Sports Card Strategy: Why RPA Prospecting Is Better Than Having Base Cards Graded

I got caught up last year in the racket of getting all of my sports cards graded and slabbed by either PSA or SGC. Along the way, as grading prices increased, my profit margins shrunk as grades came back lower than I expected.   This combination of market changes and grading factors resulted in a ton of micro-learnings.  The learnings have manifested into a whole new sports card strategy.  Rather than trying to increase the value of my cards via grading base cards, I've come to realize that I can use my skills player prospecting to target low dollar Rookie Patch Autos (RPAs), mostly under $50 for NFL prospects and under $100 for NBA prospects.  Why? Because if I can recognize who has skills and opportunity with very little hype, I can buy low, and watch players' card prices soar as they perform.  This has proven to be a quicker and lower-overhead cost solution to profiting from sports card investing in my early days. This episode is dedicated to showing and explaining the details of which RPAs I've purchased thus far.