I am basically wanting to start a small eBay shop as a hobby and I want to get sealed product for a cheaper price. I have done a little looking and found that you need a seller Id and tax ID. How can I get these and does it cost money? Would it be worth it to get these ids if it is just a hobby? Is there anyone out there that buys from distributors, I would love to here some tips from people who have delt with this before! Thanks!
Depends where you are from, but typically the margins are really low especially for booster boxes etc.
If you are just looking to start a small eBay Business; I would highly recommend against this route⊠All legit businesses have a Tax ID Number; basically a certificate saying that you are a legit business and charge sales tax (if your state has a sales tax). This means that come tax-season, you will have to claim your âeBay Businessâ. The process of getting a Tax ID Number is not too hard; however, you do have to have an actual business to get one (retail, onlineâŠ).
@shizzlemetimbers is spot-on too. You would be surprised with the profit margins on Booster Boxes - I know I was! With a Distributer, you purchase a Booster Box for $XX.XX plus Shipping - that is an up-front cost to you. Once you get the Booster Box, you have to list it on eBay, answer questions, respond to best offers⊠Then, once your Booster Box sells, you will have to pay roughly 15% in eBay / PayPal Fees. Once everything is said and done, youâre looking at a VERY SMALL (Iâm talking $10.00 - $15.00) Profit.
Additionally, you would be competing with much larger eBay Sellers who also have Distributers - and are probably getting them for cheaper than you. The way you make money selling new Booster Boxes is purchasing in BULK and listing at a very competitive price-point - which cuts into your profit-margin. However, if youâre selling 100 Booster Boxes, that $10.00 to $15.00 Profit adds up!
If youâre looking to start-out on eBay as a hobby (which is what I am doing); I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND purchasing collections of loose Pokemon Cards, sorting through the collection, and selling-off the cards individually. In my opinion, the profit-margin is A LOT BETTER - but I am also a WotC-Era Seller. Do your research and youâll be able to find a lot of GREAT DEALS for re-sale both on and off eBay.
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You will die trying to turn quik profit on sealed stuff if its modern. The best way would be to open the crap out of it all, and send the good cards to PSA and sell for profit.
Turning a profit on modern booster boxes will drive you mad. Sealed product is more of a thing to sit on for atleast 5 yearbz.
If your looking to stick with engrish cards, your going to be doing alot of work, and it will be more of a high volume/low profit margin situation and it could go the wrong way, and you will lose money depending on what your picking up.
That being said, it could definitely be done.
Reselling wizards of the coast stuff, and spending alot of time listing singles from your deals you find on them can make you some good monies compared to trying to flip modern booster boxes from distributors. And if you grade the mint wizards you can start making good dollars man. Id go with these paths if i was doing engrish cards.
You guys are all probably right lol. But the way I see it is that Iâd rather buy the booster boxes vs buying in stores. Honestly I donât need to make that much profit either. I just like opening packs. My idea was to buy a box, open everything and sell the valuable cards as singles and maybe keep a couple I like. Then try and sell the Commons in bulk. Idk it made since in my head. I guess I donât need or want a distributor cause of the taxes.
Considering the amount you are looking to buy, a distributor is not a viable option. As mentioned already, the profit margins are almost nothing, especially with ebay fees.
Most distributors require a resale license. You would have to register as a business, pay federal income tax, state tax, and usually sales tax as well.
The best route is buying from someone who offers solid prices for sealed product. Some prices for boxes are only about $10-15 above cost. Considering your intended volume, it isnât worth the time, hassle and work just to save about $10.
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Everyone and their grandma has this idea. Itâs incredibly tough to do because most of the people going into it want to collect the cards. You are inevitably going to come to a point where the profit stops, because you are taking cards from what you open and the set doesnât sell as well. Even larger stores are negative 10-40% of their initial release cost months down the road. They have systems set up to get as much money back as they can. So every time this comes up I just think how long can someone keep it up. Unless you have a dedicated income/career then this will be hard to maintain. Youâre better off saving your time and money by just buying singles.
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This is the best point made in this post. âUsedâ cards can yield a much higher profit margin than new product. New product is saturated with thin margins. It can be done. Look at thecharizardauthority. He is full time. He had a nice post before where he really dug into some of his numbers though, and the profits would be less than most would think with the hours being higher than most think.
Be careful though. If you are turning a profit, whether with new product or old product you are still conducting a business. Whether its $50, $5,000 or $500,000 a year. Most if not all people here that have an eBay would legally be required to collect state sales taxes as well as pay federal and state income taxes on their activity. Itâs not a massive concern when you are doing it on the side as the chances of getting caught are low when you are in the 4 figure range, but if/once you move into an annual 5 and 6 figure range you will get a nice 1099-K from Paypal which will be harder to explain to the IRS if you havenât been keeping books on your business the way you should be. Many that donât get the 1099-K think they are all fine and legal, but it isnât the case. If you are profiting at all, the govât wants a piece of that pie and requires it legally. Keep that in mind whichever route you take.
Also I think a frequent argument made would be trying to claim that the $5k you made in profits from resales of cards is not profit at all because you put it back into more cards. Whereas I will demonstrate the reality below.
