I'm really hyper interested in a series on TCGPlayer Direct. There's hardly any information and I'm currently on the road to getting there myself. I'm also interested (greatly) in how you'll decide what new product to buy and what that process is. I'm assuming you focus on Pokemon and Magic by the cards in the video. Can you make a video elaborating your thought process behind deciding and procuring whatever it is you're going to sell? You'd be doing a HUGE favor to all of us looking to do what you've done! Thank you!!!
Thanks so much for the feedback! I've been considering what other videos I could do concerning TCGplayer Direct, so your input is very helpful. You can definitely look forward to more videos on just these topics in the near future
How do you keep track of profit you’ve made off of bulk purchases or opening product to resale on direct? Also just want to say I love your content on the direct program and bulk information in general!
Honestly, I don't really try to track it by purchase. Sometimes if I'm opening some sealed product, and I've never listed any of it before, I'll check every now and then just to see how it's doing. But generally once bulk has been purchased it just becomes part of the inventory. So I'm just trying to make sure cash flow stays positive, rather than tracking every purchase's direct profits. I already know what I'm selling cards for at a minimum before I buy, and kind of how quickly I'll sell them if I get them listed, so I just make sure the purchase price makes sense and move on
we are looking to get into selling on TCG player. have been selling on ebay for a long time. looks like we can list more bulk and make profit on tcgplayer (after getting into the direct program which who know how long that will take) but this video puts a lot in question for me. is it worth the 4 hours of work to make a mere 37ish an hour. i so realize this is probably just a partial of your total sales but still a question non the less. interested in how you feel about direct all these years later. love your content by the way. i have been watching a lot of your videos! great stuff. was also wondering if you could do a video about your scanner and kind of going over what you did to modify it. i think you are onto something buying an older and cheaper scanner because even the new flagship scanners from fujitsu at $600 + people are having to modify them due to dmg of cards. its kind of funny because those were designed with the card market in mind and your 2005 model was not. thanks again!
I really didn't have much I had to do to the scanner. Mostly just ran a card through a few dozen times to see where the high points were, and tried to sand them down as best as possible, then test and check. There isn't really much to show, because it doesn't look much different than it did before. For me, Direct is well worth it. I honestly think it's worth it for a lot more people than realize it. $37 per hour isn't something I can sneeze at, and also I don't/can't really think about it in terms like that. The work that I put in on any given day doesn't just affect the revenue of the next day, or the next week, but also the next month, year, decade. It compounds on itself. It's also a pretty low risk way to get into scaling a trading card business, so that's a big reason I feel like it's a good idea for a lot of people. Finally, getting good at all the things required to make a business centered around processing bulk volume through Direct will necessarily mean you are also getting good at any other aspect of the trading card business. If you can succeed at all with a high volume bulk business, you have also learned the skills needed for selling higher end cards, or selling cards from a new game, or selling sports cards, or selling comics, video games, pogs, &c.
@@TCGBulkKings You’re awesome man! I can’t thank you enough for answering all my questions I’ve posted throughout your videos! You will hands down be a major reason why our switch from EBay to TCG is going to be as smooth as possible.
@@seanjohnson487 glad I can help! And may I say, if eBay is working for you, try just adding TCGplayer, rather than switching over. It can be "and", it doesn't have to be "or". Something to think about
Thank you for the video! Do you have a link for those sleeves that hold a lot of cards? The one on BCW says it hold about 35 cards. The one in your video looks like it can take more than 35 cards.
They are talking about sports cards with that number. Sports cards tend to be thicker than gaming cards. In my experience, regular team bags hold about 75-80 magic or Pokemon cards, and the Graded Card Sleeves hold about 100. Be sure to use my promo code to save 10% (and help me out with a bit of a commission 😁)
So pre sorting (2 hours?) then Pulling the orders (4 hours) packing (1 hour) the time it took you to search and find sellers to buy stock from… all for $130(ish)??? Taking into account the unknown time for searching for sellers to buy from that about $14 per hour.
