Slabnomics
Finance-Bro turned Card Bird explores the intersection of collecting, investment, and market theory for sports cards.
Think Financial Analyst meets Sports Card Collector.
New Episodes drop Tuesdays @ 7 AM CST.
Slabnomics
How Top Sellers Win in Sports Cards Ft. Trike Cards
We get tactical on where to sell (COMC/eBay/shows), how to negotiate, when grading pays, and building a seller’s system that wins in any market. Themes: liquidity > hype, plan the exit, cut losses, protect reputation.
Highlights:
- COMC flow vs. liquidity: when “no work” wins, when it doesn’t
- Negotiation that converts (and why “what’s your best?” kills deals)
- PSA strategy, turnaround math, and stacking velocity
- Rarity vs. demand: why some “rare” cards don’t move
- Timing catalysts (World Cup, case hits) and set premiums (Prizm/Flawless)
- The seller’s checklist: downside, upside, plan, buyer profile, exit
Guest: Trike Cards (IG@TrikeCards/Ebay: trikecards/YT:TRIKE Sports Cards)
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All right. Welcome everyone. Today on Slabnomics, we're going to be talking about something near and dear to my heart, how to be a better seller. And there's no person to bring on better than that than Troy Cards. His content is out there. You've all seen it. Amazingly well done content. Very practical tips. Troy, thanks so much for coming on today. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00:I'm good, man. We were just talking a little bit before. I'm in heavy card show, card prep mode right now. I got a card show in Vancouver this weekend, and then I'm going to Fresno the week after. I got a PSA submission going. So I'm in deep with the cards right now, but uh I'm doing good overall. Can't complain.
SPEAKER_01:Steeped and Comsy as well, you mentioned, huh? I actually sent my first Comcy order probably three, four weeks ago, and it's just kind of started funneling through. Um, let's talk a little bit about that. Let's start from floor up. If if you do want to give away some secrets, it's up to you. Yeah, no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding, of course. Let's do it. Let's do it. What do you like about Comcy and what do you think people maybe don't understand or just don't know about yet?
SPEAKER_00:Well, the thing I like, I mean, it's pretty self-explained. The no work is a game changer, right? You literally penny sleeve it, you you shove it into a box, it's good to go. Especially now, like just as you like you said, from the from the floor up, I feel like I've slowly kind of been building up what cards I deal with and what I kind of do is you you do definitely get to a point where even the the the three three, four dollar cards is just I don't want to put as much time into it. So that's obviously the big selling point. What I don't like, I do have to, especially as this is coming across as a little bit of an ad for me personally, this early, is um they did have an incident where the customer service hasn't been the best. Like they they charged me a a rate that they weren't supposed to charge me, and then I thought it was pretty self-explanatory. There's but yeah, I I don't want to turn into a whole uh talking about everything wrong with ComC, but I would say the biggest things is stuff isn't as liquid because they do cross list on eBay, which is nice, but I think people really like make making offers on cards, and that's something maybe we can we can get into later. I think that definitely helps the buyer feel like they're getting a better deal. So the fact that the stuff on eBay from Com C is is hard priced, I think hurts the liquidity. So it's it's not as liquid, basically, with Com C.
SPEAKER_01:Right. I do agree with you 100% that being able to shoot out those smaller cards in batch and mass is going to be something that frees up the time because I was sitting there and I was running the numbers like, okay, if I send this many cards per hour, how long is it going to take me to get to my goal of this much per day? And it was a lot of cards because you throw it into that little PWE, and of course the cost is low, but it becomes a time factor, right? Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I think almost making myself out to be a little bit of a saint here, you know, five minutes into the podcast. But for certain cards, I it is a service. Like I have a bunch of like 2017 Topps Chrome refractors of like not the biggest names, right? Like a um, even like an Eniesta or someone like that. Those cards don't even really sell on eBay for$5. What am I gonna do with this card? I'm personally not gonna sell it at a card show. I don't want it like just necessarily sitting in my closet, but I know if I send it to Com C like someone will, they'll get it in bulk for$250 with a bunch of other refractors and it'll find a good home. So I think for certain cards like that, it's actually perfect. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:And it's kind of segmenting how you're doing your sales, right? It's a really smart strategy because you're going to have high-ticket sales, you're going to have smaller ones that are more volume-based. So tell us about your progression through your selling journey. How long have you been at it? And how long did it take you to start making changes through the process?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So a a couple things come to mind. First off, like kind of going off what you're saying. I think I've said this before on podcasts. Like a lot of like YouTubers or card flippers are like, oh, I'm, you know, they're people thinking that, oh, they're great negotiators or whatever. They're good sellers or whatever it is. I mean, I I'm actually a bad negotiator and I think I'm an R-right in terms of like sales in general. But one thing I think I am pretty good at, as you kind of mentioned, is like the segmenting of where cards should go. I think at this point I have a good amount of knowledge of like what's a COMC card, what's a card show card, what's an auction card, what's an eBay buy it now card, what's a grading card, what's there's more ways you can sell cards, but that's something I think I've actually gotten pretty good at. I guess just to keep it brief, yeah, selling a few cards, like you know, Trey Young's during the pandemic, oh, this went up, let me sell that. Well, the big thing I got into once I started was grading. I mean, that was always my biggest thing, like grading uh like Eniesta Mundi Chromos back in the day, getting PSA 9s, and then that was crazy. I think that's what really hooked me to grading. I mean, back during the pandemic, I was getting those for like 50 bucks, maybe grading them for 20, and then I think I sold a PSA 9 for like$1,500 or something ridiculous. And then I was like, okay, yeah, grading is it. So that's always been a big part of my focus. Yeah, back then I wasn't really flipping, even now, I don't really flip graded cards or raw cards like singularly. Like I won't just go buy a card and then like I'll do I do collections, which people see a lot. But yeah, my selling journey was always raw to grade, it was a big one. And then now it's kind of transitioned more into collections at the same time, buying out collections and then and then selling. So I I guess, yeah, I've always been I've always been more of a looking for a higher margin.
SPEAKER_01:Like you said, raw to grade is just a fantastic way to squeeze out value. It's almost like a an alchemy kind of thing. Have you ever run into PSA being inconsistent with their grading? And has that ever kept you at some point from sending cards to them or feeling like the business model of raw to grade might not work out like that?
SPEAKER_00:For sure. For sure. Super, super inconsistent. But also at the same time, I I take my own perception with a grain of salt because I don't consider myself like an expert grader, you know, so I I I'm totally open to being wrong with that. But I think, I mean, even yeah, I would think even they would say it's inconsistent. It's a there's a human element, right? Like that's just natural. There's different people grading. Has it held me back? I wouldn't say that's really what's held me back. I mean, it's I've always consider it's a little bit of a dice roll, right? There's luck. Like I've I've known that from the beginning. I think there's a bunch of other things that have held me back, especially recently. I think I've personally found them to be a little tougher recently. Obviously, when turnaround times or they're more expensive now. So yeah, for sure. I'm like I'm grading a lot less cards and I'm way more picky than I was, for instance, a year ago. Like, man, when it was like they had$16 specials and it was like one month turnaround time. I mean, I was and also slabs were selling for a lot higher. I've not too long ago, I remember pretty much any refract or any silver PSA 10, especially in other sports, was was was worth grading it if you get a 10. Now, even if you get a 10, it's not really even worth the time or financially. So things have definitely tranged, but in terms of my perhaps perceived inconsistency, there's not another option for one, in my opinion, to kind of grade your cards. And I don't know, you you just gotta do it, especially with more expensive cards. Like, I don't know. That's the funny thing to me. Sometimes I'll see people out there, I call them grading martyrs. They're like, I won't stand for this. Like, I I'm going like tag, tag is the future. No, no, no, no shade to tag. I mean, no people over there, I'm sure they do great things, but it's like you can think that, but the market doesn't agree with you. You like that's fine, but it's just I'm not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I was on Soccer Cards United and Jason was speaking about how we sometimes evangelize our own takes because we have money behind them, right? And I and I call the a come to select moment. You know, you can't be out there just trying to have people like something more than they already like it or change their demand around it. Like that stuff happens organically, and I think you're right. Like it's these things will grow and something will take that BGS-sized hole that's out there, but who knows what it could be. It might be tag, it might be arena club, who knows?
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, I mean that's that's the it it's funny you say that. Like I remember, and trust me, I've been wrong about a lot. I've been wrong about a ton of things. Like, I'm fully willing to admit that. But one thing I think I have been, especially recently, proven pretty right on is I've always been heavy on the Messi and Ronaldo train. I've been on a couple podcasts and talking to people and they're like, man, but you know, once again, going back to Iniesta, like, is Iniesta or Modric really one 500th of the player that Messi is or Ronaldo is? And I'm like, no, of course not. Like they're those guys are legends and they're and they're closer than the price discrepancy should be. But guess what? You're the market's never going to agree with you. Like, look at other sports, look at how it is. I think the gap will probably only grow larger over time, even though it's not necessarily logical. So that's something people should always remember. Like you said, like you can believe, but definitely follow your own beliefs and things can change, but but don't just get too caught up in just because I think this is right. I think this is logical. That definitely doesn't mean the market is going to agree with you.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent advice. It's good to look for when those catalysts might change the market. For instance, we have a lot of catalysts happen right now with Fanatics Collect. Yeah. With say that wrong, Fanatics Collect. Fanatics Collect, yeah, that's it. For some reason that's coming off the tongue really weird. Fanatic.
SPEAKER_00:Anyways, well, they they've changed names like four times. Like it was PWCC, and yeah, so that's fair. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01:So them taking over licensing in a lot of sports. We have Tom Brady getting active with stuff. We have the World Cup coming up, which I'm sure, you know, we could talk about. But um with all these things, liquidity still is king. And what do people like is it's not really gonna change, you know. So I think um when I look at how to take advantage of what's coming for the World Cup, which I'm a big proponent of, I look at kabooms, I look at other case hits, and of course I look at PSA 10s because that's what they buy and sell over in basketball and other sports. Is that kind of how you look at it?
SPEAKER_00:For sure. I that's that's a great point. I'm a hundred percent on board with that. I always tell people the money in in turn the profit is gonna come from the people who are outside the soccer market right now. What are they gonna buy? What are they gonna want? What are they gonna pump as well? Like I've said for a while, I'm like, they will, you know, the the invisible strings are the the secret society of cards. I'm like, they're gonna find a new prospect to pump. And for your mall, it's already like kind of it's not gonna be your mall because it's kind of already happened. I'm like, that's that's a big one. So that's another thing I've thought about. Like they're gonna try to find someone to make the hot new prospect who they can get in early on and kind of pump up. So I think, yeah, the same thing. Kabooms, PSA 10s, I always think of what is the stuff that they are gonna understand and they are gonna pump. And I think that's the stuff that's that's gonna see big price movements near the World Cup.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, 100% agreement. And if this video shuts off in the middle of Troy going into that, you know what happened. Yes. Not to be a conspiracy theorist here.
SPEAKER_00:They called, they called in, they called in the strike on me.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. He's done. He's done. Okay, awesome. Well, we want to get from you these selling secrets that you have. You've been experienced in buying, selling, flipping. You've been very public about the tips that you give people and what your journey was and how much you made from what. So talk to me a little bit about when it shifted from just being that hobby, you know, flipping a little thing here and there, grading, into like, hey, I can make a business out of this.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So if people don't know my journey, uh when I got into cards, I was playing professional basketball overseas in the Philippines. So I was kind of limited in what I could do, definitely being over there. But yeah, that's kind of when it started for a hobby. So just by the nature of that, I couldn't do too much. When I decided it was a business, I mean, I it it definitely wasn't a straight up hobby anymore. Like I said early on, when Eniesta like uh 70 bucks into 1500, I'm like, okay, this is this is something serious I need to take seriously. But I think when I moved back to the US for sure, I I moved back in 2022. I started going to uh card shows again. That's that was the other thing. In 2023, when I quit my sales job, then it was like, yeah, 100% full business. I would say those were the the the three main eras I was in. Well, maybe a fourth of like at the beginning, like pure, pure hobby, and then hobby slash business, and after a little bit, full-time business, business.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I think is really remarkable within that Troy is that it was 2023 when we had a bear market, right? Most people come in, they're like, oh, 2020, 2021 is where I made my hay. 2023 in a bear market, you were outperforming. Can you talk about that and what you were able to do that other people weren't?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think well, one for sure, that's that's a good point. And that's part of the reason I felt good to take that full-time leap, because I was like, this is actually like a terrible market we're in right now, and I still feel like I'm I'm finding some success. But I like to think that my style is better set, not better set, but I think I do well in a bear market, right? I think the people who do really well in a hot market are like a lot of like high-end flippers or quick flippers in general. I've always had a patient approach, and in general, I like to go for cards that I think I will probably have more margin on to a collector. So that almost works better in a bear market, especially back then, right? Because like no one, I did a lot of soccer, no one wanted soccer. So I'd be at these card shows and a lot of people would be like, man, just take the soccer, just take the soccer. I don't want it. And I knew it wasn't going to be liquid. But for my style, I was like, I'm I'm gonna sit on it. I'm fine. I don't mind holding this card for eight months and waiting for the right person to come along on it. That's that might be a little bit too far to say I was more successful in the bear market, but I think my personal style of buying and selling actually did better in that because I've always been the more patient approach and trying to col find a card that eventually the right collector will want.
SPEAKER_01:That's really interesting. It's almost a thought process when it comes to alpha and beta for stock market, which roughly translates to how closely it tracks the indexes, right? Like if you have a stock that's right in line with where the SP moves, it's going to have very small alpha, but also very small beta. And sometimes you have cards just like stocks that are going to outperform when the market's going down, kind of like consumer goods do really well when we get into recession because everyone's still buying band-aids and cleaning supplies, right? So really interesting stuff there. And you talked about a patient approach that you have. You talked about selling to collectors. So when I think of a card market value, so I have this specific card, I buy it for this, right? The efficient market hypothesis says that it's sold for me at that price because it's what the market information delegated the price to be. When you're buying a card, you're saying you're pretty patient with it, you see some kind of differentiation that the market might not see. Tell me about that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Uh it's complicated to explain everything because I think it depends on the card, but I'll I'll just say two cards on on different ends that I've bought recently that come to mind that I think I have a good, like, patient approach with. Like I bought a uh Chavi Flawless Auto from, I guess, 2015. And the comps are there's not a comp on this exact card, and I I think I'm venting a little bit because I had someone comp check me in a terrible way, but that's a different podcast. But it is true that we'll get into it in a little bit, actually. There's um there's a lot of comps on that card that indicate it's probably like worth around a thousand, nine hundred to a thousand dollars. But for me, I am a little higher on it because I know how rare that card is, I know how in demand that card is. But more importantly, and I and I could be wrong on that. Other thing is I don't mind holding that card for five years. I don't, I don't, because in my opinion, I know I'm never gonna get killed on that card, right? If five years from now you told me it's gonna be worth less than$600, I'd be like, I just don't agree with you. I just don't see that happening. Like, you know, I I could be wrong, right? I don't want to pretend to be a genius here, no one knows for sure, but I'm like, okay, so if I'm into it, I'll say what I'm into it for. I'm into it for 800 bucks, I believe. I'm like, okay, so it's never gonna be worth less than$600. And I think there's a pretty good chance that here shortly I can sell it for$1250-ish. Okay, yeah. Like, you know what I mean? So, or like even on the cheap end, like I just bought a bunch of uh mosaic peacocks from 2020. I don't know if they're case hits, but they're pretty rare of like players who aren't the biggest. Like one of them, uh, I think it's Luis Suarez, who's actually at where'd you just go? Lisbon. There's a rookie card. Like, you know, getting those for a dollar. I'm like, I'm pretty confident I can sell those for 10 bucks at at some point. Someone's gonna co come around and want that card. Uh that's the kind of stuff that I target a little bit in my thought process. I apologize if I didn't explain that that well, but I guess those were just two cards that popped to mind.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's great. Um, talking about the thought process that goes into it is exactly what I was trying to get after. Yeah. And some highlights there. Uh, the first thing that came to my mind as you were talking about that first card is the set, right? Yep. 2015 Flawless, for those that know soccer, is one of the most high-end sets. It's the first year of Flawless, which itself is kind of its own top-tier echelon along with Prism and Topps Chrome. Some would say above those in a way. And to have cards within that set, I think is always immensely valuable. I'm that way with the 2014 Prism. I watch it very closely. And if you also watch it closely, you see on eBay there's all these sales that are popping off on these 2014 Prism golds for players you've never heard of. And they're going for much more than they've ever gone for. And that to me is why having a good set that's in high demand is one of the ways that you can insulate your value and take advantage of spikes that come in. Because when I talk about valuation, I talk about market legacy and design, not just for the player, but for the set, because you have that value boost. So yeah, really good call-outs there, I think, from you on on how to look at things.
SPEAKER_00:For sure. And I think one thing I want to add it to kind of sum it up, my my brain when I'm buying and selling, it always, I think one of the biggest tips I can give people is understand the downside and understand the upside. So, like like you kind of mentioned with with the prism, that's the same thing. Like, I I think about that too. I'm like, I know there's crazy upside for some of these golds of of these uh not I want to say no name players, but not the biggest name players, because there's the sell set collectors for people who really want these cards versus if you're buying, I was gonna say duay, but I actually actually kind of like him. Like uh Yeah. Uh he's I don't know why I'm picking on him because I actually like him a little bit, but let's just say Furman Lopez, like you're getting a PSA 10 tops chrome refractor of him. I'm like, okay, what's my downside? I'm like huge downside because I I see a pretty likely scenario in two years, even if he does end up being a good player, which I think he actually will. I'm a Barça fan, but he his stuff isn't gonna be worth very much versus the upside. I just don't really see a scenario where his cards pop off. So if I buy it at 100, maybe I get a quick flip at like 120, 130, but there's also a pretty likely scenario where it's gonna be worth like 20 bucks not too long from now. That'll help you a lot. That's the thing. And versus the big time sets that we're talking about. I'm like, dude, I see a somewhere down the road where this is a big time card. And in terms of downside, there's always gonna be Prism collectors, there's always gonna be flawless collectors. Once again, soccer card to market has gone down before, so I could be wrong, but I just don't personally see a scenario where these cards go down to zero, you know.
SPEAKER_01:I've been talking about the soccer market until I'm blue in the face. So I will spare everyone on this one. We're not gonna go deep down into soccer, even though I would love to, but I will say 100% when you look at how the values of the sets rise over time, you can look at that on PSA, which is crazy. You can do value per set and you can search that way. If you guys like data and like going down those rabbit holes, 100% recommend that one. But yeah, I almost bought a Prism Gold today, a 2014 Prism Gold 9.5%. At BGS, Andrea Perilo. And I almost dropped 4,500 bucks on it today, but you know, I kind of got cold feet at the end. Um, to your point about the floor and the ceiling. Here's a gold, and here's I'll give you a little quick way that I evaluate these ones that have tough comps, and maybe you can kind of weigh in there and give some feedback too. Um, so I look at it. Of course, there's not a sale in this specific card. There's only 10 of them, and probably only one BGS95 never sold. So I look at another gold that just sold in 2014 Prism. I compare against the players, right? So David Silva, his eight sold for 4,200 very recently in a gold. And I'm like, these are not like the same level of players at all. So getting a 9.5 in a higher tier player. I mean, now I'm talking myself into the fact that I should have paid up for it, but you know, for the 500 bucks more than the other player went for in an eight is crazy to me.
SPEAKER_00:I guess what I would ask you though is off the top of my head, I would think that there's also a lot of good players who would who would have comps not necessarily that high. I am am I am I wrong on that? Or because I guess I don't know. I haven't checked it super frequently.
SPEAKER_01:They're so rare that if you put 2014 Prism Gold in card ladder, you're just not gonna get much there. So the data points are what make it difficult. And the price discovery has always been the problem in soccer, right? Everybody's off of comps, they want to give what comps were, but like some of those 2014 Prism rare ones haven't sold in ever.
SPEAKER_00:For sure. For sure. Well, I guess, yeah, 100%. And I would agree with that. I think that would be if I was buying that card though, that would be once again, what are the comps that, and I don't have to explain this to you, you know this stuff, but I'm just saying it to the audience. Like, what are the comps that are necessarily gonna go against me in this situation? And I think there probably is some, but at the same time, that is the perfect example, especially in a 9.5. That's a card that one someone that's a need, that's another thing. That's a need to have card that someone's gonna be need to have that you can get a lot higher value. And also, once again, especially at that price, I'm like, I don't mind holding this. Like it'll it'll be fine. Uh uh, it's you know, we're not talking about like$50,000 or something either. I know that's still a a big amount of money, but when I hear that card, especially in a 9.5, I'm like, that that's a card I don't mind holding on to. And then in that case, you have a lot more leverage. And I also do have to apologize, give a quick note. Like, we are talking very, I'm coming across a little sharky here, but we are talking about the nitty-gritty of selling. Obviously, there's there's more to collecting and stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. I mean, good call out. And the difference between investing and collecting is very different to me. I had someone that came on and he said that we have two pockets, you know, we have the collecting and investing pockets. And I like looking at it that way as well because there's people that say they're pure collectors and then they sell cards when the market's hot. And it's like, I don't think collecting or investing is about the rapidity with which you sell. I think if you're a true collector, you collect without any regard to what the value is. And people are on a spectrum of the collector investor, and people are probably gonna get pissed off one way or another.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's okay. I'm trying to, I won't qualify my stuff too much too, because another thing I was thinking about as we're talking here is like I like to think one thing about my YouTube is I really try to make it very accessible for people who maybe aren't necessarily like super into the weeds with cards. I think some of us who are doing this full time or really active with it, we forget like you know, people start and they don't even like grading or like PSA versus BGS, like the multipliers, this stuff, like people don't know this stuff and we kind of take it for granted. But I am I'm I'm excited today, and I'm gonna be no holds barred. I'm gonna really try to like get into the nitty-gritty of the weeds here. So I'm I'm excited for that.
SPEAKER_01:Well said, and let's segue into some nitty-gritty. So when we're looking at the selling tips, I want to highlight your last video that you put out on Instagram. The video where you talked about negotiation and how people are doing it wrong. Walk me through the experience if you want, what led you to putting that out and making that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I would say it's two things. I mean, the main one is just pretty simple, like just kept getting what's your best, what's your lowest you can do on this, especially on eBay, just getting flooded, but actually surprisingly, a ton on Instagram and even in person at card shows from people who I think kind of should know what they're doing. I was just kind of making the point that it's not a good negotiation technique. And I think it's a little, a little lazy to do it that way. And even just once again, I said selfishly too, even if you don't care about any of that, you're just trying to get stuff done, always come to the table with an offer. I think that that's just a much more efficient way to do it. It's gonna lead to a lot more success. The what's your best, like that's that's a little bit of just an opinion thing. People can do whatever they want. But the the other point I made was that people need to act with more respect. Um, and that happened to me actually, once again, I mentioned just the other day, like people like just being rude and saying, Are you serious? Like you're wrong, or you can't do this, or not even, hey, how are you? Like, that's that's one thing I'll definitely stand on that I people just don't know how to negotiate and treat other people as humans and and with respect. And it is it is just kind of sad to see in the market. Well said.
SPEAKER_01:And I would say that when you're talking about what's your best, and you said it's an opinion, that's not the best way to go. Yeah, I'm gonna double down on that one. If anyone ever says that to me, I do not negotiate with you. I've made that a point. I stick on that. Some people are a lot nicer than I am, but for me, and I'm sure you experience this probably even more because you sell more than I do. I've had 2,000 sales in the last eight months or so. Yeah. And I can tell you that there's too many going on to deal with people that are saying what's your best. And it's never resulted in a sale for me. Because, like you said, they're losing the human connection up front. And to me, selling is built on trust. Both of us were in sales at one point. Yeah. And we know that first you build trust with people because people buy from whom they like. So I just think that's such a salient point. Like, treat people the way that you want to be treated, how you want someone coming into your DMs, treat them like a human being. What else in that do you want to kind of call out now that I've ranted about people?
SPEAKER_00:It's kind of going off my other point, but uh another big thing I always say is there's, in my opinion, there's there's no right or right or wrong answers in the card world. So that's something that really makes me upset when people are like, I mean, with a few exceptions, right? Like if you're talking about a Luca Prism PSA 10, there it kind of is that that card sells hundreds of times a day. There, there's a right answer for the for the value of that card. But it it does really bother me once again. Someone was comp checking me on a flawless, and I'm just like, that's fine that you think the value is here, but don't tell me you're wrong, you're being ridiculous. Because there's there's a big delta here, and but there's a lot of things to take into account. It's a different card, the market has gone up, we're talking about different things, like, and same thing once again. You gotta be you got to be fair on both ends. If someone has a, let's take Prism 2014, they're very rare in a PSA 10. So I might think, you know, I think the multiplier, for the sake of it, I'm not saying this is a real one. If the last raw did 200 bucks, I might want to pay 600. You might be like, nope, I I really want to be at a thousand. This is really low pop. I would never tell you you're wrong. There's no way it's worth that much. It's not a 5x multiplier, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because in that, in that situation, I genuinely believe there's no right or wrong or one universal truth for what the selling price of that card should be. So that's another thing I would definitely remind people of. Like you can disagree. You can also, once again, you can be firm. You can say, hey, you want that. I'm not going to pay it. Doesn't mean you have to pay it. But never, there's no way to be like, no, you're you're wrong, and I'm right about what this card should go for. To me, that's that's ridiculous. And I've and I've seen a lot of that, especially in the soccer world.
SPEAKER_01:Troy, it strikes me a lot as it's not so important what you do, but how you do it. Like the layer of how you do something is so incredibly important. Because you're talking about comp check, and I'm thinking back to myself. I've comp check people, I do it all the time, but I've done it in a good way, and I've done it in a way that's not so good. You know, as we get better and better and we learn how to interact better and be more friendly and be more outgoing and fair, we learn that popping up and saying this is ridiculous to have it at this price is not going to ever lead you to buying that card. I can tell you that right now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But if you pop up and you're like, hey, just noticed that this seemed a little off from the other sale. Can you explain to me maybe where the price difference is? That results in deals. So if you want to get deals done, improve your language and also understand the deeper nuances of value. Such a salient point there about the 2014 World Cup Prisms. I went and bought a lot of those tens early. And then some of them have gems of two to three on the pop report. And then someone's like, I'll give you twice what raw was, and it's like, thank you. I appreciate the offer. As you were saying earlier, I'm okay holding this. Yeah. You know, like I don't think it's going down. I don't think this set's ever going to lose value. And I just like the card as well.
