While I agree with others about needing patience and experience, I’m going to take a slightly contrary perspective. Making money in Pokemon is very achievable and is almost essential for those who don’t have a lot of discretionary income but still want to grow their own personal collections. The three areas that are most cost effective:
- Buy Raw and Sell Graded: There are literally hundreds of items that will earn a premium if graded. The key is identifying these items (they fluctuate), understanding condition, and doing proper risk assessment. For example, Dan (Ketchumall Collectibles) used to talk about purchasing dozens of Celebrations Charizards at a time: those that graded 10’s earned a sizeable profit, while 9’s would break even, and lesser condition copies could be resold at a small loss.
- Sealed Appreciation: Most sealed products increase in value over time (some more than others). Sometimes it’s hard to acquire sealed products at/below MSRP (like the last few years) and sometimes it takes years before items appreciate. Outside a few items that I personally enjoy (like SV 151), this isn’t my preferred method of collecting/business; however, it can be very lucrative over time. There was almost a full year in time when SV 151 Ultra Premium Collections were widely available for under $100; they’re about $600 now.
- Buy Collections and Sell Singles: Admittedly, this is WAY HARDER now than it used to be; however, I enjoy this option the most. It requires extensive market knowledge, but can be both profitable and enjoyable. You can keep the cards you want/need for your own collection, identify cards worth grading, and piece out remaining singles to resell raw. This can be done online and in person at card shows. Finding quality collections at reasonable prices is way easier during market downturns; right now, we are in perhaps the most aggressive bull market ever, so the difficulty and risk of buying is amplified significantly.
Every one of these options takes time, knowledge, and experience but can be done successfully. A month for grading is actually pretty fast; PSA has been known to take 6+ months to grade cards. Remember to be patient, do proper risk-assessment, and to gradually build over time. It’s possible to make huge profits out of the gate if you have the resources and the capital, but it’s equally possible to take MASSIVE losses. Every hype cycle (like this one) has seen huge numbers of new business over-extend themselves and fail.
Personally, I suspect the market will begin retracting again in the months/years after the 30th anniversary as outside interest gradually wanes. If this cycle is similar to the 20th or 25th anniversary, there will be a period of saturation where printing overtakes interest and sellers undercut one another trying to cash out while they can. Generally, those periods have been the best time to find collection deals and build-up inventory. The fact that TPCI just leased a massive new printing facility at the same time that supply is already starting to be found in stores again, seems to support this theory . . . but that’s just my opinion.
I’ve always seen them but never heard of them as a legitimate option. I’ll definitely look into it! Would the goal be, however, that once I’m able to pay for higher end items that I would just post them on my own store? Or would the idea be that the consignment with them is the avenue from which I can support my own collection?
. I was just presenting options.
thanks so much!