Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / So You Want To Be A Dealer, With Chris Sewall Baseball Card Collector Investor Dealer

Transcript

So You Want To Be A Dealer, With Chris Sewall Baseball Card Collector Investor Dealer · Sports Card Clubhouse

0:01
Hey everybody, it is Mike and you are you might be viewing
0:04
this in one of three places. This is my new So you want to be
0:07
a Dealer podcast and you can see my first guest here if you are
0:11
viewing on my channel or on the Sports Card Clubhouse YouTube
0:16
channel. If you're listening on the
0:17
podcast. Thank you first of all, because
0:19
that's fantastic. If you are on my channel, this
0:22
will be the only time this podcast shows up on this
0:24
channel. So make sure you are subscribed
0:26
either to the YouTube Sports Card Clubhouse or you're
0:30
following the Sports Card Clubhouse podcast.
0:33
And this will be a every other week series where every other
0:39
week I talk with a different dealer around the hobby, about
0:41
their business, about the challenges of being a dealer,
0:45
about the joys of being a dealer.
0:47
And then on the rotating weeks, I will have so this is called So
0:51
You Want to Be a dealer. On the rotating weeks, I'll have
0:53
another podcast called So You Want to Be a Content Creator
0:56
where I interview content creators around the hobby.
1:00
I'm going to try to stay away from Youtubers as much as
1:02
possible and talk to people on Instagram, people on TikTok,
1:07
people on Twitter that aren't making the rounds all the time
1:11
and get a sense of why they do what they do, how they do it,
1:15
how much they love it, what are the challenges of it.
1:17
Similar to sports car dealers. And here I'm going to introduce
1:21
Chris, baseball card collector, investor, dealer, in that order.
1:24
Chris, thanks for joining me today.
1:26
Yeah, yeah. Honored to be your your first.
1:28
Yeah, I'll never forget it. So Chris, I've known you for
1:35
several years. We've done this a bunch of
1:37
times. And what I'd like to do is kind
1:39
of an extension of our lunch we had at The National where we
1:43
talked about what I found to be some very interesting things.
1:47
And that kind of gave me the idea for this podcast, which is
1:52
there's so much going on in the world of card dealing right now.
1:56
It it might be the most exciting, but also most
1:58
challenging time to be a dealer. And I wanted to get your
2:01
perspective. I am not a dealer.
2:03
So, you know, I had a lot of questions for you at lunch and
2:07
you had some really interesting answers.
2:09
So I figured, let's jump in. How's that sound?
2:11
That sounds great. And let me just say that when
2:14
you bought your your big collection, what'd you call it,
2:16
the Vermont collection? I was really pushing you to like
2:18
go in the dealer direction, but you were like, no, not, not not
2:21
going to happen. Well, you know, I just did a
2:23
video this past week where I talked about my dream card shop,
2:28
which is not just a card shop. There's a lot of vintage things
2:31
and I would love to do it. I just, I can't, I need health
2:35
insurance. I'm I'm the health insurance for
2:37
my entire family of four. And there's there's.
2:41
Is health insurance that important though for.
2:44
Kids. Yeah, and the income replacement
2:49
would be very difficult. I'm also the only income for my
2:52
family of four. Yeah, that would be, that would
2:54
be quite the leap. Yes, yeah, Someday.
2:57
Maybe when I'm 70 years old and I'm retired and only need to pay
3:02
rent, for instance, for a shop. Or maybe, I don't know, I'd be
3:05
doing it out of my home. Maybe then I'll do something,
3:09
but right now I'm 46. I've got a long ways to go.
3:12
OK, fair enough. So a big topic right now is
3:17
repacks and I asked you at the National and you say you you
3:21
gave such a great answer about the how are repacks impacting
3:26
your business? First of all, why don't you
3:28
describe your business? So in case anybody who doesn't
3:31
know you happens to be listening or watching, what do you do?
3:35
Yeah, so the, the core of my business is to buy personal
3:37
collections from around the country.
3:40
Most of them are local to me in, in Maryland, but yeah, I, I go
3:44
buy large collections. I, I like them large and sort of
3:47
messy. And then my my value add is I,
3:51
you know, split it up strategically and, and sell them
3:53
off in pieces. Yeah, strategically to to
3:56
maximize value out of it. And yeah, that's the that's the
3:59
core of my business. I do a bunch of other things
4:01
like I buy on eBay and I buy a card shows and I sell at card
4:04
shows and things like that. But the the core is is buying
4:06
personal collections. And you said you like them messy
4:09
and you like them big. Help me understand why.
4:12
It just sort of, it just sort of gives me more options like when
4:15
I have a whole bunch of cards, I can sort of in more variety of
4:18
ways. And yeah, you can sort of, you
4:21
can sort of be more creative with the way you package up your
4:24
your cards and and and sell them.
4:27
And I asked you to bring a list of places you sell cards, and
4:30
we're gonna talk through that, assuming.
4:31
That you brought that from. I did.
4:33
I did. I'm I'm.
4:34
I came. Yeah.
4:35
So we're we're gonna get to that later on all the places that you
4:39
sell cards because I'm really interested in that.
4:41
But the prices of cards, especially iconic cards have
4:46
skyrocketed this year, just this year, just since the beginning
4:49
of this year, even springtime. And you hear a lot about repack
4:54
companies and big dealers paying much higher percentages.
4:58
How has that impacted your the way you do business?
5:03
Yeah, So for me, me personally, not as much as probably most
5:06
other dealers. When I'm buying like a large
5:08
collection, the majority of what I'm buying is like cheap stuff,
5:11
dollar cards, $2.00 cards, $5 cards.
