So You Want To Be A Dealer, With Chris Sewall Baseball Card Collector Investor Dealer

In episode 1 of the new podcast of So You Want to Be A Dealer, I talk to Chris Sewall Baseball Card Collector Investor Dealer about the challenges of being a sports card dealer in 2025, along with the things he loves about it.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey everybody, it is Mike and you are you might be viewing
this in one of three places. This is my new So you want to be
a Dealer podcast and you can seemy first guest here if you are
viewing on my channel or on the Sports Card Clubhouse YouTube
channel. If you're listening on the
podcast. Thank you first of all, because
that's fantastic. If you are on my channel, this

(00:22):
will be the only time this podcast shows up on this
channel. So make sure you are subscribed
either to the YouTube Sports Card Clubhouse or you're
following the Sports Card Clubhouse podcast.
And this will be a every other week series where every other
week I talk with a different dealer around the hobby, about
their business, about the challenges of being a dealer,

(00:45):
about the joys of being a dealer.
And then on the rotating weeks, I will have so this is called So
You Want to Be a dealer. On the rotating weeks, I'll have
another podcast called So You Want to Be a Content Creator
where I interview content creators around the hobby.
I'm going to try to stay away from Youtubers as much as
possible and talk to people on Instagram, people on TikTok,

(01:07):
people on Twitter that aren't making the rounds all the time
and get a sense of why they do what they do, how they do it,
how much they love it, what are the challenges of it.
Similar to sports car dealers. And here I'm going to introduce
Chris, baseball card collector, investor, dealer, in that order.
Chris, thanks for joining me today.
Yeah, yeah. Honored to be your your first.

(01:28):
Yeah, I'll never forget it. So Chris, I've known you for
several years. We've done this a bunch of
times. And what I'd like to do is kind
of an extension of our lunch we had at The National where we
talked about what I found to be some very interesting things.
And that kind of gave me the idea for this podcast, which is

(01:52):
there's so much going on in the world of card dealing right now.
It it might be the most exciting, but also most
challenging time to be a dealer.And I wanted to get your
perspective. I am not a dealer.
So, you know, I had a lot of questions for you at lunch and
you had some really interesting answers.
So I figured, let's jump in. How's that sound?
That sounds great. And let me just say that when

(02:14):
you bought your your big collection, what'd you call it,
the Vermont collection? I was really pushing you to like
go in the dealer direction, but you were like, no, not, not not
going to happen. Well, you know, I just did a
video this past week where I talked about my dream card shop,
which is not just a card shop. There's a lot of vintage things
and I would love to do it. I just, I can't, I need health

(02:35):
insurance. I'm I'm the health insurance for
my entire family of four. And there's there's.
Is health insurance that important though for.
Kids. Yeah, and the income replacement
would be very difficult. I'm also the only income for my
family of four. Yeah, that would be, that would
be quite the leap. Yes, yeah, Someday.

(02:57):
Maybe when I'm 70 years old and I'm retired and only need to pay
rent, for instance, for a shop. Or maybe, I don't know, I'd be
doing it out of my home. Maybe then I'll do something,
but right now I'm 46. I've got a long ways to go.
OK, fair enough. So a big topic right now is

(03:17):
repacks and I asked you at the National and you say you you
gave such a great answer about the how are repacks impacting
your business? First of all, why don't you
describe your business? So in case anybody who doesn't
know you happens to be listeningor watching, what do you do?
Yeah, so the, the core of my business is to buy personal

(03:37):
collections from around the country.
Most of them are local to me in,in Maryland, but yeah, I, I go
buy large collections. I, I like them large and sort of
messy. And then my my value add is I,
you know, split it up strategically and, and sell them
off in pieces. Yeah, strategically to to
maximize value out of it. And yeah, that's the that's the

(03:59):
core of my business. I do a bunch of other things
like I buy on eBay and I buy a card shows and I sell at card
shows and things like that. But the the core is is buying
personal collections. And you said you like them messy
and you like them big. Help me understand why.
It just sort of, it just sort ofgives me more options like when
I have a whole bunch of cards, Ican sort of in more variety of
ways. And yeah, you can sort of, you

(04:21):
can sort of be more creative with the way you package up your
your cards and and and sell them.
And I asked you to bring a list of places you sell cards, and
we're gonna talk through that, assuming.
That you brought that from. I did.
I did. I'm I'm.
I came. Yeah.
So we're we're gonna get to thatlater on all the places that you
sell cards because I'm really interested in that.
But the prices of cards, especially iconic cards have

(04:46):
skyrocketed this year, just thisyear, just since the beginning
of this year, even springtime. And you hear a lot about repack
companies and big dealers payingmuch higher percentages.
How has that impacted your the way you do business?
Yeah, So for me, me personally, not as much as probably most

(05:06):
other dealers. When I'm buying like a large
collection, the majority of whatI'm buying is like cheap stuff,
dollar cards, $2.00 cards, $5 cards.
I mean even less nickel cards, but I usually buying a large
bulk. Most collections are large bulky
collection and you know, and then there's just like a few
expensive cards on the side. That's the kind of the way most
cards collections are. So it's really just those few

