Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

How to make money from Pokemon??

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Magicsam

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I was hoping to start up a website selling cards. The problem is, I don't know how sites like 'Troll and Toad' make their money. Do they crack open boxes and sell all the cards, or do they rely on their buylists to get the cards they need from their customers.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
I'm guessing they pretty much rely on their buylist/clueless people selling them cards. Opening boxes generally is not a good idea if you want to make money selling singles.
 
Try and be a person that trades rare cards for bulk

dollars to donuts, you can probably sell a common for .25 no matter what, so someone offering say 200 for catcher, its like offering... 5 time profit...

However it is slower paced to get rid of commons mind you
 
PokemonTrader said:
Try and be a person that trades rare cards for bulk

dollars to donuts, you can probably sell a common for .25 no matter what, so someone offering say 200 for catcher, its like offering... 5 time profit...

However it is slower paced to get rid of commons mind you
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That's not generally what people do with bulk, for the record. A lot of times bulk is sectioned into package deals and sold "X cards + Y rare and possibly Z gimmick" on ebay and similar sites. A lot of the people buying cards are getting them for their kids. This means that package deals appeal to them more because there is value in their eyes to giving their kids a giant stack of cards. This is in opposition with the collector's or player's viewpoint which has sights set on specific cards.

I'm sure you know that, but others might not.
 
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Buying and re-selling bulk is just one subset of a simple money-making principle: buy low and sell high. It works for bulk, but also all other cards.

There's also just some simple market speculation; I know a few people who made some good money buying and reselling Yanmega Primes when they were hot. If you can anticipate what good decks will be coming up after a new set release, you can buy up cards when they're cheaper and then resell them when a deck that uses them gets big. It also works in reverse, such as selling cards for maximum profit before a rotation when they'd go down in value. Like any speculation, there's a bit of a risk, since what you predict may not come true.
 
Places like Troll and Toad by cases and cases of each set at discount wholesale bulk price.

You don't make much profit out of opening a single box if you are paying $70+ for it.
 
Just buy packs and wait for cards you think will be good to raise in price. I bought 2 BW Packs when theyfirst came out and got 2 ability boar. I immediately sold them for 22.00, thats sorta how it works, hope I helped :)
 
If the boxes are new and you resell as soon as you open them made can be made easily.

I have never done this for my store on ebay though. I started with a few cards sold them and re-bought bulk for cheap when I could find it. If you know the market well you can easily make tons of money in Pokemon.
For example if you can find a base set for $50 you can turn around and easily break the set up and get $150 back . You lose on having to sell individually but there is a margin of profit. I had no money to work with when I started a little over 3 years ago with only a Jungle set and now Im sitting on 50,000+ in my store with tons of cool collectibles, so it seems to work.
 
How to make money at Pokemon? Work your butt off. It's a business, just like any other.
You have to be dedicated to it. You can't just bust boxes as a hobby and think you'll make a profit.
 
If you really want to start off right, take advantage of the fact that, in person, people are willing to undervalue their cards if you give them cash.

At Nationals, if you look through someone's binder, see that the cards are easily worth $1k online, and offer them $400, they'll probably take it without much hesitation. Now they have $400, but if you have the time, you have a huge profit margin.

Trading up online can also allow you to amass a huge collection and profit greatly, as I have.
 
Politoed, I agree a lot!

Ever since I started my point value system, I always come just a smidge on top in every trade, and it is racking up!

I have probably over $300 value so far, when I started with nothing xD
 
I know I am replying real late to this thread, but I thought I'd add that troll and toad are working on a million dollar scale. They have hundreds of employees who just sit there sorting cards all day. They must make at least 50-100k a day I'd say to pay all their employees.
 
Jiffy said:
I know I am replying real late to this thread, but I thought I'd add that troll and toad are working on a million dollar scale. They have hundreds of employees who just sit there sorting cards all day. They must make at least 50-100k a day I'd say to pay all their employees.
Click to expand...

You'd think for that type of money they'd provide better customer service and card conditions...
 
elam18 said:
I don't think they make 50k - 100k a day... more like around 10k profit
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It's hard to tell; they're a private company aren't they?

You do have to wonder what their profit is, but it's hard to tell. If you wanted to, you could track their sales by watching quantity reductions in items they have. For every. Single. Item. But even then it's not accurate because you're not taking into account the thousands of cards added every day from their buylist.

Given their bulk rates and what they sell C/UC for, I think it's safe to say that their margins are VERY good. Given how they're the biggest online retailer, their volume is also huge. I wonder how many part time employees it takes to run everything?
 
Also take account they take in cases of booster boxes... which will lower their cost of booster packs/boxes since they charge full retail price AND OVERCHARGE For big item shippings.
 
Here are a few more principles to keep in mind, that are more specific to Pokemon than just any other money-making process or job:

1) If you're making a big deal, always set it up so that you get a profit margin reflective of your time put in. For example, I bought a massive lot of first ed and shadowless base for $150 a while back. So far I've spent about 10 hours total managing all affairs related to organizing and selling those cards, and my present revenue gained from it is around $500 after eBay seller fees and shipping. That's $350 profit, divided by ten hours, for around $35/hour. I have many cards left, and more hours to spend on it, but for the time being, that's a good margin.

2) Cooperate with other sellers when you can, because the overwhelming majority of the time, people here are friends in and out of selling. I've had more than one instance where I was in competition with a friend for a big lot, valuable cards, etc., but by keeping our cool and recognizing that we're still friends at the end of the day, we reached purchasing/selling situations where everyone won, including the seller.

3) Knowledge. The more you know about this market, the better equipped you'll be to make money. Had I been aware of the extreme value PSA adds to certain cards, I would be WAY richer than I am now.
 
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