How to FAIL to Run Any TRADING CARD Business

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How to FAIL to Run Any TRADING CARD Business

Рет қаралды 3,107

7 ай бұрын

We flip the script a bit and try to figure out all the worst ways to run a trading card business, and then flip it back to see what we should be doing. Almost like hacking your brain. Don't recommend you take this on lightly lol
With respect to Alex Hormozi for the original idea, a video I watched almost 2 years ago lol: • REPROGRAM your mind to... . Give it a watch after this one.
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Пікірлер: 46

@N-a-s-e-e-f 7 ай бұрын

I did yugioh pokemon and magic for 15 years. I just stopped recently to travel. I’ll be back to buying and selling card again maybe next year. Your talking points is exactly what I did to be successful.

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

Awesome! Glad it's making sense to true veterans =]

@TheBearNecessiTCG 7 ай бұрын

Number 9 - I use tape on some of my shipments and getting one of those office tape dispensers made my life so much easier, now I can just use one hand to get a small piece of tape. It's the small things that make a big difference. Number 12 - That's me. When I pull a big hit that's $100 or more, I tend to just hold onto it. I don't know why, I need to just list those cards and move on.

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

I love that - the little things make waaaaay more of a difference than you could really see before implementing them. And I love thinking about how much those big cards will cover the cost of the rest of the collection, or fund the next collection

@bronzgod321 7 ай бұрын

Love it! love all of this, not only for the card biz, but could be applied to all aspects of life. True insight from my cardboard god.

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

Glad you've found it useful!

@bronzgod321 4 ай бұрын

one other question, i rewatched this cuz it came up. but what is this mass entry you are talking about? Im not direct, do you have to be direct or did i misunderstand waht you said? @@TCGBulkKings

@funtimewallace6580 7 ай бұрын

Huge shout out to you mentioning blaming the customers instead of taking accountability, this is something I see a ton in new sellers and when I started this was something that I learned was holding me back also

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

I think I get asked once a week by someone who's wanting to get started, hey, Chase, how do you deal with all the rampant fraud I always hear about? Aren't people scamming you all the time? And it just never happens, I have literally 0 experience with it

@funtimewallace6580 7 ай бұрын

@TCGBulkKings Honestly same here, which is always wild to me because I think under 1% of my orders were "potential fraud"

@Code-Stir 6 ай бұрын

Great video! Your content has helped me a lot with starting my TCG business! You have helped guide me to level 4 seller, 100+ sales and 100% feedback within my first month! This video was timed perfectly for helping my set goals to advance my process further. Thanks a lot for all the helpful content!

@TCGBulkKings 6 ай бұрын

I'm so glad to be helpful! Congrats on your achievements!

@da-mann0112 7 ай бұрын

Slowly moving from small inventory to big inventory. I bought a couple bulk collections. I have 18k cards logged right now, most are near mint. I have a hard time deciding on what to grade things though. I bought a collection and some have whitening more than others, but hard for me to tell what would be considered NM, LP, MP, etc. Even with all the information like NM to me might be MP to someone else I don't really see how I can confidently say NM. I also find it annoying to have 1 card with like 3 possible different conditions listed on TCGPlayer :/. Love the videos as always. Keep up the grind!

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

I lean towards being extra harsh on conditioning, so I try not to leave any question as to whether a card is NM. If there is an immediate apparent defect of any kind, it's not NM to me

@da-mann0112 7 ай бұрын

@@TCGBulkKings yeah I know that’s all we have to do unfortunately. Now when you mean an immediate apparent defect, does that mean literally anything minor that you notice right as you look at the card even minor whitening. Also I can tell way harder to get into magic (as in there are way more sellers), I know that you got into direct by them sending you email after you had been grinding but how does one get to $600 a week with bulk? Did you price at low or do you price at market before you got direct? I barely pull maybe $50 a day with my current 18k inventory so I’m confused. Thanks again sir!

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

@@da-mann0112 If I think a buyer might think that a flaw /could/ be enough to consider it LP instead of NM, then I decide it /is/ enough to consider it LP instead of NM. And if I start getting complaints, then I'll move that line to be more strict. It's tough to get to get to $600/wk with /only/ bulk. I just kept grinding. I think my inventory was around 100k when I got in, and they had relaxed the revenue requirement for me because of the large inventory. I was pricing at around TCGlow, with a floor price that I wouldn't price below. My floor at the time was $.05, I currently use $.10 for games that aren't in Direct (FaB, Weiss Schwarz, &c.). You'll have to determine what that floor is for yourself and your business.

@da-mann0112 7 ай бұрын

@@TCGBulkKings sounds good. Maybe I’ll start pricing around TCG low for my bulk+ stuff currently it’s roughly at market price. Just got a mess around with the numbers I suppose

@MTGUnpacked 7 ай бұрын

So much of that seems like common-sense, but I'm always coming across sellers on TCG Player who seemingly have no idea what they're doing. Biggest issues are card condition (pack fresh is not always near mint!), using extremely sticky tape everywhere, and sending completely different cards than what I ordered!🤦‍♂️

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

Hopefully the video will make it seem like common sense to more people

@ameliadesertsong 7 ай бұрын

I used to sell trading cards among other things for a side income. I always found that I did best in down markets like this. Far more opportunities arise when other people just give up and dump their inventory. Now I just occasionally flip things for fun but I’m looking to collect a bunch of bulk from my favorite card games because so many people see them as toxic assets. I see it as a great investment in both fun and future return. :)

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

You've got the spirit, preach lol Definitely one of the best times to go on offense, just nail the fundamentals and ride out the storm. Like Forrest Gump on his shrimp boat, right? =]

@TheBuffetBar 7 ай бұрын

I am currently primarily invested in Pokemon. Do you have a decent research where I can go learn on sourcing magic cards? Most of my Pokemon card purchases occur through discord. Are you aware of any magic the gathering discords that host a marketplace channel? For example pokevault has a marketplace channel where people can buy and sell cards.