(05:27):
expensive cards that, you know, things have really changed in
the last few years. Now when I'm at a card show,
it's drastically different 'cause that's very different.
Somebody will walk up to me witha, a Zion case of, you know,
$100 plus cards. And you know, five years ago I
was, I was offering 70% and everyone was thrilled to take my
70% 'cause I was the only dealeroffering that high.
Today, if ioffer 70%, they'll a lot of them will just laugh at

(05:49):
me. So that's completely changed and
I think repackers are are, and I'm not even saying it's a bad
thing. I'm saying I think repackers are
a big, big reason for that because repackers are paying,
you know, really high percentages.
Right, upwards of 90%. Sometimes I've seen some
offering 100 plus. Right, 'cause the business model
allows it. I mean, I, I can't, if I pay 90%

(06:11):
across the board, I'll, I'll literally lose money.
I'll literally put in, you know,have to spend hours to lose
money. So I, I can't, you know, if
somebody's legitimately paying 90%, I can't compete with that.
But I will say, a lot of the places that advertise we're
paying 90%, that's not really true.
They're they're paying like 90% for a Kaboom PSA 10.
You know, if you bring them likea standard card, they're they're

(06:33):
going to use the lowest comp andthen they're going to really
offer you 80. You know, it's like this.
So, so when somebody advertises 90%, you know, take that with a
grain of salt. So somebody comes to you with a
Kobe rookie PSA 10? Yeah.
You offering them 80%? Yeah, that, that's actually
probably spot on. Now, I would probably probably

(06:54):
offer 80% and I would say half of the people will take that
like this is at a card show. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And now let's say you've got a a
1985 Topps, Roger Clemens, PSA 9.
OK. What would you say you're you're
offering on a card like that? It's got to be less than 70%.

(07:14):
Yes, because that's like a, that's probably like a $50 card
or or so. Yeah.
So that I'd probably offer, if it's a $50 card, I'd probably
offer 30. So I guess that's 60%.
But you can't, you can't sell that to, I mean, you might find
a repacker, but that's not an easy card to sell at a card show
for. Nobody's going to give you 90%
on a card show for that, right, Right.
Yeah. Yeah.

(07:34):
So the where do you typically get your comps?
Well, I use, I use, if it's a graded card to use
vintagecardprices.com. I, I still think they're the
best I've used. You know, I've checked out card
ladder and Lutex and a couple ofthe others and they're, they're
good, but they don't, they're limited in that they don't have

(07:56):
all the cards on there. vintagecardprices.com has been
around a long time. They have a lot, they have it
all. So I for, for graded cards, I
use that. And then for lots or single
other singles, I use eBay. Just eBay sold sold those
things. And even though it's called
vintage card prices, they have all.
Yeah, they have all. I don't know why that they
should have changed. Yeah, they probably regret that
name. Like like I regret you know my

(08:18):
super long YouTube name. Well, like I regret going with
Junk Wax Hero 'cause. Everything.
Oh, right. Yeah, we all we all have bad
names. Yeah, they're they're not.
They have nothing to do with them.
They have nothing to do with thevintage.
I mean, they have the vintage, but they also have modern.
So, you know, it's like, yeah, Imean PWCCPWCC stands for Pre War
Card Collector, which, you know,they didn't specialize in pre

(08:41):
war. So I guess, I guess none of it
makes sense. So do you ever get somebody who
comes up to you and you offer them a certain percentage and
they say that's ridiculous, I can get something higher and
then they come back to you hoursor days later and offer it back
to. You yes, that that happened.
That happens all the time. Because of that ambiguity with

(09:03):
the, the bigger dealers are the repackers who are saying we'll
offer 80 to 90%, but there's there's strings attached,
there's some small print. Involved yeah and again the
repackers don't want don't want cheap stuff like they don't want
a $50 slab and they don't want like a a really non liquid like

(09:23):
they don't want like a not sorry, not non liquid.
They don't want like a like a 90s insert because the people
buying repackers want ultra modern.
They want active players. So they're not going to pay 90%
for, you know, 90s inserts or a $40 slap.
They're going to pay 90% for, again, a Jaden Daniels kaboom.
Like the really hot product of the really hot player.

