Why I DON'T Talk About Trading Card INVESTING

A semi-random ramble of a conversation about the differences that I see between a trading card business that is operating versus an investment portfolio that is hodling trading cards. Operating a business gets a bad reputation sometimes, and I wanted to put out there that it is just a different style of interacting with the hobby and the market. Operators are necessary for a healthy market, and that's what I'm enjoying doing right now. Which is why you will never see me give out investment advice. I both am not qualified to do so, and I'm not putting my money where that advice's mouth would be lol
Boltless Shelf Unit: sovrn.co/wex73l1
Use the shelves from two of these to make the shelves as I have them in the video. This is an affiliate link, so I'll get a little kickback if you get them through this link. But you don't have to obviously, these were just the most affordable ones I could find that fit my specs
Card Conditioning Template: tinyurl.com/38...
**Subscribe for more TCG bulk news, value, and just plain fun: / @tcgbulkkings **
**Share this video with a friend: • Why I DON'T Talk About... **
The central hub for all my various bulk card and collectible activities is my website: www.tcgbulkkin... If you are looking to sell me bulk this is where you want to look. Still not currently buying, but should be soon.
Shop for TCG singles at our TCGplayer store: tcgbulkkings.t...
Shop for supplies from BCW here: www.bcwsupplie... . They have your solution for boxes, sleeves, team bags and top loaders, deckboxes, &c. Use code "tcgbulkkings" at checkout to get 10% off your order and help support my channel!
If you're looking for BCW Supplies but live in the UK, then follow this link for CollectorFit: collectorfit.c... . They also have a 10% off coupon for using my code 'tcgbulkkings', and can import anything you'd need.
A serious time saver, pick up a self-inking return address stamp here: sovrn.co/z6cas43
If you're wanting to level up any of your skills, whether from finance, social media, or just being more organized and intentional about your day, do me a favor and check out Skillshare. Follow my link to get started: share.skillsha...
**NEW Spreadshop Designs Here: tcg-bulk-kings... **
If you want to pick up some bulk for yourself, or to stock out your store, be sure to look in the Shop page there: tcgbulkkings.c...
To try out the original green card shipping protection, check out Shipping Shields: shippingshield... If you make a purchase through this link, or following from my Shop on my website, I get a little bit of a commission, which really helps me out in the long run.
It would mean worlds to me, both this one and all the others in the multiverse, if you've made it this far into the description, have a look at my Patreon page. We're building a community of like-minded bulk dealers there, sharing tips and strategies, helping keep each other motivated, and having some fun as well. / tcgbulkkings
Obviously, some of the links above are affiliate links, which will involve me getting a commission if you buy something from them. It's cool either way though, you don't have to get anything. If you need any of these kinds of things though, and you want to support me, consider doing so through one of these links.

[@KunushiH]

Thank you for the insight into this topic and your videos. I think what you do is a valuable part of the community and hope your business continues to go well.

[@MTGUnpacked]

I like your perspective! The investment mindset in KZbin content honestly seems saturated at this point. It often seems like an echo-chamber of everyone parroting the same thing. We need more videos like this one!🙌

[@TCGBulkKings]

Thanks for your kind words, I'm humbled. But yeah, there's too much random "investment" advice, that's immediately self-contradictory and just weirdly motivated. I'm just going to be happy selling my little piles of cards over here

[@russelravellette6612]

I just love your content. Congrats on hitting 4k subs.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Thanks for your kind words! It's kinda surreal, even though it didn't happen from some viral moment or whatever

[@russelravellette6612]

Consistency, hard work and good content my dude. Inspiring.

[@chillydog5191]

Just had my largest day of orders where I had to ship 65 envelopes, this vid helped me get through some of it, but not sure I will keep bringing in inventory after finishing selling my collection / everything I have amassed lol. Respect for what you do!

[@TCGBulkKings]

Wow, that's a bunch, glad I could help in my own way

[@tylerross2689]

Chase love your content! In a short or sometime can you show how you fold your order to see the address in the window? I’m going to start doing that instead of writing addresses to hopefully save some time!