$14 per hour PLUS extraordinarily valuable knowledge. Usually you have to pay to learn stuff, rather than GET paid to learn stuff. All that ignoring that this is a much preferred way to earn $14/hr than working at KFC. Also this was more than a year ago, my processes are much more streamlined now
@@TCGBulkKings I wasn’t trying to bash you. I’m just pointing out it’s a lot of work for low pay. Subtract taxes, extra cost to file a 1099, “lost” cards that never arrived, then uncertainties of supply and resale price…. I would rather just go work a part time job and let them handle back end. I do understand the excitement from collecting. I collect cards and hot wheels. If I can sell them outright or on market place, I don’t sell 🤷♂️
Hey! Quick question, it says that you need to have 600 dollars a week in sales in order to be apart of the tcg direct program was that the case for you? I just reached level 4 and have over 3k in cards listed and they denied me saying I need to have at least 600 dollars in sales a week. As a bulk seller that just doesn't seem possible. Even if I list my entire inventory (7500 cards) of each one sold for average 5 cents a piece thats only 375 dollars in value. Any advice for me?
The short advice: get more cards. I had about 100,000 cards listed when they reached out to me to join Direct. I had EXACTLY that same experience, so I said "screw it, I'll just get good at it on my own". A few months later, they were asking after me. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Best of luck, demonlemon, and keep us updated on how things are going!
@@TCGBulkKings Thanks for the reply I really appreciate it! For cards, what would you say minimum price should be? I hear no less then a quarter a card if thats the case won't other sellers just get picked over you? New sub since you responded and love the content!
@@demonlemon1284 Glad to have your aboard! =] I set my floor differently for different games, based on the market price for bulk in that game. Generally though, I won't sell a card for less than $.05. There will be transactions you lose some pennies on, but those transactions will happen less and less as you add more inventory. I've talked about this done, but I have a video planned for the near future about shipping rates, keep an eye out for it
@@TCGBulkKings perfect thanks, primarily right now I have Pokemon and Yugioh. I'll take what ya say and try to stick above 5 cents. See how that works out. I've been thinking about doing bulk lots through Amazon too so im gonna be testing the waters with new strategies to see what works best for me.
Hello I am level 1 just started and I have over 9k cards of mix of Pokémon/yugioh/magic . I am wondering how tcg player direct wants the cards organized ?
No, I definitely sell higher end cards through TCGplayer too. Can't beat the traffic. I mostly list lower condition non-bulk to Ebay, because I can better disclose the wear on the card with an Ebay listing than just a condition marker on TCGplayer. Also put that kind of stuff on my website. I don't currently have a good rule as to what goes to Ebay and what goes to my website, that is something I'm actively working on figuring out
@@TCGBulkKings I just got into Direct thanks to you! However, as I’m looking at my fees for my $15+ cards the fees are way more, but of course they do move way faster. I’m losing money on them but I guess that’s a good thing to learn. I mainly sell Pokemon bulk.
I just got into direct finally! Have not replied to the email yet but quick question. Do you put different prices for direct and marketplace when you list a card? Or do you still only put 1 price for both?
@@TCGBulkKings thanks a ton man! Appreciate it a lot. You inspired me to do it. do you use your floor price of .10 still or do you price cards higher being in direct? I’ve been doing market price if above .10 and having a floor of .10 if below that.
Sure - it was roughly around 100k individual cards. I was doing far more than the number of transactions required, and a little less than the dollar amount required, and they reached out to me as I'd already applied way back when I was a tiny fish
I’ve notice my sales have been less compared to before. Could this be because of my pricing? I had to increase my price because of how much fees is taken.
If you've raised your floor pricing, that's probably had an effect on sales, yes. Also, if you've been in Direct for just a bit, and you had a big rush of sales that has tapered off a bit, likely you've sold off a lot of the more demanded cards, and haven't replenished them as quickly as you've been selling them.
For the record, don't send your cards in boxes labeled "biohazard", TCGplayer didn't really like that very much ={ Probably just not a very good idea in case the package gets damaged and the postal workers are trying to figure out what to do based on the boxes inside.... Didn't really think that one through, which is usually one of my strengths. Some days you win, and some days you learn.
@@nathanhenrichs9162 I have, a bit, but not too seriously. I'm really averse to give up personal control of my inventory. I'm pretty comfortable keeping up with it, where others may not be. Too much time doing inventory management for Fortune 500 retail stores
Yes, you'll want to sell higher value cards initially, because of the way shipping fees work at lower seller levels. I'm looking to do a get started type video soon, to go through all these details. But if you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask
@@iKaresaboutNASCAR Hey, I totally get it. What got me past the intimidating part when I started out was to consider: what's the worst case scenario? I sell nothing and wasted a few hours? I sell some cards but lose a little bit of money? Either way I will learn a lot, both about the business and about myself. Seems like a cheap and fun way to do that
@@TCGBulkKings with my ebay business, my hardest thing was getting inventory. So I feel like as long as I keep things stocked I should be okay. I've heard also that ebay is a great place to get stamps, envelopes, etc and they are alot cheaper. I appreciate you making videos about it. I definitely subscribed! 😀
Basically they take half for any cards under $3, which considering some of these cards are under $1 thats a great deal because if you had shipped these cheap cards your self you’d be spending way more than half.
