Slab Haven: An Ideal Better Left Unsaid?

First things first, money making is not what we are doing here in KL!! With

the sports cards we "invest in," certain things, are brought to the forefront and, when

attempting to “make money” in the short term, a lot do not aid in our favour. Surrounding the investing of hobby boxes and higher end products like Immaculate and Noir, the investment tends to conform the some of the basic rules of investing in the hobby. There are three Golden Rules…

So, we stand to gain from a USD$3000 unboxing, a pull for a $250 patch of Andre Iguodala,

perse. This is of course if we are breaking for ourselves. From box breaks to grading up,

exchange rates and the unpredictability of PSA slabs returned, nothing is for certain in this

volatile market.

PAY IT FORWARD

It is said that within the next couple of years (2023 – 2025) a lot of investors will have to

suffer where retailers begin to pull away from the rest of the pack. For individual collectors

perhaps it best to worry about cashflow, as well as frontend and backend homogeneity.

“Paying it forward” just to stay in the game keeps us entertained long enough to manage for

the long haul. A lot of investors are buying out of the hobby stateside as Fanatics begin to

make a move to buy up a lot of Panini Brands. You see, there are three general rules about

keeping this hobby going, surrounding the boom in 2010, when the market dropped and the

sports cards economy exploded. The three golden rules are; Keeping the hobby alive;

Making sure everyone is alive and well enough to eat; And, A general sense of not ripping anyone off. The market is in dire need of a fuel injection.

Population counts and Market Caps help in managing this aspect of Sports Cards Investing,

but lacks a guarantee when juxtaposed against Nasdaq and all the fancy stocks, bonds,

futures, unit trusts and the rest of that shabogan. As it were, the game differs ever so slightly

when “investing,” in sports cards. So back to the heart of this tall tale.

There are deals to be found everywhere, but again, with eBay prices being so irregular there

is a general need to identify with the fact that the fabled merchant site and trading platform is that it is only best used to regulate prices. A firm example of this would be a recent posting of a 1996 Topps Allen Iverson RC PSA 10 going for USD$1,100.00. For the most part this card is trading for about USD$150.00 on average, with lows of about USD$90.00… I think, someone is taking the piss!! Again, for those lesser-known cards, otherwise not highlightedon a merchant` page an Iverson RC could go for as low as USD$60.00 based on a low number of bids. So, the question is why use comps as a means to govern the prices? This

simply isn’t fair for anyone, not the seller or the investor. There are deals out there, where

even us Malaysians can take advantage of surrounding the potential of a flip, USD$90 after

shipping and taxes for the card in question is a doable deal and may prove an acquisition

worthy of your PC. A RM50 flip for that much trouble is hardly worth the effort… unless a

McDonalds meal is in order. I jest!

THE FLIPPERS GAIN

Flipping is not just for profit; it is also for diversity. People need to get creative and not just

take on a role just because it is easy. Diversify and get imaginative to make your bottom

line/margins. Business majors and economists will do well here to keep in account their cash

flow intact. Capital is the key to success. A sad truth but there really is no way around it,

unless you believe to inject that capital into your system every month, something I like to

refer to as Equity Financing. The beauty is that we can now differentiate what kinds of fans

we have in our community. Those out for a quick buck? Well, I really don’t mean anything

pleasant here but the one rule of the three aforementioned rules, “Keeping the hobby alive,” is fulfilled in ways that deficit spending and prepping for the future will never be able to do better. This in finance is what we call a unit trust or paying your money forward. There is a loss of revenue but a typical scenario allows for an RM9000.00 investment to be paid out in exchange for inventory over a year or 12 months period, perhaps and finally a return lump

sum payment of RM8000.00 once all priorly acquired inventory is sold in a year end sale – a

case study.

There is no sense in short term gains or investments made to flip, because there are no

venture capitalists in this business. Capital Gains is a flawed concept surrounding the trade of sports cards. Being as we cannot buy 100 stocks of a specific PSA 10, manipulate the market and drop a bomb like Sam Bankman had just done with Bitcoin. It is impossible to inspire fiscal gain with interest from dropping a whole load of stock. Even as players act sometimes as a single commodity, the disparity of values surrounding each card far outweighs the commonality of the stock. It is simply ridiculous!!

However, there is a flipside to this argument. A venture capitalist can invest in 40 Michael

Jordan Base Cards so long as they can offer an equity stake in companies with high growth

potential. Based on interest rate a RM280.00 investment could potentially yield RM20,000.00

in returns from a USD$700,000.00 unit trust fund. This of course requires partners and

willing investors to partake in a capital gains investment. Ethics is monkey’s work.

Let’s put it this way the “stock” is not being traded on Nasdaq, perse and therefore has no

leader board for the fluctuating prices. With shared communities perhaps a more plausible

reproach, speaking of ideals when in the grand scale of things and communities the world

over, acting as separate, the business is still just a hobby. Again, an ideal better left unsaid.

Perhaps, it is about time to let Fanatics take over the hobby anyway.

When speculating on the market, especially in the short term, sports cards fluctuate in price

based on “hot”. From player performance index, star power & popularity, rookie cards and

perhaps even regarding slabs as jewellery and aesthetic there remains a set of criteria to

gauge a cards value. Spoken of an ideal setting our own prices surrounding any of the above

criteria while using the relevant gauges as guidelines to better mediate the three golden rules of investing, not to mention developing our own sports cards economy is indeed ideal.

FREE MARKET ECONOMY

Conceptually a free-market economy one has to assume that not every flip is a flip to assume

returns. This simple does not benefit the hobby or all parties involved and becomes a culture

of ripping people off – Golden Rule Number Three. Again, with Golden Rule Number One,

“Keep the hobby alive,” then tells us more and more money need to be invested all the time

and certainly implies that everyone, “Needs to eat,” golden rule number Two. It becomes

vital to feed the front end with sales and revenue.

Creativity is an aid which benefits all users. Fiscal Spending can help in the long run and

paying your returns forward all while injecting equity into your business every month can

help sustain your hobby. Cash flow is important and sustaining a clear and conscious effort to keep your expenditures low will prove beneficial in the long run. This, however, does not

benefit short term investments.

With accountability comes practicality -- a profit of 15% on the flip is rudimentary but again

taking it from a marginal standpoint may force people to overpay for sports that simply do

not yield that much in the marketplace. Another solution may be to actually pay those prices

for the sake of a loss and to trust the community with the inventory and cashflow that we all

do collectively have. On other occasions just the opposite. #allforoneandoneforall.

This is an industry of trust and fanfare. Allow people the opportunity to set their own prices

based on the criteria that they adhere to. Margins will always force people to over and under

charge based on a perceived market value and margins designated. The returns, in theory will have everyone enough cash or cashflow to keep the hobby busy. Of course, a free-market economy is perhaps ideal but it is also just conceptual. However, this is a way to perceive a shared trust and a collective effort to keep things going. A regulated approach to setting our own prices based on calm collected negotiations could act as a solution to a long distant and vague prayer implicating a need for fair trade.