Remember, at the end of the day, no matter how much money you make, it’s all about cash flow. Money beget more money therefore more money will cost money. In investing as in life, everything is finite. Frequently it’s only a small percentage of something that achieve the majority of everything. Hence when it is important to understand that when you find something within your price range, buy everything at one go when you can afford it. Minimizing transaction cost and securing things in whole are important concepts in business. My price range is on average $100 or less for any given item and spend what I budgeted for that day. It’s almost never the price of something at the time of purchase that makes something a good value, it is rather the intrinsic value that others likely will see in the future that makes something worth investing into.
When an investment meet my criterion, I will invest everything into it that falls within my guidelines. I don’t assume it will be there tomorrow because good things will not last. Best to Always maintain a healthy cash flow to deal with the unexpected. The good thing about diversifying and buying low dollar items is even they appreciate, they are still relatively liquid because the lower per unit price. To better financial health, try to match cash flow outflow with anticipated cash inflow. Remember, focus on buying assets, not liabilities. Investing in something that will require high maintenance or require efforts to upkeep is in essence may not generate ample ROI returns. Just like in life, don’t buy aimlessly. This is an important lesson because you need to do research before you invest. Investments have cycles, you need to know what you are doing or else you will end up doing things not according to schedule and/or just plainly wrong. People are people, those who you will potentially do transactions will respect counterparties who know what they are doing. It’s a business so be wise which also may entail being magnanimous. People like to deal with those who are willing and able to pay for value.
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How to get the best deals when investing in sports cards and Pokemon TCG cards.
When people have resources, they will often seem to be more generous with their resources when they believe it is worth it in the end. Not buying aimless does not mean you pass up on good deals on things that you are familiar with that is within your budget or not buy something when the cash flow outlay is so low it is worth taking a chance on when certain conditions are met. Diversification is not the issue, the issue is lack of investing discipline. A big thing to remember is even when we are trying to make money, we also need to do our part to make the pie bigger for everyone so we all have the option to bigger portions and more variety when we want to exercise our options. This means giving away collectibles that we don’t want from bundles that we buy to those who we may know want them. I personally consider that as a win because it helps to grow the hobby and builds good karma. If you collect long enough, you will realize there are frequently people and organizations who are giving cards away by paying it forward. I been on the other end a few times myself. It’s a win-win situation because what is given away are often things people don’t want anymore and the things I pick up for free from those giveaways are often things I want and believe will hold future value. Basically one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
When investing or trying to achieve anything, half of the battle is in the strategic overarching setup including identification, planning and preparation. Before you are shopping for investments, you likely should already know broadly what type of asset(s) you are looking for, their prices and values, what you plan to do with them etc. The other half of the battle is execution of plans from acquisition to exit and post-exit if any. While much of the methodologies for all investments are similar, ample customization may be needed from planning to execution in order to make it all work seamlessly. For example, the market for sports cards and TCGs like Pokemon cards may be vastly different never mind differences between subcategories within these general categories. Scarcity appear to be less of a concern of Pokemon card collectors than sports cards collectors. Pokemon cards are currently printed by a very well managed brand that crosses almost all genres hence the demand potential is certainly there.
Sports cards are printed by numerous companies covering many different sports. Although they are likely also mass printed, but they also have numbered, memorabilia and autographed cards which are frequently limited in print size. Pokemon also does not have the concept of rookie cards whereas sports cards do. At the end of the day, the best way to minimize acquisition transaction cost is by dwindle the number of anticipated purchases instead increase the unit volume of single trip transactions. For newer investors in this field, I believe it is better to buy lower dollar items offline from reputable retailers to avoid higher probability of potential scams. In my opinion, in the dollar boxes, the best cards one could find in there are typically the rookie cards of potential future stars, rookie cards of superstars from non-major sports, misprints, inserts from non-major TCGs or a numbered card or two that was accidentally placed into the box because the owner misjudged the card not being a numbered card. Don’t go to the same store too frequently but do go once in a while to checkout new things they are selling, if any. Calling in advance while convenient is usually not a wise moved from a deal making standpoint as the surprise/impromptu element is a major transacting tactic. I usually stay away from buying cards from stores that do not put price tags to their cards for reasons I won’t specify here but may present potential issues when wanting to get a good deal. Like anything, don’t overly rely on someone or something but that doesn’t mean buying frequently from the same locale is not advantages at times. Honesty is one of the most important virtual sin doing business, which is contrary to maximizing thought I would argue repeat purchases frequently lower transaction and overall cost within a reasonable diversified range.