This seems like a losing game. You, the seller, does all the work, and barely break even while TCG rakes in cash. Selling $100 worth of cards and getting $50...after the time, shipping material, and fees, you're barely breaking even. It would probably be faster and still get around the same amount if you just do the buylist and send it all to them. I could be wrong. I'm also experimenting with this myself. So far it's a lot of work for pennies.
This allows you to monetize everything, and if you can set up your processes to be very efficient, it minimizes the feeling of working for little. Also, this work is mostly front loaded, and the effects are cumulative later. It's a marathon, you aren't going to get huge life changing results in a couple weeks or a couple months, but dedication to it compounds upon itself
@@Rubiksguy He was receiving orders directly from TCGplayer to fill their warehouse stock, and had questions about how the fees and prices lined up. There was worry that TCGplayer were getting double discounts on their stock by charging fees twice, but careful study of this admittedly not very transparent aspect of the program showed that wasn't happening
Glad this vid popped on my feed. Might be helping my friend do this
Then I'm glad it did too! If you have any questions feel free to ask!
I'm really hyper interested in a series on TCGPlayer Direct. There's hardly any information and I'm currently on the road to getting there myself. I'm also interested (greatly) in how you'll decide what new product to buy and what that process is. I'm assuming you focus on Pokemon and Magic by the cards in the video. Can you make a video elaborating your thought process behind deciding and procuring whatever it is you're going to sell? You'd be doing a HUGE favor to all of us looking to do what you've done! Thank you!!!
Thanks so much for the feedback! I've been considering what other videos I could do concerning TCGplayer Direct, so your input is very helpful. You can definitely look forward to more videos on just these topics in the near future
You've peaked my interest in TCGplayer Direct when that service is offered to me!
Really a great program, there's not much I would change about it
How do you keep track of profit you’ve made off of bulk purchases or opening product to resale on direct? Also just want to say I love your content on the direct program and bulk information in general!
Honestly, I don't really try to track it by purchase. Sometimes if I'm opening some sealed product, and I've never listed any of it before, I'll check every now and then just to see how it's doing. But generally once bulk has been purchased it just becomes part of the inventory. So I'm just trying to make sure cash flow stays positive, rather than tracking every purchase's direct profits. I already know what I'm selling cards for at a minimum before I buy, and kind of how quickly I'll sell them if I get them listed, so I just make sure the purchase price makes sense and move on
we are looking to get into selling on TCG player. have been selling on ebay for a long time. looks like we can list more bulk and make profit on tcgplayer (after getting into the direct program which who know how long that will take) but this video puts a lot in question for me. is it worth the 4 hours of work to make a mere 37ish an hour. i so realize this is probably just a partial of your total sales but still a question non the less. interested in how you feel about direct all these years later. love your content by the way. i have been watching a lot of your videos! great stuff. was also wondering if you could do a video about your scanner and kind of going over what you did to modify it. i think you are onto something buying an older and cheaper scanner because even the new flagship scanners from fujitsu at $600 + people are having to modify them due to dmg of cards. its kind of funny because those were designed with the card market in mind and your 2005 model was not. thanks again!
I really didn't have much I had to do to the scanner. Mostly just ran a card through a few dozen times to see where the high points were, and tried to sand them down as best as possible, then test and check. There isn't really much to show, because it doesn't look much different than it did before.
For me, Direct is well worth it. I honestly think it's worth it for a lot more people than realize it. $37 per hour isn't something I can sneeze at, and also I don't/can't really think about it in terms like that. The work that I put in on any given day doesn't just affect the revenue of the next day, or the next week, but also the next month, year, decade. It compounds on itself. It's also a pretty low risk way to get into scaling a trading card business, so that's a big reason I feel like it's a good idea for a lot of people. Finally, getting good at all the things required to make a business centered around processing bulk volume through Direct will necessarily mean you are also getting good at any other aspect of the trading card business. If you can succeed at all with a high volume bulk business, you have also learned the skills needed for selling higher end cards, or selling cards from a new game, or selling sports cards, or selling comics, video games, pogs, &c.