(09:45):
Yeah, but there are some repackers out there that focus
on vintage. Yeah, that's true.
But very small percentage, very small percentage, I don't know
if they're paying. I don't know if those are paying
90% or not, maybe I don't know. If you're getting into dealing
right now, how badly, how important is it to have some

(10:07):
sort of content creation engine like you have?
You know, it's a good question. I think it's probably very
important. I, I never had anything until
2020 and I was doing fine. But I, but the, the YouTube
channel really launched it forward in a significant way.
And I, and I also feel like social media has exploded in the

(10:27):
last five years. So it's become more important in
the last five years than ever. You can probably get it.
You can probably do it without. I know card store owners who
have no social media presence and they're OK but.
How were you doing it before 2020?
Before 2020 I I so I started in like 2010 ish and I was I was
just hustling. I was going to yard sales, I was

(10:48):
going to card shows. There was a local card show that
was weekly near me and I went there every day.
And I, I just established myselfas somebody who buys out large
collections and a lot of the stuff I buy like nobody else
wants because it's just like a big bulky thing.
It fills up your car. People don't want to put in the
time. So that I sort of became the guy
that, you know, the go to guy inthe LA area to sell that stuff

(11:08):
to. And so it became kind of word of
mouth, but, and it still is wordof mouth for me mostly.
But the you know the channel helps significantly.
You're also posting to Craigslist, right?
I, I I was back then, yeah. Is Craigslist still still good?
I. Have no idea.
I've been on there in forever long time.
Yeah, I think Facebook marketplace is more of the the

(11:29):
go to for that stuff now do. You use that at all?
No, no, I don't. I don't.
It's pretty chunky. If you, is it OK?
I would imagine if you wanted toget started from scratch, you
would probably need to go in there and hustle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's walk through your list.
OK. Talk me through all the places

(11:51):
that you sell cards and and why.Yeah, because it's important.
As a dealer to have a variety ofplaces, you can't just send
everything to COMC. You can't sell everything on
eBay. Help.
Me understand this is a major change in the hobby in the last
five plus years. I, I only used eBay when I was,
if you went back to 2016, I strictly sold on eBay.

(12:15):
Literally 99% of anything I soldwas on eBay.
There just weren't that many other options.
Now there are tons of great options and I, and I use a lot
of them. OK, so you, I, I've broken it
into two categories. So I was, I've, how many are
there? A lot of people ask me like, oh,
what do you, where do you sell? And I'm like, oh, I sell in a
lot of places and I never actually counted.

(12:37):
It's actually I use nine companies regularly.
I was gonna get 7 but yeah. OK.
And then I also sell at card shows.
OK so I broke it in two categories auction houses and
like non auction houses. Sure.
OK so the non auction house is eBay.
I still use eBay quite a bit. But what you're sending like 10

(12:59):
to $100 cards on eBay? No So on eBay I sell basically
OK yeah, this is going to this is going to take a while to
explain. I'll try to go somewhat quick.
Oh basically 2 categories of things.
One graded modern cards that arerare but would do terrible in
auction. So you're, you're going to list
those if I'm guessing you're going to list those at a fixed

(13:21):
price or best offer at a pretty,pretty high price, right?
Yes, at a very high price because like I don't know who's
like a, a mediocre football likeEddie George.
If you have like an Eddie Georgeat a 50 from 1998 and it's APSA
9 and it's a pop one, there's a grand total.

(13:42):
Of seven collectors in the worldwho want.
That car, they want it badly. If you put in an auction, it's
going to go for $17.00 if. But if I list it, I can list it
in my store for 100 and somebody's going to buy it, but
it will take a long time before that hundred guy comes along.
So that needs to go to eBay. It can't go to an auction house.
So there's a lot of cards like that in my store.
That's the first category. The second category is like

(14:05):
large, bulky, large bulky stuff that there's nowhere else to
sell. An example would be like 3000
seventies Commons that does pretty well on eBay.
And you do. Those at auction.
No, I, I do, I do no auctions oneBay.
Never. OK, so it's all buy it now.
OK, so that's the first non auction place I use.
Second, as you've already mentioned, is COMC, which you

(14:28):
you use COMC. I have a box of things they just
jacked up their price from 30%. Dude, I didn't, I didn't know
that till I saw your video earlier today.
That's thanks for watching. Big bummer, man.
Yeah, yeah. I've just been sitting on this
box for two weeks, 3 weeks. Yeah, well, you missed that.
How many cards is it I? Don't know, 300 maybe?

(14:50):
All right, cost yourself 50 bucks by waiting.
Yeah. OK but but that being said I
love COMC. They me too.
They are as a seller and a buyeractually.
But as a seller they are awesome.
They do all the work for you. All you do is price your card.
It's the only place I sell. Oh, really?

(15:12):
I'm not a dealer, so I'm just pulling cards out and saying I
don't need this. Mostly out of the Vermont
collection still, to be honest with you.
And for instance, I there's one that was a Billy Martin and
Reggie Jackson patch card from like, I don't know, 1998 number
to 15. Great COM C card.

(15:33):
No sales I can find anywhere of course, and so I just listed it
on Com C for like $39.00 and it sat there for six months and
then last week I dropped the price down to $29.00 and it sold
immediately. OK, Yeah, sometimes that's all
it takes. Yeah, simple, super easy.

(15:55):
That's I sell a lot of things onthere for between 1:00 and $20
usually. That's exactly the, the, the
targets price. And what's, what's, what's
amazing about them is like if you have a $5 card, there's no
way there's nowhere to sell it that's worth your time as a
dealer. Except Com C 'cause I can just,
I can just put it into a large box and it goes out there.

