5/16/21 – 5/22/21
Whole gadgets in retailer: 2375
Gadgets offered: 47
Product sales: $2779.59 (up 34.7% from one yr in the past)
Web gross sales: $1973.14 (up 33.4% from one yr in the past)
Highest value offered (internet): $144.19 — autographed 8×10 print of former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham
Lowest value offered (internet): $6.17 — 15 yr outdated autographed card of former Vancouver Canucks (hockey) Daniel Sedin
My highest value merchandise offered this week occurs to be an merchandise with an fascinating again story as a result of it actually illustrates how the buying and selling card market has modified in the previous few years. I’ve talked about earlier than in these posts that I purchase virtually all of my stock from eBay auctions and relist utilizing purchase it now or greatest supply. However one other technique I’ve to choose up new stock is thru redemption factors with one of many principal producers, Panini. Here’s what their rewards web site appears like.
https://www.paniniamerica.internet/rewards.html
These redemption factors are initially present in packs and containers, often as an alternative to an autograph the place the participant couldn’t signal their card on time or to make “card math” work by way of the variety of kinds of playing cards (autographs, jersey, inserts, and so on) in a field. The factors playing cards vary in worth from 150 all the best way as much as 15,000 and 25,000 that are clearly a lot much less plentiful. Panini provides new playing cards to their rewards web site on a weekly foundation, and in case you have the factors in your account, you possibly can select the cardboard or playing cards you need and “purchase” it. How they decide their values is a thriller to me, and sometimes there are huge discrepancies between “factors” worth and greenback worth.
The resale marketplace for rewards factors had all the time been fairly constant at round $5 per 100 factors. Till, in fact, the early phases of covid final yr, when the world (and card manufacturing) principally went on pause and costs for rewards factors bottomed out. I had all the time tried to maintain a couple of thousand factors in my account, however these bills actually add up! However when the market bottomed out, I began checking saved searches every day and acquired tens of hundreds of factors, as many as I may afford. And I’ve been consuming off these factors ever since, which has been notably helpful as the costs for factors has risen considerably.
Anyway, to the merchandise I offered. A daily autographed photograph of Cunningham, who was a star quarterback within the 90s, would in all probability price $20, however this was an 8×10 print with a background in Panini’s shade blast design. Colour blast playing cards are solely inserted in a couple of particular units and they’re very extremely wanted, with costs that might in all probability shock you.
I don’t perceive the mindset that might compel somebody to spend a whole lot of {dollars} on any collectible, however I can see the aesthetic enchantment of this set. It’s a pleasant design. And so the colour blast autograph prints have a reasonable following, too. Particularly as a result of they had been solely launched on the Rewards web site one time and by no means once more. I bought a couple of others with the Cunningham and had offered all of them, usually for my full asking value. I had not seen one other Cunningham listed in addition to mine within the final two years. Predictably, the itemizing had a number of watchers and lowball affords over the past two years, however I couldn’t move up the supply I obtained this previous week and the client principally received a one in every of a sort merchandise.
Coincidentally, Panini launched a brand new spherical of Colour Blast autographed prints a couple of weeks in the past. I had been eagerly ready for them because the first batch had been so in style, however issues have modified so dramatically within the card world in the previous few years. I couldn’t add any to my cart, not to mention buy them. They had been offered out inside minutes — seconds actually — on the rewards web site. It’s because the buying and selling card world has change into infiltrated with the strategies that resellers of different restricted version gadgets use — bots, prepare dinner teams, the kinds of issues related to sneakerheads. These resellers are principally enjoying a very totally different sport than scavengers. They purchase and promote virtually instantly to allow them to use the funds from that sale to purchase the following factor that continues the cycle. A few of them in all probability get fortunate and locate one thing that’s notably worthwhile that they’ll make $5000 on in sooner or later. Possibly that’s sufficient for a few of them, possibly that’s all they need.
However I’ll recover from the hurdle of 2500 gadgets this summer season– hopefully to 3000 — and it’s so rewarding to see the stock develop and see this stage of gross sales maintain. This was a very satisfying week after a couple of slower weeks. A whole lot of good excessive greenback gross sales and a number of gadgets which offered in a short time. Had three $100+ gadgets go to the identical purchaser inside a day of itemizing them. There’s no bot you should purchase or Youtube course that may train that stage of information.