@@TCGBulkKings You’re awesome man! I can’t thank you enough for answering all my questions I’ve posted throughout your videos! You will hands down be a major reason why our switch from EBay to TCG is going to be as smooth as possible.
@@seanjohnson487 glad I can help! And may I say, if eBay is working for you, try just adding TCGplayer, rather than switching over. It can be "and", it doesn't have to be "or". Something to think about
Thank you for the video! Do you have a link for those sleeves that hold a lot of cards? The one on BCW says it hold about 35 cards. The one in your video looks like it can take more than 35 cards.
They are talking about sports cards with that number. Sports cards tend to be thicker than gaming cards. In my experience, regular team bags hold about 75-80 magic or Pokemon cards, and the Graded Card Sleeves hold about 100. Be sure to use my promo code to save 10% (and help me out with a bit of a commission 😁)
@@TCGBulkKings I see. Thank you so much!
So pre sorting (2 hours?) then Pulling the orders (4 hours) packing (1 hour) the time it took you to search and find sellers to buy stock from… all for $130(ish)??? Taking into account the unknown time for searching for sellers to buy from that about $14 per hour.
$14 per hour PLUS extraordinarily valuable knowledge. Usually you have to pay to learn stuff, rather than GET paid to learn stuff. All that ignoring that this is a much preferred way to earn $14/hr than working at KFC. Also this was more than a year ago, my processes are much more streamlined now
@@TCGBulkKings I wasn’t trying to bash you. I’m just pointing out it’s a lot of work for low pay. Subtract taxes, extra cost to file a 1099, “lost” cards that never arrived, then uncertainties of supply and resale price…. I would rather just go work a part time job and let them handle back end.
I do understand the excitement from collecting. I collect cards and hot wheels. If I can sell them outright or on market place, I don’t sell 🤷♂️
Hey! Quick question, it says that you need to have 600 dollars a week in sales in order to be apart of the tcg direct program was that the case for you? I just reached level 4 and have over 3k in cards listed and they denied me saying I need to have at least 600 dollars in sales a week. As a bulk seller that just doesn't seem possible. Even if I list my entire inventory (7500 cards) of each one sold for average 5 cents a piece thats only 375 dollars in value. Any advice for me?
The short advice: get more cards. I had about 100,000 cards listed when they reached out to me to join Direct. I had EXACTLY that same experience, so I said "screw it, I'll just get good at it on my own". A few months later, they were asking after me. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.
Best of luck, demonlemon, and keep us updated on how things are going!
@@TCGBulkKings Thanks for the reply I really appreciate it! For cards, what would you say minimum price should be? I hear no less then a quarter a card if thats the case won't other sellers just get picked over you? New sub since you responded and love the content!
@@demonlemon1284 Glad to have your aboard! =]
I set my floor differently for different games, based on the market price for bulk in that game. Generally though, I won't sell a card for less than $.05. There will be transactions you lose some pennies on, but those transactions will happen less and less as you add more inventory. I've talked about this done, but I have a video planned for the near future about shipping rates, keep an eye out for it
@@TCGBulkKings perfect thanks, primarily right now I have Pokemon and Yugioh. I'll take what ya say and try to stick above 5 cents. See how that works out. I've been thinking about doing bulk lots through Amazon too so im gonna be testing the waters with new strategies to see what works best for me.
Hello I am level 1 just started and I have over 9k cards of mix of Pokémon/yugioh/magic . I am wondering how tcg player direct wants the cards organized ?
Which price range is best for tcg player direct? Do you typically only sell bulk on direct and high priced cards goes to eBay?
No, I definitely sell higher end cards through TCGplayer too. Can't beat the traffic. I mostly list lower condition non-bulk to Ebay, because I can better disclose the wear on the card with an Ebay listing than just a condition marker on TCGplayer. Also put that kind of stuff on my website. I don't currently have a good rule as to what goes to Ebay and what goes to my website, that is something I'm actively working on figuring out
@@TCGBulkKings I just got into Direct thanks to you! However, as I’m looking at my fees for my $15+ cards the fees are way more, but of course they do move way faster. I’m losing money on them but I guess that’s a good thing to learn. I mainly sell Pokemon bulk.
