With all the interest in the LC thread I figured this discussion warranted its own topic. As someone fairly involved in the space for the past 6-7 years I’d be happy to answer questions on what’s going on in this moment.
This has mostly replaced poker as supplemental income and time investment. I don’t do this for a living. Sometimes I open boxes with an idea of profit and grading upside. Other times I just degen on stuff that sounds fun. The only card show I do regularly is the Dallas Card Show every 2 months. My buddy and I have had a table there as vendors the past few years and we’ve had the opportunity to buy some really cool things.
and did they ever figured out that theft from the dallas card show a year or two ago? at the time, i assumed they’d never find the cards but with the video, they’d eventually catch the people.
Had. Card is not rare at all and goes against everything I like for PC / long term holds. 60K graded on PSA pop alone. It’s a junk wax card. But then again, that the base chrome Ohtanis had crazy gains the last few years so what do I know
No. The vendor is a very prominent vintage dealer and is still set up at Dallas every show. People speculate insurance fraud, but that seems pretty short sighted for someone of that level. I bought my first 71BIS Messi from him a few years ago. Another card I should have held!
Do you ever see collectors put together psa10 sets of parallels? Or even base cards.
For example, 23/24 revolution base is one of my favorite designs. The idea of paying ~ $25 for each base card multiple times until one gems seems ridiculous but a pic display of nothing but tens would be sick, imo.
i bought some pokemon cards there with crypto playmoney some years ago. value has gone down but not as much as the meme coins so i guess it was a good trade. unless this company is a fraud which it might be idk
Repacks (courtyard, arena club, blez online) are the biggest factor in the current liquidity of the market for cheap Poke and sports slabs. I know arena pays their main buyers like 130% of market for sub $50 psa slabs.
Repacks are wildly popular. When Blez Online launched I spent a ton on packs that were +EV as they allowed you to see what cards of the initial checklist were still alive in packs. IE there were 10 $1K packs left of a release and two 8K+ cards were still live so you could just buy out the release. They’ve since changed this. Arena uses a dynamic checklist so it’s never +EV. Never done courtyard but I assume it’s similar.
Of my current / recent PSA subs there are raw cards I bought for $3K, $4K and $5K. Theres also a BGS 8.5 (was graded onsite at Dallas just to authenticate it honestly) I paid $18K for.
Some people loathe grading and just want cash in hand. Both SGA NT RPAs I bought for 20-25K raw locally. The first one he sold on eBay and the guy sent it back because of the condition. Got a BGS 8.5 on it and did ~$40K on auction during the WCF. Believe the entire buy and flip there was about 8 weeks.
I used to have my own PSA membership and subbed everything myself. I canceled that a few years ago and use a guy in Irvine, CA that picks up and drops off daily. He will evaluate my cards for free and give an estimated outcome if we go forward with grading. Probably the best in the space right now.
Occasionally I’ll regrade. The A’Ja Wilson rookie auto is being regraded right now. I think in the 2 years I’ve been using Sean he’s only suggest maybe a half dozen cards for resubmission.
A’Ja BGS 9.5 10 just did $7.5K on auction so a 10 10 hitting market now while she’s about to win another MVP and is in a title run should do 5 figures. My cost basis before grading is $2K.
