I would love to see a video of your long term investment box

Thanks for the shout out Chris, you’re the man! And yes it’s mind boggling looking at what prices used to look like previously for some of these star players rookie cards

We all make mistakes my digital friend but we also learn from them as well but in the end we will always prosper. Good stuff as always.

this is why this guy's channel is epic .. he's honest, he tells it as it is .. mistakes and all. and great info that helps people like me who just dabbles in sports cards.

Your honesty is refreshing on KZfaq

I love how calm you are man, I bought a Kobe 1996 Topps Chrome PSA 10 for 100 Jan 2020. Before Covid sold it for $500 in March 2020. I'm still broken up about it, but listening to you actually made me feel better:)

i should have bought bitcoin in 2009 instead of steph curry

A wise man once said "Don't look back if you made a profit"

What I liked about this story is that it can be assessed for any player, sport, or country cards are sold in. Diversify into several small but promising cards and research trends over time is the lesson.

Great analogy, it's always tough knowing when to buy and sell, and thinking you know who the next big star is going to be. Who would of thought that prices for cards would be astronomical, we are all just thankful that there are always buyers for the cards we have when we want to sell them. Looking back we all have had cards we wish we would have held onto.

Also just wanted to say I love your honesty. This happens with all investments. I sold my bitcoin a week ago. I will be dreaming of that for years. Being honest to yourself is the key to learning from mistakes.

I did the same thing with Mahomes. I sold two of his Optic Rated Rookies Silver Holos for 75 a piece... months go by and they shoot up. There's one raw right now bid up over 700 on ebay. You live and learn. Great video

This is great advice across all investment classes, including when it comes time to sell equities in retirement. It's basically dollar cost averaging for selling. It hedges your bets and allows you to stay in the market if it goes up, while taking profits if it goes down.

Really well thought out and it makes sense with the smaller value purchases. Assuming of course these trends continue.

I have been collecting over 40 years and just started grading. I'll send in at least 2 of each card and sell one to cover my grading costs and keep one for my PC

This is how I was approaching buying cards back in 2019 and 2020. Buy 3-4 of the same card, keep one long term and send some for grading. Now, I’m not grading and just holding the cards, because I used discretionary money to buy them. I will wait to see if these players pan out. Thanks for sharing.

There was no way for you to know this was going to happen and you actually did very well on selling those cards. It's really crappy to look back and see what could have been but don't forget you still won. That's not an L.

Still waiting on that time machine...

Brilliant analysis. Makes total sense because this is something i’ve thought a lot about and have come to the exact same conclusion. I always sell my lesser cards one at a time and then decide what to keep when i get to the best that are left.

I have two things.. 1) I wish I had bought the BGS 9.5 Kobe Precious Metal around 5yrs ago for $325. The seller took too long to respond to me and I spent it on other cards. 2) In the late 90’s when I was 17 or so, so let’s say ‘98-‘99 ish, I have a Dec B-Day, I was at a card show in my town and seen a Fleer Jordan RC at a vintage table. I asked how much it was and he said $900 but that I should just move away because I couldn’t afford anything he had.. little did he know, I had over 4K in my bank account because I worked but never spent my money. I was so tempted to buy it for my PC but he’d be the winner in at argument at my expense of showing off. Looking back, I should of pulled the trigger, ignored his attitude against a teen and bought it.

I did this with Mahomes in May 2020. I had 3 Rated Rookies (donruss), 3 inserts (Elite Series, Optic (illusions insert), and a donruss rookie of the year contender). I knew the price of the raw rated rookies had reached $60 in early March 2020, and was surprised to see it hit over $100 at the end of April 2020. Went ahead and listed the 3 Rated Rookies raw for $159.99 in May 2020 they all sold within a week. (Those are selling for $175-$190 now) Happy with my sale. However I decided to hold my inserts, thinking sometime during the season they would be worth more because eyes would be on football. That worked, I sold them the Saturday before the super bowl. Elite Series - May 2020 - approx. $180-$200 - Feb. 2021 sold $511 Optic (Illusions) - May 2020 - $150-$175 - Feb. 2021 sold $212 Rookie of the Year Contender - May 2020 $90 - Feb. 2021 sold $148 Hedging is a great way to cover potential losses and ensure median gains. (I opened these 6 cards in 2017 out of clearance packs at Walmart, how the times have changed)

