Things started out innocently enough with me trading a custom card I made. Why did I do this? Because I had just started doing custom cards for my collection about a month or two before, and figured why not? The only catch is that it had to be a 1989 upper deck style type of card. It couldn't just be anything.
Shortly thereafter, I got my first bite! I traded one for this:
It is always the first deal that you need to get over in order to really get going. After wheeling and dealing some more, I brought in some pretty dang slick TTT and Museum cards. Here is an example of one of them a few weeks in:
After a while, deals started pouring in. I started going from trading customs for other cards to selling the cards I was getting in and acquiring small lots / collections.
I also must mention the generosity of the online community for giving me cards for free along in our deals to help me with my flip quest!
Inside of a month, I had brought in over $600, and decided to make things more interesting, by using my money to pick up miscellaneous items at garage sales (my wife and I love going to garage sales saturday mornings!)
Let's reminisce on some of the goofy items, shall we?
A Paula Deen autographed menu I picked up for 50 cents and sold for $20
TONS of restaurant dishes for $8, which I got $75 for
A few weeks and several deals later, I went to a sports card show. I was able to pick up a complete set of 1968 Topps, 1975 Topps and a box of vintage.
This brought me down to $53.
Perhaps one of the better $ pickups I got, as a camera lot which was $50 and I ended up making over $600 on. Here is a pic of one of them:
At the time, the camera lot was the last few dollars I had, as the rest of my money was tied up in "inventory".
A few weeks later, I bounced back nicely and sold the vintage, as well as some other stuff, so I had inventory and over $2,100 cash!
As far as cards go, a solid month and a half went on with ABSOLUTELY NO CARDBOARD. As a matter of fact, I only had a few other deals from there on out that had to do with cards. It was mainly because I was spending my time doing other things, and frankly couldn't find any huge deals. With all that said, in early-mid august, I hit the $3,000+ plateau (yeah!)
Then, as the baseball season was winding down, I struck gold. I bought out two dealer inventories over the course of 3 deals within 7 days. They probably totaled close to 1,500,000 sports cards (most of which are still in my garage!)
Thankfully, I was able to QUICKLY move some of the boxes, and got profitable in a very short amount of time, so all I have now is profit.
As a final update, here is where I stand:
CARDS I HAVE LEFT:
The majority of both collections (probably $5-6,000 worth of resale value)
NON CARDS
box of educational books (this has been a great money maker! I probably have 15 books left and have been getting $7 each)
step 2 locker (will probably get $20 for if)
wii fit pad (nothing exciting - probably gonna get $10)
air jordans (ONE person has asked. ONE! And he didn't have a car. These may be donated when all is said and done!)
circular chinese dragon wall art (will get $30 at some point ... have had several bites)
4 ps2 games (I may have already sold these for $20-30 ... oops!)
oriental vase (will probably fetch $20-$40)
taiwanese chest (will probably fetch $50-80)
1 drop-leaf desk (I never put this up for sale ... probably $20-30)
projector screen (probably $30-40)
Cash
$4,300 total
Keepers - many of these will probably be sold at some point anyway
1 drop leaf desk
Fabric of the Game Canseco Jersey
Absolute Heroes Canseco Jersey / Cap
2 Security Cameras
6 plates (wife let me know that we will be keeping 6 of the plates!)
2 comic display pieces
wii & wii fit
MP640 printer
glass top wicker basket
2 2014 Canseco cards
Jose Canseco autographed baseball
1986 Donruss Canseco & 86 Donruss Canseco autographed
All in all, I don't see why, with time, this will all bring in $9-10,000 when all is said and done. The cards have been moving like hot cakes though, I admit, it has taken a lot of hustle. It has been fun though - a real labor of love!
Now, for the final big reveal .... drum roll please ....
I count this whole thing a huge success. I never really had a huge PC purchase in mind in the end. I just wanted to see how far this puppy would take me.
Until I had a thought in my head coming back from the card show in June. I didn't just want a PC card I could love and hug and squeeze forever. I wanted something *REALLY* special.
AHA!!! I got it!
Why not have the end game as seeing about having a PRIVATE SIGNING WITH JOSE CANSECO? After going back and forth with his manager, it does sound like it was going to happen, but unfortunately, the promoter that was going to have him here in Texas cancelled (color me MAJORLY BUMMED...I just found this out yesterday.) The good news is that I am quite confident that it will happen; I'm just not sure when.
Y'all, this is *HUGE* to me. As you may already know, I am a massive Jose Canseco fan. I have been since I was 9. What a cool thing to be able to hang out with him in my own private signing ... to be able to show him all of my custom card handiwork and shoot the breeze for a bit.
I have often considered sending the cards to be signed at an event he was at thousands of miles away, but his manager advised me not to do so, and just sit tight until we can get something to happen. I made the decision to go along with this, and am happy I did...or will once the private signing happens, anyway! :) I would much rather show him my work myself.
So, I suppose that is a wrap! Mouschi's 2014 Flip Quest is over. The only thing left is the prize at the end - the private signing. When that happens, I'll write up another article about it as well. Until then, I'll be (im)patiently waiting the call for it while swimming in my million plus cards!
Had a lot of fun reading through the flip quest. Great way to send it off!
ReplyDeletethanks for following along!
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