The mood is pretty grim in the sports card collecting and investment circles right now. NFL Week 4 didn’t help, with Justin Fields taking another loss, Kenny Pickett suffering an injury, Mac Jones being sidelined, and Tua Tagovailoa coming back down to Earth.
This low-spirited vibe isn’t just about player performance; it’s tied to several concerning incidents within the hobby. From the shutdown of industry watchdog Cardporn to the drawn-out legal tussle between Panini and Fanatics, optimism is in short supply.
Adding fuel to the fire is the recent admission by a high-profile Instagram sports card influencer and Co-Founder of Fund Your Cards, who confessed to artificially inflating bids on his own eBay auctions. This raises questions about the authenticity of “comps” that are frequently tossed around in the hobby.
Topps is so stupid they printed the 1/1 Superfractors in 2023 Bowman Chrome Baseball, twice, resulting in them having to go to the open market to try and buy back their mistakes. Right now, only the pelican case dorks who came around during the covid-boom are investing in anything current from Panini or Topps.
It’s tough being upbeat in the current climate, but that didn’t stop us from acquiring more sports cards this month. Unlike many of your favorite hobby heroes, we typically don’t buy modern cards given the uncertainties about their print runs.
Remember all the clowns who ran out to buy Luka Doncic cards only to find out Panini printed them like they were a 1991 Fleer factory set?
Even more concerning for this hobby and its pumpers, is there any athlete in baseball, football, or basketball who’s exciting enough to revitalize modern card buying at the moment?
Despite all that, lets take a look at the spending breakdown:
Spent on Goldin: $5,103.26
Spent on COMC: $768.87
Spent on eBay: $328.99
Here are the highlights:
Less than $1,000 for a Durant rookie year on-card autograph seems reasonable. Probably will try and flip it at some point.
Bought this Eminem signed record. Think there is long term upside to $5,000-$10,000.
This same exact card, same PSA serial number, “sold” for $750 Aug 18, 2023 on eBay according to CardLadder. Perhaps the eBay sale never went through or the person took an over $300 loss selling to us a few weeks later.
For what dorks pay for Justin Fields cards this seems cheap but who knows.
We bought 7 lower end graded Tom Brady rookies for under $100 each on Goldin.
Currently have 15 LeBron James jersey/memorabilia cards and added a few this month.
On COMC, we only bought from a few sellers. We typically buy full “portfolios” of cards, allowing us to buy hundreds of cards at once and not spend too much time buying cards one at a time. Here is a link to download all the cards we bought if you’re curious.
We bought several lots of cheap graded cards on eBay. Those get drop shipped to the PSA Vault and we sell them typically on the Goldin Marketplace. We’ve sold over 800 cards since February using the drop ship method, meaning we actually never touch or physically have the card in our possession (also don’t have to pay sales tax). For people that want a little more hands-off selling experience, using vaults like the PSA, PWCC, Alt or eBay option can make selling easier and less complicated.
Happy collecting!!
