How does one make a living selling cards full-time?

[SleepyWill]

Have always been curious on what the inner workings are for a full-time card dealer.

Would love to know the following.

-What prompted you to get into this business?

-Have you found it to be easier or harder than you first anticipated?

-What was the best way to network and find cards, collections, and inventory in general to sell?

-Do you find certain era's and sports are easier to sell? If so, which ones?

-What do you know now that you didn't know then?

-Are there certain things (people, cards, etc.) that you avoid?

-What are the must have items that have helped you run your business?

-How long did it take you to meet your previous annual income?


Would love input from our resident dealers!

[KhalDrogo]

Buy a CT scanner.

[solt0131]

Gotta get out there and hustle. Do lots of traveling to the shows. Shows are the biggest key to buying and selling and establishing contacts to use in the future. The amount of shows around the country are growing at a rapid rate and most shows are incredibly busy now and will only get busier!

[Promethius88]

Fanatics is going to make it extremely difficult to make a living as a full-time dealer over the next few years if you aren't already established. Their idea is to cut out the dealer as much as possible to get as much money in their pockets as possible.

We are going to see the hobby crumble like it did in the mid-late 1990's. At that point there will be some tremendous buying opportunities as people scramble to get out.

We see what is happening with the ultra modern, but if you are watching vintage, it is also dropping. Sure, there are outliers on some things, but there has been a gradual decline even after the pandemic boom was over.

[notoriousrmb]

Originally Posted by Promethius88

Fanatics is going to make it extremely difficult to make a living as a full-time dealer over the next few years if you aren't already established. Their idea is to cut out the dealer as much as possible to get as much money in their pockets as possible.

^ this. Fanatics wants less hands in the business, not more. They want to be the one stop shop for anything card related and to keep all that profit to themselves.

[asujbl]

How much do full time dealers make? What is making a living?

It intrigues me

We go to CC2 a lot because my son enjoys it. Obviously he’s very well known especially in the social media climate. He was huge at the National

He has lots of perks with Ohio State etc… but those aren’t paying for stuff. I would love to see Ryan’s tax return and what he takes home yearly as far as paying his bills

I legit find it fascinating

You could tell me his take home is $75,000 or 300,000 and I would believe you

[SleepyWill]

Originally Posted by notoriousrmb

^ this. Fanatics wants less hands in the business, not more. They want to be the one stop shop for anything card related and to keep all that profit to themselves.

There's a lot more to the hobby then just ultra modern fellas.

I'm always curious to know what that average annual income is? Currently I make a pretty good salary for our area south of Boston.

Would love to know if that's a range most dealers hit?

[hermanotarjeta]

I know a shop owner that was squeezing by on $60k/year about 10-15 years ago and made over a million per year during the pandemic.

It really varies depending on your situation.

Active flipper bois can make $40k/year profit grinding and evading taxes.

[MasonAsher]

Good thorough thread on the topic here: https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1519741

[JoshMN]

[JRX]

I thought the card shop was just a front for the drug shop.

[LVDan]

Bottom line IMO is knowledge
Having an encyclopedic level of all sports/non sports markets is key. Those not willing to do a TON of research learning what stuff sells for and staying on top of pricing trends have a much smaller shot of earning a real living. Then the hustle of constantly finding new sources of people to buy from. Finally, being on eBay and other platforms for an inordinate amount of time searching for arbitrage opportunities and pouncing bad listings, etc. with confidence, conviction and a plan.
It absolutely can be done but takes a level of dedication and hard work usually reserved for a much better paying “regular” job. In other words unless you’re willing to give up a 100k salary and work harder to make $60k in cards it’s probably best left as a hobby or part time side hustle.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by JRX

I thought the card shop was just a front for the drug shop.

The whales at most card shops are drug dealers, get it straight.