(16:17):
Every other place is a waste of my time.
Listing it on eBay is too much time.
Then I have to ship it and, and all that's not going to be worth
the the $3.70 I'm going to net after fees and all that, yeah.
Plus now so I I'll find that I have some cards that are really
rare and I've got them priced atsay 80 or $90.00 and they they
don't sell. There's with one click.

(16:39):
You can now send it to eBay at auction for a dollar.
So I've used, I've used that is it only a dollar wait, but but
but then plus the 5% fee. No, I don't think there's a 5%
fee. It's you've already paid the
upfront fee to have it listed byComp C and then there's a $1.00

(17:01):
eBay auction insertion fee from Comp CI.
Might be mistaken but on this video I I talked about this on a
video and nobody corrected me and I I did a lot of research
into it. Pretty sure it's only the dollar
and then like I had it listed for 80 or $90.00 and it sold for
115. In the auction.
On eBay, and I've done that a bunch of times.

(17:22):
They they don't sell for more, but usually right around what I
had them listed for, for, you know, kind of unusual cards.
Yeah, you know, it's a great place for unusual cards like
that. Yeah.
OK, that's my second place you. My third one is I use the
fanatics vault. Yes, you were telling me about

(17:43):
this at, at lunch at the National and I was quite
intrigued by this because I, I knew nothing about the Fanatics
Vault and you made it seem pretty appealing.
And this is not a sponsored and we're not sponsored by Fanatics.
In any way, these companies are sponsored.
Right, nothing is sponsored herebut this I I was intrigued by
this. So, yeah, the fanatics Vault is

(18:05):
you, they only take graded cardsand you, you just ship them your
cards. And it's just like Com C
actually, except there's, I would say it's a, you know, it's
a higher, higher end marketplacethan Com C.
Like you wouldn't want to ship them a, a $10 card, But so I use
that for higher dollar graded cards and I like it for a number
of reasons. There's no, there's no fees.

(18:26):
I'm sorry, there's no insertion fees.
I could I ship them cards and they list they do all the list.
It's all listed for me. There's the sale price fees are
very low if you price your item fairly by their standards and
and then it's only 6%, which is basically half of eBay.
If you listed not super low by their standards, it's 13%, which

(18:49):
is still comparable to eBay. And so the stuff sells pretty,
pretty well on there. It probably would do better on
eBay a little bit like it would sell faster, but but you have to
do a lot of work if if you sell on eBay there they do everything
for you. Yeah.
So I'm, I'm I, I like their, that service quite a lot And and

(19:11):
any time you can send the stuff to auction too, which I I don't
use very much, but sometimes. OK.
So yeah, I use that for sort of higher dollar graded cards.
And then I do use the PSA vault once in a while, but not really.
I prefer fanatic PSA Vault and Fanatics are very similar.
The two vaults, I prefer fanatics just I think it's a

(19:32):
it's set up better. Although PSA is starting to
offer these additional like services are tied to it.
So I'll consider that more. But yeah, OK.
So those are the companies I usethat are not auction houses.
In short, those are the companies where I, I'm not in a
hurry to move the stuff. So a lot of the vintage will go
in those one of those three companies, a lot of the rare 90s

(19:53):
stuff where I'm not in a rush because rare 90s probably is
going to hold its value. More established players are
more likely to to send to those.Then there's the auction houses
where which is which is I want to I want to get my money.
I need to move this stuff quickly and get paid.
OK, so moving on to the auction houses.
Sorry, it's a lot. Sorry, it's a lot.

(20:13):
Great. So Greg Morris is is the first
one I'm going to mention he now Greg.
Morris takes raw right. Yeah, Greg Morris takes Raw and
they they sell on eBay. They sell, they do auctions on
eBay and they're, but they're their bread and butter is raw
vintage. So if you send them raw vintage

(20:34):
that's in nice condition, they will get top dollar for it.
And I mean top, top dollar because their reputation is so
good. So if they if they call, if they
call a card near mint, people are going to respect that.
So they get top dollar for raw vintage.
The, the one big limiting factorwith them is they only accept
packages of $5000 and up. So you can't just send them like

(20:55):
50 cards at a time. You have to wait till you've,
you know, accumulated quite a bit.
OK, so that's the first auction.I also use the second one,
Huggins and Scott, which probably maybe a lot of people
haven't heard of. Have you heard?
Have you heard of? Them.
I have heard of them, yeah. I've in fact covered some things
that they've sold or had in their auctions.
Before yeah, so they're awesome way underrated.

(21:17):
They're they're attached to Rea actually is there parent owners
company? I didn't know.
That, but they're located 45 minutes from my house and
they're actually really fun to buy on because they, they sell a
lot of like shoebox lots. So if you, you know, and that's,
that's the way I, I used to loveto buy like 1000 cards from the

(21:39):
70s with a bunch of hall of farmers, just like random
mishmash lots and, and modern stuff too.
So I sell, I actually, but I used to buy that stuff and I've
converted to selling that stuff through them.
So I saw a lot of like large mishmash lots that I just I
keep, I get a lot of cards in and I need I need to move them
in in bulk sometimes that's a good option for that.
And since they're close, I can Ican drive it to them.