[@TCGBulkKings]

I would do so, except I don't do that. I print the addresses on the envelopes. I can show that some time though 😁

[@TensaiCollectibles]

I really like how you explained this.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I'm glad, was worried I was just doing the philosopher thing of making a distinction without a difference 😂

[@Callibretto]

very nice explanation of your perspective! i think you put in to words why a lot of people who got into it during the pandemic boom really should not be investing at all lol

[@TCGBulkKings]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked my uncoordinated ramble in between tiny spurts of working =]

[@miracle_flipper]

Have you been getting any orders sent back? I got about ten orders sent back by the po. I saw a comment saying the po was saying the shipping shields were too think and wouldn’t bend so the stamp wasn’t enough shipping. I’ve also gotten some orders back ripped in half. I’ve started putting the shipping shield in the side corner of the envelope and alternating side to even out the stack of orders. Before I was taping the shipping shield in the middle. This change seems to be working.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I haven't been having any issues. Very rarely I'll get something sent back, but not in a while. I've been putting the cards to the right side of the envelope for a long time on the reasoning that if I can get a new credit card in the mail just fine with it there, then the cards I'm sending should be fine too. Hope it get's worked out.

[@miracle_flipper]

@@TCGBulkKings maybe you could do a vid on this question: how do you handle cards where you don’t have many of the set, I have all my sets organized for inventory but I’m to a point where I have lots of cards that don’t really belong with anything else and I’m not sure how to inventory them.

[@Beavertownfolks]

Hey man. Love your videos. What bulk inventory do you think you can start to see serious gains (200 a day or more?) I have 4k bulk on tcgplayer and trying to go for 20k or more , love to hear your thoughts. I only do Yugioh but it’s similar concept to magic

[@TCGBulkKings]

I mean, it really depends on what you're listing. Yugioh is definitely similar in concept, the skills transfer over very well. Do you mean 200 dollars per day? It's hard to say. If it's just pure bulk, it's really hard to get there selling at the bare minimum price. You need higher demand stuff mixed in, with bulk as part of the strategy. I'm not just about only selling bulk, I just don't want people to write it off like it's trash or toxic. List it all, and keep listing, and when you run out of stuff to list, get some more, preferably with at least some higher demand stuff in it. It all works together synergistically. Best of luck, and definitely keep us posted on how you're progressing towards 20k!

[@rickybobby5801]

As a seller on TCGPLAYER I’ve got 125,000 cards listed and I upload every chance I get. Getting to $200 a day gets achievable as long as you keep up the maintenance of buying, grading, uploading, and organizing. Chase has great advice. I keep putting the sales $ right back into obtaining more products. Hope that helps.

[@t.yop9]

Nothing wrong with selling lower priced items for higher prices, it's how businesses work. It can be a bit unethical to buy up limited edition items to create an arbitrary 'market price' then scalp them to fans of the game. This is what most 'MTG investment' boils down to. Majority of the 'Investment' KZbinrs are scammers who are selling people the dream of 'investing' when really it's not investing at all. Buying a new set then selling the single when there's the initial hype cycle is operating a low income business. Then when the market gets flooded with the singles and the values inevitably drop, then same KZbinrs will tell you that Wizards or someone is manipulating the market or that 'the product failed' due to poor strategy. What they want is to keep you buying the sealed product from them so they can profit.

[@nathanhills5032]

Absolutely fantastic video! Everyone calling it investing is just stupid marketing for certain businesses. Love that you separate it through different forms of arbitrage. Though I would say that there are different types even within businesses. Distro, non distro online only, and brick and mortar with online on the side. Also, I don't think scalping is wrong, you can buy and resell however you like. Fair is fair. There is a lot of risk in that form of arbitrage. As much as I disliked the reserve list buy outs, a lot of them have lost a lot of money. Similar story for Lorcana scalpers.