I can relate to this so much. I eneded up getting the Chiefs in a case break of 2017 Prizm for $10. Ended up with 8 base Mahomes RCs, an Orange /275 and an auto /99. Ended up selling all before he even played a game for around $400. Wishing I would have sat on a some a little longer.

This makes so much sense. Love the channel

I wish I would have had that piece of wisdom around 2000 before the dot-com bubble exploded. Having had sold chunks of the rising stocks (rather than hoping for them to continue to rise to the moon and beyond) certainly would have been a decent strategy back then. A very valuable (and true) contribution, Chris.

There are a lot of people who got back into cards in 2020 who *need to watch this. This is just great sound investment advice across multiple assets. New fan to the channel!

I love your honesty . I see people throwing Thier hits in people's faces . You are very humble & are very intelligent when it comes 2 the Hobby 👍👍👍

Great information. I haven't started to sell any of my cards from my PC. But that time is coming because we can't take this stuff with us. And this is a good lesson. Thank you for sharing.

This video!!!! Great job as always and awesome insight on investing. I will definitely be adding this strategy moving forward. Love your content.

I did the opposite. Dale Murphy is my favorite player to collect and I bought his Topps RC for $73 when he was hot in the hobby. His card is worth $10 - $15 today.

Love your videos honest and not cocky

The prices for his Topps chrome rookie cards are even more ridiculous. So, don't feel so bad partner.

Appreciate this video, bro. Shows your humbleness. I’ve made mistakes like this in this hobby everyday and still learning. Channels like yours have definitely provided a lot of valuable wisdom. Just remember the most successful people have had multiple failures in life. It’s the hustle that keeps us going 🤙🏽

Had the chance to buy multiple 2001 Upper Deck Tiger Woods PSA 8s a few months ago at $50 a piece... They are selling for $150-200 a piece now. Had no idea this documentary was a thing!

great stuff..i have sold quite a few too early this past year and this year already..awesome advice..ty ,,much apprciated..

GREAT advice. I recently used this strategy by purchasing a bunch of Tiger Woods PSA 8 rookies for less than $50. ea. They more then doubled in value BEFORE they even arrived in the mail. Hold a few, sell a few. That is the plan.

Pokemon collector here. I love your calm and logical approach. I am enjoying learning from you!

this is like investments and stock options. when you put an option out, you only risk part of your position. Like out of 500 shares, you only risk maybe 200 shares, that way, if the stock rises and you lose the 200 shares, you still have the 300 remaining for the future.

It's easy to look back at big mistakes with hindsight but this is a valuable lesson you've shared for everyone when dealing in a fluctuating market

A couple years back, I sold the US175 Mike Trout rookie for about $125 (ungraded). The card probably would have at least gotten a PSA 9. I needed money at the time though. It's easy to look back and think how we would do things differently, but sometimes you just gotta do what feels right. Great Video!

From a historic perspective, you played it correctly; seldomly did any base card make such a rapid incline. Look at Payton Mannings Bowman rookie card for example. But with the influx of cash in the hobby, one has to reconsider modern trends that never happened that much in the past. When I pulled my 2009 Donruss National treasures 1 of 1 Nolan Ryan Super patch auto I immediately thought of cashing in which I did at $500 dollars. Can you imagine how much that card is worth now??