(22:04):
OK, then Ciai threw it in there.I use it.
I use it and I tell me. It's my favorite.
You know this. I love CIA because it feels to
me more welcoming as a collector, as a low dollar
collector, you know, I'm buying cards in the 50 to $500 range

(22:25):
generally. And 500 is a lot.
And there are a lot of options on there of big cards that I
would love to have that are in my range, the types of cards
that I would buy as a kind of iconic rookie autographed
collector. And there is CIA has a lot of

(22:46):
those and you don't see those inRea or maybe you do and I'm just
not seeing them because it's notvery not as user friendly as CIA
is. No, Rea and Huggins and Scott,
these are like $500.00 an up auction houses.
CIA is is more like 50 and up. And full, Full disclosure, I'm a
small owner of CIA, so you know,I am promoting them here, but I

(23:09):
legitimately use them to sell CIA.
Does sponsor my other channel what which is also on this
channel, but this video is not sponsored by CIA.
Jeremy, my partner, he, he's theowner and when he started like
he everything was his because hedidn't want to, he didn't want
to take consignments and get really low.
And so I was putting a bunch of stuff in the auction to sell

(23:31):
just to just to get some inventory in there.
And the stuff was selling really, really low.
But over it's been over a year now and now prices are are
totally on par with, you know, reasonable.
Absolutely. Yeah.
So so now I actually, I do actually use CIA to to sell
legitimately as a company. Yeah.
And just to be clear, when I said there are 50 to $500 items,

(23:53):
there are also much, much biggeritems that Jeremy was in there
too with that are dream cards. And yeah, I mean, I would if I
were a seller. I'd be selling through CIA too.
Yeah. So he and again, we're sort of
self sort of self promoting, butJeremy, he, he we were talking
about this early and he was like, eventually we should get

(24:14):
to the point where we were talking about like eventually
you'd want to get to the point where you're only selling really
high dollar stuff because that'sthe highest margins with little
work. But he actually, he is actually
him who said I actually don't ever want to get to the point
where I'm not taking $50 cards because I wanted to be in an
everyman auction type of thing for forever.
So shout out to Jeremy for that.All right.

(24:35):
And then there's two other eBay auction houses I use a little to
a lesser extent, but yeah, sometimes it's just really
convenient for sharp corners. They sell on eBay.
I use them for graded cheaper, graded modern, let's say like a
like a $50 Shohei Otani PSA 9 I'd probably send to to them.

(24:57):
And then hoodies. I actually don't use hoodies
much anymore, but they're great.And I did use them for a while.
I was using them a lot for a lotof like raw modern ultra,
especially like modern prospectsand stuff.
They would get solid prices and and sold through eBay.
So those that's my company sheetthat I I use regularly.
There was there was 9 on there. Thanks for going through that.

(25:17):
The reason I asked that and for the listeners because they're if
you're, if you're thinking aboutcards the way you do as a
dealer, you need to have a variety.
Like I am sure I'm going to interview people on here other
dealers who are only selling at card shows and on Twitter.
I see it all the time and they seem to do fine.

(25:40):
So there's no, this isn't a you have to sell through everything,
but you might consider various different ways, but some people
are only buying $100 and up cards.
Some people are only buying $1000 and up cards and the the
small variety of places to sell probably work for them, but for

(26:00):
you, you're buying a lot of bigger collections which I would
be in the same boat. That's what I would want.
To do too, like the Vermont. Collection was a dream for me.
Yeah, it's it's more fun for me that way too.
Yeah, my friend who just found out I was into cards said, oh,
I've got my childhood card sitting in my closet that I keep
meaning to look through, but it's been 35 years.

(26:22):
And I said, I said there's nothing worth anything in there.
I guarantee you. You have you have the experience
of a dealer. Yeah, But he said, would you
want to look through it? I said 100% I would love to.
And he, he brought them in. I've got them sitting on the
floor here next to me. And I said to him, I've, I've
looked through half of it. And I said there's not anything

(26:44):
of real value, like a handful offive to $10 cards.
Man, it's a blast. It's so much fun looking through
it. That's funny.
Yeah. Cards.
That I've never seen before. I stopped.
Oh, cards you've never seen before.
Well, that can't be. What is like what?
There's some Bart nose cards. Oh yeah, Early 90s, early 90s,

(27:04):
Yeah. I've never seen like Bo.
No. And he's isn't Bo Jackson on
this? Yeah.
He's not, but it is based on that.
I think that there are some thathaven't.
He just, my friend doesn't have any of that on them.
But it's like Bart knows baseball, Bart knows basketball,
stuff like that. Yeah, fun stuff.
Yeah. If somebody says, if somebody

(27:25):
says I stopped collecting 35 years ago, that's like basically
the worst answer. Yeah, his his cards go into the
early 90s, OK, So I think, but it's largely 85 to 91.
OK. I was going to say there, there
can't be that much in there thatyou haven't seen.

