Board 8 > The Life and Times of 'Sir' Chris.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm sorry to hear you're having to go through this, but I'm glad that it seems like the best possible (aka "least worst") version of an incredibly painful experience.

Also very interested in your business, that sounds like a lot of fun. Have you made any other topics describing what you do that I could peruse, rather than asking you to retell it all here?

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I'm sorry to hear about fiancee but it seems you've made peace with it.

I wish you good luck

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JayLv100 posted...

I'm sorry to hear you're having to go through this, but I'm glad that it seems like the best possible (aka "least worst") version of an incredibly painful experience.

Also very interested in your business, that sounds like a lot of fun. Have you made any other topics describing what you do that I could peruse, rather than asking you to retell it all here?

Yeah, doing good overall just trying to live day to day and enjoy life.

I have not really gone into detail exactly so @JayLv100

My business consists of a few parts as it stands now. First I buy modern day cards at a discount directly from distributors and open most of it and grade cards out of that, sell the regular cards bulk to recoup costs upfront, and keep 1-2 boxes sealed for the future. This is what I call the 'for fun' portion of my business and it is the least profitable. Which is fine, I like opening packs so being able for it to not be a cost sink is fine.

Next is buying sealed product to hold onto. This includes elite trainer boxes (google if you don't know), booster boxes, and vintage packs. I buy these things when I think I see them for a good price just to hold onto either as appreciating assets or potentially good trade pieces for things I like.

Next is buying people's binders. So When you buy a binder full of cards you can usually get the whole binder for about 65-70% off market value because you are helping the seller by just taking it off their hands. Which is great because then if I turn around and make a bit of effort to sell the cards one at a time I will usually get about 90% of value. Steady profit with patience and a vision in mind, but also...

Grading. Grading is the great cash cow. Certified cards can go for bonkers prices if you know what to look for. So if a card is very minty (so no damage at all, well centered, no defects) it can be a 9 or a 10 grade which usually increases its value anywhere from 2 times to insane amounts if it is a rare or vintage cards. It costs a fee to get them graded but since I am good at prejudging cards I don't send in things that even have a chance at not being worth the grading cost.

So I send in 100s of cards at a time, get them back, and either directly sell them to people who I know are interested in specific cards or just send them all into an auction website for only a 1-2% more than normal ebay fees and let them handle all of the posting and shipping worries on their end. I literally print money, and I literally always am willing to take on investments/loans for this process because it is like... printing money. All the time. It's amazing. I probably have about 1000 cards right now that I would send in (and this is after sending in several hundred last month) and that would run me about 20,000 which I don't have the cash flow for.

Business is great. New buyers all the time as Pokemon is proven to basically be eternal. Just got to not buy high on certain products but my business model is largely undisturbed by this.


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What's your metric on whether or not cards are worth getting graded? Is it just the math between the value of an ungraded card vs the potential value of it being a 9 or 10? Are there other factors too like whether the card is worth more because it's playable or because it's a collector's item? I'd assume graded playables might be less valuable.

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I am rather unemployed right now. Do you think I could do something like that?
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BlackDra90n posted...

What's your metric on whether or not cards are worth getting graded? Is it just the math between the value of an ungraded card vs the potential value of it being a 9 or 10? Are there other factors too like whether the card is worth more because it's playable or because it's a collector's item? I'd assume graded playables might be less valuable.

There are a lot of metrics, but let me give you an example.

So I will typically grade four types of cards:

1. NM+ Vintage (I think it will get a 7 or above)
2. Very minty high end modern
3. Promo/Limited Run cards
4. Non NM Vintage (select)

So why vintage that I am confident is 7+? Because there is a huge market for certified near mint or above vintage. You can post a raw card and see 'Near Mint' all day long but most people don't know what that means and their card isn't in great shape. So when I get an old card that looks at the very least good it's always worth it to pay the 20-30 dollars (sometimes more but not really knowledge you need) to get it graded and certified. Now of course the higher the grade the better.

if I have a vintage charizard I will get it graded always because even like a psa 4 charizard is worth a lot more than its raw condition because people are odd and collect all manner of graded charizards.

The great thing about a lot of cards is that psacard.com has a database to let you know all of the cards sold on ebay of a certain grade. So you can get a feel for the market of a card and do the math from there based on your best judgment. It's just a pretty simple formula of:

RAW + 25 < GRADE * .6

So let's take a 80 dollar card. I want to grade it and I think it comes back a 9, it isn't a ten candidate, but I always assume a 9. So thats 105. Let's say a PSA 9 of the card goes for 170. That formula says it is 102 and so it's like "eh" probably wouldn't bother, I'll just sell it for 80 and fund a purchase of something else or hold onto it and see what happens depending.

Now what if it is a 10 candidate? Well a ten is usually at least 2-3 the amount of a 9. But let's just go with 2. So that's 340. So then that upside is pretty big and I'll always send it in because if it comes back a 9 it's not the worst thing. I do .6 multiplier to factor in fees and the time I spend trying to sell it once it comes back along with the fact that my asset is tied up for 6-12 months when that asset could be sold to make me more money and repeating that process.

That formula doesn't really lead me wrong ever as long as I do my research.

But, also, that formula has exceptions. Like I will factor in future proofing. For example limited run promos at the time may not hold up to that formula but there is a proven history of promos jumping in value once they are no longer available, so I am more comfortable sending those in and just letting the chips fall.

Another exception is if the card is high value of like 500+. Then I become less harsh on the formula.

Playables! So generally speaking graded playables don't matter. They are for play, they are worth more, it is kind of whatever. Now that might change over the years because there may be a shortage of very mint playables in the graded community but that wouldn't show itself for like 3+ years normally.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

I am rather unemployed right now. Do you think I could do something like that?

Anyone can learn in theory but turn around is kind of brutal right now.

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You mentioned that you have investors, what generally is your business model with investors? (feel free to move to DMs if you'd prefer not to disclose that part publicly; I'm also on the B8 Discord if you want to DM me over Discord since IMO that's a better platform for discussion)

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JayLv100 posted...

You mentioned that you have investors, what generally is your business model with investors? (feel free to move to DMs if you'd prefer not to disclose that part publicly; I'm also on the B8 Discord if you want to DM me over Discord since IMO that's a better platform for discussion)

I shot you a message. I think.

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Sorry to hear, Chris. Glad to hear you have taken things well. If you ever need someone to talk to, I am always here for you, bud.

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DoomTheGyarados posted...

There are a lot of metrics, but let me give you an example.

That's awesome. Thanks for the explanation.

I'm more of a collector than an investor but I've been thinking about getting some cards graded so this has been helpful.

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Thanks for the look into your business, very fascinating!

Sorry you're going through all this, good luck!

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Update: I have a date Sunday.

First date since all of this happened.

Hype

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Hype

Good luck!

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Hype

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I was going to post an excited react picture but it's too big for gfaqs

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Good luck, old friend!

- CenaStone

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Oh hey, Sunday was yesterday.

How did the date go?

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Date went well, putting myself back out there is nice.

Today... is moving day. Fresh start, oh boy.

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Unpacking is proceeding pretty well, finally got my pc up and running and wtf I am getting 800/100 internet for free here. Why would I ever leave

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