5:14
I mean even less nickel cards, but I usually buying a large
5:18
bulk. Most collections are large bulky
5:19
collection and you know, and then there's just like a few
5:21
expensive cards on the side. That's the kind of the way most
5:24
cards collections are. So it's really just those few
5:27
expensive cards that, you know, things have really changed in
5:29
the last few years. Now when I'm at a card show,
5:32
it's drastically different 'cause that's very different.
5:34
Somebody will walk up to me with a, a Zion case of, you know,
5:37
$100 plus cards. And you know, five years ago I
5:40
was, I was offering 70% and everyone was thrilled to take my
5:44
70% 'cause I was the only dealer offering that high.
5:47
Today, if ioffer 70%, they'll a lot of them will just laugh at
5:49
me. So that's completely changed and
5:52
I think repackers are are, and I'm not even saying it's a bad
5:55
thing. I'm saying I think repackers are
5:56
a big, big reason for that because repackers are paying,
6:00
you know, really high percentages.
6:02
Right, upwards of 90%. Sometimes I've seen some
6:05
offering 100 plus. Right, 'cause the business model
6:08
allows it. I mean, I, I can't, if I pay 90%
6:11
across the board, I'll, I'll literally lose money.
6:14
I'll literally put in, you know, have to spend hours to lose
6:16
money. So I, I can't, you know, if
6:18
somebody's legitimately paying 90%, I can't compete with that.
6:21
But I will say, a lot of the places that advertise we're
6:24
paying 90%, that's not really true.
6:27
They're they're paying like 90% for a Kaboom PSA 10.
6:30
You know, if you bring them like a standard card, they're they're
6:33
going to use the lowest comp and then they're going to really
6:35
offer you 80. You know, it's like this.
6:37
So, so when somebody advertises 90%, you know, take that with a
6:42
grain of salt. So somebody comes to you with a
6:45
Kobe rookie PSA 10? Yeah.
6:48
You offering them 80%? Yeah, that, that's actually
6:52
probably spot on. Now, I would probably probably
6:54
offer 80% and I would say half of the people will take that
6:59
like this is at a card show. Yeah.
7:01
Yeah, yeah. And now let's say you've got a a
7:06
1985 Topps, Roger Clemens, PSA 9.
7:09
OK. What would you say you're you're
7:11
offering on a card like that? It's got to be less than 70%.
7:14
Yes, because that's like a, that's probably like a $50 card
7:17
or or so. Yeah.
7:18
So that I'd probably offer, if it's a $50 card, I'd probably
7:21
offer 30. So I guess that's 60%.
7:23
But you can't, you can't sell that to, I mean, you might find
7:27
a repacker, but that's not an easy card to sell at a card show
7:29
for. Nobody's going to give you 90%
7:31
on a card show for that, right, Right.
7:33
Yeah. Yeah.
7:34
So the where do you typically get your comps?
7:42
Well, I use, I use, if it's a graded card to use
7:44
vintagecardprices.com. I, I still think they're the
7:47
best I've used. You know, I've checked out card
7:50
ladder and Lutex and a couple of the others and they're, they're
7:53
good, but they don't, they're limited in that they don't have
7:56
all the cards on there. vintagecardprices.com has been
8:00
around a long time. They have a lot, they have it
8:01
all. So I for, for graded cards, I
8:03
use that. And then for lots or single
8:05
other singles, I use eBay. Just eBay sold sold those
8:08
things. And even though it's called
8:09
vintage card prices, they have all.
8:12
Yeah, they have all. I don't know why that they
8:14
should have changed. Yeah, they probably regret that
8:16
name. Like like I regret you know my
8:18
super long YouTube name. Well, like I regret going with
8:21
Junk Wax Hero 'cause. Everything.
8:23
Oh, right. Yeah, we all we all have bad
8:24
names. Yeah, they're they're not.
8:28
They have nothing to do with them.
8:29
They have nothing to do with the vintage.
8:30
I mean, they have the vintage, but they also have modern.
8:31
So, you know, it's like, yeah, I mean PWCCPWCC stands for Pre War
8:38
Card Collector, which, you know, they didn't specialize in pre
8:41
war. So I guess, I guess none of it
8:43
makes sense. So do you ever get somebody who
8:46
comes up to you and you offer them a certain percentage and
8:49
they say that's ridiculous, I can get something higher and
8:52
then they come back to you hours or days later and offer it back
8:56
to. You yes, that that happened.
8:58
That happens all the time. Because of that ambiguity with
9:03
the, the bigger dealers are the repackers who are saying we'll
9:06
offer 80 to 90%, but there's there's strings attached,
9:10
there's some small print. Involved yeah and again the
9:13
repackers don't want don't want cheap stuff like they don't want
9:17
a $50 slab and they don't want like a a really non liquid like
9:23
they don't want like a not sorry, not non liquid.
9:25
They don't want like a like a 90s insert because the people
9:28
buying repackers want ultra modern.
9:30
They want active players. So they're not going to pay 90%
9:35
for, you know, 90s inserts or a $40 slap.
9:38
They're going to pay 90% for, again, a Jaden Daniels kaboom.
9:42
Like the really hot product of the really hot player.
9:45
Yeah, but there are some repackers out there that focus
9:49
on vintage. Yeah, that's true.
9:51
But very small percentage, very small percentage, I don't know
9:55
if they're paying. I don't know if those are paying
9:57
90% or not, maybe I don't know. If you're getting into dealing
10:02
right now, how badly, how important is it to have some
10:07
sort of content creation engine like you have?
10:11
You know, it's a good question. I think it's probably very
10:13
important. I, I never had anything until
10:15
2020 and I was doing fine. But I, but the, the YouTube
10:21
channel really launched it forward in a significant way.
10:23
And I, and I also feel like social media has exploded in the
10:27
last five years. So it's become more important in
10:30
the last five years than ever. You can probably get it.
10:32
You can probably do it without. I know card store owners who
10:34
have no social media presence and they're OK but.