(27:45):
No, there's not much. It's.
Probably 80 percent. 1989 Don Russ.
OK. Curt Schilling, rookie, and
Griffey's in there, Randy. Gary Sheffield.
Yeah. Yeah, he's got them all.
OK. Yeah.
So somebody comes to you with a bulk collection that's all junk

(28:07):
wax, 100% junk wax. Do you are you intrigued and
think I can find something amazing or are you just
immediately no? Today I'm I'm, I'm immediately
No, yeah, I there are days when I would have, I would have loved
that and I would have split it up by player and sold, you know,
30 Ryan Sandberg cards in an eBay lot and gotten, you know, 5

(28:30):
bucks for it. And but but I'm I'm, you know,
I've retired from those days. So no, yeah, I pass.
I pass it the junk quack Sarah bulk lots now.
You've advanced, so how many? I saw your video a week or so,
maybe last Saturday, where you showed your room, your basement.
Yeah. Is it a basement?

(28:50):
It's a basement, yeah. Yeah, and you're basically
collecting player lots. How many do you need to have,
let's say, of Barry Bonds beforeyou're willing to sell it as a
lot? Sure.
So Barry Bonds would, Yeah. So I've I've, it's only down to
about 20 players total that I set aside for player lots.
I used to do that. Used to be like the core,
literally the core of my business was player lots.

(29:13):
Now, now I only do about 20 players across all the sports.
Barry Bonds is one of them. He'd, he'd be about 500.
So when I get to 500 Barry Bonds, I'll make a lot for eBay
that that's an eBay lot. There's no other really good way
to sell that that I that I'm aware of.
And those are all fixed price orbest offer you said?
Yeah, so those would all be the cheap ones.

(29:34):
Any, any nice Berry bonds would go to Com C.
So you know, if it's a $5 not Berry Bonds, it would go to Com
C. If it's a cheap Berry Bonds, it
would go into this player lot. And when I get to about 500,
I'll make a player lot for eBay and probably get, you know,
probably listed for like 150 or best offer, which would be $0.30
a card and I'll probably get 100.

(29:56):
Yeah, something like that. So from my Vermont collection, I
have probably 20 to 30 players that I have built out lots for
and I just need to just need to sell them at some point.
They're none of them. I don't.
I might have two that have 500. Like what sort of player?
Like what? Like is it like Ryan Sandberg

(30:17):
level players? Yeah, all all Hall of Farmers,
plus guys like Clemens and Conseco.
Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson, Absolutely.
OK, but that just got. Like Eddie Murray with 37 cards
that I would never sell. That's tough.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So as an example, if I, if you
have a lot, even if you had likeif I bought a collection and

(30:40):
there was say 500 Ryan Sandberg,Ryan Sandberg is not going to
sell well. But that's enough.
I'll just, I'll just post it because it's already made for
me. But I wouldn't I wouldn't like I
wouldn't build that overtime or Ryan Sandberg lot, if that makes
sense. One of the things I send to
Huggins and Scott are 5000 countHall of Fame lots.
So like Ryan Sandberg, Eddie Murray's, the Dave Winfield's,

(31:00):
the Dennis Eckersley's, the guyswho are just not going to sell
those going to one large lot. And then I'll and sell that
through Huggins and Scott and and put a bunch of like key
rookies in the front so that there's something of of intrigue
beyond Dave Winfield. So 5000 count boxes.
Yeah, it it depends on the good cards I put in the front.

(31:22):
Like if I put a bunch of ripped in rookies and Kirby Puckett
rookies in the front, it'll probably go for like 11 to 2000.
Oh wow. Yeah, but if.
But if not, it'll probably go for like 500.
OK, Yeah. So, all right, you're not going

(31:44):
to take a junk wax lot. Would you take a a collection
that's 50% junk wax, 50% more more modern, 50% vintage and I'm
not adding up all three of those.
I'm saying 50% junk wax and then50% vintage or 50% more modern
that are that are good. Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

(32:06):
Yeah, No, I, I buy most people, I most collections I buy have a
whole bunch of junk wax and mostpeople I buy from want to sell
everything. They don't, they don't want to
sell a piece of it. Actually, it actually kind of
surprises me how often people want to sell it all.
Like I would have thought it's, you know, once in a while, but
basically everybody I meet, not everybody, but the vast majority

(32:27):
wants to sell it all. And so, yeah, I, I often end up
taking a whole bunch of junk wax, which I'm, I'm completely
fine with if there's, you know, other stuff of use in there.
So I, I get, I, I have piles of junk wax cards as well and I
accumulate a lot. But I, you know, I, I move, move
those out pretty quick. Because one thing I've learned
is don't. Don't let yourself lose your
space. So how often do you show up for

(32:51):
a collection by or a collection,you know, to going through a
collection and they say somebody's already gone through
it and taken the good stuff or you find that they have.
Excuse me? OK, think so.

(33:12):
This would be the first time somebody chokes and dies on my
podcast. Sorry, something went down my
throat wrong. Well, that happens all the time.
Nobody ever says it though, but it's very.

