8d (edited) • General discussion
Hopped on a call with “C group” today.
Let me tell you something. I really enjoy all of the people that I meet flipping cards. But one comes to mind that has taught me quite a bit when it comes to doing shows and grown me in ways I wasn’t expecting. His name is Jay, he’s “C group” for most of us in this “little blog.” Most of you know him and know how hilarious he is. He owns a toy shop. He has a big personality, I have a big personality. You can imagine the psychological torture that we put each other through on purpose. (And for fun) he will tell you he’s a grumpy old man. When in fact he’s just intelligent.
Jays advice (which is actually pretty good advice): “go low ball toy people on cards.” I swear to god he said it while owning and operating a toy store. For those of you that know Jay, go haggle at 50% this week… who knows, he might just give you cards. 😂 he’s in this group reading this right now so I have to get my shots in because he’s going to get his in on Friday lol. (I’m kidding, don’t be the person that haggles at 50%.)
He is correct, toy shop owners care about toys. They get into cards because that’s what the people want and it brings customers to their store. Their mindset is very different than what the younger generation is used to. They know their margins and profit is profit at the end of the day. Sure we want 100% back on our investments but that’s typically not how it’s going to work. Toy shop owners have been flipping toys since before AI and computers. Jay used to take checks by mail for eBay sales… we can’t even fathom having to wait for a check to come in the mail for an eBay purchase. That entire mindset is: I’ll buy it at 40% and if I get 70% for it then I’m in profit. Which is absolutely true and we should take that advice.
When you have a card that you graded and spent $50 on the card and $25 for grading and the card comes back in a 10 and sells for $600. You have $75 in a $600 card. You can wait on someone to buy it at $600 which may take a bit longer. Or you can post it for $500 and make your money quicker. You were $75 in and now you’ve profited $425. Take the win. The faster you can buy, sell, and flip cards, the faster you’ll make $100,000. If you wait then you will go slower while scaling your business.
Antique people think very similar to this. They care about antiques only but some of them carry cards to bring people in. At the last show I did there was an antique/ flea market next door. They had Pokemon cards. Their main income is antiques. Pokemon cards draws your children into their booth and you being a good parent follow your child into that booth. The antique dealer doesn’t care about the cards, they used it as a lure to get to you through your children and it worked like a charm. So feel free to go to antique booths at shows and lowball their cards. They know their margins. They can do math in their head. Our generation was raised with calculators in our phones so we aren’t as good at math as they are.
Our generation pulls our phones out and we depend on the knowledge that the phone provides. If a card is comped at $100 on eBay sales then we are going to treat it as gospel and relay that information if it benefits us to do so. Or just lowball them. When you go to a show most people are there to liquidate and they expect to haggle. They appreciate the people that don’t but most of us enjoy haggling on price.
One other piece of Jays advice: to test the “temperature” at a show, take a random $100 product that you have nothing into and put it out for significantly less. Throw a $30 sticker on it and put it in the binder. If you got the card for nothing then you made $30. And even if you didn’t make money on that card you will on other cards. Which is why it’s important to know your margins. Just because you loose a little here and there doesn’t mean you can’t make it up on other products. The goal of setting the price low is to see if the show runner has marketed appropriately and brought people to that show that know what they are looking at. If nobody buys the card then that tells you that the show is cold. It will tell you if you should continue to do that show in the years to come or hold off till they grow a bit bigger
I mess with the man a lot, hopefully too much because he deserves it. But when 20 years of experience speaks, you should be listening. Being an entrepreneur myself I have to learn different mindsets.
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Hopped on a call with “C group” today.
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