So, I just recently got into selling Modern Product. I’ve been purchasing Booster Boxes, opening all of the Booster Packs, and listing all of the Holo Cards (Hyper Rare, Full Art, GX, and Rev. Holo) Individually within my eBay Store. I also sell R. / Un. / C. Sets - build as many of those as possible from the Booster Boxes that I open… My question has to do with the remainder of the bulk…
I’ve been organizing all of my bulk thus far… I’ll separate R. / Un. / C. placing everything in numerical order. I actually enjoy sorting all of these cards; however, it takes A LOT of time - which I can never seem to have enough of lately! Haha I really haven’t decided what I want to do with all of my bulk - definitely not going to sell to another company at average “bulk rates”. However, I was curious what everyone’s thoughts on this were - does having everything organized make you more apt to purchase? Do you think I’d be able to get a higher price having everything organized if I do decide to sell down the road? Or, do you think I’m just wasting my time doing this?
Just to give an idea on sets / quantities - I started-out by purchasing a couple cases of: Evolutions, Forbidden Light, Celestial Storm, Lost Thunder, Team Up, and Unbroken Bonds. I’ve already accumulated something like 15,000 “bulk” cards (after taking everything I sell out) - all sitting within storage boxes all nice and organized! Haha
I’d prefer to buy bulk sorted but no idea what premium that would fetch.
Anything I buy ends up getting sorted but set and number so I can easily find what I am missing for my binders. I was then integrating it into my existing bulk but that became too much or a chore.
The big question is: What do you value your time at?
I enjoy sorting, learning and reorganizing all types of Pokemon cards. It’s not necessary a net positive financial gain, although it’s another piece of the hobby that makes Pokemon fun.
If you have the time and enjoy the time you spend doing it, then go ahead and do it.
I don’t mind doing it, and I like building my own pack pulled sets so I do enough of it to build my own sets and pull out all the goodies to sell individually. Beyond that though I don’t have the time so I take the 3-4 cents for the rest of my bulk c/u and 8 cents for non holo rares. I used to really sweat out researching things well and then really get bummed when a year later a certain card spikes and I missed out on $50-$100 here or there in bulk cards, but I don’t let it bother me anymore because I Just don’t have the time to. Holo rares and rarer I’ve typically valued more than what bulk pays so I stack a fair bit of those that I need to do something with sometime.
No - in all seriousness though - I’ve been wanting to expand my eBay Store; so I dove into Modern Product with a “test run” to see how it would go. It’s only been about a month since my initial purchase, so I really can’t give any concrete figures as to how much I’m actually making off this stuff. Heck, I still don’t even have everything listed within my eBay Store! It’s been a fun experience thus far though - learning A LOT about cards that I never even knew existed beforehand (really a noob when it comes to anything post wotc-era).
I can already tell Modern Product is VERY TOUGH! It’s something where you really have to be on top of your game - and even then the margins are VERY SMALL! However, there is definitely money to be made within Modern Product - just need a little luck on your side with those stellar pulls and A LOT of free time! Like @gemmintpokemon and @gottaketchumall said, it all comes down to how much you value your time. If I were doing this while working full-time, I’d have given-up the day I started! LOL Fortunately for me though, my actual job allows me to sit at home and play with Pokemon Cards for 6 Months - so it’s the best of both worlds! So, I really don’t factor-in the time aspect when figuring what I’m actually making - if I did, I’d probably be better-off flipping burgers than selling exclusively Modern.
Plus, I have already noticed a fairly common trend… A pretty good portion of people purchasing whatever Modern Card have also added other WotC-Era Cards onto their purchase. I couldn’t tell you if they’d have purchased that WotC-Era Card from me regardless; however, it does seem like offering a wide variety of cards has helped expand my business - which is always a plus!
We’ll see how it goes though - @thecharizardauthorty might have some competition! Haha Probably Not Though!
@oldskoolpokemon , If it helps you I know PayPal offers a different fee structure for sellers with low cost items. Instead of the 30c/item it is much more favourable. I haven’t looked into it deeper but you would prob have to open up another dedicated PayPal account for those listings and then have that email as payment as opposed to your normal PayPal for the higher priced items.
Edit:
I had a quick look and it is called micropayments but it seems like it may be only for digital goods (at least on PayPal AU)
Sounds like we have about the same process in regards to opening and selling modern product. Personally I do keep all of my bulk cards sorted - I’m not sure whether having them sorted is more appealing to buyers, but it definitely makes things easier on my end as a seller.
I usually get rid of my bulk by putting up 1000-card auctions on ebay. Since I try to include a variety of cards (I use “no more than 5 of any given card” as a selling point in the description), it’s really helpful to have them all in order when I want to quickly compile a new lot for auction. It also helps me see which cards are actually selling well via playsets and whatnot, and which ones I have a billion of and should throw into bulk lots.
I enjoy the sorting process and usually do it while listening to a podcast or something in the background, and having the cards sorted helps me sell more effectively. But my ebay business does take up a good chunk of my free time - if you find yourself perpetually low on time or stop finding enjoyment in the sorting process, then any minor financial gain probably isn’t worth the hours put into it.