(33:34):
Because they're missing cars that they showed on the
advertisements. Yeah.
I mean, when you've seen enough collections, you can you can
start to set sense that somebodyhas looked through this already.
But so that happens, that happens all the time.
But yeah, I don't think anybody,I don't think anybody's ever
shared that upfront. I, I went through a stretch a

(33:56):
couple years ago where I, I was wanted to buy collections off
Facebook Marketplace and I somebody was selling a
collection. They had some there's some good
cards in the first photo on Facebook Marketplace and I show
up and it's all late 1970s binders.

(34:16):
And the the good cards were likethere was like a Yaz rookie and
a Clemente rookie and a star Joel rookie.
And so there was a lot of vintage.
And then I show up and it's justbinders of 1976 through 79,
maybe even into the early 80s Comments.

(34:38):
And I looked around and I said you're missing all these cards
and. Oh, they weren't even.
They weren't even there. No, they're gone, she goes.
Oh, no, they're all in there, you just need to take them.
No. No, no, no, no, no.
And I said she's like you, you just haven't looked enough
through it. And I said Nah, I have.
And and she got really mad and she started accusing me of

(35:01):
stealing. And I was like, no, that's OK,
I'm I'm out of here. Yeah, no, that, that kind of
thing happens a a good, a good amount.
The hey, check out my amazing cards and then you show up there
and that's that's basically all there.
I've never, I don't think I've ever been.
I can't even think of that situation where they they just
flat out weren't there. I've gotten like, hey, look at

(35:23):
these 10 cards that are amazing.I've got a whole box full of
this type of stuff and I arrive and that's the 10 cards are the
only good ones they have that that that's actually quite
common actually. Actually insist on getting more
pictures now than than than thatbecause yeah, that that has just
happened too often. Would you?
Would you would you enjoy going around buying collections or do

(35:44):
you think you would get tired ofit quick?
Oh, I would love it forever. You would love it forever.
Absolutely. And going through them, my
challenge would be the the shipping the cards.
But now there's so many options to ship in bulk to various
places as you described, that would make it so much easier.

(36:04):
Yeah, yeah. Would you?
Love to do it. Yeah, the the like negotiating
aspect is that. Does that scare you at all or do
you think you would enjoy that? I think a lot of people are are
scared off, scared off by that, including me.
It took me a while to get used to it.
No, I think it, I would strugglewith that at least to start
because I think if I watching you and then watching like

(36:28):
chasing cardboard and trike, youspend a lot of time with the
collection. And I would have a hard time
getting comfortable with sittingdown in somebody's house going
through their collection for hours.
But you have to and I would just, I would have a hard time
with that. Or if you, if you, if they're
not going to give you that time,which most people do, but once

(36:50):
in a while they, they won't, then you just have to offer
extremely low and say, I'm sorry, I have to be because I
have to be protect myself here. But yeah, most people give you
the time and they want you to take the time because it makes
them feel like you're, you know,you're not just guessing and
you're, you're, you're making a fair assessment, which is what's
happening. Yeah, and then you'll ask them

(37:11):
where are your best cards, I assume where, how?
Direct me to some good boxes. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I actually,
I actually like going in reverse.
If, if they, if they know what they're doing and they've sorted
all the good cards in one place.I like going through the the the
worst of 1st and working way up my way up to the, the good stuff
'cause otherwise, you know, if you get the good stuff first,

(37:33):
then it's like you gotta go through all this bulk.
Now, if you know, there's like the pot of gold at the end of
the the rainbow, you'll, you'll,you'll go through the Balkan.
Spend the right time. So what's the best card you've
ever bought in a collection? Or just maybe not even in the
collection, just somebody came up and sold it to you.

(37:54):
The best card I've ever bought. Like, in terms of like the best
deal I've ever gotten. It doesn't have to be value.
It doesn't have to be just the card that you think back and say
that is my favorite card I've ever bought.
My favorite car. I don't know.
I mean, I've told the story in my channel about the LeBron
James black refractor that was aa good friend of mine.

(38:16):
He actually bought an like an awesome LeBron James collection.
It had a gold refractor in thereand it had, I think it had one
of each like the gold refractor.This is 2003 tops, Chrome gold
refractor, X Factor black refractor refractor in the base.
But this was before COVID, so they weren't worth all that
much. And he sold me the black
refractor for $800. I graded it, it got a nine from

(38:40):
PSA and yeah, I still have it. It's and it's worth like 20
grand today. But it went up to 80 grand
during COVID. Thanks for reminding me, yeah.
Yeah, I remember that video because.
It hurt, yes. There were two sales of the card
in a nine at 80 grand, right around 80 grand.