Can't tell you how much I appreciate this video RIGHT NOW. I got back into the hobby about 18 months ago when I bought an entire car load at a garage sale for $50. Mostly junk wax era, but lots of decent stuff, including sealed hobby boxes which I've long since sold, and was ahead of the 2020 surge in the hobby. I've recouped my $50 investment many times over. My approach has been to buy for the fun of the chase. Rip and sell... I'd been wanting to get a Herbert Silver Prizm, bought into ONE break, and got the card I was coveting. It arrived in the mail today. Before it arrived, I'd been anticipating sending it in to PSA, but now seeing it in hand, it has one notable surface defect. I think the best I could hope for is an 8 from PSA. Herbert's stock is high, and I think it will continue to increase, especially if he wins ROY. I only have the one Herbert silver Prizm, and I'm only into it for about $140. Thoughts on how you'd proceed?

I'm glad I've held my Steph Curry

Props to you. It's not easy to talk about moments you messed up. Thanks for sharing. You're awesome.

Thank you for taking us through your deal, as you did. You did what probably most would have done, made something, and changed your strategy to what I assume has been an even more positive one for you. Great stuff all around

This sounds like some of my beaten down stocks,some really went up after I sold,some went down,it is a hard call but something to think about is making your money and not worry about what happens later!!!

Sold my Ultra Scoring Kings MJ BGS 9.5 (sub grade 10)for 1K about 11 years ago. Not too long after, sold my 97-98 Topps Chrome refractor MJ BGS 9.5 for around $200. Seeing the prices now makes me wanna cry lol. Made profit on the sales, but never imagined they’d be selling for what they sell for now.

I love hearing your stories on past card deals. Youre really good at telling us what went down. It's cool to look bad and see how much they went for back then

Good video. Love the honesty. I definitely would have kept at least 1 or 2 of them.

Before watching the video, I correctly predicted the topic. Great video!

What a story and lesson indeed! The way I look at it is the percentage profit you made off of your investment. No one knew this boom in the market was coming. Like you said at that time in 2015, a 3X increase in value over night would be crazy for any kind of card

You are indirectly hitting on a few eco / finance concepts. The same applies when buying (dollar cost averaging). You also might be interested to learn about behavioral finance. It looks at some of the irrational behaviour people tend to have. For example holding on to losers too long and selling winners too fast. In a way what you are proposing is a way to slow yourself down to reduce these impacts.

Back in 2009 i was collecting Griffin jennings rubio didnt knew about curry so i left my oppened topps cards in my moms garage for More than five years one day i threw the packs AND one year later i found out about curry went back AND found just 2 curry rc AND every other star at least 9 so i almost cried.

I can speak from personal experience about the 2009-10 Topps Basketball cards. They were so ugly, even knowing they were the last year was no draw whatsoever. The only reason I have the Harden, Curry, and Griffin cards is because I pulled them from the handful of packs I bought. Regrettably at the time. Topps had lost their collegiate licensing that year, along with a lot of other companies. That’s why these rookies are in those terrible blank shirts.

There you go, having 10 gave you options... Glad you said it, pleasantly surprised. It is what the guy who had the Gamestop Stocks did, he hedged the bet

I like that concept, it may not have the quick turnaround, but you're not kicking yourself for missing out.

Any chance of videos on Fleer 1963 baseball and 1947-1966 Exhibition. I bought a 1947-1966 Campanella and was blown away by the photography and general appearance. Never hear much about the Fleer 1963 set and nothing about the Exhibition set.

Hey Chris, HNY - This is a great lesson learned thanks for sharing. I used this method a few times when buying up Hanger Boxes of Prizm Basketball & Football 2019 2020 (10 boxes each) - I sold a few then waited to see where the prices were going. Then relisted a few more, I made my money back on the initial purchase and saved the rest of the boxes which I still have (unopened) waiting to see how the hobby reacts to them? Always a pleasure to tune in and see what you have to offer - thanks for sharing. Stay safe - Cheers buddy.

What a GREAT channel for collectors! So glad I found you 😎 I just brought home a box of 2020 Topps Chrome Black. Paid $145. Ouch. I looked at the same box last week and easily passed. This week I was just happy it was still there because it was about all I could afford 😥 The market is out of control and due for a crash, IMO.

