Just thinking about how much it would cost, not necessarily wanting to get into the business. Just a ballpark estimate.
It really depends on a lot of factors:
-Do you have the cards you’re going to grade already?
-How many?
-Do you have shipping supplies?
-Would the cards you have give you a working profit?
-Are you doing this just make extra cash or are you trying to create a stable income stream from this?
-What company would you go with/what is there cost to grade?
These and more all factor into how much money you would be spending when grading cards specifically to sell so its a hard thing to really put into an exact number. I’d say look at the grading company you’re thinking about using and see how much it would cost to grade however many cards you’re thinking. PSA for about 100 cards floats with $1500-$1800 when you take into account shipping.
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-no
-Starting out with about 10-15 cards
- Yes
- Selling Vintage, semi vintage (maybe modern?)
- Trying to make a bit more money than what I’m currently doing in terms of my business
- I would go with CGC, sometimes PSA. Mostly about $14 per card
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Got it! Well if you’re only planning to do about 10 to 15ish the first time to line your pockets some more it shouldn’t be terribly expensive starting for you. Max maybe $500 if you go all out with insurance
I would expect to have some growing pains along the way and chalk it up as learning lessons for your future self. If you’re on E4, chances are you are the deep-diver type and likely be more successful than the gambling draftkings chads trying to make a quick buck on charizard.
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I also want to point out that it can get risky too. Sending in cards for grading especially in bulk has a chance for them to be dinged (not fully damaged) during transit. If youre doing this full time then your expected grade might not always be the same as when you get them back, and you could end up taking a loss from time to time.
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The more you can put in the more you can get out.
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If your main intention is to flip cards, you should be grading with PSA. CGC isn’t even on the board for consideration.
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While all of e4 enjoys a good “clown on our togepi @Vertemes” session, he definitely is trying to do things the right way.
Problem is, it’s just really really really hard these days to get into pokemon as a buisness without a good amount of startup money or a substantial collection that can be sold out as bills come in.
Just stick with it and you’ll get it eventually vert
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There’s a lot of risk in the buy-grade-sell model Vert, especially if you’re grading modern like others have said. It’s typically a case of 10-or-bust, though even when you get the 10 you still have to out-compete hundreds of other sellers who are willing to sell at a hair’s breadth profit margin, if any profit at all.
If I was in your position I’d probably aim for revenue through the content creation route first - TikTok, IG, YouTube like BANKS suggested. It’s never been easier to build a business than it is online now. If you don’t wanna do content creation and literally just want to buy-and-sell, I’d probably go for the tried-and-trusted vintage collection buying route to begin with. Buy a couple of collections within your means (maybe some JP vintage, or older sets like BW and XY era), and piece them out to identify any gradable cards. Grade any worth grading, and sell-off the remaining cards as individual raws.
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I know you know this, but if we’re talking WOTC vintage, you’re probably not going to be grading many 10s, hell maybe not even many 9s. Lots of straight out of the pack PSA 8s, and if they’re not, you’re probably looking at the PSA 7 range if you’re buying loose singles or collections. Unless they’re hit cards it’s going to be hard to make money or you’re gonna have to sit on them for a while. I graded some WOTC cards a couple years ago to sell at shows, got mostly 8s and 9s, and it took forrrrevvverrr to sell them. I’m talking, like, years.
With all that said and you’re just doing this for fun with the bonus of maybe turning some profit then go for it obviously.
We’re all rooting for ya man!
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I do pretty well for myself on my $500 budget every month in terms of grading cards and “making” money. I say that in quotes because I don’t typically sell the cards I grade, they’re for me. I suggest checking out some of catchemall collectibles videos on grading, especially his celebrations Charizard video and he’s had some others recently like bubble mew and Van Gogh Pikachu.
If you join his patreon you get access to graded edge which identifies the best cards to buy and grade to make money. I’ve not tried it myself, but at least so far it’s worked out pretty well for him.
So you could make some money on a $500 budget like mine. It depends on how much you want to make, how thorough you are finding cards, and how lucky you are with grading and the market.
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I want to counter this and say that I’d be wary of anyone selling “advice”.
Also, if everyone has access to these “tools” then the cards they highlight will quickly be optimized and profit will become minimal.
My best advice, when people zig, you should zag.
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Got it, I’ll go for steam seige.
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Don’t zag that hard
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I’d normally agree with this but what he’s talking about is Pokenomics and it’s an awesome community. I’ve been able to hang out with a lot of that crew several times at card shows and it’s a really great group, online and in-person. I’ve been a member a few years now.
Oh and Emerging Powers.
They may be cool people, but the point still stands that if you are trying to make money, doing what everyone else is doing is not the best way.
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Especially Tornadus. Everybody loves Tornadus. 
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