Go into debt for buying Magic cards, should I do it?

[healthstatus]

Sure, this may happen, but it is very unlikely. Do you know anything about Magic?

Yes I do, and I know about collectibles.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2010/03/the_great_baseball_card_bubble.html

I also know about asking for advice and actually listening to the advice given.

 

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[LifeTransformer]

I think you should do it.

It will teach you a valuable lesson one way or another, and you'll have to learn from it.

When I was younger I got caught up in the beanie baby craze, and the pokemon cards thing, I'm not even going to tell you how that panned out, you can probably already guess.

Anyone want to buy a beanie baby?

 

[PatricianCat]

I think you should do it.

It will teach you a valuable lesson one way or another, and you'll have to learn from it.

When I was younger I got caught up in the beanie baby craze, and the pokemon cards thing, I'm not even going to tell you how that panned out, you can probably already guess.

Anyone want to buy a beanie baby?

I'll trade you some YuGiOh cards for one.

 

[Jakawan]

Anyways... If you're buying something to try and flip and make profit.. I'd say try to at minimum double your profit.. and leave room for error also...
Also take into account the demand... are there really that many people out there looking to buy $10k+ worth of magic cards?
And are you willing to dedicate 6 months of your life trying to liquidate them? Most likely the only person willing to buy that amount of cards is.. a reseller, a shop, etc... and they are going to want to buy them at 20-50 cents on the dollar.. not a solid bet.
Private label a product from China instead and make as much as 500%-800% profit..
Or flip a car on Craigslist with that $5k you have.

 

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[sQri]

Funny that there are opinions, that I won't listen to advice, that's obviously not true.

Thank you for the good posts telling me not to do it.
And thank you for the awesome posts like "seriously" and "hahaha magic cards", they helped a lot.

 

[ZCP]

Put the passion you had for arguing this is a good idea into pre-selling them and you would have already made $4k w/o putting in any of your own money......

 

[jon.a]

I don't know magic cards. I know some coins. I'm buying special pieces now that I expect with a little work on my part to triple in 3 to 5 years. But, I'm not borrowing to buy them. And, I'm spending several 100k. I'm like Mr. Wonderful, a disciplined investor. You on the other hand sound like a child.

 

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[sQri]

I don't know magic cards. I know some coins. I'm buying special pieces now that I expect with a little work on my part to triple in 3 to 5 years. But, I'm not borrowing to buy them. And, I'm spending several 100k. I'm like Mr. Wonderful, a disciplined investor. You on the other hand sound like a child.

Sorry that I'm not such a sophisticated investor like you are.

But that's the reason I asked for advice.

 

[biophase]

If you really wanted to do this, offer your $5k for them all. $16k is way overpaying for them. Maybe go $8k Max.

You have to ask yourself why he's selling them all in one shot for $16k if they are worth $20k. Is this guy just willing to toss away $4k? Must be a reason.

And for the record I don't think it's a good investment at any price. Too much risk.

 

[jon.a]

Sorry that I'm not such a sophisticated investor like you are.

But that's the reason I asked for advice.

And you've been given lots of good advice. It just doesn't seem to be what you want to hear.

 

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[DaRK9]

High risk, low ROI. Not worth it.

And magic cards in general.

 

[sQri]

And you've been given lots of good advice. It just doesn't seem to be what you want to hear.

Well, there is a lot of good advice in this thread, but there are also some posts, which are definately not helpful, f.e. your first one. And that's the reason I asked if you now magic.

I know now, as almost everybody stated, that I shouldn't lend money for doing it.

 

[theag]

 

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[adoredunchin]

You are asking for advice. But wont listen to it when you get it.
Are you looking for advice or confirmation?

 

[vinylawesome]

Anyone can ask for advice.

The key is to heed the advice.

 

[sQri]

You are asking for advice. But wont listen to it when you get it.
Are you looking for advice or confirmation?

I'm curious, where do you read, that I don't take it?

 

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[Delmania]

Well, there is a lot of good advice in this thread, but there are also some posts, which are definately not helpful, f.e. your first one. And that's the reason I asked if you now magic.

I know now, as almost everybody stated, that I shouldn't lend money for doing it.

While I agree that @theag's second reply of "lol Magic" wasn't helpful, what of it? Plenty of people have had their ideas belittled by others. Some of those people didn't listen and turned those ideas into a successful business. Being an entrepreneur means exposing your ideas to the world, which means inviting criticism and derision. You need to be thicker skinned. I also recommend this article: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

The best way to handle mockery is simply to thank the person for responding and move on.

 

[theag]

@theag's initial reply of "lol Magic" wasn't helpful

You're wrong.

 

[Delmania]

You're wrong.

Fine, second post then.

 

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[Unknown]

Let's ignore the fact that it's magic cards (yes I played Magic when I was a teenager if that somehow validates my opinion). Investing 16k hoping for 4k profit is not a good idea. Getting into debt to try and earn that 4k is an even worse idea. There are so many variables involved. How do you plan to sell them? If you're going to use Ebay then you need to figure in their fees and your shipping cost. If you want to sell them without Ebay, then how are you going to find your buyers? It's not worth the trouble. The only reason to buy Magic cards or any other collectible is because you like playing that game.