Replace card with the word stocks and that's exactly how you should do it, great lesson

After an insightful video like that I think I have to subscribe. When it became pretty clear that Lebron was going to win it all last year and make history with Finals MVP on a 3rd team, I employed a similar strategy. Instead of buying 1 or 2 cards for around $1,000 total, I decided to buy Around 500 cards in the $1-$5 range. Buying singles on COMC and lots on Ebay I was able to score some really nice deals. Many cards that were only a dollar or two raw are selling for around $50-$100 in BGS 9.5 . They take forever to come back at the Economy\Standard levels, but at only $10 to grade a card it's almost impossible to lose.

This was a really helpful video. Thanks so much for sharing. Remember Curry had ankle issues early in his career which gave reason to many to not to invest in his cards long-term.

Thanks for all the great videos!

My general strategy is to hold 1-3 of any given card of a player I think will increase over time and sell one when (and if) the price jumps and hold at least 1 if I think there’s still room for growth. I only do this with low-medium value cards. I typically sell the boomers and use the profits to pick up a handful of lower value stuff to hold (and maybe some PC Cards as well). Keeps me out of trouble and I still get to hold something back for investment. Only downside is hindsight. I won’t end up with many mega type cards and occasionally I’ll look back and wish I still had that blue JRod auto or whatever, but it works for me. I love baseball prospecting, so the slow grind and spreading out the chrome and refractors across a lot of players improves the odds I have a few that will pan out well over time.

I prefer to look back at the Rookies I sold for a profit only to see them bomb. That way I avoid the temptation to open my veins...

very good advice for many people...thanks for sharing and making things clear with the use of your graphs

Kudos on the numbers, I know that took a while to do and I appreciate hearing your strategy. Very thorough. Thank you

Chris, nobody has a crystal ball that’s why it’s called investing! Hell, I sold some Drew Brees rc cards after he broke the passing record back in 2018. If I would have held out another year 1/2, I would have made triple of what I sold them for. That’s the breaks of the hobby and it’s what keeps us collecting!

Very easy to understand and great lesson

Id love to see a video of your top 10 cards you regret selling and what they would be worth today!!! Great vids thx for sharing

Love watching your videos So great to hear your past stories thank you.⚾️🏈🏀👍

I made the opposite mistake-- back in the early 90's I bought tons of baseball card packs, such as 1990 Upper Deck and 1992 Fleer Ultra. Guess where that got me today? Haaaa...

Amazing wisdom thank you🙏

I did the same thing with 5 Patrick Mahomes cards (4 auto ssp & xrc Select) last year. Got 'em super cheap, approximately $75, total, in 2017. I saw that he was on the Hot List for a high price, debated if I should hold on or sell. He was injured, so I sold individually for over $300 a piece. That's a nice profit of over $1500. Just look at his cards now.. ugh. Lol I did use the money to get card I am really into, though.

Very much like the stock market. I overpaid for Messi and Ronaldo cards due to my own ignorance, but they're still goats and those cards will not soon lose value. So, I went in and found those same cards at lesser costs and bought more, basically dollar cost averaging down into them as an investment. I plan to keep doing this for now until I believe I have reached a good cost basis for all of them and then hold for another decade or so. My hope is that I can sell the worst of the cards at much more than the ones I overpaid for eventually. Plus, it's amazing to me that anyone has ever paid only a thousand for a PSA 10 Curry rookie looking at the auctions today, lol!! Totally crazy how card prices have ballooned in recent years.

Thoroughly enjoyed the video. As a collector, I'm often torn on when to sell a particular card but for now I'm holding most cards for long term. I wish I'd have bought into basketball a few years ago also but I missed the window on most of those cards. I did recently pick up a Curry Upper Deck at a good price because Topps is out of my price range. Thank you for your sharing of your experience and I'm sure this video will help others.

