30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

My Entrepreneurial Days Are Over

Back in middle school, I made a decision that would end up impacting my entire life.  I became an entrepreneur.

The journey began when my parents got a Costco membership.  One day my mom bought me a box of Blow Pops, which I took to school and sold to my classmates.  It didn't take long before I was selling multiple boxes per week.  Within a month or two, I had added a variety of candy to my inventory, and started making pretty good money for a twelve year old running his own business.

Eventually I got caught and the administrators threatened me with suspension.  My mom could no longer look the other way and my business was officially shut down.  However I didn't walk away empty handed.  My parents were impressed that I had learned how to keep track of my profits.  Plus I left with knowledge of revenue, expenses, and most importantly... earnings.  

That experience would prompt me to transition from being a typical kid who collected baseball cards into a kid who wanted to make money off of baseball cards.

I wasn't the only one with this idea, because that's right around the time when the Junk Wax Era began.

The plan?  Invest my money into sports cards and one day sell them for a huge profit.

The problem?  I have always had a hard time letting go of my cards, even when I know there's a profit to be made.

Had I played my cards right, I could have made a buck or two during the good old days.  But after a decade or so, I realized that I was way more of a collector than a business man.

Things haven't changed much over the years.

While sifting through some card scans last week, I stumbled across this:

1976 Topps #564 PSA 9 Mint

Most of you are familiar with this card already.  It depicts Kurt Bevacqua as the 1975 Joe Garagiola Bazooka Bubble Gum Blowing Champ and is one of those cards that I've wanted to add to my graded Classic Cards Collection for the past year or so.

During that time, I had missed out on a few PSA 8 copies.  Then in early July, someone listed a PSA 9 copy for $30 or best offer.  As a small end of the year present to myself, I submitted an offer of $21.50 (+ $3.50 shipping) and the vendor accepted.

At the time, I figured this was a pretty fair offer since I had recently seen PSA 8 copies sell for $10.03 (shipped) and $14.57 (shipped).

However when I recently checked completed listings, I was pleasantly surprised to see that in the last thirty days, two other PSA 9 copies have sold for $56 (shipped) and $73 (shipped).

I briefly considered listing the card and trying to turn a tidy profit.  Then my natural instincts kicked in and I decided to write this post instead.

I'm a collector, not a dealer.  My entrepreneurial days are over.

What about you?


Do you ever sell cards to help fund your hobby budget?

I haven't sold any cards on eBay in quite some time.  If I'm not mistaken, this was my most recent baseball card sale.  However maybe one day, I'll learn how to let go of my precious cardboard.  One day.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

19 comments:

Mike Matson said...

Most of what I have is Junk Era.. I rarely buy enough current stuff to get any hits, and those I do are generally people nobody's heard of. lol I'm a collector...

night owl said...

Just put a card up on ebay yesterday. It was a no-brainer. SSP variation photo of a super popular Yankee? I rarely sell but that had dollar signs all over it.

Jeremya1um said...

It was hard, but I sold most of my autographed cards (about 5 binders worth) about 5 years ago. I don’t have much that would sell now, and although it would be hard to sell because, I too, am a collector, it’s a darn shame because of the reason. I have some some cards that would be nice rookie cards had I pulled them 20 years ago (Bowman Chrome, Topps Chrome, even a few refractors). Now that the autographed rookie has become the king, I could still pull a nice Bowman Chrome rookie, but because it’s not an autograph, nobody wants it. Then the one time I do pull an autograph from Bowman, it’s some no name, or not a Bowman Chrome one. Kind of sucks to be a collector who only purchases a few packs or blasters or a few products. I will probably never pull anything worth selling. The only thing that I have seen happen to give me something worth selling in the past 10 years is the surprising trend of somebody like Kershaw, Trout, or Betts getting a rookie in Topps Update and then the card selling for crazy money. I’ve been lucky enough to purchase a few blasters each year of Update and pulling the Trout in ‘11 and the Betts in ‘14 (wasn’t sure I had the Betts, but I looked through my binders when Dime Box Nick did a post about the card earlier this year). I am wanting to buy less packs anyways, so I think I may just do 1 or 2 big COMC purchases, and then buy complete sets of the regular Topps and the Update sets. That way, I’m guaranteed to at least get the hot Update rookies from each year. If I ever do sell any cards, the Update Rookies might bring in some cash.

SumoMenkoMan said...

I sell it give away my doubles. As long as I have one copy of a card, i can let go of my doubles.

Hackenbush said...

I've sold stuff but to pay for necessities, not for more cards.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Back in 1998 til 2005 I'd buy boxes of the stuff, pull my "keepers" and I'd sell the rest on Ebay, thus funding my hobby. I did quite well sold about 1400 auctions until I seen the writing on the wall (that Ebay was no longer "collector friendly" but geared towards the seller's. I wanted no part of that and I made up my mind to NOT sell baseball cards, and I haven't.

Nick said...

I probably sell 1-2 cards a year. I'm pretty much the exact opposite of whatever an entrepreneur is.

Chris P said...