10:38
How were you doing it before 2020?
10:41
Before 2020 I I so I started in like 2010 ish and I was I was
10:46
just hustling. I was going to yard sales, I was
10:48
going to card shows. There was a local card show that
10:50
was weekly near me and I went there every day.
10:52
And I, I just established myself as somebody who buys out large
10:56
collections and a lot of the stuff I buy like nobody else
10:58
wants because it's just like a big bulky thing.
11:00
It fills up your car. People don't want to put in the
11:02
time. So that I sort of became the guy
11:04
that, you know, the go to guy in the LA area to sell that stuff
11:08
to. And so it became kind of word of
11:10
mouth, but, and it still is word of mouth for me mostly.
11:13
But the you know the channel helps significantly.
11:16
You're also posting to Craigslist, right?
11:19
I, I I was back then, yeah. Is Craigslist still still good?
11:22
I. Have no idea.
11:24
I've been on there in forever long time.
11:26
Yeah, I think Facebook marketplace is more of the the
11:29
go to for that stuff now do. You use that at all?
11:33
No, no, I don't. I don't.
11:36
It's pretty chunky. If you, is it OK?
11:38
I would imagine if you wanted to get started from scratch, you
11:41
would probably need to go in there and hustle.
11:43
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's walk through your list.
11:48
OK. Talk me through all the places
11:51
that you sell cards and and why. Yeah, because it's important.
11:57
As a dealer to have a variety of places, you can't just send
12:00
everything to COMC. You can't sell everything on
12:02
eBay. Help.
12:04
Me understand this is a major change in the hobby in the last
12:07
five plus years. I, I only used eBay when I was,
12:10
if you went back to 2016, I strictly sold on eBay.
12:15
Literally 99% of anything I sold was on eBay.
12:18
There just weren't that many other options.
12:20
Now there are tons of great options and I, and I use a lot
12:23
of them. OK, so you, I, I've broken it
12:27
into two categories. So I was, I've, how many are
12:29
there? A lot of people ask me like, oh,
12:32
what do you, where do you sell? And I'm like, oh, I sell in a
12:34
lot of places and I never actually counted.
12:37
It's actually I use nine companies regularly.
12:40
I was gonna get 7 but yeah. OK.
12:43
And then I also sell at card shows.
12:46
OK so I broke it in two categories auction houses and
12:49
like non auction houses. Sure.
12:52
OK so the non auction house is eBay.
12:54
I still use eBay quite a bit. But what you're sending like 10
12:59
to $100 cards on eBay? No So on eBay I sell basically
13:04
OK yeah, this is going to this is going to take a while to
13:06
explain. I'll try to go somewhat quick.
13:07
Oh basically 2 categories of things.
13:09
One graded modern cards that are rare but would do terrible in
13:14
auction. So you're, you're going to list
13:17
those if I'm guessing you're going to list those at a fixed
13:21
price or best offer at a pretty, pretty high price, right?
13:26
Yes, at a very high price because like I don't know who's
13:31
like a, a mediocre football like Eddie George.
13:34
If you have like an Eddie George at a 50 from 1998 and it's APSA
13:39
9 and it's a pop one, there's a grand total.
13:42
Of seven collectors in the world who want.
13:43
That car, they want it badly. If you put in an auction, it's
13:46
going to go for $17.00 if. But if I list it, I can list it
13:50
in my store for 100 and somebody's going to buy it, but
13:53
it will take a long time before that hundred guy comes along.
13:56
So that needs to go to eBay. It can't go to an auction house.
13:58
So there's a lot of cards like that in my store.
14:02
That's the first category. The second category is like
14:05
large, bulky, large bulky stuff that there's nowhere else to
14:09
sell. An example would be like 3000
14:11
seventies Commons that does pretty well on eBay.
14:15
And you do. Those at auction.
14:17
No, I, I do, I do no auctions on eBay.
14:19
Never. OK, so it's all buy it now.
14:22
OK, so that's the first non auction place I use.
14:25
Second, as you've already mentioned, is COMC, which you
14:28
you use COMC. I have a box of things they just
14:31
jacked up their price from 30%. Dude, I didn't, I didn't know
14:35
that till I saw your video earlier today.
14:37
That's thanks for watching. Big bummer, man.
14:39
Yeah, yeah. I've just been sitting on this
14:41
box for two weeks, 3 weeks. Yeah, well, you missed that.
14:46
How many cards is it I? Don't know, 300 maybe?
14:50
All right, cost yourself 50 bucks by waiting.
14:53
Yeah. OK but but that being said I
14:57
love COMC. They me too.
14:59
They are as a seller and a buyer actually.
15:02
But as a seller they are awesome.
15:04
They do all the work for you. All you do is price your card.
15:09
It's the only place I sell. Oh, really?
15:12
I'm not a dealer, so I'm just pulling cards out and saying I
15:15
don't need this. Mostly out of the Vermont
15:16
collection still, to be honest with you.
15:19
And for instance, I there's one that was a Billy Martin and
15:26
Reggie Jackson patch card from like, I don't know, 1998 number
15:30
to 15. Great COM C card.
15:33
No sales I can find anywhere of course, and so I just listed it
15:37
on Com C for like $39.00 and it sat there for six months and
15:43
then last week I dropped the price down to $29.00 and it sold
15:47
immediately. OK, Yeah, sometimes that's all
15:50
it takes. Yeah, simple, super easy.
15:55
That's I sell a lot of things on there for between 1:00 and $20
16:00
usually. That's exactly the, the, the
16:03
targets price. And what's, what's, what's
16:06
amazing about them is like if you have a $5 card, there's no
16:09
way there's nowhere to sell it that's worth your time as a
16:12
dealer. Except Com C 'cause I can just,
16:15
I can just put it into a large box and it goes out there.
16:17
Every other place is a waste of my time.
