Author
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Topic: In need of Buy/selling advice
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Purehate28 New Member
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posted July 11, 2014 11:51 PM
Hey folks!So, I have a few questions and I'm really hoping you amazing people can point me in the right direction and give me the advice that I'm looking for. Just as all of you, I'm a passionate magic player and collecter. I've been playing since I was roughly 8 and I'm now 27. Very basic collecting, and just acquiring the cards I need to build my decks. Anyway, as a side hobby... I'm really wanting to break into the eBay world of buying and selling MTG cards. Not in such a way of having to make a living out of it. But definitely enough to make a profit and it be worth the time I put into it. I've bought plenty of cards off of eBay, always from credible sellers. And these people I buy from seem to constantly have a seemingly endless supply of the most valuable cards in standard. Example.. Elspeth or stormbreath dragon. I guess what my main question is, if I intend do build a good size inventory of cards to sell. How do I do so? I understand the concept of buying low and selling high. But there is no way these sellers are buying random lots off of eBay and coming up on that many elspeths to turn around and sell week after week. There's no way Going to a retailer and buying booster box after booster box at $120 a pop, cracking all the boosters, then turning around and selling all the rares for a profit is possible. Or am I wrong? So how is this done exactly? What do I need to do in order to start a mini-market and hobby out of buying and selling magic cards online?
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caquaa Member
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posted July 12, 2014 02:48 AM
overlooking the glaringly obvious...
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jbark Member
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posted July 12, 2014 05:05 AM
Run before the virtual slap comes... People who make a living will most likely not tell you how they do it efficiently. That you can figure out on your own. First step is get lots and lots of money.
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Purehate28 New Member
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posted July 12, 2014 07:55 AM
Wow, thanks. Didn't think I would actually get trolled here... Figured this community would actually be kind enough to educate me on the matter...
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headumpire Member
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posted July 12, 2014 08:05 AM
A) Dont try and get into the standard buying and selling. You will lose.I am the least likely person to give someone a virtual slap, and agree people on this site can be quite rude. That being said, no one is going to give you the building blocks to businesses that we had to create and learn the hard way. Doing that would just add another competitor for us. With all sincerity I wish you the best of luck, it takes alot of work, but it is possible.
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hilikuS Member
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posted July 12, 2014 08:29 AM
quote: Originally posted by Purehate28: Wow, thanks. Didn't think I would actually get trolled here... Figured this community would actually be kind enough to educate me on the matter...
With all due respect. For someone to just give that information away would be the same as giving away someone's hard earned education on the matter. That information is valuable. I do the things, but am small time as hell. The two guys who were nice enough to level with you here are being supremely cool. In the past I've seen these threads turn into flame fests. They happen fairly often. If you do start banging it out, you'll eventually learn some things, and you'll find that these types of threads are kind of, I don't wanna say BS, but BS. From my limited perspective of the Magic business, the best advice you can receive for free is: "Learn it yourself." It's hard to say that without sounding pretentious, but I do not mean it that way.
[Edited 2 times, lastly by hilikuS on July 12, 2014]
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mm1983 Member
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posted July 12, 2014 09:16 AM
Getting into the ebay world with mtg takes patience, time, and money. Keep in mind you have to build a decent feedback before many people start buying from you and for some of those buyers to be repeat customers. Being cheapest works but is not always the best because it could result in selling yourself short on items that see an overnight price increase but being cheapest is a good way to get some quick sales to build your feedback. As you earn different ebay statuses you'll eventually be able to get 20% off of final value fees and if you have a couple hundred or more items I'd strongly suggest doing the ebay store subscription for $20 a month as it gives you x amount of free listings and then .20 per listing for anything above x amount of listings or $50 gets you unlimited listings for free. Total fees between ebay and paypal are usually 12-15% and does not count shipping. Keep this in mind if you are buying to resell on ebay.
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SageShadows Member
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posted July 12, 2014 09:58 AM
A lot of big established sellers build up their reputation to such a point where if people want to sell cards, they'll sell it to them. Without that pipeline, you're pretty much buying low and selling high, which isn't worth your time or effort if you want to make a lot of money.
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Purehate28 New Member
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posted July 12, 2014 10:05 AM
Thanks for the positive advice guys. That's what I was looking for. Even if it's not giving away all the secrets of these sellers.I understand that it's going to be a learning experience for myself. Fortunately, money isn't an issue, I can afford to blow quite a bit to get started on this... But as I said earlier, I'm also really not trying to make big money on this at all. A little bit of extra cash would be cool... But this is mainly just as a hobby. Hobby first, business second.
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Purehate28 New Member
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posted July 12, 2014 04:31 PM
Went and reached out to a local retailer today and worked out a deal to aquire booster boxes in bulk at a killer whole sale price. Thanks gents.
