Another valuable commodity is time/customer loyalty. You’ll notice that as the years go by you’ll build up some regulars. I’ve calculated that only half of my inventory is for sale (the rest are my collections). Out of that half only 5% is listed on eBay hence 95% I sell privately.
When you start out you’ll probably have nothing sell privately, so 100% would be on eBay. As time goes by and customer get to know you, that % of private sales will increase. I actually still have customers that first bought from me in 1999 on YahooAuctionsUSA. Many have never been on eBay;)
Oh, interesting to hear! I thought this topic had died down, but turns out that there’s no “Next page” at the bottom of the page, only at the top so I missed hours worths of comments.
Those are pretty awesome picks! I don’t know if I can do the same though, over here it’s mostly people selling off their entire collection maybe a couple a day and Marktplaats is an auction-style site except it’s all free bidding so they don’t have to sell it to you and there’s no way to win as it’s unlimited time as well. So you’re always fighting other people, despite that I have picked up some binders that were good for reselling, one even had a Shining Kabutops in it which made the money back.
I doubt I can buy in the US though via Ebay, because we have import taxes and import costs from anything that comes outside of Europe and it can range from 33-50% of the value. There is this Marktplaats we have here, but haven’t really been able to find anything, mostly because the backs look bad.
As for what you have bought: I think the Blastoise’s back edges aren’t in the best condition but it’s a rare card so still a good deal! The free cards with the Shadowless Charizard is of course a nice steal 
Same for the graded one.
Marktplaats does not offer protection for the seller though, benefit is though that selling is very easy, but no returns are possible if you receive an item that’s somewhat different than stated.
I wanted to share one image of a binder of cards that I have turned down due to the back quality, this is mostly about “common” holos from Base/Jungle/Fossil so they’d need to land a PSA 9 at very least but only PSA 10 seems profitable. This is the image: i.imgur.com/RAhNMsn.jpg
There’s no chance this will land any good grades, right? It’s not what I consider Mint, not even close. The middle one in the bottom could perhaps land a PSA 8, but that’s the best it can get I think?
Another thing about Ebay in Europe which I don’t quite understand: If I both go to the Dutch ebay.nl and UK ebay.co.uk and search for Pokemon cards within Europe, even then I see different deals, the Dutch version does not have a lot of cards on there, but the UK one is pretty interesting I must say.
Edit: Also shipping costs are huge in Europe, which is another issue.
muhahahhaha Pokemonmaster556, Gem mint pokemon, and all them guys are wizards collectors and they score 10’s faster then hotcake sell. Well it is harder with engrish, it is still possible with persistance on the bay through messages ect.
Who buys hotcakes these days!
Definitely is possible, but not probable. As @snap mentioned, it usually takes a lot of time scouring through ebay. Ultimately you are better off getting a part time job and just saving.
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Some good news at least for buying from the US via Ebay: It appears that below 22 euro there’s no added VAT or import costs, from 22 euro up to 150 euro there’s VAT but no import costs and only after that you get import costs.
Now I believe import costs are anywhere between 20% and 33%, but the VAT appears to be only 6% as it should fall within the collectible items.
I do agree that a job and just saving is better, but as I said it’s also somewhat of a hobby, and what’s more fun than a hobby in which you can also make profit?
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Haven’t read through too much of this thread so forgive me if what I say has been said already.
Lots of the fun in a hobby (at least for me) is going through eBay and scouring the depths of the web for cards to grade. Because for what I collect PSA 10s are so scarce, it’s often both easier and more financially viable for me to search for 10-worthy cards and send them in.
However if your main objective is profit, and you’re looking to collect ANY type of English cards, to quote South Park, you’re gonna have a bad time. English cards grade terribly, which is why prices on 10s are so high. Your best bet as many have said will be to save up and buy the cards in a 10 outright. It’ll be expensive but you’ll save in the long run. Plus, you could consider it an investment. Most likely the values of card will increase in the next several years. So just by holding on to them you could make some money.
If you enjoy the hunt for a PSA 10 and enjoy grading a card yourself more than simply buying a 10 off of eBay, then feel free to grade your own cards, or do a mix of grading your own and buying. Just be aware that you will be losing money and be getting lots of 9s and 8s. Actually making money in the Pokemon hobby takes years of experience and a heck of a lot of knowledge, just ask @smpratte or @garyis2000.
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Thanks for your input fourthstartcg, I understand now that it is difficult, but I still see some possibilities if I can enter the US market from Europe at a reasonable cost, am working on researching that now and it seems doable.
Can I ask some of you for advice on this Charizard? I’m on the fence of buying it but not sure, if it gets an PSA 8 I would be happy, the card is more expensive than average so I’m also going to lose on it if I need to resell it if I find a defect.
