Sports Card Buying Tips
Check Out My Cards
Buying an entire “Portfolio”
COMC Marketplace for Portfolios: Port Classifieds
There are two different ways you can add cards to sell on the popular website Check Out My Cards (COMC). You can either send in cards to their Washington warehouse, which costs a minimum of $0.25 cents per card. Or, you can purchase cards on-site with the hopes of flipping them for profit by re-selling them. There are a number of ways you can attempt to acquire cards to re-sell on COMC. You can purchase cards at the listed price on their site and simply re-list them for a higher price. This strategy should only be employed if you notice a seller has updated their inventory and recently lowered prices. Typically you at least want to make offers on cards you are attempting to buy and re-sell. You can make offers on individual cards, or if you are trying to purchase multiple cards from the same seller, make an offer on the entire lot. After you put cards in your “cart” you can then proceed to make an offer without purchasing the card outright for full price. Typically sellers respond in 24 hours, but that can vary. Certain sellers may be willing to give you a great deal, while others may not. You’ll have to feel out certain sellers to get an idea who can get cheap cards from.
If you do not have enough money to purchase an entire portfolio, and maybe only have $10-25 to spend on a flipping strategy, then browse the COMC Classified ads for 50% off sales. If a seller is advertising they are accepting 50% off, then you can simply check out their inventory and take 50% off any cards you want to purchase. A sweet spot price on that website, is purchasing cards for 90-95% off Beckett High Value. The Beckett book price is listed underneath each card for sale on COMC.
* Try to buy – re-sell cards for less then .75 cents on COMC
Why: Check Out My Cards doesn’t charge to store/sell cards priced at less then .25 cents.
If a card is priced above .75 cents it will cost you .01 cent a month to store it. So 100 cards is $1.00 – 1,000 cards priced above .75 cents is $10.00 per month until sold.
Buying Portfolios
A “Port Sale” is someone who is selling every single card they have listed for sale. You typically only want to buy these when the asking price is 80-90% off “high” Beckett book value. So if a card books at $10.00 – you would be buying it for – max – $1.00-$2.00. This is a great way to add to your inventory and get great deals. I’ve probably purchased at least 30-40 portfolio’s, some of them are big and cost $1,000+, while others may only cost $20-100. It all depends how many cards they have for sale.
COMC typically updates their classifieds about 2 or 3 times a day. All of the classified ads have to be approved by COMC so they all “pop up at once” when they update that section. Typically there are at least 2-5 new “Ports” listed for sale daily. You’ll have to browse each sellers inventory to see what is junk and what is not. You’ll also notice that the same sellers typically are selling Ports all the time. This common practice is where sellers will buy cards on COMC – with the sole purpose to put together a portfolio to re-sell on the classifieds. They typically buy cheaper autographs or vintage cards that still have a high Beckett book value. Sometimes these can be good deals, while often times they are not. The Ports I like are from sellers who haven’t run a classified ad and are just in need of some money or want to clear inventory. You’ll need to check out the classifieds section each day to get a feel for which sellers are the best to buy from.
Lastly – you have to use your best guess as far as the quality of cards. I like the cheap stuff – if possible. I sometimes don’t want a bunch of autograph cards even if they are nice. Cards that are more expensive can sometimes take longer to sell. But cheap cards move all day long for the most part. I like buying key players when I have a choice – Griffey, Jordan, Magic, Jeter, the obvious names sell well and sell quickly if you have a good price. BUT – it’s been my experience if you can get anyone – just about any card for less then .10 cents you’ve got a good chance to re-sell it if there isn’t a lot of price competition.
Read the COMC Fees Page and keep in mind they charge a 20% cashout fee + 0.01 Cent Storage for cards priced over $0.25 Cents