In my first go around for the longest time i was very adament about keeping EVERYTHING in my collection and selling just wasn't an option to me..i still remember selling my first card..a michael jordan z force slam cam. I didnt want to..but for a card that i maybe spent 10-20 on and it going for nearly 200 or so bucks at the time i bit the bullet..not to long after that i sold everything off. Since i got back into the hobby a couple years ago though..ive been more willing to sell to fund only bc ive become more a box breaker this go around. When I pull monsters..there's always a part of me that doesn't wanna sell but for some cards its just offers i cant pass up. I dont sell everything i pull though but will for the most sell the cards i don't want from my breaks to fund future breaks

The Lost Collector said...

I sell once in awhile, and like to try to keep my hobby +/- at even...so I do sell a bit to fund my collecting.

Impressed with your story about selling candy! I love stuff like that.

The Lost Collector said...

I'm also like you and have a hard time letting go of cards.

Jafronius said...

Enjoyed the childhood story. I'm a collector and have yet to sell a card to supplement the budget. It's like the old Nintendo games I had when I was younger. To me, just because you beat or get tired of the game, there was no need to sell or trade it for something else.

Commishbob said...

I've only sold cards twice, both around the same time and for the same reason. I wanted to help finance my return to school to get my teaching credentials so I sold my Johnny Unitas rookie and soon after I cashed in on the Ripken rookie craze. I had about 40 of them as I recall, maybe more. All I had picked up for a dime each when they were first issued. Not that I had any insight, I just had a habit of buying lots of Orioles rookie cards. I sold many of them at a show to a couple of dealers and walked out with $2500 or so. If I had been a better negotiator I could have got more.

Since then I've sold a couple of duplicate media guides but no cards.

cynicalbuddha said...

I sell all the time. I've recently stopped building sets from buying boxes and packs, but when I did I'd say 99% of the hits were flipped on ebay to help defer the cost. I have no problem trading the cards away either, but selling on ebay affords me fun money to turn those cards into cards I want.

Matt said...

Never once have I sold. It hurts my hobby income but I don’t lose any cards either

The Shlabotnik Report said...

I sell on COMC, but for me it's more like an elaborate barter system. I send cards in to COMC, COMC sends me cards.

Big Tone said...

Throughout my card collecting tenure I've sold an Albert Pujols rc,Miguel Cabrera rc,Robinson Cano rc thinking they'd all be busted for steroid use,ultimately dropping their card values.I was right about Cano using ,but his card value hasn't changed much,at least I don't think.Needless to say ,I'm not quitting my day job.

GCA said...

As I posted a while ago, I tried to sell my two tables worth of monster box dupes at a show, but didn't move a single card. I didn't have much in the way of big rookies or shiny, so no one was interested.
Besides the Acuna SClub auto, I haven't really sold anything online either in years. I trade a lot, but unless we're swapping multiple starter sets, it's hard to move a lot of the bulk.

gcrl said...

I sell quite a bit. Focusing my collections allows me to sell Non-garvey cards to help me afford new Garvey cards

Fuji said...

Apologize for the delay guys. Last week was my first week back in the classroom with the kiddies and I was pretty exhausted. I'll try not to let six days pass in the future.

Mike Matson - Sometimes I wish my collection was mostly Junk Era stuff. It'd make me feel better about how I use my money.

night owl - Smart move. Hope you get top dollar for it.

Jeremy1um - The whole Kershaw, Trout, Betts phenomena is mind blowing. Don't own any of them... but even their non-Update rookies sell for decent money. It's crazy. But if it helps drive the hobby, I'm all for it.

SumoMenkoMan - I wish I was more like you. Lol. I've been working on this 9-Pocket page of certain 80's rookie cards. It's in honor of when I used to do it as a kid.

Hackenbush - I'm sure that'll be me one day.

John Miller - Kudos for sticking to your guns. Btw... received your padded mailer today. Excited to pop it open sometime this week.

Nick - Lol. Me too. I probably sell 1-2 cards per decade.

Chris P - Your box breaks are pretty epic. I'm glad you're able to flip some of the excess stuff you don't want. If I ever do the box break thing again... I'd definitely try to sell the stuff I didn't keep.

The Lost Collector - One day when I'm retired... I'll tell you another story. Lol. Gotta wait until I'm out of the classroom though. Don't worry... it's not about narcotics :)

Jafronius - I totally kept a bunch of my video games too. But when I moved out of my parent's, I sold most of my excess albums, VHS tapes, video games, and cd's. I pretty much only kept the systems and a handful of games for each system.

Commishbob - Wow. That's awesome! Love hearing those kinds of success stories. Hope you're enjoying your retirement buddy!

cynicalbuddha - Solid plan. There are times I've considered building sets through busting boxes like when I was younger. Maybe one day I'll do it again. If I do... I'll definitely flip the excess on eBay.

Sport Cards Collectors - That's my kind of collecting.

The Shlabotnik Report - Oh. Forgot about COMC. I went through a phase where I bought and flipped cards. Then they started charging me to store my card there, so I took everything down and eventually had them shipped.

Big Tone - Yeah. I don't think I'll be quitting my day job either ;)

GCA - Bummer. I have about 5 monster boxes with a bunch of junk I was hoping to sell at the flea market, but maybe I'll just do like I always do... and take it to Goodwill. At least I can use it as a tax deduction.

gcrl - If it ain't broke... don't fix it.