Hind sight is always 2020 man, lesson learned in the hobby. WE've all been here!

very interesting! Thanks for the video

We call that “dollar cost averaging out of a holding” in stock market investing; I learned that the smart money does that early in my career as a financial advisor. They don’t wait for a hopeful top or do the all at once strategy that amateur stock traders do. Good for you for discovering that! I only do that with my favorite cards that I think will be stars and superstars. Others, yeah I’ll just blow out of them :-)

I’ve encountered the same issue with comic books. Sold some too early. Held on to some too long. Find that sweet spot. Don’t sell the farm.

Great story that I overall agree with. The way cards are now I could see owning a bunch of RC's of mid-level prospects that I would want to sell through quicker. Now a days, all it takes is 1 great play or a solid game or 2 for a card to go crazy. With platforms like cardstock, you could do those staggered sales over the course of 1 game instead of over a couple weeks or months. The more faith I have in the player, the longer I'd be willing to be staggering prices.

It is very similar to selling covered call options against stocks for income. If I own 4,000 shares of XYZ, I will sell options against 2,000 shares. Sort of like owning an apartment building and renting out units without the hassle of being a landlord. I have a bullpen of 12 stocks I do this with depending on market conditions. But I never sell options against my entire position.

I feel the same way about 1981-82 topps magic johnson. Worth like $12 forever raw in great condition. Sold his base and IA card graded by WCG 10 for $30 like six years ago. Psa 10 is like $8000 now. Feel sick when i think about it.

TY 4 another great video. I learn something from every video you post.

I bought his 2009 Donruss Classics Auto /499 back in 2011 for $30 raw. I sent it to BGS which it received a 9.5. I still own the card today, it’s worth around 5k 😁

Yep we all have these stories. It is unavoidable if you sell cards. Mine was 1996 topps Kobe PSA 10. A few years before he retired. I was buying them up on Auction for $50 Owned 24 of them. My original plan was to hold on to them until he retired. They spiked up to $150 and I sold all of them. I wish I only sold half and held the other half for His HOF enshrinement.

Steph went curry mode last night!!!!!

I daytrade stocks and this is a key strategy called scaling. Scale in and scale out.

My biggest blunder considering the 2020 boom.... About 5 years ago I purchased two lots of 97-98 Flair Showcase. They were the Row 3 graded BGS 9.5. The one lot had 14 Jordans and the other lot had 11 Kobes. I paid about $140 for each lot. I went and paired them up, one Jordan and one Kobe and sold them for $50 on eBay after I received them. I made a few hunndred buck on it. They were selling for around $250-300 a piece this last year at that grade. $250 x 25 is $6,250. (sad face)

This strategy is golden thanks!

I pulled a jordan red pmg from a pack. Sold it in 2011 for $3600. It helped me get a car but boy do I regret it.

One think you kind of skipped is having your money tied up when you hold. In the scenario you laid out there is not as much effects as you sell some and hold some. Holding a card for a year for a 10x move nets you less than if you buy/sell, 2x deals 4 times over that same year.

I also learned the same lesson. I sold two 1989 PSA 10 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr rookie cards for $550 each. They are now selling over $1k each. I should’ve kept one.

Just found your channel. Thanks you for the content ! Great stuff.

Thanks for this example. I'm in a similar situation with my Wander Franco collection (1st Bowman Chrome). I basically took the same approach... I am holding onto one PSA 10 for my personal collection regardless of the market. I have one more PSA 10 to sell when I think the market hits the right point. I have two more SGC 9.5s (bought for $30/ea). I was debating selling both right now and taking the 3-4×. Maybe I'll sell one now and hold the other to see of he gets ROY, AS, or MVP bumps down the road to sell the other 9.5. I'll keep the second 10 to see if he becomes a Trout, Ohtani, Tatis, or Acuna in the next 5 years.

You just never know. Incrementalism does seem to be the best bet if you are looking to sell everything.

Hope you are having a lovely day as well! Thanks for the 📹 video! 😃

I remember Kobes cards doing something similar back in 97 to 1998

Excellent video, great learning curve story, thanks for sharing.

Great story / case study! PREACH!!

You did great on that show!!