(39:02):
And during COVID and I, I, I waslike, maybe I'll go higher.
Well, can't win them all. Yeah.
So you I assume you've had like a 52 tops mantle?
I've had two in my life, yeah. But you don't have one in your

(39:23):
in your safe deposit box now. No, no, I both I had were were
pre COVID. The first was a was the first
was raw. We, we assessed it would
probably grade a 2.5 if we had graded it.
We paid 13,000. No, we paid, we paid, we paid
13,000 for the collection of which that was like the the

(39:45):
biggest card in the collection and then we sold that card for
15,000. But there was there was more
stuff in the collection as well.And that was like a that was
like a one week, one week turn around.
So that was a quick, quick sale.That was the first Mantel I
ever, ever had that was raw. And then later we bought out a
dealer at the National and therewas a B VG2IN it as well.

(40:09):
And we? Actually sold it.
At the National. So we bought we bought the
bought the dealer out on a on Saturday and sold the that card
on Sunday. So I owned that card for one
day. I don't remember the.
Numbers on it, but we, you know.We made a little bit on it, so
let's say you're. Set up at a car show and you buy
a card for 1000. Dollars.

(40:29):
What is the minimum you would turn around and sell that for to
somebody else at that show? Well, I so I don't, I don't
operate that way, but in in the hypothetical I would 1100 yeah,
I would if it was if it was a a card I had no interest in like
holding for whatever reason, then I would take I would take a
tiny profit on it. So that $1000.

(40:51):
Card you take it home, what are you hoping to sell it for a
week? 2 weeks later, 13114 hundred,
it's it. Completely depends on the card.
So if it's a vintage card, like let's say it's a mantle that's
worth 1000, probably the marginsare going to be pretty small
because because that has a very like set price and, and it's

(41:14):
very clear what it's worth. And probably the person selling
knows that. And I'm going to be paying a
strong price because I have to, to be competitive.
If it's like a really, really rare card, then it's totally
different, totally like a rare 90s insert.
Then it's a totally different ball game 'cause that's like,
who knows what it's worth? I'm, I'm taking a gamble here.
Maybe I'm paying 1000. I'm gonna try to get 2 grand out
of it. Probably I won't.

(41:34):
Maybe I'll get lucky if I don't.OK, let's try 1800.
If that, if I get lucky with that, cool.
If not, OK, let's try 1600. And sometimes that goes all the
way down to 800 and I end up taking a loss on it.
But, but that's a car, you know,that's a car.
I, I like those because there's some hits and misses, but
there's, there's more hits than misses.
You don't know what's going to be the hits, what's going to be
the misses. But if you do enough of them,

(41:55):
there's more hits than misses and there's more margin in the,
in the big picture. Are you investing in any?
Players that are current, players that haven't, that are
not yet a lock for the Hall of Fame, let's say Cal Rally, No.
Not. Not even.
Close and I've. Learned that even if there are

(42:17):
people who can do that, I am notone of them.
Yeah, I'm the same. So.
You, but you have some Shohei cards, some Aaron Judge cards, I
assume? No, no.
To me, those are too young. I know, I know.
Everyone will say Shohei Otani is the lock for the greatest
player of all time. No, he's not.
I've heard that. Oh, I've heard that 10 times in
my life about Albert Puholtz andMike Trout and Ken Griffey

(42:37):
Junior. These are all the greatest
players of all time and then, you know, 20 years later,
they're just, they're just a really good player in their era.
I got Otani's like Unicorn. He's above and beyond.
That's what they said about all these other guys too.
Hard to hard to agree in the moment, but that's that's my
experience. You'd argue against Puholtz?
No, I would argue that Puholz still ended.

(42:57):
Up having an unbelievable career, even though like 10
years were terrible for the Angels, the 1st 10 years we're
outrageously good. Very.
Absolutely. Almost. 1. 100% I'm not knocking
any of these. Players, I'm saying in 2007,

(43:19):
people said Albert Puholtz will be the greatest, the most
important player in card history.
His cards will be the most important cards in all of cards
forever. And they're just not.
They're just not like that. That's all.
That's all I'm saying, yeah. All right, Chris, we're 44

(43:39):
minutes in. This has been enlightening,
interesting and fun. Yeah, it's, well, I feel like I
talked too. Much this time I should.
No, this has been great. That's the whole.
Point of this, yeah, OK. Thank you for coming on.
And again, for anybody listening, actually, before we
go, do you want to add anything?No.

(44:01):
You mean just like promote myself or?
Sure, if you want to, absolutely.
My name is Chris and yeah. You're it's not a.
Car dealer I'm a car. Dealer come, come say hi.
Yeah, YouTube. Collector investor dealer.
Baseball card Collector investordealer.
Yeah, it's your YouTube channel.Yeah.

(44:24):
And people can find you at where.
Where's your e-mail address? Just go to the YouTube channel,
the emails there. It's easier to find that way.
OK, so again. As I mentioned the beginning, if
you're watching on my channel, Junk Wax Hero, make sure you go
and subscribe to Sports Card Clubhouse or go and follow the
podcast which comes out several days before the YouTube videos.

(44:47):
This will be the last one of these that shows up on my
YouTube channel. Other than that, I appreciate
everybody listening or watching.Chris, thanks very much for
joining me. Yeah, thanks so much, man.
Fun as always. Bye everybody.