[@TCGBulkKings]

True scalping is a grey area, at best, because it borders on market manipulation. And of course there are different varieties of businesses, but I was more looking at the super-categories of running a business versus running an investment portfolio, which are not identical and have completely different methods and goals

[@TheBearNecessiTCG]

I really believe that most people doing the "investment" content are only doing it for clicks/views. It's unlimited content to create and the people making the videos don't even have to invest in what they are promoting. I'm an operator (and player) just like you, I get cards and immediately list them for sale. Although I do have 4 pokemon center ETBs sitting on the shelf to make a video in the future on how investing isn't as glamorous as people make it out to be.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Hey, I'm looking forward to it. And this video wasn't really about dumping on those content creators, but more about being real with what you are doing yourself. Are you trying to generate cash short term? Speculating short term? Or are you hodling for decades?

[@ownbey58]

Appreciate that content and the perspective. While watching as you read off the prices I am curious on order totals under .25 and how you are making a profit on those especially if you are the one shipping vs a direct order.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I'm not, directly. But I need to price that low for TCGplayer Direct, and I only lose a few cents on those few lossy orders, and I get the chance to create a great customer experience which can get repeat business or else business on one of my other platforms

[@ownbey58]

@@TCGBulkKings makes sense for sure and thanks for the reply!

[@matthewdavis7869]

@@TCGBulkKings Any thoughts on raising your shipping price to combat this? I have found that as my inventory grew, increasing to 1.49 shipping allowed me to keep prices low enough for direct while also still getting a good amount of orders since I just happened to have a bunch of the cards people are looking for all in my inventory. I still get the visibility via direct but cut out the smaller orders where I was previously barely making a profit or losing money anyways

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@matthewdavis7869 well, like I said above, I'm not bothered by these sales. Sure raising my shipping would cut out a lot of these smaller sales, but it will cut out a lot of higher sales too. Even if I'm still getting sales I have to ship, it will necessarily prevent some of them. I'd rather lose a few cents to gain the opportunity to surprise and delight these customers and make up for it with the other sales I'm not preventing as well as potentially gain future sales from them This isn't to say you shouldn't do this - do what's best for you and your business. There are as many ways to operate as there are operators. That's just my reasoning behind why I'm doing it my way

[@nativeretrospective6931]

I consider it predatory, not one youtuber who talks about tcgs with high dollar money "investments" is a financial expert nor tcg expert there is no such thing. Just people with cameras who think they know everything and control tcgs. Go by false graphs and false data. Im base set pokemon, i have a major collection in Pokemon, Yugioh, Sorcery, Magic, Lorcana, Sports Cards, and One Piece. Nobody can influence me or my group because I have an undertsanding and love with tcgs, I even play Poker I love cards. I do not sell. I can discern the bs and the sales pitches. The false narratives. I see the money the peddle.

[@CardThrone]

Anyone that says paying 60% is ripping people off probably haven't sold cards before. Margin is already very slim at that rate after fees and shipping plus all the time that goes into grading, sorting, putting away, pulling, shipping.

[@CardThrone]

Forgot to mention the risk of the cards falling in value before you're able to get them listed 😅

[@TCGBulkKings]

I know that, and you know that, but I guess I wanted it stated publicly, for those that don't know that and, because of this public perception that it's somehow unethical, are deterred from entering the market themselves

[@onetwotrii]

Hey Chase - thanks for your insight. Could you show how you ship cards with a quantity that are larger than what a shipping shield can hold? I am shipping cards like you do in the get good series, but if an order comes in for 15 cards or a stack of cards, how would you suggest that is done?

[@TCGBulkKings]

I think I'm overdue for a shipping processes update, I'll have to do one soon. Short answer, so you get some value now - above 16 cards in an order, I ship in a bubble mailer with tracking. I've had too many orders above 8 cards thick get sent back to me by USPS to keep slamming my head against that wall. I'd rather get the cards to the customer quickly and generate that wow-positive experience than try to save a small bit of money

[@onetwotrii]

@@TCGBulkKings thank you for the quick reply! I’m looking forward to the video!

