How to start collecting questions

[smpratte]

@hypernova

† - Flipper, card dealer - same thing. Someone that sells something for more than they bought it for, on a routine basis and as a way to make money, is a flipper.

No offense, but this is wrong and oversimplified bad advice for someone new to the hobby. You are using the term “flipper” instead of “selling”.

A flipper is someone who immediately sells (flips) majority of what they buy. The people referenced: myself, Gary and Spencer couldn’t be any further from that pattern.

[charizandrew]

@cullers

@hypernova

† - Flipper, card dealer - same thing. Someone that sells something for more than they bought it for, on a routine basis and as a way to make money, is a flipper.

This is a bit of an oversimplification. A flipper is someone who buys product and immediatly sells it. With me, Gary, and Smpratte (your examples) we’ve sat on product for years at a time. I think it’d be more accurate to call us investors. Think of it like the stock market, if you’re trying to predict the peaks and valleys you’re not going to do very well (flipper); however, if you invest and not worry about it for 5 years (min experts recommend) you’ll find you’ve made money almost every time.

With pokemon in order to flip you’d need to buy at roughly 50% of the market value (guesstimation), just to be able to support yourself, or extreemly high volume at a higher percentage. You can see how this isn’t sustainable. The other option is to sell for nearly double market value, you won’t find too many buyers: aka not sustainable either.

Honestly, I don’t see flipper as a title that big of a deal. When the 50% below market value deals pop up I’ll flip it, as I think just about anyone would; however, giving the people you mentioned that title compared to a full time flipper is a bit of a streach. Flippers don’t last in this hobby, we’ve been around for years.

This is purely semantics, but I think in the context of this discussion it’s important that we clarify this a bit, as well as give some info.

I agree with this. There were probably many times over the years where you could have sold a card for a 25%/50%/100% profit, but you continued to hold on to it. A flipper would sell as soon as they could get a decent profit and then move to the next opportunity.

[charizandrew]

When you call @smpratte a flipper…

Drake's Beef - SNL