Flip by Flip: My Week Recap in Small Sales and Big Gains
Small flips can add up, but you need to decide on what's "small" and worth your time. Here’s how I turned low-cost buys into real cash this week—and how you can too!
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Disclosure: I also work closely with CollX, and this content was disseminated via the CollX app after publishing. That said, all opinions, examples, experiences are entirely my own, and not shaped by any third party input or guidance.
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.
It’s easy to get caught up in chasing today’s hottest players—I’m guilty, too! That’s why it’s been a while since we talked straight flips.
Let’s change that.
Here are some cards I’ve sold recently, along with why I bought them, how things worked out, and tips you can learn from as you continue down your own flip journey.
And remember, all of this is listed on my Purchases & Profit Tracker if you ever needed some inspiration and/or more info on which cards might be worth finding and flipping.
This article is free for all subs—if you aren’t a paid subscriber, this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the info I provide. I hope it resonates, and hope to see you on the other side of the paywall for the next hot card report.
1. This Sosa flip was out of this world ☄️
I previously mentioned finding a 1998 Topps Stars Galaxy Silver Sammy Sosa /75 on CollX for $8.75, which I came across during my daily check of bigger names and serial numbered cards:
Why was I searching this set? Topps Stars, while not the flashiest, has been on my sneaky valuable flip radar ever since I checked comps on this Raul Mondesi Luminaries /50 I found on COMC years ago (which I ended up buying and profiting over $100).
(Note, these cards are not this shiny. I really had to adjust the settings of this photo to get the gold to pop. Could be part of the reason they fly under the radar).
I also found this Bonds /100 on CollX a while ago, so I know spotting them in the wild was in fact possible ($47 profit):
So, shoot for the stars—you might just land a galaxy-sized sale!
Full transparency, I’m a tad bit nervous as to why this card has taken two weeks at the authenticator. I say that because I’ve been dealing with the run around on my recent Rickey Henderson California Highway Patrol card. Quite the fiasco—stay tuned. Here is the original article if you haven’t read yet:
2. Back to where it all began
Just when I thought I might be closing the book on the flip chapter that really was the genesis for where I find myself today, COMC goes and pulls me back in with a few sales:
And from the flips above, you can see where this platform has value—rookies and prospects. The draw here is that you can buy a card and literally one second later, have that same card in your inventory and for sale at your new price.
Esmerlyn Valdez
Going down the list, I bought 5 Esmerlyn Valdez Bowman Chrome autos on COMC for about $4-$5, and this is the second I’ve sold for $19. As you probably know, Valdez is one of the fastest-growing, yet recently cheap prospect auto available not long ago.
I chose to sell because, one, I like to recoup my initial investment when possible. I spent about $24 on the 5 cards in total, and have sold two for $19 each after sales fees.
If I want to withdraw those funds, there is another 10% fee to do so, which means $1.90 on each card. So, call it $38 sold - $24 spent - about $4 in additional fees and I’m left with $10 profit and still 3 cards to sell.
Ivan Herrera
One drawback for COMC - for me at least - is even remembering what’s in my inventory. So, when a player heats up, many times I’ll have to check my inventory to see if I have anything of theirs available.
When Herrera hit his 3 homers in that one single game a while ago, I could have sworn I had a few of his cards, but upon checking, nothing came up in my inventory.
That’s when I discovered there is a bug with the COMC app, to where if you search your inventory for a card that currently is not listed for sale, you’ll be told you don’t have that card in your inventory.
Anyway, by the time I got around to listing this 1st Bowman Chrome Green auto /99, I had already missed my window! And that’s how quick it can go—one day a player hits 3 homers, and soon after they are out with injury. You can see exactly where that happened according to his card sales above.
Thankfully for me, Herrera is having a great May, and someone purchased the card. I bought it for nearly $80 all the way back in 2022! Not sure what I was thinking, but here we are, years later. $118.75-$79.80
Jefferson Rojas
“Do your own research, make your own decisions.” I say it often, and my research and decisions on COMC largely hinge on scarcity.
As in, if I mention a player on a hot card list, I’ll check COMC to see how many copies of their 1st Bowman Chrome auto are for sale on COMC.
If there are a ton, say 20 or so all around the same price, I’m probably not doing much buying (unless the cards are wildly cheap).
If there are a handful, and there is a big gap between the cheapest and the next most expensive, I might buy the cheapest and reprice it upward, just under the next available for sale.
If there are a couple, and both at comps or under, I might buy them both. If there are 3, I might do the same, etc.
When Jefferson Rojas had a 2-homer game last week, I saw he only had a couple autos on COMC, so I bought the one that was just under comps and priced it up +$10. It sold, and I made about $8.50 in profit before withdrawal fees.
Not a ton of profit, but anything to pad the account in return for a couple of clicks isn’t a bad use of a couple of minutes.
3. Stacking the small wins
Every flip won’t be a home run, and if you expect it to be, you might get a little frustrated. It’s totally fine to have a threshold or margin you decide is worth your time, but I wouldn’t count on finding $50+ wins on a daily basis.
So, sometimes you have to set sights a little lower, and get a little scrappier. Let me also say that my goal is to typically get at least $10 profit for the small flips, but sometimes things don’t work out.
Here are some recent, smaller flips:
2004 Topps Poland Spring Water Yankees Don Mattingly +$24 profit
It still blows my mind I found this card AGAIN. Two times on CollX in a month.
Will Clark 1998 Donruss Prized Collections Leaf Texas Rangers +$8 profit
These were basically Donruss’ answer to the refractor. A good parallel to routinely check for.
2006 Topps Turkey Red Football Shawne Merriman Gold 239 /50 +$5 profit
2008 Topps Finest Green Refractor/X-Fractor /299 Adrian Peterson +$5
2003 Topps Finest Gold X-Fractor /199 Tim Salmon #42 +$5 profit
2025 Topps Heritage 1976 Bicentennial Relic Thurman Munson /76 $4
So, I found this as a featured card on CollX, and it should have sold for a lot more…but it showed up like this:
The card was still in the envelope, thankfully—but it suffered a crease, visible from the back. Still, I listed it, noted the damage, and still sold quickly and for a few bucks profit, even.
4. Still pushing on Collx
And, while not flips, I’m still dedicating time to getting cards listed on CollX. So far, I’ve completed/withdrawn about $447 in total!
I now have over 1,000 cards listed, and mostly selling ultra modern inserts and parallels, but starting to get into clearing out a bunch of extra, older inserts, and more.
Anyway, I hope one or some of these moves inspire you to get out there and flip some cards! Whether it’s a $5 flip or moonshot profit, each sale adds up—keep scanning those listings, digging through the forgotten sets, and making moves on hot, trending cards when the stars align.