Sports Card Strategy Show

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.

This week's episode is absolute fire. Our friends at https://cards.charitybuzz.com are auctioning off 25 spectacular classic sports cards to benefit Inspiring Children Foundation, links to those cards are below. Auction ends October 28.  Also, Murph and I dig into the following topics:  - What The Heck Is The Overtime Elite League and are its Topps NOW Rookie Cards worth buying?  - Who are our top NBA Buys?  - Who are our top NFL Sleepers?  - Who have we been right/wrong about so far?  Cards up for auction through October 28 on https://cards.CharityBuzz.com

This episode is power packed with practical information like what sells on eBay, our eBay sports card selling process and strategy, which players to buy low now, how to support your LCS (Local Card Shop), and how to sell vintage sports cards outside of eBay.  This video is brought to you by Market Movers App by Sports Card Investor. Save 20% on MarketMoversApp.com by using the promo code "nooffseason" or clicking here - https://www.sportscardinvestor.com/plans/?ref=63&campaign=sportscardstrategy Listen and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sports-card-strategy-with-paul-hickey/id1260430264?id=1260430264 Listen and Subscribe on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4jbdUs62GK9ekON7vaxqz8 Slabs for Sale! https://nooffseason.com

This might be the most relatable content in the sports card hobby today. Tens of thousands of dudes age 30-50 are finding their old sports card collections and looking up the values. In this video, Murph takes us through a few different cards he brough back from his parents house. We go through them on this episode and talk through which ones he should get graded, and which ones he should just try to sell raw.   This video is brought to you by Market Movers App by Sports Card Investor. Save 20% on MarketMoversApp.com by using the promo code "nooffseason" or clicking here - https://www.sportscardinvestor.com/plans/?ref=63&campaign=sportscardstrategy  

I re-entered the Sports Card hobby in January 2021 after a 30-year hiatus, and it took me at least six months of making mistakes before I finally started to figure out the way the modern card market works.  Like many folks my age (I'm 40), I was thinking about Fleer, Upper Deck, Hoops, Donruss and Topps. And I was thinking Series 1 and Series 2 and that's about it.  But as I came to realize from jumping back into the hobby with both proverbial feet, and some fun money, we're living in a world of weekly product releases for all major sports, which is just one of several major factors in the fluctuating sports card prices.  In this week's show, Murph and I break down not only the release schedule and the mass confusion it can create unless you follow things closely, but also the flippable window created by a balance of hype machine and timing of new product releases.  Finally, we wrap with the importance of having a playbook or game plan for each product that you buy.  And of course, we hit on which products to buy, and which to avoid if you're just getting back into things.  After all, you can buy anything for fun, but if you actually want to make money in the hobby, you've got to follow things closely and put the work in.  This video is brought to you by Market Movers App by Sports Card Investor. Save 20% on MarketMoversApp.com by using the promo code "nooffseason" or clicking here - https://www.sportscardinvestor.com/plans/?ref=63&campaign=sportscardstrategy Listen and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sports-card-strategy-with-paul-hickey/id1260430264?id=1260430264 Listen and Subscribe on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4jbdUs62GK9ekON7vaxqz8 Slabs for Sale! https://nooffseason.com

This podcast is brought to you by Market Movers App by Sports Card Investor. Save 20% on MarketMoversApp.com by using the promo code "nooffseason" or clicking here - https://www.sportscardinvestor.com/plans/?ref=63&campaign=sportscardstrategy When you're in your 40s, you start looking at vintage sports cards as entertainment value and fun, in addition to a potential investment that yields actual ROI.  My good friend and Sports Card Strategy Show Co-Host Nate Murphy sent me a What's App Message that inspired this entire episode.  Should we buy a box of 1989 Upper Deck Baseball and try to pull Griffeys?  Would we have fun? Absolutely! But would we have a chance at making any profit? Not so sure. So we did an analysis that we break down on this show for you. Watch here or listen below on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.  We also do a similar breakdown of 1989 NBA Hoops, and talk about how to make money buying a box on eBay and flipping the individual cards from that set.  Thanks so much for watching / listening. :)  Listen and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sports-card-strategy-with-paul-hickey/id1260430264?id=1260430264 Listen and Subscribe on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4jbdUs62GK9ekON7vaxqz8 Slabs for Sale! https://nooffseason.com #sportscards #sportscardinvestor #sportscardinvesting #sportscardstrategy