Front: i.stack.imgur.com/mKjdQ.jpg
Back: i.stack.imgur.com/OUDBJ.jpg
What I see is a front that appears to be clean, not a good enough image to inspect holo creases, there seems to be something off on the leftish center of the holo, not sure if that’s the way it should be, somewhat off-center, the bottom edge (yellow part) is wider than the top edge. The back has one major dent, 2+ minor ones and a stain, the card also appears to be somewhat curved.
What do you see? I’m mainly holding off on buying this because of the leftish center of the holo that seems off and the curvedness of the card. Does curvedness matter for grading too? I’d assume so, but how much would it lower the grade?
We probably see the same thing you see so it’s totally up to you based on that info.
An 8 is generally a VERY nice condition card.
Or just come to Japan and buy cards here sell abroad. Insanely easy profit 
.
This is true. The cards grade easily and there’s tons produced that mostly stay in the country. Those outside of Japan think they’re super rare where as the insiders know they aren’t at all;)
Ha, well not in my case. I just spent a decent amount of money on Bandai Carddass Parts 1-4 and Topsun cards knowing that there are zillions of these things in Japan, but I accept the fact that only Japanese sellers have easy access to them and can control the market, therefore I just have to bite the bullet. It’s definitely insanely easy profit for Japanese sellers, especially those who can speak English.
I’m sure I could have gotten everything much cheaper if I used Yahoo Japan auctions and Japamart and went through a bunch of listings, but I was fine with paying a premium for the convenience.
To be clear, there isn’t an oasis of ultra rare japanese cards. Sure, being on the ground floor in Japan provides more opportunity. However, there are not loads of gem mint ultra rare promo cards lying around like matcha tea candy. It is the same as living in the US for english product. Guys who walk into physical store fronts find some treasures that would otherwise never hit the internet. Even being able to browse larger retailers stock in person has its perks. Most people tend to romanticize the same process in Japan.
Right but I wasn’t talking about the fringe items or stickers. Stickers especially don’t grade well but what can we expect out of a flimsy sticker?
Well I said I’d update the forum, and here I am. Results from the too good to be true listings turned out to be awesome.
The other buys turned out pretty good as well. The Fossil set had about two holo cards that are below mint 9 standards, the jungle was a bit worse, which I expected with their horrible printing process, but about half were good for PSA 9+, the German and French Charizards will be on their way to PSA for shots at 9/10, and the base set shadowless charizard in the binder lot has an outside shot at a 9, but will probably grade to an 8, the other base set cards were in very good condition and I might try and PSA grade of few of them.
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Wow, that’s really cool cullers, so the possibilities are still there 
Would you mind sharing some pictures of the cards and what grade you think those can get? I myself am looking to get a single card graded via the service offered on this forum and trying to setup a way to start buying on eBay in the US, likely going to ship via USGoBuy but need to run down some numbers and ask clarification for them. $20 shipping for 10 items sounds very good, then 21% VAT taxes and 15 euro customs clearance fee when it gets here.
I would have shared the specifics but they’re mixed in with a bunch of cards that’ll be sent out to PSA, I don’t know which ones are the ones that came from the lots mentioned. I have a stack of cards that I set aside to be sent to PSA (usually I wait for a special that’s less than $6 and send them all out). Right now the stack is well over 500 cards a lot of them are duplicates.
As for what grades I think I can get I only send in a card if I think it can get a PSA 9 or better, few exceptions, I never expect a 10.
I’ve been looking a bit more into this and now searching Ebay for some deals, though there’s one peculiar thing that is on my mind.
That is that it’s really hard to find cards I would personally value as Mint, however many listings specify that the card went from booster into sleeve, and I’d like to believe them but I’m not sure if I can. Talking about WOTC cards here, Gym Heroes 1st edition in this case, do the cards really come out of the booster packs with white edges and corners?
I would gladly take a look at more information regarding the state of cards when they’re fresh from the pack, if anyone has got some info.
Look up box openings on the tube. High quality multiple photos front and back will beat lies in the description every time.
More often than not it was likely pack to sleeve to binder to different binder. Binder getting moved all over the place box to box and such. All over the course of 15+ years. Some people open packs and handle cards much rougher than others. Some cards truly do come out of the pack with whitening on the edges, or crimped tops, or nicked corners.
So even if truly “pack fresh” you would want to see photos anyways. Regardless of lying/not lying the card will not lie to you, just look at it.
Also, as I have said countless times. On eBay MINT can mean anything from “not ripped in half, only folded twice or seventeen times”, all the way to PSA 10 GEM MINT. “Good” in a title or description can also mean anything from ripped in half and taped back together, all the way up to PSA 10 GEM MINT. There is no consistency whatsoever and you always must get good photos to look at or be prepared to gamble. Only bid based on what you can see and always assume the worst if it is hard to tell and you will be in good shape. With the whole PoGo craze you really can’t go wrong selling those older sets as BIN’s in nice condition even for a decent chunk of change.
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