16:18
Listing it on eBay is too much time.
16:20
Then I have to ship it and, and all that's not going to be worth
16:22
the the $3.70 I'm going to net after fees and all that, yeah.
16:28
Plus now so I I'll find that I have some cards that are really
16:32
rare and I've got them priced at say 80 or $90.00 and they they
16:37
don't sell. There's with one click.
16:39
You can now send it to eBay at auction for a dollar.
16:44
So I've used, I've used that is it only a dollar wait, but but
16:47
but then plus the 5% fee. No, I don't think there's a 5%
16:52
fee. It's you've already paid the
16:54
upfront fee to have it listed by Comp C and then there's a $1.00
17:01
eBay auction insertion fee from Comp CI.
17:04
Might be mistaken but on this video I I talked about this on a
17:08
video and nobody corrected me and I I did a lot of research
17:11
into it. Pretty sure it's only the dollar
17:13
and then like I had it listed for 80 or $90.00 and it sold for
17:16
115. In the auction.
17:19
On eBay, and I've done that a bunch of times.
17:22
They they don't sell for more, but usually right around what I
17:25
had them listed for, for, you know, kind of unusual cards.
17:29
Yeah, you know, it's a great place for unusual cards like
17:33
that. Yeah.
17:36
OK, that's my second place you. My third one is I use the
17:40
fanatics vault. Yes, you were telling me about
17:43
this at, at lunch at the National and I was quite
17:45
intrigued by this because I, I knew nothing about the Fanatics
17:48
Vault and you made it seem pretty appealing.
17:51
And this is not a sponsored and we're not sponsored by Fanatics.
17:54
In any way, these companies are sponsored.
17:56
Right, nothing is sponsored here but this I I was intrigued by
18:01
this. So, yeah, the fanatics Vault is
18:05
you, they only take graded cards and you, you just ship them your
18:08
cards. And it's just like Com C
18:10
actually, except there's, I would say it's a, you know, it's
18:14
a higher, higher end marketplace than Com C.
18:17
Like you wouldn't want to ship them a, a $10 card, But so I use
18:21
that for higher dollar graded cards and I like it for a number
18:24
of reasons. There's no, there's no fees.
18:26
I'm sorry, there's no insertion fees.
18:28
I could I ship them cards and they list they do all the list.
18:31
It's all listed for me. There's the sale price fees are
18:35
very low if you price your item fairly by their standards and
18:41
and then it's only 6%, which is basically half of eBay.
18:45
If you listed not super low by their standards, it's 13%, which
18:49
is still comparable to eBay. And so the stuff sells pretty,
18:53
pretty well on there. It probably would do better on
18:56
eBay a little bit like it would sell faster, but but you have to
19:02
do a lot of work if if you sell on eBay there they do everything
19:05
for you. Yeah.
19:07
So I'm, I'm I, I like their, that service quite a lot And and
19:11
any time you can send the stuff to auction too, which I I don't
19:14
use very much, but sometimes. OK.
19:18
So yeah, I use that for sort of higher dollar graded cards.
19:21
And then I do use the PSA vault once in a while, but not really.
19:25
I prefer fanatic PSA Vault and Fanatics are very similar.
19:28
The two vaults, I prefer fanatics just I think it's a
19:32
it's set up better. Although PSA is starting to
19:33
offer these additional like services are tied to it.
19:36
So I'll consider that more. But yeah, OK.
19:39
So those are the companies I use that are not auction houses.
19:43
In short, those are the companies where I, I'm not in a
19:46
hurry to move the stuff. So a lot of the vintage will go
19:50
in those one of those three companies, a lot of the rare 90s
19:53
stuff where I'm not in a rush because rare 90s probably is
19:56
going to hold its value. More established players are
20:00
more likely to to send to those. Then there's the auction houses
20:04
where which is which is I want to I want to get my money.
20:07
I need to move this stuff quickly and get paid.
20:09
OK, so moving on to the auction houses.
20:11
Sorry, it's a lot. Sorry, it's a lot.
20:13
Great. So Greg Morris is is the first
20:16
one I'm going to mention he now Greg.
20:19
Morris takes raw right. Yeah, Greg Morris takes Raw and
20:23
they they sell on eBay. They sell, they do auctions on
20:27
eBay and they're, but they're their bread and butter is raw
20:32
vintage. So if you send them raw vintage
20:34
that's in nice condition, they will get top dollar for it.
20:38
And I mean top, top dollar because their reputation is so
20:42
good. So if they if they call, if they
20:43
call a card near mint, people are going to respect that.
20:47
So they get top dollar for raw vintage.
20:49
The, the one big limiting factor with them is they only accept
20:52
packages of $5000 and up. So you can't just send them like
20:55
50 cards at a time. You have to wait till you've,
20:58
you know, accumulated quite a bit.
21:01
OK, so that's the first auction. I also use the second one,
21:04
Huggins and Scott, which probably maybe a lot of people
21:07
haven't heard of. Have you heard?
21:08
Have you heard of? Them.
21:09
I have heard of them, yeah. I've in fact covered some things
21:11
that they've sold or had in their auctions.
21:13
Before yeah, so they're awesome way underrated.
21:17
They're they're attached to Rea actually is there parent owners
21:22
company? I didn't know.
21:24
That, but they're located 45 minutes from my house and
21:27
they're actually really fun to buy on because they, they sell a
21:31
lot of like shoebox lots. So if you, you know, and that's,
21:35
that's the way I, I used to love to buy like 1000 cards from the
21:39
70s with a bunch of hall of farmers, just like random
21:42
mishmash lots and, and modern stuff too.
21:45
So I sell, I actually, but I used to buy that stuff and I've
21:48
converted to selling that stuff through them.
