Fantastic video. I started with the same mindset as you, about a year ago, and at the start I was doing great for a newcomer. About 5k in sales per month and 20%+ profit margin and it looked like it was going to rapidly scale. But after a few months it became so hard to secure product and I was unfortunate enough with back to back dud products that lost me all my profits. The hardest part of this business is truly starting capital and product sourcing. Customers are everywhere. Quality products are not.
Product sourcing is definitely going to become my bottleneck as well. I’ve jumped on all the deals I’ve seen, but creating sustainable and repeatable business is the real challenge!
This is exactly what I am looking at as well, the issue is not so much getting the sales the platforms are there, the logistics of getting products in front of potential customers is essentially al taken care of. It is the products themselves, this is where one will struggle as a small independent business. Without access to distributors and the liquidity needed to buy a bunch of boxes every month or so you are going to have to depend on what the second hand market has available. This can vary wildly and it is highly likely that if there is good money to be made with a product it is going to be far less available than if the margins are slim... My strategy has been to talk to every single LGS in a reasonable radius and ask them if they need to offload bulk preferably on a regular basis and so far that has been my best source of bulk as most of them were willing to dump their bulk at a reasonable price as the effort of listing it all is just not worth it for them and the volumes that they are doing with their sealed products and high end singles. It certainly is not glamorous but there is money to be made selling this stuff and it is true that if you have a large variety of cards you are likely to get the punters looking at your wares and if they are buying a few high end cards or need those 3 uncommon cards they are likely to check your inventory as you seem to have everything in stock.
@GameVitamins awesome. Hey I've noticed the sound has a lot of echo when filming on the storage space, as it gets filled sound will be better but if you just hang some pictures or stuff on the walls will probably help a bunch
Great video. I just found your channel the other day and binged them. I've been selling on TCGplayer for 3 years as a little side thing. The one thing I noticed with all these kinds of channels is no one ever talks about tax benefits. Being a sole proprietor. Write off your work space, internet, supplies, travel (if you go to card shows), shipping/TCGplayer fees and anything else related to your business. Is that something you're willing to make a video on?
I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos!! This would definitely be a good topic to touch on. The thing is, I think “write offs” are misunderstood to an extent. While there are some that’ll be beneficial like internet, phone, some travel, etc to help minimize taxable income, the majority are operating expenses counting against your profit, so while all these things do minimize your taxable income, you’re not better off by stacking up so many expenses you don’t actually turn a profit. Where the real benefits come are where it starts to get more in depth with AR/AP spreads, equipment depreciation, etc. but I’m no tax professional 😅
Good luck with this man. I’ve just started selling singles $4+ on eBay. I enjoy the slower pace of it and higher margins on some cards/playsets of cards
I'm not there yet, but also having the assets, ability to prove profitability, or credit to leverage someone else's capital to obtain inventory is another huge topic but may be critical to meeting goals!
Hey man, enjoying your videos. I just sold my MTG collection, took store credit instead of cash, and turned it around to buy MTG collector's boxes. I've also spent some cash on Pokemon boxes, Sorcery boxes, and some other MTG collector's. I'm starting a similar journey, just with sealed product. And I'm really not looking into selling anything for quite a while. More of an investment, than a business, I guess. I've thought about delving into selling singles, but I'm hesitant. Interested to see things work for you. It seems like you at least have a passion, organizational skills, and are in the right headspace for running a business like this. Subscribed, and I'll be checking in to see how things are going. Good luck.
My best advice for new sellers trying to begin? Avoid sealed products. They have awful margins and soak up massive amounts of liquidity. They are unpredictable and are likely to sit on your shelf for awhile. In contrast, selling singles focusing on lower margins higher volume gets you just as far for much less risk. Singles sell. Sealed doesn’t.
Starting off I completely agree... high priced products that require significant increases in value just to get over the hurdle of fees to sell them. For example if you got a Duskmourn box @ $116, and could sell it for $149.99 (including shipping), after all expenses and fees you'd barely make over $6 on TCGPlayer...
Hmmm that’s tough because a market like TCGPlayer is pretty key to singles volume. Is eBay available? If so I’ve heard of good singles success on eBay, but that’d probably be $1 and up. Then I’d likely focus on alternative products that may be more “bulk” related just to turn over more inventory. I think without a great singles marketplace I’d focus on creating higher dollar products to offset the volume problem.
veryu curious to see if you can make profit margins just selling singles off your boxes, you did say you got great deals but excited to see the overall when you don tget boxes for sale. people say its very difficult to do that but based on the sims seems some boxes can really net you 5-10% profit not sure after tax but you have VOLUME sop excited to see that
I don’t expect to be able to create frequent and repeatable profit from sealed product so that’ll probably be a discussion once I turn over more of what I’ve accumulated regarding strategies to create sustainable income. But volume is key in this game no matter what!
Fantastic video. I started with the same mindset as you, about a year ago, and at the start I was doing great for a newcomer. About 5k in sales per month and 20%+ profit margin and it looked like it was going to rapidly scale. But after a few months it became so hard to secure product and I was unfortunate enough with back to back dud products that lost me all my profits. The hardest part of this business is truly starting capital and product sourcing. Customers are everywhere. Quality products are not.
Product sourcing is definitely going to become my bottleneck as well. I’ve jumped on all the deals I’ve seen, but creating sustainable and repeatable business is the real challenge!
This is exactly what I am looking at as well, the issue is not so much getting the sales the platforms are there, the logistics of getting products in front of potential customers is essentially al taken care of. It is the products themselves, this is where one will struggle as a small independent business. Without access to distributors and the liquidity needed to buy a bunch of boxes every month or so you are going to have to depend on what the second hand market has available. This can vary wildly and it is highly likely that if there is good money to be made with a product it is going to be far less available than if the margins are slim...
My strategy has been to talk to every single LGS in a reasonable radius and ask them if they need to offload bulk preferably on a regular basis and so far that has been my best source of bulk as most of them were willing to dump their bulk at a reasonable price as the effort of listing it all is just not worth it for them and the volumes that they are doing with their sealed products and high end singles.
It certainly is not glamorous but there is money to be made selling this stuff and it is true that if you have a large variety of cards you are likely to get the punters looking at your wares and if they are buying a few high end cards or need those 3 uncommon cards they are likely to check your inventory as you seem to have everything in stock.
This channel is fairly new but content is well put and it's a joy to watch. I'll be cheering on your journey.
I’ll work on keeping the quality of info and production as high as possible 😎 thanks for joining along!
@GameVitamins awesome. Hey I've noticed the sound has a lot of echo when filming on the storage space, as it gets filled sound will be better but if you just hang some pictures or stuff on the walls will probably help a bunch
Haven't seen anyone start a channel talking about this topic. I'll subscribe and see how your channel grows. Wishing you Success.
Thank you very much!
excellent video a lot of value to unpack. Important conversations and thoughts that more people should be making videos on!
Appreciate that! I’m glad you enjoyed it 😎
Really cool to see your take on the card shop business, will be taking notes 👀
Appreciate it! Thanks for following along
Great video. I just found your channel the other day and binged them. I've been selling on TCGplayer for 3 years as a little side thing. The one thing I noticed with all these kinds of channels is no one ever talks about tax benefits. Being a sole proprietor. Write off your work space, internet, supplies, travel (if you go to card shows), shipping/TCGplayer fees and anything else related to your business. Is that something you're willing to make a video on?
I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos!! This would definitely be a good topic to touch on. The thing is, I think “write offs” are misunderstood to an extent. While there are some that’ll be beneficial like internet, phone, some travel, etc to help minimize taxable income, the majority are operating expenses counting against your profit, so while all these things do minimize your taxable income, you’re not better off by stacking up so many expenses you don’t actually turn a profit. Where the real benefits come are where it starts to get more in depth with AR/AP spreads, equipment depreciation, etc. but I’m no tax professional 😅
Good luck with this man.
I’ve just started selling singles $4+ on eBay.
I enjoy the slower pace of it and higher margins on some cards/playsets of cards
Hey that’s not a bad move! Gotta do what’s right for you 👌
@ thanks for reply! 🤙🏼🤘🏼
I'm not there yet, but also having the assets, ability to prove profitability, or credit to leverage someone else's capital to obtain inventory is another huge topic but may be critical to meeting goals!
8% is insanely low but i also dont crack just to sell and my floor is $3. been working for me
Hey man, enjoying your videos. I just sold my MTG collection, took store credit instead of cash, and turned it around to buy MTG collector's boxes. I've also spent some cash on Pokemon boxes, Sorcery boxes, and some other MTG collector's. I'm starting a similar journey, just with sealed product. And I'm really not looking into selling anything for quite a while. More of an investment, than a business, I guess.
I've thought about delving into selling singles, but I'm hesitant. Interested to see things work for you. It seems like you at least have a passion, organizational skills, and are in the right headspace for running a business like this. Subscribed, and I'll be checking in to see how things are going. Good luck.
Appreciate the kind words and thanks for following along! It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out 👌
My best advice for new sellers trying to begin?
Avoid sealed products. They have awful margins and soak up massive amounts of liquidity. They are unpredictable and are likely to sit on your shelf for awhile.
In contrast, selling singles focusing on lower margins higher volume gets you just as far for much less risk.
Singles sell. Sealed doesn’t.
Starting off I completely agree... high priced products that require significant increases in value just to get over the hurdle of fees to sell them. For example if you got a Duskmourn box @ $116, and could sell it for $149.99 (including shipping), after all expenses and fees you'd barely make over $6 on TCGPlayer...
Hi mate. Interested in your thoughts on this - I live in Australia. There is no access to TCG Player. If you lived here, what would your strategy be?
Hmmm that’s tough because a market like TCGPlayer is pretty key to singles volume. Is eBay available? If so I’ve heard of good singles success on eBay, but that’d probably be $1 and up. Then I’d likely focus on alternative products that may be more “bulk” related just to turn over more inventory. I think without a great singles marketplace I’d focus on creating higher dollar products to offset the volume problem.
veryu curious to see if you can make profit margins just selling singles off your boxes, you did say you got great deals but excited to see the overall when you don tget boxes for sale. people say its very difficult to do that but based on the sims seems some boxes can really net you 5-10% profit not sure after tax but you have VOLUME sop excited to see that
I don’t expect to be able to create frequent and repeatable profit from sealed product so that’ll probably be a discussion once I turn over more of what I’ve accumulated regarding strategies to create sustainable income. But volume is key in this game no matter what!
MY EYES ARE ON YOU. EYE OPENING