Investing in Pokemon and Financial Responsibility

[slippingjimmy]

[tyronebiggums]

@hisoka107

@tyronebiggums

Selling 1 card is completely different than trying to liquidate a mass collection. Its not easy at all. As someone who has worked with shops and done some of my own flipping on the side, its alot of work.

speaking a liquidating a mass collection. I am some what of an expert in that haha.

If you go through PWCC or another auction house its’ actually fairly easy. It’ll take 2-3 months
to get the funds. However, as I said before it’s really not that difficult.

I dunno how you can downplay 2-3 months of waiting to get paid as nothing. If you need the money right away. And the auction houses don’t always get you what the market actually pays for it. There is still so much work in acquiring cards, doing grading submissions, mailing the cards out, organizing them, etc. Its work man, I dont see how your undermining everything that goes into it.

Also lots of sketchy stuff involved with those companies, not sure how you can even support that. Same goes for PSA, Beckett, etc. Most of those places scam the hell out of people.

[nish]

@tyronebiggums

@hisoka107

speaking a liquidating a mass collection. I am some what of an expert in that haha.

If you go through PWCC or another auction house its’ actually fairly easy. It’ll take 2-3 months
to get the funds. However, as I said before it’s really not that difficult.

I dunno how you can downplay 2-3 months of waiting to get paid as nothing. If you need the money right away. And the auction houses don’t always get you what the market actually pays for it.

Also lots of sketchy stuff involved with those companies, not sure how you can even support that. Same goes for PSA, Beckett, etc. Most of those places scam the hell out of people.

Did you just say that PSA and Beckett scam the hell out of people? lol

[goldcrest]

@tyronebiggums

@hisoka107

speaking a liquidating a mass collection. I am some what of an expert in that haha.

If you go through PWCC or another auction house its’ actually fairly easy. It’ll take 2-3 months
to get the funds. However, as I said before it’s really not that difficult.

I dunno how you can downplay 2-3 months of waiting to get paid as nothing. If you need the money right away. And the auction houses don’t always get you what the market actually pays for it.

Also lots of sketchy stuff involved with those companies, not sure how you can even support that. Same goes for PSA, Beckett, etc. Most of those places scam the hell out of people.

Those who invest their money into things often don’t have access to it “right away”. Waiting 30-60 days is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

There are high-interest ISA/savings accounts (well, not so much now anymore given the state of the world) that tie your money down for a specified amount of time. If you want to withdraw or move your funds, it can take 30-60 days. The same goes for lending platforms and many other forms of “investing”.

Investing in Pokemon products really isn’t as crazy as you’re making it out to be.

[tyronebiggums]

@nish

@tyronebiggums

I dunno how you can downplay 2-3 months of waiting to get paid as nothing. If you need the money right away. And the auction houses don’t always get you what the market actually pays for it.

Also lots of sketchy stuff involved with those companies, not sure how you can even support that. Same goes for PSA, Beckett, etc. Most of those places scam the hell out of people.

Did you just say that PSA and Beckett scam the hell out of people? lol

I did yes. They hire high schoolers with no background in collectibles to basically evaluate what your cards are worth. And if you don’t like their opinion, then you can break open the case and pay money to get them to change their minds. Definitely a bunch of BS.

[tyronebiggums]

@goldcrest

@tyronebiggums

I dunno how you can downplay 2-3 months of waiting to get paid as nothing. If you need the money right away. And the auction houses don’t always get you what the market actually pays for it.

Also lots of sketchy stuff involved with those companies, not sure how you can even support that. Same goes for PSA, Beckett, etc. Most of those places scam the hell out of people.

Those who invest their money into things often don’t have access to it “right away”. Waiting 30-60 days is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

There are high-interest ISA/savings accounts (well, not so much now anymore given the state of the world) that tie your money down for a specified amount of time. If you want to withdraw or move your funds, it can take 30-60 days. The same goes for lending platforms and many other forms of “investing”.

Investing in Pokemon products really isn’t as crazy as you’re making it out to be.

Im not saying its crazy at all. Im saying that its very subpar of an idea. Sure, I bet buying Pokemon cards and holding them might be better than say stamps or maybe even gold, but that just doesnt say much. Its a hobby, not really an investment like people want to convince themselves.

I forgot to mention in that original post but there is more work sides sending your stuff off to an auction house. Getting the cards graded, storing them, organizing them, shipping stuff out, getting stuff in, finding new cards, etc. Its just not as easy and simple as people think that it is. Its not rocket science either, its more very tedious stuff that is time consuming and things that you dont want to waste your time on as life progresses.

[dblast]

Buying graded cards is much less work for investor.