21:50
So I saw a lot of like large mishmash lots that I just I
21:54
keep, I get a lot of cards in and I need I need to move them
21:56
in in bulk sometimes that's a good option for that.
21:58
And since they're close, I can I can drive it to them.
22:04
OK, then Ciai threw it in there. I use it.
22:07
I use it and I tell me. It's my favorite.
22:12
You know this. I love CIA because it feels to
22:16
me more welcoming as a collector, as a low dollar
22:20
collector, you know, I'm buying cards in the 50 to $500 range
22:25
generally. And 500 is a lot.
22:27
And there are a lot of options on there of big cards that I
22:32
would love to have that are in my range, the types of cards
22:36
that I would buy as a kind of iconic rookie autographed
22:43
collector. And there is CIA has a lot of
22:46
those and you don't see those in Rea or maybe you do and I'm just
22:50
not seeing them because it's not very not as user friendly as CIA
22:54
is. No, Rea and Huggins and Scott,
22:58
these are like $500.00 an up auction houses.
23:01
CIA is is more like 50 and up. And full, Full disclosure, I'm a
23:04
small owner of CIA, so you know, I am promoting them here, but I
23:09
legitimately use them to sell CIA.
23:13
Does sponsor my other channel what which is also on this
23:16
channel, but this video is not sponsored by CIA.
23:19
Jeremy, my partner, he, he's the owner and when he started like
23:25
he everything was his because he didn't want to, he didn't want
23:27
to take consignments and get really low.
23:29
And so I was putting a bunch of stuff in the auction to sell
23:31
just to just to get some inventory in there.
23:34
And the stuff was selling really, really low.
23:36
But over it's been over a year now and now prices are are
23:40
totally on par with, you know, reasonable.
23:43
Absolutely. Yeah.
23:44
So so now I actually, I do actually use CIA to to sell
23:48
legitimately as a company. Yeah.
23:50
And just to be clear, when I said there are 50 to $500 items,
23:53
there are also much, much bigger items that Jeremy was in there
23:56
too with that are dream cards. And yeah, I mean, I would if I
24:02
were a seller. I'd be selling through CIA too.
24:05
Yeah. So he and again, we're sort of
24:07
self sort of self promoting, but Jeremy, he, he we were talking
24:12
about this early and he was like, eventually we should get
24:14
to the point where we were talking about like eventually
24:16
you'd want to get to the point where you're only selling really
24:17
high dollar stuff because that's the highest margins with little
24:21
work. But he actually, he is actually
24:23
him who said I actually don't ever want to get to the point
24:25
where I'm not taking $50 cards because I wanted to be in an
24:28
everyman auction type of thing for forever.
24:30
So shout out to Jeremy for that. All right.
24:35
And then there's two other eBay auction houses I use a little to
24:41
a lesser extent, but yeah, sometimes it's just really
24:43
convenient for sharp corners. They sell on eBay.
24:47
I use them for graded cheaper, graded modern, let's say like a
24:51
like a $50 Shohei Otani PSA 9 I'd probably send to to them.
24:57
And then hoodies. I actually don't use hoodies
24:59
much anymore, but they're great. And I did use them for a while.
25:02
I was using them a lot for a lot of like raw modern ultra,
25:06
especially like modern prospects and stuff.
25:08
They would get solid prices and and sold through eBay.
25:10
So those that's my company sheet that I I use regularly.
25:14
There was there was 9 on there. Thanks for going through that.
25:17
The reason I asked that and for the listeners because they're if
25:21
you're, if you're thinking about cards the way you do as a
25:28
dealer, you need to have a variety.
25:30
Like I am sure I'm going to interview people on here other
25:33
dealers who are only selling at card shows and on Twitter.
25:36
I see it all the time and they seem to do fine.
25:40
So there's no, this isn't a you have to sell through everything,
25:43
but you might consider various different ways, but some people
25:48
are only buying $100 and up cards.
25:51
Some people are only buying $1000 and up cards and the the
25:56
small variety of places to sell probably work for them, but for
26:00
you, you're buying a lot of bigger collections which I would
26:05
be in the same boat. That's what I would want.
26:06
To do too, like the Vermont. Collection was a dream for me.
26:10
Yeah, it's it's more fun for me that way too.
26:12
Yeah, my friend who just found out I was into cards said, oh,
26:16
I've got my childhood card sitting in my closet that I keep
26:19
meaning to look through, but it's been 35 years.
26:22
And I said, I said there's nothing worth anything in there.
26:26
I guarantee you. You have you have the experience
26:31
of a dealer. Yeah, But he said, would you
26:33
want to look through it? I said 100% I would love to.
26:36
And he, he brought them in. I've got them sitting on the
26:38
floor here next to me. And I said to him, I've, I've
26:41
looked through half of it. And I said there's not anything
26:44
of real value, like a handful of five to $10 cards.
26:48
Man, it's a blast. It's so much fun looking through
26:51
it. That's funny.
26:53
Yeah. Cards.
26:53
That I've never seen before. I stopped.
26:56
Oh, cards you've never seen before.
26:58
Well, that can't be. What is like what?
27:00
There's some Bart nose cards. Oh yeah, Early 90s, early 90s,
27:04
Yeah. I've never seen like Bo.
27:06
No. And he's isn't Bo Jackson on
27:07
this? Yeah.
27:09
He's not, but it is based on that.
27:11
I think that there are some that haven't.
27:14
He just, my friend doesn't have any of that on them.
27:17
But it's like Bart knows baseball, Bart knows basketball,
27:20
stuff like that. Yeah, fun stuff.
27:24
Yeah. If somebody says, if somebody
27:25
says I stopped collecting 35 years ago, that's like basically
27:29
the worst answer. Yeah, his his cards go into the
27:33
early 90s, OK, So I think, but it's largely 85 to 91.
27:41
OK. I was going to say there, there
27:43
can't be that much in there that you haven't seen.
