Free-time Flippin'

I'm not a card flipper and have never been in this hobby for money. Still, there is a day when I'll really have to downsize my collection, more so that it's me in control of it versus saddling my family with it.

Recently, I've caught the bug to buy a few random lots of cards on Craigslist and quickly flip them for a profit. I started getting more involved with selling on Facebook Marketplace as a way to earn a few extra bucks with stuff I don't use. I sold a lot of all Jeter dupes, a lot of all Tino dupes, and a few old Yankee jerseys that I just do not wear. Nothing's bringing in big money, but it's a few extra bucks in my pocket from things gathering dust.

One thing that has afforded me this luxury is time. I've been off for a couple weeks between jobs (starting a new one next week), so it's helped to keep me busy while decluttering my attic a little. Win-win.

We're also getting ready to participate in a town-wide garage sale in October, so I'll try to unload boxes of commons and maybe some grab bags there for cheap. We'll have a lot of foot traffic because there will be plenty of kids toys and clothes, so hopefully I can move some unwanted cards in a grab-bag type format.

Anyhow, back to selling cards via the internet. Early last week I found a lot of 40,000 cards on Craigslist for $40. It wasn't too far away from my house, so I inquired and ended up buying it. Now, I DO NOT need 40K new cards. Not at all. But I wanted to see if I could quickly flip them on Facebook.

The lot was as expected, mostly commons from the junk wax era. I pulled out a few minor keepers and cards for some of my team collector friends, but quickly realized the person who owned these pretty much knew what they were doing and didn't leave any hidden gems. There was a lot of 2008 Topps so I did look for the Kershaw rookie (didn't find it), but otherwise am fairly confident I didn't miss anything of note while very quickly and not very thoroughly looking through them.

Once I felt like I got a good idea of what was in there, I immediately listed the cards on Facebook. I started with one box of 4,000 for $10 and got a lot of inquiries. People kept saying "$10 for the WHOLE box?" I think they are used to seeing boxes of junk listed for $100 because people have no idea their cards aren't worth squat. One person said he'd take it and asked if I had any more. I showed him this picture below and said I was going to list it all for $100, but would give to him for $80 (including the $10 box he agreed to). He accepted.

So in 16 hours, I went from purchasing the $40 lot, to quickly scanning through it and keeping a few cards, to selling it for $80. It never left my dining room floor. Pretty easy $40.

The one thing is, was it worth the time? I drove a total of 40 minutes, plus the time to look through and then list. That counts for something.

It wasn't a huge time suck overall, but if I wasn't off of work and bored I probably wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have wanted to deal with it. These are important things to consider.

While I didn't and still don't have plans to keep doing this (I will admit it's addictive), another lot showed up this past Sunday on Craigslist even closer to my house. $50 for the whole thing, and I could tell by the photos there was some decent stuff I could move. The seller and I agreed on $40 and I picked it up. It's got MUCH better contents that I had to go through it more thoroughly, but it's been a ton of fun so far with some good cards of much bigger names. It was't be as quick of a flip because I need to go through it much better, but it's also a lot less cards.

I ended up selling boxes in bulk to recoup my immediate money, but I also broke up a few lots by teams (Mets) and star players (like Marino). There were even 120 vintage cards from the '70s that I sold for $20, making half of my money back on that simple sale alone.

In all, I've made $135 from this particular $40 lot with a few items I have yet to list. Pretty awesome ROI. And it's not taking up space in my house. I've moved all the large boxes and a few small lots. I've kept a handful of cards (like the Kellogg's ones below), but they mostly came in and went out in a matter of a few days.

Anyhow, back to work next week so no more of this for the time being. If interested, I may do a piece on what I've learned selling on Facebook, as I'm really starting to see what works and what doesn't when listing cards on that particular platform. Not shocking, but people want bulk and for cheap.

Regardless, it's been a fun little side project over the last two weeks.

A positive Facebook marketplace experience

Last week, I got the hunkering to sell a couple of duplicate cards. I have a big stack of Jeter duplicates and even triples, and figured I'd run an experiment with Facebook marketplace. This is the general buy/sell marketplace, not those cringe-worthy card groups.

My wife frequently uses it to sell old kids clothes and other household items. One time, she sold a clock for $20 that she originally paid $8 for. I think it was a clock from Homegoods too, not some rare antique. The woman who picked it up explained that she collected clocks and showed my wife photos of her house, all decked with clocks.

Back to the Jeters. I pulled a lot of 25, all pretty much common base cards versus anything fancy, and listed them for $15.

Here's what we're talking. Nothing fancy, but a few solid cards for any Jeter or Yankees collector.

After a couple of days, I was a little disappointed. I got three bites total and only about 40 views.

I expected a few inquiries, mostly from people asking me to come down on the price. I also expected a few kooky people. This is Facebook, after all.

One guy told me "nice lot, but these are very common cards." Ok. Not helpful. I responded that I wasn't your average poster who lists my collection of rubber-banded 1987 Topps for $150. I also said that around $.50 per Jeter is pretty fair. He never got back to me. Part of me thinks it might have been Napkin Doon pranking me.

After almost a week, I lowered the price from $15 to $13, and one of the guys who originally reached out messaged me said he'd take them.

We agreed to meet at the community center in my town because I'm not comfortable having a stranger drop by the house to buy something. My wife does the same. The community center is right next to the fire station as well, so feels pretty safe.

The buyer said he was coming from his son's little league game as well, so I put together another team bag full of random Yankees and gave them to the buyer at no charge. He later messaged me thanking me for the extras, saying that his son was psyched. That made me feel good. I know it's common for all of us to throw in extras, so this came as a pretty common courtesy for me. However, not something that most buyers might be used to. It's all about making someone's day!

The transaction ended up being pretty quick and easy, and it was nice to take in $13 cash and not worry about fees or going to the post office. I'll probably list another lot of dupes at some point soon, maybe find 100 or so and see what that can net me.