It’s so easy, if it’s more expensive, get a few grades down if possible. Hold onto it for awhile, profit.

[ansirfi]

@tyronebiggums

@goldcrest

Those who invest their money into things often don’t have access to it “right away”. Waiting 30-60 days is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

There are high-interest ISA/savings accounts (well, not so much now anymore given the state of the world) that tie your money down for a specified amount of time. If you want to withdraw or move your funds, it can take 30-60 days. The same goes for lending platforms and many other forms of “investing”.

Investing in Pokemon products really isn’t as crazy as you’re making it out to be.

Im not saying its crazy at all. Im saying that its very subpar of an idea. Sure, I bet buying Pokemon cards and holding them might be better than say stamps or maybe even gold, but that just doesnt say much. Its a hobby, not really an investment like people want to convince themselves.

I forgot to mention in that original post but there is more work sides sending your stuff off to an auction house. Getting the cards graded, storing them, organizing them, shipping stuff out, getting stuff in, finding new cards, etc. Its just not as easy and simple as people think that it is. Its not rocket science either, its more very tedious stuff that is time consuming and things that you dont want to waste your time on as life progresses.

All those time comsuming things are part off the hobby and great fun for me.

[tyronebiggums]

@dblast

Buying graded cards is much less work for investor.

It’s so easy, if it’s more expensive, get a few grades down if possible. Hold onto it for awhile, profit.

Thats providing you can get a good enough deal to make it worth while. Most of the older cards are maxing out in value as it is and its hard to predict where some of them will cap out at. The new cards arent worth it imo. Too high of print levels compared to back in the day and too many people grading/holding sealed product for any of it to ever be worth anything.

Another thing people seem to be overlooking is if you will actually care about Pokemon within the next 10-20 years to justify holding them. I don’t see myself in the next 5 years really caring about this stuff. I only been back into it since I been doing some work involving it but I don’t plan on making Pokemon a career and plan on exiting the industry hopefully in the next 3-5 years.

That is why I say to people who care more about money than the hobby to not bother. But even people who care about the hobby, you may grow out of it and not care about it in general. When people start families and move up in their careers, they may throw Pokemon to the waste side. To commit to something for that long seems pretty difficult for alot of people.

[joer]

I like that I meet the circumstances. Now I feel validated when I buy and sell product! lol

[jalapenocheetos]

Collect what you like and be smart with pricing, that way you kill two birds with one stone!

[hammr7]

It seems most of you are a bit constrained on your definition of investing. Yes, investing can be as simple as simply buying a card because you think it will be worth more in the future. This is a hands-off money-only investment, like buying gold or buying a growth stock and sticking it into safe.

I have collected for almost 6 decades. I have collected a bunch of different things over the years; coins, stamps, baseball cards, cars, and more recently Magic cards, Pokemon cards and even vintage audio equipment. While I never considered any of my collecting obsessions as an investment, the return on the money I utilized to build my collections has had as good or better rate of return as my more traditional investments.

For me, the key to success has been a desire to truly collect, investing time into researching all the nuances of the collectible that I could. I defined what I wanted to collect based upon what interested me. I invested only money I didn’t need, and considered costs of my collection as the equivalent of entertainment (like spending money for concert or movie). If you need money from a collection you quickly become a speculator or a dealer. I wanted to know as much as a dealer, but was always much better at buying or trading than selling. I got to know many other dealers and collectors, an was able to profit when they needed to raise money, usually by offering me items at a big discount when they wanted to fund a giant score. I always announced what I was collecting to friends and family, allowing them to steer items too me. You never know where a score may come from. I like estate sales and garage sales and Craiglist or Facebook Marketplace. And I was always looking for the next venue where I might find a deal before it became overrun by competitors.

And I put in time to incrementally upgrade my collection. More value can be earned by the incremental improvements than by the single big score. For example, I always found Magic card deals when at a Sports Card show. The Sports guys were out of their element, and were usually willing to give a deal to get rid of non-sports cards, especially on slow days. I always loved going counter to trend. If certain cards went wild in price, I would often ride the increase and then grab a huge premium in trades for lesser cards that I felt were undervalued. I was always a set collector and was always working on dozens of sets so there were always a slew of cards on my want lists.

People with a lot of money and little time like to speculate on big money cards. I traded time and less money, so if I wanted to speculate it was on lesser cards that I felt were extremely undervalued. For baseball cards this meant research on specific sets and specific players. For Magic it usually meant understanding all the game mechanisms and assessing where I thought game playing was going. In 2000 I bet heavily on the oldest sets that were rotating out of play. That bet paid off in spades when some of the vintage formats developed, and even more when collectors discovered Magic cards. I always liked accessories and oddball items, which were often quite cheap. So i picked up as much as I could at low prices and willingly traded my extras at higher prices. After a while I had so much stuff that the collections became self-sufficient. Anything I wanted could be paid for by extra stuff that had appreciated in value.

