I have a rule about selling Pokémon cards: If it’s not worth 10 bucks, it’s not worth listing. Given my life stage, time commitments, and financial situation, I literally can’t afford to mail around cardboard in letters for which the stamp costs more than the goods. But many collectors get lost in small transactions. And while I’m wondering if I should raise that threshold to 20 or even 50 euros, everyone is playing the game at a different scale.
Of course, relative value matters: If you only have 50 or 100 bucks to spend each month, getting your money’s worth is important. But it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees.
A few weeks ago, I listed around 20 cards in one go. I wanted to move a bunch of inventory quickly, and so I put up most cards at the low end of Cardmarket’s many listings. Every offer needs a market, and there’s no better way to sell something fast than to undercut that market by 10%. If you’re the cheapest seller, you’ll rarely have to wait long.
Lo and behold, within a few hours, the sales emails were already trickling in—and so were the questions. One buyer was interested in a golden card of Mew, which cost around 20 euros. In comes a second rule of selling Pokémon cards: always with photos. Especially for cards priced 50 euros and higher. Who buys an item for 50 bucks they’ve never seen before? So even for my cheap listings, I always add a picture.
In this case, the picture was of the card in a sleeve. The potential buyer wanted to see the card without it. The next few listings of the same items all had no pictures but asked for higher prices. So technically, my card was already the best deal on the market: It was the cheapest, and you could see what you’re buying! What a no-brainer, right? Well, not for this guy. But I was dealing with cards all day anyway, so I sent him another picture of the back of the card.
A few hours later, he came back: “Can you take it out of the sleeve?” He wanted more pictures all around, without the sleeve. This, again, is important if you’re truly trying to assess the condition of a card. But if it’s a relatively recent print marked as “near mint,” you can rarely go too wrong. Unless you’re trying to have the card graded, of course, in which case every tiny detail matters. I wasn’t sure whether this guy was trying to be smart about picking up a gradable card on the cheap or was simply worried about how far his 20 bucks would go, but I felt generous, so I once again complied.
I forget the rest of our conversation that day, but I do remember his panicked messages the next morning: “Hey, do you still have the card? I don’t see it anymore! Can you re-list it?” As a matter of fact, I could not: Someone had bought it while I had been asleep—no questions asked. And why not? It was a good deal!
This wasn’t the first time I saw this pattern. It has happened to me with 20-euro-cards, 50-euro-cards, and, just last week, with a 200-euro-card: Someone acts all interested, demands tons of pictures and information, then tries to haggle down what’s already a bargain price. In the meantime, another buyer swoops in and eats their lunch. “Good card? Fair price? Awesome! I’ll take it!”
Whether it’s in Pokémon, plants for your garden, or home decorations: If you plan to stick around in a hobby or market, you better train your opportunity scanner. Know your prices. Learn to assess quality. Build a gut for what’s a good deal, what’s not, and what might convert the latter into the former. Can you negotiate that person down the 30% it takes for this to be worth it? Or are you better off talking to the seller behind another listing? Will this purchase stand the test of time? Or fall apart in the shipping box? And, most importantly: Will this item still be available tomorrow? Because if not, you must strike while the iron is hot.
The other day, I bought a 1000-euro-item on impulse. I saw it, briefly researched it, and my gut told me the market was not yet correctly pricing this brand new, unexpected item on release. So I bought it. Days later, the lowest listings start at 1500. I would never have made this purchase a few years ago when I just started getting back into collecting. But now, having looked at thousands of listings and made hundreds of purchases, I know a good deal when I see one.
Train your opportunity scanner. It takes time but compounds. Graduate from small to medium to large, and don’t let the noise drown out your wise inner voice.