27:45
No, there's not much. It's.
27:47
Probably 80 percent. 1989 Don Russ.
27:53
OK. Curt Schilling, rookie, and
27:55
Griffey's in there, Randy. Gary Sheffield.
27:58
Yeah. Yeah, he's got them all.
28:00
OK. Yeah.
28:04
So somebody comes to you with a bulk collection that's all junk
28:07
wax, 100% junk wax. Do you are you intrigued and
28:12
think I can find something amazing or are you just
28:14
immediately no? Today I'm I'm, I'm immediately
28:18
No, yeah, I there are days when I would have, I would have loved
28:22
that and I would have split it up by player and sold, you know,
28:26
30 Ryan Sandberg cards in an eBay lot and gotten, you know, 5
28:30
bucks for it. And but but I'm I'm, you know,
28:33
I've retired from those days. So no, yeah, I pass.
28:36
I pass it the junk quack Sarah bulk lots now.
28:40
You've advanced, so how many? I saw your video a week or so,
28:45
maybe last Saturday, where you showed your room, your basement.
28:48
Yeah. Is it a basement?
28:50
It's a basement, yeah. Yeah, and you're basically
28:53
collecting player lots. How many do you need to have,
28:56
let's say, of Barry Bonds before you're willing to sell it as a
29:00
lot? Sure.
29:01
So Barry Bonds would, Yeah. So I've I've, it's only down to
29:04
about 20 players total that I set aside for player lots.
29:08
I used to do that. Used to be like the core,
29:10
literally the core of my business was player lots.
29:13
Now, now I only do about 20 players across all the sports.
29:16
Barry Bonds is one of them. He'd, he'd be about 500.
29:19
So when I get to 500 Barry Bonds, I'll make a lot for eBay
29:22
that that's an eBay lot. There's no other really good way
29:24
to sell that that I that I'm aware of.
29:28
And those are all fixed price or best offer you said?
29:33
Yeah, so those would all be the cheap ones.
29:34
Any, any nice Berry bonds would go to Com C.
29:37
So you know, if it's a $5 not Berry Bonds, it would go to Com
29:40
C. If it's a cheap Berry Bonds, it
29:41
would go into this player lot. And when I get to about 500,
29:45
I'll make a player lot for eBay and probably get, you know,
29:49
probably listed for like 150 or best offer, which would be $0.30
29:53
a card and I'll probably get 100.
29:56
Yeah, something like that. So from my Vermont collection, I
30:00
have probably 20 to 30 players that I have built out lots for
30:07
and I just need to just need to sell them at some point.
30:10
They're none of them. I don't.
30:11
I might have two that have 500. Like what sort of player?
30:16
Like what? Like is it like Ryan Sandberg
30:17
level players? Yeah, all all Hall of Farmers,
30:20
plus guys like Clemens and Conseco.
30:22
Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson, Absolutely.
30:25
OK, but that just got. Like Eddie Murray with 37 cards
30:30
that I would never sell. That's tough.
30:32
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So as an example, if I, if you
30:37
have a lot, even if you had like if I bought a collection and
30:40
there was say 500 Ryan Sandberg, Ryan Sandberg is not going to
30:43
sell well. But that's enough.
30:44
I'll just, I'll just post it because it's already made for
30:46
me. But I wouldn't I wouldn't like I
30:49
wouldn't build that overtime or Ryan Sandberg lot, if that makes
30:52
sense. One of the things I send to
30:54
Huggins and Scott are 5000 count Hall of Fame lots.
30:58
So like Ryan Sandberg, Eddie Murray's, the Dave Winfield's,
31:00
the Dennis Eckersley's, the guys who are just not going to sell
31:04
those going to one large lot. And then I'll and sell that
31:07
through Huggins and Scott and and put a bunch of like key
31:10
rookies in the front so that there's something of of intrigue
31:13
beyond Dave Winfield. So 5000 count boxes.
31:20
Yeah, it it depends on the good cards I put in the front.
31:22
Like if I put a bunch of ripped in rookies and Kirby Puckett
31:26
rookies in the front, it'll probably go for like 11 to 2000.
31:33
Oh wow. Yeah, but if.
31:36
But if not, it'll probably go for like 500.
31:39
OK, Yeah. So, all right, you're not going
31:44
to take a junk wax lot. Would you take a a collection
31:48
that's 50% junk wax, 50% more more modern, 50% vintage and I'm
31:56
not adding up all three of those.
31:57
I'm saying 50% junk wax and then 50% vintage or 50% more modern
32:03
that are that are good. Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
32:06
Yeah, No, I, I buy most people, I most collections I buy have a
32:09
whole bunch of junk wax and most people I buy from want to sell
32:14
everything. They don't, they don't want to
32:16
sell a piece of it. Actually, it actually kind of
32:18
surprises me how often people want to sell it all.
32:21
Like I would have thought it's, you know, once in a while, but
32:24
basically everybody I meet, not everybody, but the vast majority
32:27
wants to sell it all. And so, yeah, I, I often end up
32:29
taking a whole bunch of junk wax, which I'm, I'm completely
32:31
fine with if there's, you know, other stuff of use in there.
32:35
So I, I get, I, I have piles of junk wax cards as well and I
32:39
accumulate a lot. But I, you know, I, I move, move
32:41
those out pretty quick. Because one thing I've learned
32:44
is don't. Don't let yourself lose your
32:46
space. So how often do you show up for
32:51
a collection by or a collection, you know, to going through a
32:55
collection and they say somebody's already gone through
32:59
it and taken the good stuff or you find that they have.
33:05
Excuse me? OK, think so.
33:12
This would be the first time somebody chokes and dies on my
33:16
podcast. Sorry, something went down my
33:24
throat wrong. Well, that happens all the time.
33:31
Nobody ever says it though, but it's very.
