I’m not going to lie, this is totally a spitball goal for 2021 that as of this moment I have ZERO “flipping” idea if it’s attainable or not. Flipping idea…I crack myself up. Just wait a minute, you’ll get the joke. Anyway, the goal this year is to make $5K in profit “flipping” sports cards (see what I did there?) while simultaneously building my own personal sports card collection.
Once I found out that many sports cards collectors enjoy building their personal collection WHILE getting paid to do it, I was hooked. A hobby that not only pays for itself but pays YOU to do it? Are you kidding me? I’m in. And with that I began to dream, “Hmm, how much do I want to actually MAKE flipping cards in a year?” Ideally I guess I’d make enough that I could do it full time and not have to have a “real job” but that’s not very realistic to me at this point in the game. Then a number popped into my head. “I’d be happy to MAKE and extra $5K this year flipping cards”. Then I thought, maybe that’s too lofty of a goal. Maybe my goal the first year should be just to break even. But honestly I don’t want to just break even (which would be cool having a hobby that “pays for itself”) but I want to be able to brag that I actually MADE money doing my hobby. And so, the goal started to formalize.
But REAL motivation for making $5K in value I think came when I told my wife I wanted to start collecting sports cards. Immediately she rolled her eyes and expressed deep concern that I was about to drive us into the poor house with my latest obsession. I countered her by explaining that many collectors find the hobby can actually pay for itself and in fact, some people can actually earn a living just trading sports cards. That’s when my wife replied, “Yeah, but you have to be smart for that.” Ok, fucking game on then!
What do you mean $5K in Value?
So now it’s time to clarify what success looks like. What exactly do I mean by $5K in profit? Well, what that means is that by December 31st, 2021 I want the declared value of my collection to be worth $5K more than I paid for it. That does not mean necessarily that I have $5K more in the bank at the end of the year but that I’ve collected and/or sold more value in cards than I invested that year. Take for example my current collection investment vs estimated value.
I started collecting cards on December 21, 2020 (yes I got a bit of a head start on 2021). Since then I have purchased a total of six blaster boxes of cards for $189, paid $18.52 in taxes, and traded with others online at the cost of an extra $8.55 in shipping fees to me. That means my investment into the hobby is currently $216.07. As of today, my estimated value for my entire collection is $253.06 according to tcdb.com. That means my profit so far is $36.99. I’ve got a LONG way to go to hit $5K in profit by the end of next year.
Now, a large chunk of my estimated value above comes from a single card, the highly coveted rookie card of Alexis Lafreniere (below) which I was lucky enough to have pulled in my first blaster box of cards. Alexis rookie card is currently selling several times a day on ebay for $200-$300. TCDB currently values this card at $200 so most of my $253.06 estimated value is in this card alone.
The sport card market is highly volatile which means if this rookie doesn’t start out the season scoring a million goals, suddenly his market value could plummet and he will be worth half as much or even a quarter of what he’s going for today. Or, later that year the Rangers could win the Stanley Cup and he could have shot the winning goal and his card will be worth 10 times what it is today. There’s just no way of knowing if that value will hold up, drop drastically overnight, or increase steadily over time. If I don’t sell Alexis’ rookie card today while it’s going for $200+ and if his card suddenly crashes in value by the end of the year, I’ll have made a big mistake and can’t count today’s $200 value toward my profit goal. If however at the end of the year his card is now going for $1,000 and I still have it or sell it, I’ll be well on my way to having $5K in value. However, what if I want to keep this card for a few years in hopes he will have a great career and the card will just continue to increase in value? I’m not just going to ignore that he’s worth a crap ton of money at the end of the year if I sold him today. SO, my goal includes actual cards I’ve sold throughout the year as well as the current estimated market value for cards I’m keeping as of December 31, 2021 (i.e. what I could get for the entire collection that day if I sold them for market value).
And there you have it, the goal is set. I’m shooting to have $5K more in profit from my cards (either in actual sales or estimated value at the end of the year) than I invested that year. If you’re interested in keeping tabs on my progress towards this goal, I recommend you follow the Card Collecting category on my blog to receive updates via email whenever I post new articles.