Say you have $300 to spend and you wanna make $300 profit...

GeoffEighinger

What do you buy?

A friend is giving me $300 to invest in cards and make a profit in eight weeks. I'm debating on what to purchase. I'd like to get some early 80s football or baseball boxes and send some in to get graded.

Anyway. What would YOU do?

brianwintersfan

Give him back his money and promise to never make that offer again!

envoy98

Theres plenty of cards you can make a profit on, but it may ruin a certain part of the hobby for you. If you go to shows looking strictly for cards that you can make money on, you may have a hard time. Personally, I don't think $300 is really going to be enough to get a lot of profit going anyway. If you were to find a few nice vintage cards that would grade out well, you're going to pay for them, then pay the grading fees which will cut into your bankroll to purchase more cards.

That being said, in the modern market, there are plenty of late night deals on the bay that I've picked up and turned a nice profit on. (Usually to fund my grading addiction). Every now and then, especially during the off-season of a given sport, you'll find some deals. I picked up a Frank Robisnson auto/bat/show #/25 for $13. Sold it for $35 the next weekend. Picked up a Leaf LImited Pedro Martinez auto #/10 for $33 sold it for $75 the next weekend. Then picked up a few nice HOF vintage cards (60 Topps Clemente, 54 Lasorda RC, 63 Mays, 63 Mathews) Paid $230 for the 3 cards at the local show, all from the same dealer. Had them graded, sold the mays for $235 on it's own. Got $200 for Lasorda (8), 130 for Clemente (7) and $40 for Mathews (7).

If you're patient, there is money to be made...I usually take it and buy some raw football for my registries and pay for my grading fees, which can really add up.

GeoffEighinger

Yeah, buying vintage cards could work too.

It will be hard trying not to let this little project interfere with my own hobby collections but I think I can make it work.

bsfastball

Buy key graded rookie cards of major stars (baseball) and some hot prospects (Delmon Young and Brandon Wood). January is a buyer's market for baseball, and maximum prices are late march-early april. I'd pick up some Bonds' cards too since the hype will start in spring training.

Stone193

Geoff

This is one of the more interesting questions I have seen in a while.

Double your money in 8 weeks? When you come up with the plan - please let us know what you come up with.

It's always possible but hard to do - plus that means you have to take the time to come up with a plan and then sell it on ebay.

I think it would be easier to keep the money - go get a part time job and in 8 weeks you'll have your 300$ and probably then some.

mike

ndleo

If I knew, I would keep the secret to myself.

Then I would write a book about it and pimp it on late night TV.

larryallen73

Buy lots of '81 Joe Charboneau's. He is a CAN NOT MISS prospect! Look at how great he was for two months! Guaranteed to triple your money! I got some to start you out... and I am selling CHEAP!

GeoffEighinger

Funny you say that. Legit how much for one?

zef204

You should use the DSL model. For $300 I would say you should look for a high end raw late 70's VERY early 80's set. BB or FB only I would think. Look to blow no more than $200 on the set which should be no problem from 77-83 barring 81 FB. Then find the best condition stars and best lo pop commons use the other $100 to get them graded. You probably will be able to grade 15 @$5/ea if you account for shipping and eBay fees when you list.

You likely will break even but if you get that tough 10 on any star you will be close to your $300 profit. A few 9 stars and a few lo po 10's and boom you are at your $300 again!

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I would tell the friend he has just as much chances though if he were to go into a casino and put that $300 on black.

julen23

spend all $300 on kool aid, guinness and hot wings.

Julen

rbdjr1

<< <i>What do you buy?

A friend is giving me $300 to invest in cards and make a profit in eight weeks. I'm debating on what to purchase. I'd like to get some early 80s football or baseball boxes and send some in to get graded.

Anyway. What would YOU do? >>



Use the $300, take Seattle, give the points over Washington!

...And pray your @-s-soff!

rbd

edit: Seattle 20 Skins 10 (u gave 9 1/2 points!) u won! Now give him that $600!

A761506

I'd say that trying to turn $300 into $600 in such a short time is an unrealistic goal when it comes to sports cards. An excellent return on investment is 10% annually. At 10%/year, it would take 7 years to turn $300 into $600. Obviously, skill, knowledge & luck play a large role. If you want to turn $300 into $600, your best bet is all-or-nothing on a single $300 bet in a casino on something that will pay 1-1 odds, like black/red on roulette or a single hand of blackjack.

