I Sold 10 Cards on eBay. 8 Were Profitable, 2 Weren't, and it's Easy to See Why.
As much as I try to practice what I preach, I stray outside of my lane at times. It rarely works, and this is a prime example.
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Disclosure: 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.
As much as I try to practice what I preach, I stray outside of my lane at times. It rarely works, and this is a prime example.
Here are my last 10 sales (with profit):
2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Fabric Todd Collins /300 (+41.20)
2018 Diamond Kings Gallery of Stars Tony Gwynn 1/25 (+$17.60)
2018 Topps Triple Threads George Brett Royals Onyx /50 (+$25.71)
1997 Best Premium Preview Travis Lee PROMO /200 (+$12.90)
2021 Panini Gold Disco Prizm #418 Noah Gray RC AUTO 2/10 (-$1.92)
1987 Greg Maddux David Berg Team Issue RC (+$9.66)
2000 Dan Marino Momentum Star Gazing Blue Die Cut /50 (+$1.59)
2001 Topps Chrome Through The Years Sandy Koufax Refractor (+$6.79)
2018 Bowman Chrome Jake McCarthy Auto Gold Wave Refractor /50 (-$52.67)
2000 Topps MVP Promotion John Smoltz ($12.84)
8 of those ten sales resulted in profit for a total of $128.29:
2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Fabric Todd Collins /300 (+41.20)
2018 Diamond Kings Gallery of Stars Tony Gwynn 1/25 (+$17.60)
2018 Topps Triple Threads George Brett Royals Onyx /50 (+$25.71)
1997 Best Premium Preview Travis Lee PROMO /200 (+$12.90)
1987 Greg Maddux David Berg Team Issue RC (+$9.66)
2000 Dan Marino Momentum Star Gazing Blue Die Cut /50 (+$1.59)
2001 Topps Chrome Through The Years Sandy Koufax Refractor (+$6.79)
2000 Topps MVP Promotion John Smoltz ($12.84)
Of those, my favorite was this Todd Collins, which I had just learned was valuable, jumped to CollX, found one for $5 shipped and sold it for $41 profit. Such a sweet card:
As a reminder you can see all of these eBay sales on my profit tracker along with other sneaky valuable cards on this list here. It needs updating, but there is a lot to get started with.
I also found wins in old faithful cards from those who always seem to sell well, Tony Gwynn and George Brett, a very unassuming Travis Lee card (remember him?), and yet another Topps MVP Promotion card.
Unfortunately, 2 of the 10 sales resulted in a loss, for a total of -$54.59:
2021 Panini Gold Disco Prizm #418 Noah Gray RC AUTO 2/10 (-$1.92)
2018 Bowman Chrome Jake McCarthy Auto Gold Wave Refractor /50 (-$52.67)
So, net profit from these 10 sales was $73.70.
I’m not complaining, but $128 looks a lot better than $73. Not to mention that the 11th card on this list was a graded Anthony Davis that I lost close to $30 on.
So, what happened?
It’s easy to see the trend, as this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this.
There is less risk with retired players.
One, there is less risk with the upfront cost. Here is what I paid for those cards I profited on:
Paid $5: 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Fabric Todd Collins /300 (+41.20)
Paid $15.74: 2018 Diamond Kings Gallery of Stars Tony Gwynn 1/25 (+$17.60)
Paid $3.25: 2018 Topps Triple Threads George Brett Royals Onyx /50 (+$25.71)
Paid $3.75: 1997 Best Premium Preview Travis Lee PROMO /200 (+$12.90)
Paid $15: 1987 Greg Maddux David Berg Team Issue RC (+$9.66)
Paid $46: 2000 Dan Marino Momentum Star Gazing Blue Die Cut /50 (+$1.59)
Paid $8.75: 2001 Topps Chrome Through The Years Koufax Refractor (+$6.79)
Paid $19.99: 2000 Topps MVP Promotion John Smoltz ($12.84)
I wasn’t sinking hundreds of dollars into these cards. I was taking educated guesses on $3-$46 purchases (and wouldn’t you know, the $46 purchase was barely profitable).
And here is what I paid on the losses:
Paid $153.63: 2021 Gold Disco Prizm #418 Noah Gray RC AUTO 2/10 (-$1.92)
Paid $218.86: 2018 Bowman Chrome Jake McCarthy Auto Gold Wave /50 (-$52.67)
And then second, there is less risk with those cards fluctuating in value. I don’t really need to explain why Tony Gwynn is less risky than Jake McCarthy.
Now, some caveats.
I’m aware that I could have held that Noah Gray into the playoffs hoping that he had a huge performance. But what if he didn’t do anything? (I also should have gotten that out of the Arena Club slab for a raw sale or tried to get it into a PSA slab, if there was time).
I’m also aware that if the Diamondbacks made the playoffs, that McCarthy could have gone up.
But that’s kind of my point. There is too much “hoping.” And at the price I paid for those cards, I’d rather let my cold feet get the best of me and sell too early than hold too long.
I’ll also say that less risk is one thing, but I simply just have more knowledge with 90s-early 00s cards, and can more easily find deals.
To end, just some updates on cards that I actually sold during all of this, but didn’t feel like it was fair to include them in the list because my goals with them differed from “buy and flip.”
There is of course this Jordan I’ve talked about at length that sold for $200 before fees:
And this Kobe from the $200 basketball collection I bought off FB Marketplace. Found it raw, and submitted it with a number of other Kobes after recouping my initial purchase cost with a bunch of raw cards.
Gemmed, and sold for $285 before fees:
Oof, that McCarthy is a heavy card. and that's coming from an AZ native.