 

[jon.a]

And you've been given lots of good advice. It just doesn't seem to be what you want to hear.

I thought my first post should have been helpful. I was questioning the intrinsic value of magic cards. This is a business forum not a gambling forum. Even as a hustle, your idea is pretty weak.

 

[sija1]

While I agree that @theag's second reply of "lol Magic" wasn't helpful, what of it? Plenty of people have had their ideas belittled by others. Some of those people didn't listen and turned those ideas into a successful business. Being an entrepreneur means exposing your ideas to the world, which means inviting criticism and derision. You need to be thicker skinned. I also recommend this article: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

The best way to handle mockery is simply to thank the person for responding and move on.

First, they turned unique ideas into successful businesses. Second, he didn't say he wanted to create a business with Magic cards, just resell them once, without even being 100% sure how much time it would take. If I say: "I'm gonna set up a website and start selling rare luxury watches and collectibles to a certain niche" or I if say: "I will buy one watch for 16k, but it's worth 20k and I'm gonna sell it someday to someone", what do you think which idea will get more positive feedback?

I'm not criticizing, I am aware that there is a lot of hype around these cards (and all others before), and I am not familiar with the market or the gameplay or anything else. I am just saying why he is being criticized.

 

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[Bellini]

I don't know magic cards. I know some coins. I'm buying special pieces now that I expect with a little work on my part to triple in 3 to 5 years. But, I'm not borrowing to buy them. And, I'm spending several 100k. I'm like Mr. Wonderful, a disciplined investor. You on the other hand sound like a child.

@jon.a - I just noticed that you joined the forum 3 years ago today!

Three years of pure bliss

 

[eliquid]

Here is some general advice I'd like to give you. Think about each thing I put below carefully:

1. When you buy something as an investment, you always need to have an upside. If not, reconsider what you're doing.
   So what's an upside in my view? When I buy a house for an investment, am I also getting some extra land thrown in at a discount? When I buy a company, am I getting the talent within it too or the IP that comes with it? What's your extra "upside" in the deal?
   
   
2. You're wanting to spend $15-$16k on an investment. What else could you use that $16k for instead? Have you weighed that option yet?
   .
3. Anything that can get slightly wet and then be damaged, prob isn't a good investment ( reason I don't deal in comics or ball cards ).
   .
4. Your margin is 20% and your markup is 25%. Mom and pop retail stores selling bicycle pumps do better.
   I would offer him no more than 50% of his asking or broker it for 10%
   
   
5. Can you take advantage of currency arbitrage?
   Can you sell these in the UK for higher amount and then convert that to US dollars and come out ahead more?

 

[smartman]

I know this market better than most everyone here, unfortunately. Spent 3 years as an executive at a ccg wholesaling company. few things you need to consider here
-where are you selling these cards if you buy them? Breaking it up on ebay? you'll lose nearly 15% of final sales value
-condition of cards. your boy is saying that whatever card is worth 600 bucks, but yes, that card is only worth 600 bucks if it has a psa grade of 9 or higher.
-the fact that your average customer cancels 10% of their orders due to money mismanagement.
- shipping supplies. yea, i know it should be considered a minimal cost of business, but they add up to at least an extra 300-600 dollars when parting out tens to hundreds of thousands of cards
-you are not buying a product to flip, you are buying a job selling MTG singles.

The good things that can come of this-
-you will learn the value of these cards by sight, which in of itself is a very marketable skill. Many retailers will hire MTG buyers for conventions to buy collections on the spot. They usually pay these people in more MTG cards, dominos pizza and monster energy drinks, but you can set yourself up to be a cut above and demand more money just by having people skills
-there's a chance to make a little bit of money if you don't already have a job, if you can negotiate that asking price to less than half
-there are a lot of companies that will buy bulk commons, so you don't have to sit on the leftovers once you've made your profits
-MTG cards don't take up much space and are easy to store compared to say, car parts
-you could use this as a chance to start your very own MTG singles website, which would give you a platform to sell and build upon. This is something there are many of already, but VERY few do a good job of 1)customer service 2)having proper supply 3)good looking websites

going into debt to your parents for this sounds totally miserable to be honest. borrowing 3k that can be recouped in 2 weeks is a different story though. figure that part out.

 

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[LifeTransformer]

I'll trade you some YuGiOh cards for one.

Got any Pogs? (actually, that one might doing well these days, haven't checked for a while).

The post above this one is the best advice imo, quite like the idea of using this job lot to build a platform, but! Your margins still sound terrible.

Think about it this way; if your buddy was to go on Pawn Stars, how much do you think he'd be offered? 8-10k max probably right? That's where you should be buying them at, if not lower.

 

[smartman]

magic buyers usually pay somewhere near 15-20% of a card's value, so they'd actually offer him something like 4 grand AT BEST.

 

[PureA]

i can't believe this is actually a thing

 

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[DeletedUser394]

i can't believe this is actually a thing

Nerds gonna nerd.

I'm not criticizing though, because if given the opportunity I would gladly buy anything and everything related to Star Wars.

 

[PureA]

Nerds gonna nerd.

I'm not criticizing though, because if given the opportunity I would gladly buy anything and everything related to Star Wars.

We all got our guilty pleasures... I'm just thankful mine don't cost 10k+