3 Sales, 3 Stories: What This Week Taught Me About Flipping
Not every flip is about the dollar amount—some are about time, effort, and risk. This week’s sales were a reminder that the best returns don’t always come from big plays.
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This is not buying or investment advice. I’m simply reporting the data I’m seeing. Please do your own research and make your own decisions. Just because cards have increased in value up to this point, it doesn’t mean they will continue to do so.
Some days in the flipping game are about chasing big wins. Other days, they’re about learning what doesn’t move the needle the way you hoped. This week has been a little bit of both.
Between a low-risk gem that consistently overdelivers and a high-end card that barely cleared a profit, it was a reminder that return on investment doesn’t always scale with dollar amount.
Whether you're flipping $5 cards or $500 cards, the numbers - and the effort - don’t always line up the way you'd expect.
1. A Reminder to Stay in Your Lane 🛣️
Remember that Torkelson 1/1 auto I bought back on April 19th and even posted about saying it’ll be a nice reminder for future me? Yeah… that one.
Well, surprise surprise—the card was burning a hole in my pocket and I sent it to auction. Tigers are playing well, Tork has 16 homers, but I just wasn’t feeling like his market was going to explode any further.
The auction ended at $305, which was a nice surprise, but again, there are fees. And with COMCs withdrawal fee, you’re better off flipping smaller cards at larger margins than bigger cards at slimmer margins.
$305 sale - $15.25 auction fee - $.99 listing fee - $30.50 withdrawal fee - $225 purchase = $33.26 in profit. That my friends, is not worth a $225 risk. There are much better ways to flip your way to $33 in profit.
2. The Consistent Diamond in the Rough 💎
Perhaps the “MVP” of the sneaky card list, Topps MVP Promotion is definitely a gift that keeps on giving. The latest flip is this 1999 Tim Brown, which I bought for $4.75 shipped and sold for $37.61 after fees. Hey, there is that $33 profit I was just talking about, and I didn’t have to risk $225 to get it!
For those who don’t know about these Topps MVP promotion cards, they look just like base cards, but they have a large “MVP Promotion” stamp on the front and contest rules on the back. While not serial numbered, I believe the print runs on these are /100.
Again, two resources to visit if you need a reminder or inspiration on what to search for to help find flips like this:
3. A Little CollX Chaos 🤯
I don’t think I wrote about it here, but I made a 179-card sale on CollX. The cards were purchased for $219 and CollX takes 10%, so $197.10 after fees.
Thankfully, I was organized and could locate them all pretty easily, but still, digging out 179 cards, putting them in top loaders, and packaging them up was more work than I anticipated.
The box was just delivered and the buyer was very happy. And hey, that’s $200 I didn’t have before. Not to mention, it’s money I probably never would’ve made on eBay. Let’s be real: I wouldn’t have listed these as a lot, and I definitely wouldn’t have listed them one by one.
CollX is just different—and that’s a very good thing.
In the end, each sale told its own story. The Torkelson taught me to be cautious with slim-margin gambles. The Tim Brown MVP promo reminded me there's still plenty of value in the overlooked (and to keep going back to the well). And the CollX bulk deal? Proof that taking the time to list (and organize) pays off.
On to the next!
You're convincing me more and more -- I need to get on CollX.