This episode is brought to you by Market Movers App by Sports Card Investor. Save 20% on MarketMoversApp.com now by using the promo code "nooffseason" or clicking here - https://www.sportscardinvestor.com/pl... Sports Card Strategy Show: What To Do With Your Vintage Sports Cards, Loving The Game Of Sports Cards, NFL Predictions 2021, Don't Get Stuck With The Next Laurence Maroney!  One thing I've realized I'm missing in my Sports Card Content Strategy is a long form podcast. I really enjoy Sports Cards Nonsense and Card Talk, and I have become inspired to create my own long form show.  So I recruited my longtime friend Nate Murphy to co-host a show with me. Nate is a great guy, very knowledgeable about all kinds of sports topics, a past fantasy football champion, and an avid sports talk radio listener. Nate and I also used to host a fantasy football show together back in Michigan in 2006 at a Sports Bar called Norm's Field of Dreams.  But even better than that show was our ability to have phone conversations daily that, if recorded, would have made phenomenal content.  So we've connected again to create content, this time centered around our re-entry into the Sports Card hobby after 30+ years.  In this episode, Nate talks about his history collecting cards, his ability as a kid to keep wax boxes sealed, how many he still has left sealed, and which ones are the most exciting between he and his dad.  Nate and his dad went from collecting cans after U-M football games, to buying packs, going to card shows and buying sealed boxes, now fast-forwarding 30+ years to wanting to figure out what they've got value wise - not for the money necessarily, but for the fun.  The Sports Card Strategy Show hits on the balance between the fun of collecting, to the fascination of flipping and investing.  In this episode we also talk about the importance and art of negotiation at card shows, to the ability to recognize patterns in the modern card market and start to make plays.  We really dive into what to do with your vintage sports cards like 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. Rookies, etc, and how freaking fun the game of sports cards is.  Who's Hot Right Now and Why! Which one of these guys is the next Laurence Maroney?  Mac Jones Trevor Lawrence Justin Fields Immanuel Quickley Bol Bol Killian Hayes Jameis Winston Teddy Bridgewater Wander Franco Vlad Guererro Jr.  And at the end of the show we make some NFL predictions for 2021 and what they mean for which players and cards to target.  This kind of strategy will be continued in future episodes of the Sports Card Strategy Show.   Thanks for watching and listening!  Paul and Nate

I've always been a huge sports fan, but at age 40 I'm having the most fun in my entire life following professional sports.  Why?  My re-entry into the hobby of collecting sports cards this year.  Case in point, the 2021 NBA Draft. I wanted to watch the entire thing for the first time in my life.  And I did.  And it was super fun.  I wanted to hear Jay Bilas and the other experts talk about each pick. I learned that the 2021 NBA Draft could potentially (several years from now), be seen as on par with the 1984, 1996 and 2003 Drafts.  I was pumped my Pistons had the first pick and took Cade Cunningham, but had it not been for the hobby, I may not have even known about Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga and others.  But the excitement that the hobby has infused into me has to be perfectly offset by the business person strategist in me also.  What I mean is, I've been so excited about sports and sports cards, that I definitely made a ton of purchases on emotion over the last 8 months, and now it's time to learn from some of my mistakes.  Well, maybe "mistakes" is harsh. Let's call them learnings.  Learning Number 1: Topps NOW and Panini Instant are for collectors only, not investors or flippers.  Learning Number 2: College uniforms are not resale (secondary market) friendly.  Learning Number 3: There are so many different kinds of rookie cards, that only a few specific ones hold real value. For my NFL version of this, click here.  Takeaway: I will be reminding myself to be extra patient, and exercise maximum restraint on buying 2021-22 NBA Rookies. I want them all, and passing on Panini Instant Draft Night was hard for me, but I'm glad I did.  I will only be going after Panini Prizm and Prizm Silver versions of Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and a few other guys.  I will pass on Instant, Hoops, Donruss, Select, and a ton of other high priced Panini Releases.  My money will go into Prizm, and it will likely happen on StarStock.com (get a free $10 when you sign up using the promo code "nooffseason")  The proof is in the data, and after going back in past year's basketball cards, Prizm is the only brand sure to hold value.  The reason I like StarStock, is you can get "pre-graded" raw cards. Look for StarStock A graded cards, as a likely avenue to be a PSA 10, or SGC 10 or at least 9.5.  This is a safer bet than buying raw from a peer online not really knowing the condition of the raw card.  So as much as I wanted to drop the $9.99 on a Panini Instant Draft Night Cade Cunningham Rookie Card, the reality is that card would have been super hard to sell for any kind of profit.