[FTLFTL]

I talk to the people at my LCS a bunch (sometimes I literally swing by, pick up a random $2 single, talk for 15 minutes). Fanatics wants fewer shops that sell a lot of new product and do breaks. I'm not sure it will be viable in five years unless you have a true base or are willing to just grind, grind, grind; but even then I don't know. I worry that there are so many cards from Topps that it will be difficult to really make a profit unless you can have a huge margin on stuff.

[LVDan]

Originally Posted by JRX

I thought the card shop was just a front for the drug shop.

This was me in 2005-2009. The strong smell of indo was a nuisance though. Especially embarassing when a dad brought in a younger kid to buy cards.

[JRX]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

The whales at most card shops are drug dealers, get it straight.

You got me thinking of the spiderman meme, they're all drug dealers lol

[jetscollector10]

I'd be willing to bet it's way higher than both of those numbers. Way way higher.

Originally Posted by asujbl

How much do full time dealers make? What is making a living?

It intrigues me

We go to CC2 a lot because my son enjoys it. Obviously he’s very well known especially in the social media climate. He was huge at the National

He has lots of perks with Ohio State etc… but those aren’t paying for stuff. I would love to see Ryan’s tax return and what he takes home yearly as far as paying his bills

I legit find it fascinating

You could tell me his take home is $75,000 or 300,000 and I would believe you

[theshowandme]

Buy raw
Grade
List on eBay, Instagram, Twitter, Discord, etc.
Repeat

I see many folks being successful with this approach

[hermanotarjeta]

Another factor is the cost of living. Can vary from $60k/yr to $250k/yr depending on family situation and where you live.

[notoriousrmb]

Originally Posted by SleepyWill

There's a lot more to the hobby then just ultra modern fellas.

I'm always curious to know what that average annual income is? Currently I make a pretty good salary for our area south of Boston.

Would love to know if that's a range most dealers hit?

This is an interesting path to explore.

Could a person new to a business in this arena make a sustainable salary that allows them to live a comfortable life by NOT incorporating any new product from the main manufacturers?

Perhaps if they have a lot of their own inventory up front, or they would need to be shrewd/dedicated flippers. But if you don't have an inventory going into this, how would someone start a card based business without the new stuff?

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by theshowandme

Buy raw
Grade
List on eBay, Instagram, Twitter, Discord, etc.
Repeat

I see many folks being successful with this approach

This to me seems like the only real good way to increase margins on cards. Of course, you need to make sure you are grading cards that will A. grade well B. sell for enough markup to make it worth it. Even then, margins on this are likely getting smaller with increased grading fees, more volume of graded cards, lower end value on cards.

The other way is to be able to get a consistent supply of collections which you get at extreme value. Break it up and sell the pieces. This seems hard to do.

Maybe just be a consignment shop? Sell the shovels in the gold rush, so to speak.

[Twalk1975]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

The whales at most card shops are drug dealers, get it straight.

What happened to the illegal car part bois?

[JUNKWAX]

I would be willing to bet the more popular card dealers you see on YouTube are making as much (if not more) from their YouTube channel as their card sales. Combine the income from YouTube and card sales and they are doing very very well.

[jduds]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

This to me seems like the only real good way to increase margins on cards. Of course, you need to make sure you are grading cards that will A. grade well B. sell for enough markup to make it worth it. Even then, margins on this are likely getting smaller with increased grading fees, more volume of graded cards, lower end value on cards.

The other way is to be able to get a consistent supply of collections which you get at extreme value. Break it up and sell the pieces. This seems hard to do.

Maybe just be a consignment shop? Sell the shovels in the gold rush, so to speak.

The premiums for graded moderns have shrunk substantially going from gems getting around 5x to 6x raws at the height of the boom to only 3x now with a ton of variance with many gems struggling to get 2x raw prices. It's still possible for someone to make money buying raw and grading but it's certainly not an easy path anymore and it might be one that closes as the population of graded cards continues to explode.

[oddstuff]

You don't unless you're working for Fanatics in some capacity.