I just got into direct finally! Have not replied to the email yet but quick question. Do you put different prices for direct and marketplace when you list a card? Or do you still only put 1 price for both?
It's one price for both 👍
And CONGRATS!
@@TCGBulkKings thanks a ton man! Appreciate it a lot. You inspired me to do it. do you use your floor price of .10 still or do you price cards higher being in direct? I’ve been doing market price if above .10 and having a floor of .10 if below that.
Can I ask about how big your inventory was when you started direct? Roughly of course.
Sure - it was roughly around 100k individual cards. I was doing far more than the number of transactions required, and a little less than the dollar amount required, and they reached out to me as I'd already applied way back when I was a tiny fish
I’ve notice my sales have been less compared to before. Could this be because of my pricing? I had to increase my price because of how much fees is taken.
If you've raised your floor pricing, that's probably had an effect on sales, yes. Also, if you've been in Direct for just a bit, and you had a big rush of sales that has tapered off a bit, likely you've sold off a lot of the more demanded cards, and haven't replenished them as quickly as you've been selling them.
For the record, don't send your cards in boxes labeled "biohazard", TCGplayer didn't really like that very much ={ Probably just not a very good idea in case the package gets damaged and the postal workers are trying to figure out what to do based on the boxes inside.... Didn't really think that one through, which is usually one of my strengths. Some days you win, and some days you learn.
Have you looked into the Store your product option?
@@nathanhenrichs9162 I have, a bit, but not too seriously. I'm really averse to give up personal control of my inventory. I'm pretty comfortable keeping up with it, where others may not be. Too much time doing inventory management for Fortune 500 retail stores
Bruh... Those boxes are hilarious 😂😂😂
@@N3moTheGreat That's what I thought, but they were all like "our safety officer says we can't open anything labeled biohazard"
As soon as i saw that, i thought, uhh that doesn't seem like a good idea 😂
So like, I opened an account, but I'm afraid if I sell a card for $.25 at first, I'm going to end up paying money to send that card? Any suggestions?
Yes, you'll want to sell higher value cards initially, because of the way shipping fees work at lower seller levels. I'm looking to do a get started type video soon, to go through all these details. But if you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask
@@TCGBulkKings thank you so much! Yeah, it's just intimidating, ya know? lol
@@iKaresaboutNASCAR Hey, I totally get it. What got me past the intimidating part when I started out was to consider: what's the worst case scenario? I sell nothing and wasted a few hours? I sell some cards but lose a little bit of money? Either way I will learn a lot, both about the business and about myself. Seems like a cheap and fun way to do that
@@TCGBulkKings with my ebay business, my hardest thing was getting inventory. So I feel like as long as I keep things stocked I should be okay. I've heard also that ebay is a great place to get stamps, envelopes, etc and they are alot cheaper. I appreciate you making videos about it. I definitely subscribed! 😀
I'm confused why you're only keeping have the revenue. Is it because the shipping costs from TCGPlayer are such a large percent of the total sale?
That's how the fee structure for Direct is set up
Basically they take half for any cards under $3, which considering some of these cards are under $1 thats a great deal because if you had shipped these cheap cards your self you’d be spending way more than half.
This seems like a losing game. You, the seller, does all the work, and barely break even while TCG rakes in cash. Selling $100 worth of cards and getting $50...after the time, shipping material, and fees, you're barely breaking even. It would probably be faster and still get around the same amount if you just do the buylist and send it all to them. I could be wrong. I'm also experimenting with this myself. So far it's a lot of work for pennies.
This allows you to monetize everything, and if you can set up your processes to be very efficient, it minimizes the feeling of working for little. Also, this work is mostly front loaded, and the effects are cumulative later. It's a marathon, you aren't going to get huge life changing results in a couple weeks or a couple months, but dedication to it compounds upon itself
I joined direct and I found out something very interesting is there some place I can dm U?
Feel free to send me an email at tcgbulkkings@gmail.com
What did you find? I’m considering joining it too
@@Rubiksguy He was receiving orders directly from TCGplayer to fill their warehouse stock, and had questions about how the fees and prices lined up. There was worry that TCGplayer were getting double discounts on their stock by charging fees twice, but careful study of this admittedly not very transparent aspect of the program showed that wasn't happening
I feel like dropping tcgplayer direct as well because I feel the same way... I think they are charging way to much on fees on direct
@@robertcano740 fees are cheaper on direct than without it, if you include your own shipping costs as part of the fees :shrug: