Pokemon sellers

[danny]

Alrighty!

So I’ve been curious for a while now regarding those who make a living of selling Pokemon cards. Obviously most of us flirt with the idea. I disregarded pretty quickly because I’m just too knew.

I know probably all of us sell cards here from time to time.
But I’m after those for whom it is their primary career. Not going to go around tagging names because I’m pretty new here, but I can guess a couple people who will/could/might answer these questions

I’m not after what you’re earning - I think that’s something that can be quite personal. Rather, I’m after numbers.

1. how many cards are you selling a week/month
2. how many cards are you buying a week/month (for flipping/commercial purposes)
3. do you need to work a second/third job or are you able to work solely as a Pokemon seller.

[dragontype]

these guys might be able to help you @smpratte @garyis2000

[ozenigma]

I don’t want to ever kill anyone’s dreams nor even tell them that the sky isn’t the limit, but I feel compelled to throw my two cents in to help a fellow Aussie;

• Any advice you are given here, be careful how much our geographical location hurts us. We have a high cost of living as well as a high postage costs and low volume of buyers located physically in Australia.
• Consider specifically looking for info from Aussie sellers. I would ask @kkthxbai

[pokemonsyndicate]

I sold 25,000 aud of stuff in last 6 months. I made a fair bit, but I spent it all. It is possible to sell heaps of stuff fast, but if you wanna sell stuff fast… I would sell English cards… If you wanna make some profit slowly. Do some grading on big cards that fetch a high price… But it is a slow ass process xD
I didn’t make 25,000 though xD. That’s just the money worth sold on stuff.
Don’t try and sell for a huge profit always your stuff will sit on ebay for 2-5 centuries. I wish I had the patients though, because some times I wait on big stuff and I make twice-3 times the money.

[smpratte]

This is a difficult question to answer, as it is not simply one or the other.

I have had multiple people message me on ebay about “tips” on how to sell pokemon cards for a living, needless to say, there isn’t a secret. It is the same boring old answer for all businesses: having more knowledge, experience, capital and patience will help, but there is no guarantee.

I would echo what some of the other AU members have mentioned, consider your region and what the monetary costs and overall opportunity costs are in relation to buying and selling. Also, if you are full time as a “business”, typically that means you are going to be paying taxes. That is what separates the men from the boys (actually full time business vs occasional sales). Nothing against guys who don’t pay taxes, as most people who don’t are selling occasionally or part time. However, if you want this to be a full time venture, taxes are a significant cost you will have to quantify. I am not sure what the tax laws are in AU, but am stating this as a universal response.

There really isn’t an answer on “how many items you sell” or even “how much you sell”. For example, you could have a year of say 100k in sales and live off of that as an individual. If you are a high volume low profit seller, you may need double that to make a living wage. It depends entirely on your costs and profit margin. If you are doing primarily new products, the profit margin will be smaller, and you will have to increase volume.

Either way, there is no gravy train. Even when people see a high end item sold, sure, the profit is fantastic, but the amount of time, work, effort, and perhaps luck that went into that sale is significant. Like everything else in life, there is no real shortcut. If you are taking one, there is a shadow of risk or illegitimately looming (shill bidding, lying, avoiding taxes or other legal expenses, etc.).

Basically this is like any other business, except you most likely enjoy the product. The business aspect is no different than any other retail operation. The general answer is the more knowledge, experience and capital (money to spend for your inventory) you have, the better off you will be.

[pokemonsyndicate]

@smpratte

This is a difficult question to answer, as it is not simply one or the other.

I have had multiple people message me on ebay about “tips” on how to sell pokemon cards for a living, needless to say, there isn’t a secret. It is the same boring old answer for all businesses: having more knowledge, experience, capital and patience will help, but there is no guarantee.

I would echo what some of the other AU members have mentioned, consider your region and what the monetary costs and overall opportunity costs are in relation to buying and selling. Also, if you are full time as a “business”, typically that means you are going to be paying taxes. That is what separates the men from the boys (actually full time business vs occasional sales). Nothing against guys who don’t pay taxes, as most people who don’t are selling occasionally or part time. However, if you want this to be a full time venture, taxes are a significant cost you will have to quantify. I am not sure what the tax laws are in AU, but am stating this as a universal response.

There really isn’t an answer on “how many items you sell” or even “how much you sell”. For example, you could have a year of say 100k in sales and live off of that as an individual. If you are a high volume low profit seller, you may need double that to make a living wage. It depends entirely on your costs and profit margin. If you are doing primarily new products, the profit margin will be smaller, and you will have to increase volume.

Either way, there is no gravy train. Even when people see a high end item sold, sure, the profit is fantastic, but the amount of time, work, effort, and perhaps luck that went into that sale is significant. Like everything else in life, there is no real shortcut. If you are taking one, there is a shadow of risk or illegitimately looming (shill bidding, lying, avoiding taxes or other legal expenses, etc.).

Basically this is like any other business, except you most likely enjoy the product. The business aspect is no different than any other retail operation. The general answer is the more knowledge, experience and capital (money to spend for your inventory) you have, the better off you will be.

I think tax laws are 25kaud sales or something of profit. U.s sucks (×_×)
For hobbies.
There also is one difference to little peoples business compared to big business… The little people don’t get a tax Haven to reduce there tax to less than 1% like big business do, and this usually cost who ever is buying off you more. Its a win win situation for everyone (ಥ_ಥ)
Coff coff cry.
See the thing is… I do 80% of my sales outside ebay
… So this is causing me a problem. I’d be in the thousand .mark for feedback, but I’m not and you see this hurts the speed of sales if you don’t have a huge feedback

It seems peeps with higher feedback reach a premium and sale more fast through ebay… But here my wordingtons. I will catch you all muhahahahhahaha

[danny]

@ozenigma

I don’t want to ever kill anyone’s dreams nor even tell them that the sky isn’t the limit, but I feel compelled to throw my two cents in to help a fellow Aussie;

• Any advice you are given here, be careful how much our geographical location hurts us. We have a high cost of living as well as a high postage costs and low volume of buyers located physically in Australia.
• Consider specifically looking for info from Aussie sellers. I would ask @kkthxbai

No I totally understand that. I don’t want, in the slightest, the to sell Pokemon cards for a living. Not because I wouldn’t enjoy it, but it’s just not something that I would excell in.

It was more a question of curiosity. I was wondering if these “professional” sellers are mailing multiple purchases daily, or only a couple of week. It was more a curiosity regarding how much time is invested

[danny]

@smpratte

There really isn’t an answer on “how many items you sell” or even “how much you sell”. For example, you could have a year of say 100k in sales and live off of that as an individual. If you are a high volume low profit seller, you may need double that to make a living wage. It depends entirely on your costs and profit margin. If you are doing primarily new products, the profit margin will be smaller, and you will have to increase volume. be.

This is what I was after, thanks

[pokemonsyndicate]

Also you have to learn the art of annoying the crap out of people through social media like instagram and people who message you on ebay… Then you can sell stuff at least once a day, or once every 2 days. I made many many sales this way. Most of sales was in last 4-6 month.

[kkthxbai]

@pokemonsyndicate

Also you have to learn the art of annoying the crap out of people through social media like instagram and people who message you on ebay… Then you can sell stuff at least once a day, or once every 2 days. I made many many sales this way. Most of sales was in last 4-6 month.

Yeah I agree social media and digital marketing is important in this day and age.
I really hate doing instagram or Facebook posts… But you reach alot of people through these methods.

I agree with @oz.enigma and @smpratte comments also. They are very professional and have a better understanding than I would.

It’s hard to do sales here especially when the dollar is terrible. Excessive international postage costs for tracked orders ( minimum $26 for a padded parcel with a single card tracked) is very high to do international sales.

If you want to do local or just national business within Australia, it’s becoming very difficult to find supply… you would have to buy from overseas as our population is quite small we didn’t have as much older pokemon cards supplied here compared to America. Purchasing overseas means massive postage costs incurred.

As there are many resellers around also, it’s somewhat saturated the industry locally. So there’s alot of competition.

I decided to leave Australia for a while lol… And drop ship directly from Japan now… my international orders are cheaper via ems, and arrive faster than some local orders did whilst I was using Australia post. Tax and custom charges are high here in japan though.

For total sales and numbers… I don’t know if I want to share all that, but doing this to survive, as a business is proving incredibly tough in Australia.

[pokemonsyndicate]

@kkthxbai

@pokemonsyndicate

Also you have to learn the art of annoying the crap out of people through social media like instagram and people who message you on ebay… Then you can sell stuff at least once a day, or once every 2 days. I made many many sales this way. Most of sales was in last 4-6 month.

Yeah I agree social media and digital marketing is important in this day and age.
I really hate doing instagram or Facebook posts… But you reach alot of people through these methods.

I agree with @oz.enigma and @smpratte comments also. They are very professional and have a better understanding than I would.

It’s hard to do sales here especially when the dollar is terrible. Excessive international postage costs for tracked orders ( minimum $26 for a padded parcel with a single card tracked) is very high to do international sales.

If you want to do local or just national business within Australia, it’s becoming very difficult to find supply… you would have to buy from overseas as our population is quite small we didn’t have as much older pokemon cards supplied here compared to America. Purchasing overseas means massive postage costs incurred.

As there are many resellers around also, it’s somewhat saturated the industry locally. So there’s alot of competition.

I decided to leave Australia for a while lol… And drop ship directly from Japan now… my international orders are cheaper via ems, and arrive faster than some local orders did whilst I was using Australia post. Tax and custom charges are high here in japan though.

For total sales and numbers… I don’t know if I want to share all that, but doing this to survive, as a business is proving incredibly tough in Australia.

We sholuld join forces and defeat everybody. Im sure youll do really awesome in japan he he. now you got access to those stores

[kkthxbai]

@pokemonsyndicate

Yeah… I agree… I would really love to collaborate with more people…

So far… I’ve cleared maybe 34 hobby stores in Tokyo and some of the outskirt areas… I will get around to every major city I hope
. And soon am cleared for yja purchasing… I hope to meet some Japanese collectors along the way… It’s fun travelling… But many of the prices are around ebay or higher in Japan. It’s not always bargains… And cheap deals here… And Japanese stock sells alot slower than English.

[danny]

@kkthxbai

@pokemonsyndicate

Also you have to learn the art of annoying the crap out of people through social media like instagram and people who message you on ebay… Then you can sell stuff at least once a day, or once every 2 days. I made many many sales this way. Most of sales was in last 4-6 month.

Yeah I agree social media and digital marketing is important in this day and age.
I really hate doing instagram or Facebook posts… But you reach alot of people through these methods.

I agree with @oz.enigma and @smpratte comments also. They are very professional and have a better understanding than I would.

It’s hard to do sales here especially when the dollar is terrible. Excessive international postage costs for tracked orders ( minimum $26 for a padded parcel with a single card tracked) is very high to do international sales.

If you want to do local or just national business within Australia, it’s becoming very difficult to find supply… you would have to buy from overseas as our population is quite small we didn’t have as much older pokemon cards supplied here compared to America. Purchasing overseas means massive postage costs incurred.

As there are many resellers around also, it’s somewhat saturated the industry locally. So there’s alot of competition.

I decided to leave Australia for a while lol… And drop ship directly from Japan now… my international orders are cheaper via ems, and arrive faster than some local orders did whilst I was using Australia post. Tax and custom charges are high here in japan though.

For total sales and numbers… I don’t know if I want to share all that, but doing this to survive, as a business is proving incredibly tough in Australia.

Thanks, I found that really insightful.

I agree, I have found the Australian market to be very competitive and full of idiots.
Hope Japan fairs better!

Out of curiosity, do you have a Japanese background yourself?

[kkthxbai]

@danny

No, I’m 100% Caucasian.

[danny]

@kkthxbai

@danny

No, I’m 100% Caucasian.

Curiosity satisfied

How’s your Japanese?
I was over in Hakuba for skiing earlier this year. Really got me thinking about a Japanese exchange sometime in the next 2-3 years.

[kkthxbai]

@danny

Haha my Japanese is rubbish… I used to work in Hong Kong also… Just love exploring and living in new locations.

[gottaketchumall]

Very interesting question. One I find myself asking from time to time as my side hobby has turned into a small side business over the past 3-4 years. (3-4 years buying/selling things on ebay, only 1.5 years with Pokemon). I do it on the side, but I would say I’m a fairly large seller, larger than the typical hobbyist but not big enough to be full time. I am registered with a DBA as a business and get 1099’ed by Paypal (over $20,000 annual sales and 200 transactions). I pay sales tax and income taxes on profits. It is a lot of work to do it legally and report everything correctly, I use a CPA to help me file my taxes and keep track of things. I find myself putting in 20 hours a week or so usually maybe slightly more. All on top of my 40 hour a week job. I bring in about 20-25% of my 40 hour a week jobs salary, but it takes half the time so the hourly wage is a lot lower. I have one person I pay to help me 5-10 hours per week with things.

I sell about 30 items a day on average, so on pace for 10,000 sales this year. I typically sell less and for lower prices than the big guys do, and make lower margins. I imagine I would have to work hard to grow a name and repeat customer base to be able to work up my volume and margin. With increased volume would come better discounted prices through my distributors but it would be a lot of work. If I wanted to take the plunge and go full time it would probably take 60-80 hours a week of work to replace my salary at my job and be a lot less reliable/safe income. It would be more freedom however setting all my own hours. I have thought about it but don’t see it happening any time soon.

[pokemonsyndicate]

@gottaketchumall

Very interesting question. One I find myself asking from time to time as my side hobby has turned into a small side business over the past 3-4 years. (3-4 years buying/selling things on ebay, only 1.5 years with Pokemon). I do it on the side, but I would say I’m a fairly large seller, larger than the typical hobbyist but not big enough to be full time. I am registered with a DBA as a business and get 1099’ed by Paypal (over $20,000 annual sales and 200 transactions). I pay sales tax and income taxes on profits. It is a lot of work to do it legally and report everything correctly, I use a CPA to help me file my taxes and keep track of things. I find myself putting in 20 hours a week or so usually maybe slightly more. All on top of my 40 hour a week job. I bring in about 20-25% of my 40 hour a week jobs salary, but it takes half the time so the hourly wage is a lot lower. I have one person I pay to help me 5-10 hours per week with things.

I sell about 30 items a day on average, so on pace for 10,000 sales this year. I typically sell less and for lower prices than the big guys do, and make lower margins. I imagine I would have to work hard to grow a name and repeat customer base to be able to work up my volume and margin. With increased volume would come better discounted prices through my distributors but it would be a lot of work. If I wanted to take the plunge and go full time it would probably take 60-80 hours a week of work to replace my salary at my job and be a lot less reliable/safe income. It would be more freedom however setting all my own hours. I have thought about it but don’t see it happening any time soon.

Erm sir… what is your ebayington.

[blastoiserules1]

@pokemonsyndicate

@gottaketchumall

Very interesting question. One I find myself asking from time to time as my side hobby has turned into a small side business over the past 3-4 years. (3-4 years buying/selling things on ebay, only 1.5 years with Pokemon). I do it on the side, but I would say I’m a fairly large seller, larger than the typical hobbyist but not big enough to be full time. I am registered with a DBA as a business and get 1099’ed by Paypal (over $20,000 annual sales and 200 transactions). I pay sales tax and income taxes on profits. It is a lot of work to do it legally and report everything correctly, I use a CPA to help me file my taxes and keep track of things. I find myself putting in 20 hours a week or so usually maybe slightly more. All on top of my 40 hour a week job. I bring in about 20-25% of my 40 hour a week jobs salary, but it takes half the time so the hourly wage is a lot lower. I have one person I pay to help me 5-10 hours per week with things.

I sell about 30 items a day on average, so on pace for 10,000 sales this year. I typically sell less and for lower prices than the big guys do, and make lower margins. I imagine I would have to work hard to grow a name and repeat customer base to be able to work up my volume and margin. With increased volume would come better discounted prices through my distributors but it would be a lot of work. If I wanted to take the plunge and go full time it would probably take 60-80 hours a week of work to replace my salary at my job and be a lot less reliable/safe income. It would be more freedom however setting all my own hours. I have thought about it but don’t see it happening any time soon.

Erm sir… what is your ebayington.

I was going to ask that too.

[gottaketchumall]

I’ll add it to my banner once I figure it out. I am sieds_steins on eBay.

edit to add: got it now.