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mini1337s Member
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posted July 12, 2014 04:40 PM
You might find some decent advice from the Brainstorm Brewery podcast: brainstormbrewery.com . They discuss the basics of Magic finance and selling online quite often. A piece of advice that I see time and time again is to keep your personal collection and your business's collection VERY separate. Most of the items you have the best potential to profit on is the stuff that as a player you want to keep. Know going into it what is yours and what is your stores. Also, figure out shipping early on; most websites, like eBay and TCGplayer, will side with the buyer over the seller. Make sure you send things with delivery confirmation and in a way that is protected. You can buy bubble mailers in bulk, and these are the shipping standard for cards (toploader taped shut inside a bubblemailer).
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Sovarius Member
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posted July 12, 2014 06:49 PM
"There's no way Going to a retailer and buying booster box after booster box at $120 a pop"Well, they are not paying $120 a pop, for starters, so you're right, there is no way that's profitable. __________________ Want Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, and other vampire females oddities (foreign, foil, crimp, miscut, misprint, sign, test print, alters, artist proofs, etc)
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jb231 Member
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posted July 12, 2014 11:01 PM
It's the type of thing where you have to have both sides of the channel in place so you basically skim a fee for handling the cards from one source to another. I've never tried myself but these seem like the simplest routes to purchasing on the surface to me, 1) store front buy 2) online buylist 3) forum buylist 4) craigslist style buying, cash is king and big lots can have bigger discounts if you have the cash to offer 5) magic online redemptions with bots 6) you can also crack stuff but I don't know the logistics of that, you'd need to be buying the boxes from a distributor which regular folks can't do and the best money would probably be in the chase mythics that just came out.
[Edited 1 times, lastly by jb231 on July 12, 2014]
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MagicPatty Member
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posted July 13, 2014 05:52 AM
Some quick tips:1. Buy low on craigslist... troll it and find folks that want your cash more than their cards. 2. Have some hard to find stuff: that is, you'll find that people on here often want a 'premium' in trade for their old stuff. Your 100.00 card can get you 120.00 in stuff... if you bought that 100.00 card for 75, the math works in your favor. 3. Remember that ebay is often the place where cards sell for their bottom price, so your job is not to sell things for as much as you can get, but rather your job (and the tough part) is to get a consistent stream of underpriced cards. This can happen by speculating on cards that may go up in value, finding friends that are happy to give a slight discount because you have something they need, or as stated in #2, by having something that is relatively hard to find thus getting a premium. Good luck!
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paragondave Member
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posted July 13, 2014 07:32 AM
Buy all the Craw Wurms you can find. Corner the market. Those are Magic gold.
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chaos021 Member
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posted July 13, 2014 11:31 AM
quote: Originally posted by paragondave: Buy all the Craw Wurms you can find. Corner the market. Those are Magic gold.
Especially if you can get then with the super rare gold borders. __________________ "Message to women worldwide: Girls....we're stupid. We don't like games. We don't know games. We can't read minds. Say it like you mean or STFU." -rockondonMy Sale Thread
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headumpire Member
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posted July 13, 2014 11:59 AM
quote: Originally posted by Purehate28: Went and reached out to a local retailer today and worked out a deal to aquire booster boxes in bulk at a killer whole sale price. Thanks gents.
#YouWillLoseYourShirt
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paragondave Member
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posted July 13, 2014 02:10 PM
quote: Originally posted by Purehate28: Went and reached out to a local retailer today and worked out a deal to aquire booster boxes in bulk at a killer whole sale price. Thanks gents.
But I'm keeping the retailer and the price a secret so as not to help out my competitors. Haha suckers!
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jbark Member
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posted July 13, 2014 03:01 PM
Curious what this killer deal is. Mine is $80 a box... and I believe from wizards they are $72 if you have the brick and mortar store.
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Purehate28 New Member
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posted July 14, 2014 12:35 AM
quote: Originally posted by jbark: Curious what this killer deal is. Mine is $80 a box... and I believe from wizards they are $72 if you have the brick and mortar store.
Ya, I got mine at $80.
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paragondave Member
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posted July 14, 2014 07:27 AM
quote: Originally posted by Purehate28: Ya, I got mine at $80.
That's pretty typical if you preorder cases.
[Edited 1 times, lastly by paragondave on July 14, 2014]
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caquaa Member
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posted July 14, 2014 08:09 PM
quote: Originally posted by Purehate28: Ya, I got mine at $80.
now you'll lose slightly less per box when you open them, congrats!
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coolio Member
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posted July 15, 2014 06:58 AM
not really a killer deal© __________________ Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong. -Christopher HitchensReligion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. -Seneca the Younger
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noquarter Member
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posted July 17, 2014 01:51 PM
The one person I've seen do this in real life (not to sound like this board isn't full of real people, but you know) was able to find a store that had a pretty good size pool of players (roughly 30 on average, more on pre-release, less on bad sets) and offered to buy cards for cash at a big named stores buy prices. The store didn't sell singles, so didn't cut into their business, and saved the players from having to send the cards in for the cash.He should have been making decent money, since they would buy cards at the same stores prices, plus he traveled to a lot events and sold out there. So, from what I saw, find a place with players that like money and play limited a lot. Buy from them at big name stores buy prices and sell at there sale prices. Have no over head and have cash on hand.
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slurpee Member
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posted July 17, 2014 03:03 PM
You will almost never make money dealing in Standard cards
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