Cards show base advice needed

[mj91534]

I decided to get rid of the ten cent boxes and just add the big names to the .50 box guys like Morant, Curry, and all hall of famers. Funny enough I put all cheaper jersey cards at 5 dollars for football and this one guy eats them up no matter if they cost 5 or 10 or more.

[tdbaseballcards]

I've done 10 cent boxes, but only put out a 2 row of each sport with more behind the table for those that want to dig. I also do fill a 300 count box for $10, but surprisingly not many people do that. I find 10 cent cards to be pretty pointless though as someone will sit there for 30 minutes and pick out 3 cards. Then I gotta make change for the 30 cents or give it to them for free. I do love $1-5 boxes. If priced correctly, these boxes can make you a lot of money.

I'm thinking this year of just pre-making 300 count boxes and have like by sport or year or something and that way people can just grab and go.

[JUNKWAX]

I went through 10 cent boxes for about 3 hours today and spent over $100 doing it. There were several other people and dealers digging through those same boxes. The demand is there as long as the boxes are not cherry picked to the point that people lose interest after 5 minutes of looking.

[PuddleMonkey]

Can someone give me an example of a .10 card? Are we not all throwing our base commons away or are these cards of fairly known players?

[jkampis]

Originally Posted by JeffG1954

Back in the day when I was doing shows, the tables in San Diego were too expensive to worry about commons, so I would donate them to local hospitals. I would value them @ $0.05 per card and have a tax write off of $250 per 5000 count box. I don't know if that is still something that can be done, but 20 years ago my tax guy loved it.

That kind of thing is all good if you’re not audited. My accountant said write offs should be priced at fair market value and who would pay $250 for a 5,000-ct box of commons?

[jkampis]

I think it depends on the value of table space. How much are you paying for tables and how much surface area do they have? Can a 10-cent box recoup the value of the space it would take up if you have higher dollar inventory you could put there? These are questions I’d think about.

FWIW, I used to lug a 5,000-ct “2 for $1” to shows before I decided it took up too much space for the value it provided.

[JeffG1954]

Originally Posted by jkampis

That kind of thing is all good if you’re not audited. My accountant said write offs should be priced at fair market value and who would pay $250 for a 5,000-ct box of commons?

Remembering that this was 20+ years ago, my tax guy said that if the Beckett Price Guide valued them at $.05, an audit would not be a problem. Never had to test that theory out because I was never audited.

[JUNKWAX]

Originally Posted by PuddleMonkey

Can someone give me an example of a .10 card? Are we not all throwing our base commons away or are these cards of fairly known players?

The boxes I went through yesterday were full of home team players (Rangers and Cowboys) and a bunch of HOF'ers and future HOF'ers. There were also base cards from Chrome and Chrome Platinum and low end inserts from Chrome and flagship Topps. Some of the names I was buying in bulk were Altuve, Verlander, Soto, Acuna Jr, Smoltz, Maddux, Ichiro, Arod, steroid era Mcgwire, Canseco, Clemens, Bonds. Just a handful of low end Trout and Mahomes. No TB12 or Nolan.

There was some prospects in there also but I usually only buy players that have proven themselves on the field. There were a few obvious cards in there that did not belong that were worth around $5 or so. I know a few dealers that will toss those into the boxes just to keep it interesting and keep people there digging deeper.

[xposipx]

Fwiw, I am one of the people that like to dig through 10-cent and quarter boxes. There’s a guy at my local shows who usually has:

3-4 5 row boxes of 50 cent or quarter boxes

4-5 5 row boxes of 10 cent boxes.

2-3 2 row boxes of $1 cards

1-2 2 row boxes of $5 cards


He always has an empty table at the end and does fine. I bring a two row box and fill it almost every time.

There is almost NO base except rookies and a-list stars. It’s mostly all parallels and inserts. I’ll find hundreds of $2-5 COMC type cards after an hour or two of looking. I keep a large stack usually for PC and also end up with a large junk pile. But I also end up sending 200-400 to comc after each show. And I use comc to buy cards I want for “free”.

It’s a grind, but it’s what I enjoy doing. But to answer the question: no one is sorting through base for .10. The diggers like myself pass those up quickly.

My best find was a card I sold for $125. I regularly come home with 2-10 worth $10 or so. But I also spend two hours in the depths of swamp ass BO and rude people who grab from your row and get aggressive etc. I could go on, but you probably get it.

[oldgoldy97]

Originally Posted by Boo

Will people actually spend time going through boxes of trash commons for .10? You are probably better off selling them by the 5,000 count box.

You told me to burn mine, ya jerk

[mj91534]

One more question how do you handle buying as a dealer. I use 130 pt and offer 30 to 50 percent of that is it to low and is it worth it to put a sheet out and have ppl put their name and what they are looking for so I can sort of specialize each show. Like I know Bordentown nj to bring Philly stuff and trout since it's close to Philly

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[auctionjmm]

Originally Posted by mj91534

One more question how do you handle buying as a dealer. I use 130 pt and offer 30 to 50 percent of that is it to low and is it worth it to put a sheet out and have ppl put their name and what they are looking for so I can sort of specialize each show. Like I know Bordentown nj to bring Philly stuff and trout since it's close to Philly

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So if someone brings you a $100 card you are offering $30-$50? Can't imagine you have many takers. It's usually 70-80% but once you get into the 4 and 5 figure range, you'd be lucky to acquire at 90% as people are reluctant to sell those too low.

[jkampis]

Originally Posted by mj91534

One more question how do you handle buying as a dealer. I use 130 pt and offer 30 to 50 percent of that is it to low and is it worth it to put a sheet out and have ppl put their name and what they are looking for so I can sort of specialize each show. Like I know Bordentown nj to bring Philly stuff and trout since it's close to Philly

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At a show I’d imagine it would be hard to buy that low because the seller could just go to other dealers.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by auctionjmm

So if someone brings you a $100 card you are offering $30-$50? Can't imagine you have many takers. It's usually 70-80% but once you get into the 4 and 5 figure range, you'd be lucky to acquire at 90% as people are reluctant to sell those too low.

If someone needs the cash quickly then they will potentially take a substantial discount. Also, if a card is not particularly liquid then the seller may need to take a substantial discount. Also, a stack of cards will almost always go for a discount relative to the sum of the parts. Sure, there will be very few takers at 50% or less on hot commodities. I do agree that 70-80% appears most common with that stuff. Enough for a ~15% pre-tax profit if sold on eBay which is not a huge margin unless you're a blue chip on the NYSE.

[Stifle]

As soon as those dime boxes are placed down there are multiple collectors hitting them because so many players are left in common boxes that collectors go after.

Team, Player & College collectors love those boxes. Plus it gives young kids the opportunity to go through. Absolutely bring them because when a father is searching a table, it allows the child to search a cheap box. I don’t set up but I notice that when you make a table assessable for all, it allows the dad to search longer.