[@sp123]

If it's held less than 12 months, it's inventory not an asset

[@Brokilla-fb1pn]

Can you show how you flatten out your shields for shipping my post office says mine are to thick even tho only one card is in them I have to eat into more of my costs for sending 😐

[@TCGBulkKings]

=/ Do you hand them directly to the post office worker? Or do you just send them through the drop box or your outbound mail at your mailbox? If they are rejecting them at the counter, then try just dropping them, see if they get kicked back. I don't do anything special to make them flatter, and they definitely aren't too thick unless you're wrapping them with lots of bubble wrap or several sheets of paper or something.

[@le_med]

You seem to confuse investing with speculating. Buying a sealed product is speculating on its value holding or increasing NOT investing.

[@TCGBulkKings]

That's what investing though - buying an asset with the expectation that it will either generate income or increase in value over time. If you don't want to call very risky investing true-blue investing, that's fine. Whatever it is, it's distinct from operating a business, which is the point of this video

[@le_med]

@@TCGBulkKings Usually you invest in bonds, stocks, mutual funds and etfs. My definition is that if its a regulated market it is an investment and if it isn t regulated it is not an investment but speculation. This issue is due to all these "investbros" from pokemon and tcg giving financial advices when they should not and treating the buying of mass produced scarcity products as investments when we all know those markets can be manipulated. My comment was not targeted at you directly but people who follow Investbros

[@mihaimadalin]

I want to ask. If you sell 2 cards of .10$ then you use a shield at .08$ + 0.01$ the sleeve and bag where are the margins?

[@TCGBulkKings]

Ok those orders specifically, there isn't any margin, directly. But, as I've said in other comment replies (and in a whole video I did last year, How I Lose Money to Make Money..., have a look), I need to price that low for TCGplayer Direct, my loss on those orders is very small only a few cents, and I use those orders as a marketing opportunity to give the customer a great experience that will hopefully either cause them to shop again or to be driven either to my content or other sales platforms. If you think about it like advertising, then my "pay per click" of $.05-.10 is miniscule compared to Google Ad Words or even things like Facebook ads

[@mihaimadalin]

I understand, usualy I list only .50€ > on cardmarket as I find it hard to spend 15 min looking for 30 - 0.02 cent cards. You have to factor in the value of your time to. I will try to list 10.000 low cent cards to see the outcome.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I do recommend setting what I call a "price floor" below which you won't sell anything. If it's below your threshold, you simply list it at the threshold. Best of luck!

[@whiteshadow918]

so for my bulk years ago i started sorting everything into generations. so my gen 1s are all in order all the way up to current gen. if i start selling on tcg player is this going to be an issue that they are not in sets or do i need to seperate them all back into sets now? (about 30k cards) i havent looked into how posting works for tcg player so not sure what im looking at if i actually start posting pokemon cards while in pokedex order..

[@TCGBulkKings]

TCGplayer have everything organized into sets, and alphabetically within the set. It will get increasingly, exponentially more difficult to deal with TCGplayer if you stick to any alternative organizational method. Believe me, I found out the hard way 😭

[@whiteshadow918]

@@TCGBulkKings so you would go in and resort into sets or just list each card for a specific pokemon at one time. like charmanders base set through 151 each their own? ( not sure if thats doable yet)

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@whiteshadow918 me? I would sort them out by sets as you list them. So much easier to list and then to pull the cards for orders you get. But it may just be easier for your brain to do it your way, I can't tell you it's better. If you plan to scale, it's probably a big time saver to match up with what TCGplayer wants, but not if it doesn't work for you the operator.

[@Jesse31597]

Finishing my first week on direct program and quantity is key.Tcgplayer is a creature with a black hole for a stomach and you must feed the beast to see any type of marginal gains. It's grindy and fun but I'm a workaholic soo take that as you will😅

[@foyoGames]

I'm a Smooth Operator 😎