After decades of enjoying collecting (for me, controlled hoarding), I have finally started cashing out over the last five years. Without actually caring about the value of my collections, by spending within my means and putting in a lot of time, almost everything I collected has already paid me back far more than cost. This is a payback for all associated costs, including the cost of years of outside storage units (especially for audio gear).

So just remember that investing can be time and effort as well as money.

[tyronebiggums]

@hammr7

It seems most of you are a bit constrained on your definition of investing. Yes, investing can be as simple as simply buying a card because you think it will be worth more in the future. This is a hands-off money-only investment, like buying gold or buying a growth stock and sticking it into safe.

I have collected for almost 6 decades. I have collected a bunch of different things over the years; coins, stamps, baseball cards, cars, and more recently Magic cards, Pokemon cards and even vintage audio equipment. While I never considered any of my collecting obsessions as an investment, the return on the money I utilized to build my collections has had as good or better rate of return as my more traditional investments.

For me, the key to success has been a desire to truly collect, investing time into researching all the nuances of the collectible that I could. I defined what I wanted to collect based upon what interested me. I invested only money I didn’t need, and considered costs of my collection as the equivalent of entertainment (like spending money for concert or movie). If you need money from a collection you quickly become a speculator or a dealer. I wanted to know as much as a dealer, but was always much better at buying or trading than selling. I got to know many other dealers and collectors, an was able to profit when they needed to raise money, usually by offering me items at a big discount when they wanted to fund a giant score. I always announced what I was collecting to friends and family, allowing them to steer items too me. You never know where a score may come from. I like estate sales and garage sales and Craiglist or Facebook Marketplace. And I was always looking for the next venue where I might find a deal before it became overrun by competitors.

And I put in time to incrementally upgrade my collection. More value can be earned by the incremental improvements than by the single big score. For example, I always found Magic card deals when at a Sports Card show. The Sports guys were out of their element, and were usually willing to give a deal to get rid of non-sports cards, especially on slow days. I always loved going counter to trend. If certain cards went wild in price, I would often ride the increase and then grab a huge premium in trades for lesser cards that I felt were undervalued. I was always a set collector and was always working on dozens of sets so there were always a slew of cards on my want lists.

People with a lot of money and little time like to speculate on big money cards. I traded time and less money, so if I wanted to speculate it was on lesser cards that I felt were extremely undervalued. For baseball cards this meant research on specific sets and specific players. For Magic it usually meant understanding all the game mechanisms and assessing where I thought game playing was going. In 2000 I bet heavily on the oldest sets that were rotating out of play. That bet paid off in spades when some of the vintage formats developed, and even more when collectors discovered Magic cards. I always liked accessories and oddball items, which were often quite cheap. So i picked up as much as I could at low prices and willingly traded my extras at higher prices. After a while I had so much stuff that the collections became self-sufficient. Anything I wanted could be paid for by extra stuff that had appreciated in value.

After decades of enjoying collecting (for me, controlled hoarding), I have finally started cashing out over the last five years. Without actually caring about the value of my collections, by spending within my means and putting in a lot of time, almost everything I collected has already paid me back far more than cost. This is a payback for all associated costs, including the cost of years of outside storage units (especially for audio gear).

So just remember that investing can be time and effort as well as money.

Yep exactly. I agree with this alot. Flipping Pokemon cards/hoarding them is more like a full time job/business than it is an investment. What makes things like stocks, bonds, 401k etc. much easier is that stuff is more passive income. You can hang out on the beach selling off your stocks and never have to deal with logistics, crazy people or the politics of ecommerce sites.

Personally I spend the last 7 years working with shops and running a Pokemon business. Its a freaking grind. Its a combo of working in sales and retail. The retail side is mostly online, which is extremely soul crushing at times since you deal with the scummiest people in ecommerce. The shops are fine, they are the easy part. The end customers can be a complete nightmare at times.

Ive dabbled into mtg and yugioh as well and make some money there too. Not as good as Pokemon. but in the end, I just really strongly advise people to not get deep into this. There is a whole world out there with much better money making opportunities that bring people more value and are more fulfilling sides being a hoarder. Life is much more than posessions, which sadly that is what cards are. Some people think it brings them joy but sometimes I dont buy that. I see too many people trying to fill an empty void buying this stuff.

Glad you got out and made some money. Hopefully your future ventures will be a bit easier to have time to enjoy other things in lifr.