Say last year you were a savvy investor/reseller. You bought 100 booster boxes of flashfire at $100 each at your local card shop. (Using easy numbers here). $10k investment. You made a good buy! Sold it a year later for $200 each. $20k gross. Assume you sold them all for cash from your house on CL or something so you had no expenses. You made $10k profit! You owe income taxes both state and federal on those gains. Even if you were to call up Gary and buy one of his PSA 10 zards for $10k. This is because you started with $0 inventory and ended with $10k in inventory though your bank account didnât end up higher your tax return would show a profit. To try and say that you are buying the item for a personal collection is a no-no also. You cannot make personal buys with business money to get rid of tax liability on business income. To do it legitimately requires a lot of tracking of inventories, costs of goods sold, but you do get many nice write offs including potentially business use of home, writing off the business portion of your travel, of your phone and internet bills, packing supplies, office supplies etc.
Start by reaching out to one of the Pokemon distributors if you are really serious and get a new vendor application form from them. That will show you all you need. Then you will need to go likely to your local county building and get tax idâs DBAâs or LLC and other such paperwork like that. Donât be surprised though to find that the land of $50 $60 booster boxes just doesnât exist.
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If you just want cheap booster boxes I think here is the best place to go. Before I went with a distributor I bought a case from somewhere similar to this, although a little more expensive (potomac distribution). Both sellers are highly reviewed from what I have seen.
pokemonforever.net/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=EVOLUTIONS
Honestly its a little sad the amount of product I buy through my distributor yearly and this price they are selling it for I could not even break even matching the price after shipping and eBay fees and such. Factor in shipping supplies, returns and buyer issues it would be a guaranteed loss for me to try and match the price. That is because their volume is SOOO MUCH MORE than mine. This is SUCH a solid price especially with the case level being only $86.67 per box. You literally would be paying almost the same amount on your first orders at a distributor with higher minimum orders. One of the biggest helpers of being a distributor is avoiding paying sales tax on items you buy for resale. With the internet these days that doesnât matter anyways though. Just buy from the cheapest out of state online seller to you and you will avoid the sales tax.
Really the better profit margins arenât even in the booster boxes. If you buy cases and cases of the better ex collection boxes or the pin boxes (with pins and promos that sell well) you can sell off the other items contained in the boxes (codes, pins, figures, jumbos, etc.) and work to a cheaper price per booster than buying booster cases. This is what I do clearly evident by looking at my eBay store, but it is very time intensive and still quite low hourly wage after figure it all in.
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Yea so it sounds like I should just what I planned on doing anyway lol. Just buying the cheapest booster box on eBay. I was thinking breakthrough since there are a good amount of valuable singles that are good in the TCG right now.
I will say that the few singles that I got from the last steam siege box I was able to sell pretty easily.
Do you have any tips for selling off wotc cards from lots if they are not in great condition? Say I do buy a lot and the cards are in played condition?
Personally, I think that I have set-up a pretty good system for selling single-cards - I believe that I am really maximizing my profits well! In order for this system to be cost-efficiant, you really want as large of an inventory as possible - mostly when it comes to the C. / Un. Cards (as listing a quantity of one on those listings would not be worth your time).
Basically, when I purchase a collection, I will sort through and list all Holo Cards in Mint, Near Mint to Mint, and Excellent (+/-) Condition. I will sort through and list all R. / Un. / C. Cards in Near Mint to Mint Condition (few exceptions where I list as Mint Condition). Now, in terms of everything else (Holo Cards in Played / Damaged Condition & R. / Un. / C. in Excellent to Played) I simply sell those cards off via Auction - usually selling all Holo Cards by set (Base, Jungle, FossilâŠ) together, all Rare Cards by set together. For the Un. / C. Cards, I will stock-pile those cards until I am able to fill-up a Super Monster Box and then list everything together via Auction.
Another way that can really help maximize profits (and a lesson that I never used to follow) is to save / re-sell everything else that comes with your collection! Instead of throwing away all those used Top Loaders, use them for shipping. Instead of throwing away all those Pokemon Books, Games, Toys⊠Gather them up together and list as one Auction when you have a decent-sized group. Weâre not talking hundreds of extra dollars here, but when you are buying/selling collections on the reg it will really add-up after awhile.
Hope that helps!
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if thatâs the one take away you are missing the point. There will ALWAYS be cards in set that set easily. Iâm talking about using a spreadsheet to track your purchases and sales. Unless you take in every factor like ebay fees, paypal, supplies and other expenses you are just using your other income to cover it. Sure youâll make about 50%+ back but thatâs not profit.
This right here is great advice. Itâs about trying to get back every little penny you can.
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And this is why america sucks. In australiaz it is much better xD
Your taxes are insanely high 
But hey theres so much more peeps, so its gonna be needed to support all the tingz.
Australian taxes are about the same as US. 
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This does help! I am actually going to save this comment for reference later lol. Iâm getting a good amount of bulk.
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THANKS - Glad I could Help! If you need any other eBay Advice, shoot me a PM - I have been buying/selling on eBay for a long while now and have really gotten to know the inâs and outâs through all the mistakes Iâve made in the past! LOL