NBAFan

Not really hard to turn a profit, maybe when it comes to sports cards it is hard to turn a profit though. You just need to know what to buy and when. For instance. A hot selling item was the Littlest Pet Shop Monkeys. A friend of mine had like 10 of them, they had cost like $3.50 with tax and he was getting approx $12 for them BIN. Another possible venue is Terror Cards, because there are people on ebay that have no clue that they can actually go to the website and buy them. People have been paying up to 3X on ebay as what it would have cost them to go to the website and buy them. You just need to do your research on what is hot and quickly jump on the bandwagon, make your money, and get out.

You could also take the slimeball route and get a bunch of OC cards for cheap and list them as straight no qualifier cards like someone we all loved to talk about on ebay.

eyebone

Unless you are a dealer at a couple of card shows between now and the end of the allotted time your options are reduced. I assume that you are not a dealer, and will principally use ebay to sell these purchases. My suggestion would be a box of '80s wax. I know that hockey wax from several years in that decade can be purchased for about $250. Send in those 8-10 that are the best, and hope that a 10 or two come back! The remainder can be sold in lots on the bay, and you will be surprised how much of your initial investment this alone will recoup.

Or, you can take the Toronto Raptors and the points.....they covered 10 in a row recently (until they lost to the Bulls in Chicago). I got very lucky, as being a Raptors fan I saw steady improvement in the team before some of the books.

Eyebone

mikeschmidt

There is no guaranteed way to turn 100% profit in a few weeks - it's just not possible [in a guaranteed sort of fashion], especially with a) that little to spend and b) especially if you include time/opportunity costs.

~ms

1960toppsguy

your'e talking about sports cards . . . right? Not drugs? Good Luck!

gosteelers

You might have a slight chance now with the end of the NFL season. For example, Shaun Alexander. If you gamble that he and Seattle Seahawks go all the way, win the Super Bowl, and he has a fantastic finish along the way, you might be able to make a nice profit on his stuff. I'm only including him because the following items are already out of your stated price range already: Manning's RC, Brady's RC, Roethlisberger's RC. I don't think there is anyone else that can have their items appreciate that much between now and the Super Bowl.

rlankhaar

<< <i> b) especially if you include time/opportunity costs. >>




This is a good point-I think IF you really know what you are doing you can buy and flip the small stuff and make your $300. Of course, if you spend 100 hours over the next 8 weeks its not worth it at all.

Stone193

<< <i>

<< <i> b) especially if you include time/opportunity costs. >>




This is a good point-I think IF you really know what you are doing you can buy and flip the small stuff and make your $300. Of course, if you spend 100 hours over the next 8 weeks its not worth it at all. >>


Very true.

That's why I wasn't being facetious when I said that it would be better to get a part time job to earn 300 bucks.

mike

gosteelers

It seems like the reverse theory happens all the time, though. Buy a card and see it depreciate $300 in no time! Look at Carson Palmer's RC. A week ago, there probably wasn't a hotter card around in Football. Now...

ndleo

I wish ebay had an options market where you could short RCs of the latest hottest player. Now that would be a money maker.

calleocho

Investing is a process in which you protect the money you already have and hope to make small moderate gains over a long time.

Speculating is a taking a very small amount of money and turning into a lot in short period of time.

Tell your friend to make a bet on a roulette table.

RCGuy

If you were lucky, like me, you could of bought 30 of these box sets for $10 each.

Then you can easily sell them for $35 to $40 each.

But you gotta be quick!

Allen

This is not hard to do, but is hard to do legaly. You could buy 30 reprint rookies and list them on eBay as, Amazing attic find! or Divorce Husbands cards must go and mark them as "as is". You would surely make your money even if you only accepted cash because some people are so gullable. Plan B would be to buy a bunch of base stars and sign them and print off some COAs because dumb eBayers still buy these. I would not advise you to do this, but it is the only sure way I see to double your money like this. Ofcourse once this catches up with you your legal bills and fines will likely be much higher than your profits.

thesplendidsplinter

Buy anything for $300 then charge $304.25 for shipping & handling when you sell it. $300 profit!!
Sorry, still upset bout other thread! :-)

pimp

ttt