks to the buying group (2016). So I would strongly recommend having a day job even if you have a good year or two... things can go south quickly.
Like many in the early 90s, I thought when I retire from the Army, I would open a shop.
I was at a shop with a fellow board member here and I thought that a small corner was underutilized.
I said to my friend, that would make a good....
I thought about it, and said: "but then I'd have to be here all the time..."
I really like being retired - every day is Saturday except for Sunday.
So...
I thought about it, laughed about it and forgot about it.
Some good thoughts in this thread. Here's another way to look at it, before you decide, especially if you have not already thought about it in this manner. To make $100k with an average profit margin of 25% (which may be low or may be high, I'll let you decide, but ask yourself where you are getting your inventory and what you are paying for it) would mean sales of $500k (after any fees you pay, where/how are you selling?). If you were able to turn over your entire inventory every 3 months (pretty optimistic I believe, but you decide), you would need $125k in inventory at all times. Obviously, the slower your turnover or the lower your profit margin, the more inventory you need. Of course, the higher your turnover or higher profit margin also means you need to find more deals to buy to replace your inventory at appropriate buying prices.
To re visit this thread. You also need the ability to store mass quantities of cards. I ran out of room 3 or 4 years ago. What do people do with their semi junk cards?
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
That's a hell of a good question Brian.
When I get to all the junk - I'll let you know what I did.
Also, I figure I must have around 125 SLUs!
You need some home runs on the grading front I think to consistently make cash dealing cards. Buy raw and hit a few grand slams. Also if you plan to speculate there are always losses too so this helps sop those up.
An interesting experiment would be for someone who doesn't need any cash flow from employment to set up a shop knowing it will cost them money every month to start and see what kind of stuff walks in. You might be able to find some really nice raw stuff and make back your costs and more and build a nice collection in the process. Might be wishful thinking.
I always am curious what is out there locally. I've tried some posts on Facebook a few times but what some people thought the shoe box of cards they had was laughable. I met a woman one day with a shoe box and all the cards looked like they where just thrown in it.They weren't stacked neatly at all. I was nice and asked what she may want for them. She said a nickel a piece. I explained to her that cards aren't meant to be stored that way and that at most I'd give her a couple bucks for her time and I would most likely trash them after I looked through them. She did not seem to thrilled. If I ever try that again I'll ask for some pictures and info.
Great comments!! I agree with the consensus that it would not be easy and require substantial risk, lots of hours and hard work.
I am a returning collector from the 80s-90s era and recently pulled my junk wax from storage. I got lucky with a few things I bought back in the day that have some value, but as I’m sure most can imagine, the majority of my stuff is pretty worthless. Still, after 20 years of rarely handling or buying cards, I am enjoying the hobby more than ever.
Like most, I am a collector first, but recently have been selling off my secondary cards in order to raise funds to buy what I really want, (which for the moment is everything, I really need to budget my funds better and narrow down what I collect).
For years, that was my dilemma. How am I going to sell my cards? Most of what I was willing to part with consist of doubles, and cards in a pretty low price range with lots of competition from other sellers and not enough demand to hope for an increase in current values. eBay was too much work and not practical in my situation as I travel frequntly and am not in a position to receive and send out mail from home. I didn’t want to just dump my cards off to a dealer who would understandably want to buy in bulk and at enough of of discount that he/she could make a profit reselling the cards. Also, given the low value of my cards, I didn’t want to buy a table at a show and spend my entire weekend trying to sell. I found the perfect solution!!
Since I last collected, the hobby has changed dramatically because of the internet. All of the consignment services available are giving me hope for the future expansion of the hobby into new markets. I am currently using a consignment service that stores not only the cards I sent in, but also the cards I buy, in a warehouse. When I’m ready, I can have them shipped to me. I have an account and can view a scan of my actual card on my iPad and enjoy my collection much more than if it were in a box at home. The best part for me is the way the service I use identifies the cards and catalogs them. I can search and organize on the site lots of different ways, and I especially enjoy the way they list all of the different parallels available from that set and year. I don’t need to be a card expert to figure out a specific checklist. Work on my end is minimal. I send in my own cards or buy directly from the site, that’s it. Cards are deposited to my “account” and I price the ones I want to sell, hold on to the others for shipping all at once. I think the cost for doing this is reasonable.
So, getting back to the initial question- Is it possible to earn a good living dealing in cards full time? My humble opinion is yes, I think the hobby is headed in a direction where that will be possible, and hopefully easier in the future than it is currently.
I may be wrong about this, but I believe I’m seeing lots of momentum in the hobby and it’s growing. Records set at auction for high end cards are making mainstream news. It’s capturing people’s attention. Attendance at card shows are going up. Lots of newer u-tube, recorded podcast, websites and forums about cards are springing up quickly and gaining traction. People are starting to enjoy collecting again and/or make money in sportscards again. With consignment services like the one I mentioned, buying, selling and organizing collections has never been easier.
So here is my main point...... this hobby is going global. That statement is based more on hope than any real expectation I have. But it makes sense. Anyone thinking about a full time living dealing cards needs one thing to happen more than anything else- NEW collectors, investors, speculators, dealers, etc. entering the hobby and along with that comes higher demand for cards and new money. Consignment service gives a 24/7 marketplace for buying and selling from anywhere in the world. It has worked rather seamlessly for me- an American living in the Philippines part of the year that can buy and sell cards and enjoy the hobby from a Southeast Asia country with ease using nothing more than a cell phone, PayPal account and consignment service.
The Bitcoin craze has showed us that people will invest in anything where values are heading up, even if they don’t understand it. All of the major sports in the United States have been searching for talented players from outside the United States. This brings new fans and new followers to American sport leagues, and for many dreamers, hope for a professional career which is quickly bringing up the level of compitition all over the world. Hockey was an unheard of sport in Asia, but with Olympics scheduled in Beijing, the push to field a competitive team from Asia is on and the sport is growing massively. Could this be a new market opening up to collectors? Will the ease of buying and selling and collecting cards using the technology of the internet attract more and more people to the hobby? It’s probably true that the sportscard market has failed to recapture the attention of the kids and young people that the future market depends on, but foreign markets continue to be an untapped resource. What is the potential for new collectors entering the hobby from outside of the United States?
The last point I would make, is that most countries don’t really enjoy the income levels or amount of disposable income that Americans typically do. That is why the sportscard market is perfect!! There is an entry level price point for everyone who wants to try their luck at making a few bucks buying and selling cards. People priced out of the stock market or other types of investments can easily get started in card flipping literally for pennies. I think (hope?) the potential is huge. It can help solve the supply and demand dynamics of overproduced cards if the low prices attract new collectors.
People outside the U.S. who initially get in for the money, will continue to collect because its fun!! I believe that anyone looking to make a living selling cards has a better shot at making it in the future than at any time in the past for the reasons I have outlined above.
Feel free to leave me your thoughts.
Mike
Regarding the post above, with the exception of baseball and American football, I have found that all other sports and non-sports sell to buyers in nations outside of the U.S., all over the world, just as often as to buyers here.