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

I'm not aware of any MtG discords for buying. Most of my sourcing either comes from local Facebook groups or people reaching out to me. I would see if there's a Facebook group in your area, and just advertise what price you'd be willing to pay. People will come to you, especially if you add value to that group in an upright and positive way

@thegamemasterllc 7 ай бұрын

“Always race to the bottom on pricing” to Never Chase to the bottom on pricing. Protect your margins!

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

That's a good one :thumbsup:

@karol_pl526 7 ай бұрын

Could you make a video on how you deal with protecting your card collection from moisture, or if you even consider this factor at all? Your channel is about selling in the USA, but could you hypothetically make a video about how you would do the same in Europe and whether you would do it here where there is no TCG? Greetings from Europe.

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

I can give it a go 😁 Whereabouts in Europe are you located? I hear it's kinda big....

@karol_pl526 7 ай бұрын

@@TCGBulkKings I am from Poland (greetings!) but I wrote Europe because my country has a population like ~California, and I think that might not be a sufficient market. Another thing that came to my mind, if not selling cards, what else would you do? :)

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

It's a smaller pond, but there are definitely fewer fish too. I'm not very familiar with it, but CardMarket is the big marketplace in EU, with CardTrader also having a presence. I would definitely try to focus on how to get really good at CardMarket, since that's where all the attention is in the European market. If I weren't in selling cards, I would likely be selling used books, though I prefer cards because the low end volume game in books is much harder

@blakemills8528 7 ай бұрын

I'm curious to know how you dealt with the early game. I just hit level 3, and I'm pretty confident I can reach level 4. But I feel like once I hit that point and list every single I have, I'll run into the issue of selling too many singles at a loss due to shipping expenses. Or blowing through my inventory and unsure what the best move financially to replenish - Do I buy a case of latest set? Do I buy some pokemon ETB's and just post everything and hope it at least net's itself out? In short, if you can recall, how did you deal with the transitions from level 2 to 3 to 4, and learning what inventory to buy and how much? I've watched your "Get Good" series but feel like there's so much that you have to figure out during those time periods.

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

By the time I had decided to give bulk a try, I was already Lvl 4, from selling some random things here and there over the course of about 3 years of just being in the hobby, so I don't really have a memory of trying to blast up to Lvl 4. As far as what to sell once you've listed your whole existing inventory - I don't really recommend cracking sealed for singles unless you can go BIG and you can be very educated about what you are cracking. I usually prefer to crack preconstructed items so that I know what's in it before opening, so I can be sure my buy price is worth what I can get out. Lower risk, but likely lower possible reward. If you can find inexpensive commander products or things like that, could work out for you. I personally prefer to buy other people's bulk collections and keep listing that. Risk is very low, upside potential is medium, just don't overpay for it and don't buy too much. I am soon launching a book about progressing from Lvl 0 to Lvl 4 on TCGplayer, and there will be some details in there both about how to start transitioning your mindset as you change from a hobbyist to a business operator, as well as some ideas for what you can do once you reach Lvl 4. Keep an eye out for that and for content related to it =]

@blakemills8528 7 ай бұрын

@@TCGBulkKings wow, this was an awesome reply. That was really informative and solid information. Thanks for taking the time to share some wisdom. I’ll definitely keep an eye out!

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

@@blakemills8528 thanks for saying so, I'm glad to be helpful 🙏

@Crocodonk 7 ай бұрын

Good advice :) Off subject question, but do you use that shelf behind you for your live inventory, storage, or maybe both?

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

The boltless shelf unit is for live inventory, with a bit of random stuff on the very top (because I don't want heavy boxes of cards up there), and I have enough room for about 1 row's worth of space on the side, so I put little things I need to access into bundle/etb boxes in there, things like tape, notecards, dividers, rubber bands, #000 bubble mailers, camera lenses, boxes of envelopes, &c., &c., ad nauseam

@lordgingervitis1280 7 ай бұрын

My biggest problem is not knowing if my cards will still sell on direct , if i set my floor to 5 cents. I have been selling cards as low as a penny then I sell 100-200 cards for 2$ and have to pay 3.90 to ship them. Losing money on those. My second biggest issue is not knowing how to make a website. Any advice?

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

1) Will your cards sell on Direct at $.05 instead of $.01? All I can say for sure is that /mine/ do, but probably more slowly than yours at $.01. But I actually make money on those orders. And when I get orders of 200 cards at $.05 each, I'm making money. Only rarely do I get a big order I lose money on, and the ones I do lose money on I lose only a tiny amount compared to what I'm making.

@TCGBulkKings 7 ай бұрын

2) How to make a website? There is unlimited information out there on how to do this. That can tell you how to do it waaaaay better than I can. You just have to decide to search it up, and then to apply what you're doing. Stay curious, but also apply what you learn when you're being curious

@lordgingervitis1280 7 ай бұрын

You are amazing!

@ownbey58 5 ай бұрын

Curious what team bags do you use to ship your RI for TCGplayer

@TCGBulkKings 5 ай бұрын

I typically use the BCW graded card sleeves, but they've been back ordered for a bit, so I'm using regular BCW team bags currently

@ownbey58 5 ай бұрын

@@TCGBulkKings thanks! How many cards fit in the regular team bags? I have used the cardboard gold ones but they only hold 50. Recently turned on direct.

@TCGBulkKings 5 ай бұрын

@@ownbey58 yeah about 50 TCG cards in a team bag. Congrats!