Sport card breaks, or “breaks” are when a single person (or business) buys an entire box of sports cards, then charges individual collectors for the opportunity to “buy in” and keep a selection of cards from the box.  Typically the format is to enter a group on Facebook. The business/breaker makes a post stating which box(es) of cards will be part of an upcoming break, and gives a day, time and entry fee. If you want to enter the break, you pay the fee (usually via PayPal), and give them a number or team name.  HOW TO PICK A GOOD BREAK GROUP Admittedly, I don't have a ton of experience in break groups, and I've never conducted a break and don't plan to. :)  Still, I can offer some solid basic but important tips on how to pick a good break group.  1. Make sure you price out the box they're breaking against what they're charging. I've stopped entering breaks with a particular group because they were charging around $60 for a break slot, and breaking boxes that were about $60 for the entire box. Why would I do that? It made no economic sense whatsoever. Now, to their credit, they were including autographed helmets of significant NFL stars to people who got the lowest numbered card in the case they opened. So their overhead cost was likely a bit higher than just the cases they were opening.  2. Make sure they will mail you your cards free of charge regardless of which cards they pull for you. Some breakers will only mail out the "case hits" free of charge. "Case hits" are typically considered autographed cards, memorabilia cards or serial numbered cards. Another reason why I stopped breaking with the earlier group I was referring to is because they would charge to send you your regular cards, or hold them for months and send them all at once. I kind of thought this was a bit sleezy, even though it may be common. Not entirely sure.  3. Go with someone educational and entertaining. A group like @wildcardboxbreaks on Facebook is a perfect example of someone to go with. They are more educational than anything else. Getting entertained should be a given, but getting educated about each player they pull is super important.  More than anything, sports card collecting and investing is about acquiring knowledge. Knowledge about players, potential, situations, card manufacturers, sets, brands, inserts...EVERYTHING!  Wild Cards does this with all sports, but they're especially experts in Baseball, which can be the most complicated to understand which cards are actually valuable.  Participating in Breaks can be like buying lottery tickets. You get your hopes up, only to get crushed, honestly.  But it can be very economical, entertaining and educational and FUN if you pick the right group.  THIS IS WHY MY PICK IS WILD CARDS. THEY ARE THE SPONSOR OF THE VIDEO / SHOW SEEN HERE. MORE ON WILD CARDS (AND WHY I LIKE THEM) IS BELOW.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/338734097765425/permalink/371206284518206/ Wild Card Box Breaks is a break group, and the simple way to identify a break group is to buy bulk products and sell slots to individuals looking for specific players, teams, or divisions. For example, Wild Cards breaks baseball, football, and basketball, and their clientele desired other sports, we would do that as well. They are getting into soccer soon! So I'm pumped about that and encourage you to join here if you want more information on any of their upcoming breaks! What makes their group unique is the informational and educational aspect and the focus on the players from a value and fantasy perspective. They love to give background and history on the players on the cards and give their knowledge out for people that may not be as knowledgeable as they are. They buy and sell their slots on their Facebook group @wildcardboxbreaks. Most of their breaks are between $30-50 per team with the occasional premium product.

When I first decided I wanted to sell sports cards online, I had nothing but road blocks.  eBay wouldn't accept me because I live in Spain but wanted to ship from a U.S. address.  Acquiring cards was difficult, shipping cards was impossible due to my location.  Then I found PWCC. Not only does PWCC store your cards in a vault for you, but they list them on their own marketplace for sale, and on eBay for you. They'll handle all of the fulfillment and shipping.  Also, if you want your cards shipped anywhere, they'll do that for you too.  So, on my recent visit back to the United States, I decided I'd send in all of my graded cards and sealed wax to PWCC. They'll store ungraded cards also, but you can only list graded cards and sealed wax on their marketplaces and on eBay through them.  While my primary way of selling cards is on my own website, https://nooffseason.com, PWCC gives me some additional leverage to sell cards in flash auctions, with 1-3 taps from my mobile device. From there, I don't even have to think about it; I just get money.  It also gives me peace of mind that my cards are safe, and I can view high res images of them at any time from my vault portfolio.