33:34
Because they're missing cars that they showed on the
33:37
advertisements. Yeah.
33:38
I mean, when you've seen enough collections, you can you can
33:41
start to set sense that somebody has looked through this already.
33:44
But so that happens, that happens all the time.
33:47
But yeah, I don't think anybody, I don't think anybody's ever
33:50
shared that upfront. I, I went through a stretch a
33:56
couple years ago where I, I was wanted to buy collections off
33:59
Facebook Marketplace and I somebody was selling a
34:05
collection. They had some there's some good
34:08
cards in the first photo on Facebook Marketplace and I show
34:12
up and it's all late 1970s binders.
34:16
And the the good cards were like there was like a Yaz rookie and
34:21
a Clemente rookie and a star Joel rookie.
34:26
And so there was a lot of vintage.
34:28
And then I show up and it's just binders of 1976 through 79,
34:34
maybe even into the early 80s Comments.
34:38
And I looked around and I said you're missing all these cards
34:43
and. Oh, they weren't even.
34:44
They weren't even there. No, they're gone, she goes.
34:48
Oh, no, they're all in there, you just need to take them.
34:51
No. No, no, no, no, no.
34:53
And I said she's like you, you just haven't looked enough
34:55
through it. And I said Nah, I have.
34:57
And and she got really mad and she started accusing me of
35:01
stealing. And I was like, no, that's OK,
35:05
I'm I'm out of here. Yeah, no, that, that kind of
35:08
thing happens a a good, a good amount.
35:10
The hey, check out my amazing cards and then you show up there
35:14
and that's that's basically all there.
35:15
I've never, I don't think I've ever been.
35:17
I can't even think of that situation where they they just
35:19
flat out weren't there. I've gotten like, hey, look at
35:23
these 10 cards that are amazing. I've got a whole box full of
35:26
this type of stuff and I arrive and that's the 10 cards are the
35:29
only good ones they have that that that's actually quite
35:32
common actually. Actually insist on getting more
35:35
pictures now than than than that because yeah, that that has just
35:39
happened too often. Would you?
35:41
Would you would you enjoy going around buying collections or do
35:44
you think you would get tired of it quick?
35:46
Oh, I would love it forever. You would love it forever.
35:50
Absolutely. And going through them, my
35:52
challenge would be the the shipping the cards.
35:56
But now there's so many options to ship in bulk to various
36:00
places as you described, that would make it so much easier.
36:04
Yeah, yeah. Would you?
36:07
Love to do it. Yeah, the the like negotiating
36:10
aspect is that. Does that scare you at all or do
36:13
you think you would enjoy that? I think a lot of people are are
36:16
scared off, scared off by that, including me.
36:18
It took me a while to get used to it.
36:20
No, I think it, I would struggle with that at least to start
36:24
because I think if I watching you and then watching like
36:28
chasing cardboard and trike, you spend a lot of time with the
36:32
collection. And I would have a hard time
36:34
getting comfortable with sitting down in somebody's house going
36:38
through their collection for hours.
36:41
But you have to and I would just, I would have a hard time
36:43
with that. Or if you, if you, if they're
36:46
not going to give you that time, which most people do, but once
36:50
in a while they, they won't, then you just have to offer
36:52
extremely low and say, I'm sorry, I have to be because I
36:55
have to be protect myself here. But yeah, most people give you
36:59
the time and they want you to take the time because it makes
37:01
them feel like you're, you know, you're not just guessing and
37:05
you're, you're, you're making a fair assessment, which is what's
37:07
happening. Yeah, and then you'll ask them
37:11
where are your best cards, I assume where, how?
37:14
Direct me to some good boxes. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I actually,
37:19
I actually like going in reverse.
37:21
If, if they, if they know what they're doing and they've sorted
37:24
all the good cards in one place. I like going through the the the
37:27
worst of 1st and working way up my way up to the, the good stuff
37:30
'cause otherwise, you know, if you get the good stuff first,
37:33
then it's like you gotta go through all this bulk.
37:36
Now, if you know, there's like the pot of gold at the end of
37:40
the the rainbow, you'll, you'll, you'll go through the Balkan.
37:43
Spend the right time. So what's the best card you've
37:46
ever bought in a collection? Or just maybe not even in the
37:50
collection, just somebody came up and sold it to you.
37:54
The best card I've ever bought. Like, in terms of like the best
37:58
deal I've ever gotten. It doesn't have to be value.
38:01
It doesn't have to be just the card that you think back and say
38:03
that is my favorite card I've ever bought.
38:06
My favorite car. I don't know.
38:09
I mean, I've told the story in my channel about the LeBron
38:12
James black refractor that was a a good friend of mine.
38:16
He actually bought an like an awesome LeBron James collection.
38:21
It had a gold refractor in there and it had, I think it had one
38:25
of each like the gold refractor. This is 2003 tops, Chrome gold
38:28
refractor, X Factor black refractor refractor in the base.
38:32
But this was before COVID, so they weren't worth all that
38:34
much. And he sold me the black
38:35
refractor for $800. I graded it, it got a nine from
38:40
PSA and yeah, I still have it. It's and it's worth like 20
38:44
grand today. But it went up to 80 grand
38:47
during COVID. Thanks for reminding me, yeah.
38:52
Yeah, I remember that video because.
38:54
It hurt, yes. There were two sales of the card
38:59
in a nine at 80 grand, right around 80 grand.
39:02
And during COVID and I, I, I was like, maybe I'll go higher.
39:10
Well, can't win them all. Yeah.
39:13
So you I assume you've had like a 52 tops mantle?
39:20
I've had two in my life, yeah. But you don't have one in your
39:23
in your safe deposit box now. No, no, I both I had were were
39:27
pre COVID. The first was a was the first
39:32
was raw. We, we assessed it would
39:33
probably grade a 2.5 if we had graded it.
