Random question here but what exactly is the business model with people who buy bulk cards. I usually see this as like trade 1,000 cards for a booster box (of some new modern set) or something like that.
Are they just selling these cards in play sets for people making decks or are they hoping people send in some random card that is worth a lot like an error card, first edition cards or something like that?
Bulk is about 3000 for a booster box at this point and energy’s don’t count. If trading for cash it’s 0.03 per card. Plus you pay for shipping. So it’s kind of hard to find a decent way to move bulk cards. I was bundling them up on eBay before I got sick of eBay buyers but I’ll probably end up doing that again
Thanks for the response but I am asking what the bulk cards buyers are actually doing with those cards to make money.
Most likely doing what @gemmintpokemon does. They sell the singles (normally WOTC) for about $1-2 each and make money off volume sales.
Good question I still have 1400 hidden fates bulk I refuse to sell for .03 cents per. So what I was starting to say is last time I made hidden fates near complete sets and posted on eBay. I also see others do 99 bulk one gx card for example for X amount of dollars. Besides that I’d like to know what people do with them as well. I also know card shops have 0.25 cent cards which are bulk for sale at their stores
Majority of the inventory for my Ebay store was purchased in bulk lots. When I go to list the cards on my store I will list majority of them individually. I primarily focus on buying/selling cards from the WOTC era because I’ve found I can sell them much quicker than bulk cards from newer sets.
Interesting. So I guess the primary market is basically people working on complete sets or decks I guess?
For WOTC definitely not decks, but many people buy the old WOTC bulk card singles for sets, binders, grading, and general nostalgia.
I use my bulk to make lots of 100 c/uc with 1 ex/gx/v card in each lot on ebay. Kids love them, parents love buying them for their kids. It’s great value because usually kids will just want $6-$7 10 card booster packs (Prices in Canada) from Walmart and then they’re sad when they don’t even get a holo and the parents think they wasted their money. I think a few big stores do this as well
I dont know why I haven’t seen this answer yet - but the majority are not buying/trading for bulk for single sales. A lot of businesses take in bulk at specific rates b/c it is an almost guaranteed profit for them.
Think like this:
$100 for a booster box OR 3330 bulk @ .03 each ROUGHLY (this is a pretty standard rate for bulk)
The 3330 bulk translates to $100 cash at almost any vendor (they almost always all pay about the same rate) and they can pick that bulk for single sales, make lots with the cards, build sets with the cards or find random treasures people missed and then dump whatever they don’t want for the same rate they bought it for - losing no money - and just gaining from what they needed out of the bulk.
Lots of stores prefer the bulk (when they don’t have too much on hand already) so they can make more money than just the $100 sale of the box. A lot of times people buy or trade for several boxes and then use the bulk from the box to go back for more b/c its convenient and more fun when they don’t have to PHYSICALLY shell out the full price of the box and they feel like they are being smart when in reality they could just sell the cards and have equivalent value in cash to spend on anything.
Hope my train of thought didn’t derail and this is understandable.