39:36
We paid 13,000. No, we paid, we paid, we paid
39:42
13,000 for the collection of which that was like the the
39:45
biggest card in the collection and then we sold that card for
39:48
15,000. But there was there was more
39:51
stuff in the collection as well. And that was like a that was
39:54
like a one week, one week turn around.
39:56
So that was a quick, quick sale. That was the first Mantel I
39:59
ever, ever had that was raw. And then later we bought out a
40:03
dealer at the National and there was a B VG2IN it as well.
40:09
And we? Actually sold it.
40:11
At the National. So we bought we bought the
40:13
bought the dealer out on a on Saturday and sold the that card
40:15
on Sunday. So I owned that card for one
40:17
day. I don't remember the.
40:20
Numbers on it, but we, you know. We made a little bit on it, so
40:23
let's say you're. Set up at a car show and you buy
40:27
a card for 1000. Dollars.
40:29
What is the minimum you would turn around and sell that for to
40:32
somebody else at that show? Well, I so I don't, I don't
40:38
operate that way, but in in the hypothetical I would 1100 yeah,
40:42
I would if it was if it was a a card I had no interest in like
40:45
holding for whatever reason, then I would take I would take a
40:48
tiny profit on it. So that $1000.
40:51
Card you take it home, what are you hoping to sell it for a
40:57
week? 2 weeks later, 13114 hundred,
41:01
it's it. Completely depends on the card.
41:02
So if it's a vintage card, like let's say it's a mantle that's
41:05
worth 1000, probably the margins are going to be pretty small
41:08
because because that has a very like set price and, and it's
41:14
very clear what it's worth. And probably the person selling
41:16
knows that. And I'm going to be paying a
41:18
strong price because I have to, to be competitive.
41:20
If it's like a really, really rare card, then it's totally
41:23
different, totally like a rare 90s insert.
41:25
Then it's a totally different ball game 'cause that's like,
41:28
who knows what it's worth? I'm, I'm taking a gamble here.
41:31
Maybe I'm paying 1000. I'm gonna try to get 2 grand out
41:32
of it. Probably I won't.
41:34
Maybe I'll get lucky if I don't. OK, let's try 1800.
41:38
If that, if I get lucky with that, cool.
41:39
If not, OK, let's try 1600. And sometimes that goes all the
41:42
way down to 800 and I end up taking a loss on it.
41:45
But, but that's a car, you know, that's a car.
41:47
I, I like those because there's some hits and misses, but
41:50
there's, there's more hits than misses.
41:51
You don't know what's going to be the hits, what's going to be
41:53
the misses. But if you do enough of them,
41:55
there's more hits than misses and there's more margin in the,
41:58
in the big picture. Are you investing in any?
42:01
Players that are current, players that haven't, that are
42:08
not yet a lock for the Hall of Fame, let's say Cal Rally, No.
42:13
Not. Not even.
42:13
Close and I've. Learned that even if there are
42:17
people who can do that, I am not one of them.
42:19
Yeah, I'm the same. So.
42:21
You, but you have some Shohei cards, some Aaron Judge cards, I
42:24
assume? No, no.
42:26
To me, those are too young. I know, I know.
42:28
Everyone will say Shohei Otani is the lock for the greatest
42:31
player of all time. No, he's not.
42:32
I've heard that. Oh, I've heard that 10 times in
42:35
my life about Albert Puholtz and Mike Trout and Ken Griffey
42:37
Junior. These are all the greatest
42:38
players of all time and then, you know, 20 years later,
42:41
they're just, they're just a really good player in their era.
42:44
I got Otani's like Unicorn. He's above and beyond.
42:46
That's what they said about all these other guys too.
42:50
Hard to hard to agree in the moment, but that's that's my
42:53
experience. You'd argue against Puholtz?
42:56
No, I would argue that Puholz still ended.
42:57
Up having an unbelievable career, even though like 10
43:02
years were terrible for the Angels, the 1st 10 years we're
43:08
outrageously good. Very.
43:11
Absolutely. Almost. 1. 100% I'm not knocking
43:14
any of these. Players, I'm saying in 2007,
43:19
people said Albert Puholtz will be the greatest, the most
43:22
important player in card history.
43:24
His cards will be the most important cards in all of cards
43:27
forever. And they're just not.
43:30
They're just not like that. That's all.
43:32
That's all I'm saying, yeah. All right, Chris, we're 44
43:39
minutes in. This has been enlightening,
43:42
interesting and fun. Yeah, it's, well, I feel like I
43:45
talked too. Much this time I should.
43:47
No, this has been great. That's the whole.
43:49
Point of this, yeah, OK. Thank you for coming on.
43:54
And again, for anybody listening, actually, before we
43:56
go, do you want to add anything? No.
44:01
You mean just like promote myself or?
44:04
Sure, if you want to, absolutely.
44:06
My name is Chris and yeah. You're it's not a.
44:10
Car dealer I'm a car. Dealer come, come say hi.
44:13
Yeah, YouTube. Collector investor dealer.
44:17
Baseball card Collector investor dealer.
44:20
Yeah, it's your YouTube channel. Yeah.
44:24
And people can find you at where.
44:26
Where's your e-mail address? Just go to the YouTube channel,
44:29
the emails there. It's easier to find that way.
44:32
OK, so again. As I mentioned the beginning, if
44:36
you're watching on my channel, Junk Wax Hero, make sure you go
44:39
and subscribe to Sports Card Clubhouse or go and follow the
44:44
podcast which comes out several days before the YouTube videos.
44:47
This will be the last one of these that shows up on my
44:50
YouTube channel. Other than that, I appreciate
44:53
everybody listening or watching. Chris, thanks very much for
44:56
joining me. Yeah, thanks so much, man.
44:57
Fun as always. Bye everybody.