SPEAKER_00:For sure. And I'm and that's that's a great point. I'm I'm wary of uh repeating myself because I know I've done some reels where I've talked about specific language and stuff, but I I just want to echo your point. Like we lead with respect and just that's that's how I say it. Like if I've said in my reel, so I'll repeat it again. But if someone is, I feel someone's a little high on their price, they're asking for a thousand dollars. I think it's closer to$500. It's a 50% offer. You got to be wary of that because you're not gonna like fully insult someone, but I think you should you should give a little bit of a note if you're 50% or below. I'll say, hey, uh, you know, really, really nice card. I I would love to be at 500 because I'm personally seeing raw comps at around 150. And I think, you know, David Silva did 400, so that's kind of why I'm thinking around 500 on this card. Let me know. Totally no worries if not, uh, but just wanted to kind of share some of my thinking. Or, you know, a million different situations. If you're at a card show, like like there was one time I was the last minute of a card show, and I needed a ton of soccer cards for a whatnot stream. And I don't just like to walk up to someone and be like, 85% comps, bro. Come on, work with me. It's a freaking market, bro. I gotta move it. Like you don't lead like that. I walked up to him, I said, Hey, I see you have a lot of soccer. This is kind of crazy. I have a big whatnot stream. If I took a bunch of this, would you be open to me going through copying this and doing 85%? No worries if not. I know you're you paid to set up here, so it's a little lower. But if I took all of it, like, is that something you'd be open to? And I got that deal done. I bought basically his whole showcase. I guarantee you, if I walked up and been like, try to comp in like 70, man, I can do 50. Like, let's be realistic with prices here. I I gotta have a little room. 0% chance we would have gotten that deal done. So the other thing, so like I said, it's better for people in general, but it's also you're just even if you're thinking this purely as a businessman, you're gonna have a lot more success. And then the other thing, reputation as well. There's a couple people I've dealt with, and I'm and I'm just like, man, I would never refer you to someone else. I would never like point you in the way of a card. And again, same thing, even if it does work. Like, let's say I get that deal done, I would much rather have my reputation. Once again, even if we're thinking about this purely business-wise, I would much rather have my reputation than for me to make a hundred dollars on this flip off you. Like, who cares?
SPEAKER_01:All right. So I have a story in parallel. I'm gonna share this with you guys um about number one, standing your ground and also being able to do something in a respectful way, but show them what you mean. So I wanted to buy Ronaldo autographs, particularly in Prism sets. So I looked at this 2022 gem Ronaldo autograph. It was beautiful, and I'm like, I want to buy that. So I started looking at comps and I saw last one sold for$3,000 a week before. So, like very close comp, right? And I saw one online on Facebook, and I talked to the guy, I reached out, and I'm like, hey, do you still have that Ronaldo auto? And he's like, Yes, I do. We started negotiating back and forth. He had had it up for$1,900 a couple months before. So I'm sure y'all that are familiar with the soccer market, you know that Ronaldo and Messi in that three-month span between July and now have changed their pricing a lot. 3K, he came back and he's like, I would actually like to get 3K in on it, not that 1900 that it was listed for because it's old. And I'm like, I totally get that. You know, comp is right there. Totally respect that. If that's your firm price, no worries on it. And then I proceed to say my thinking on this, and the reason that I'm at that 1900 still is because the pop count between the messy 2022 signature series in a gem and the Ronaldo one is actually this. So mathematically, if I paid you that much, I'd be paying you the same amount as the messy one by like market cap, if you will. So I got a little technical in there, you know, but I like just gave my reasoning, which I'm sure he doesn't agree with, and most people wouldn't. This is totally my reasoning, right? Yeah. Gave it to him and he was like, Ah, I just can't do it. And I was like, absolutely no worries, man. I appreciate the conversation. A day later, he came back and he's like, I'll do 2100 on that. And I was like, that's totally fair. You got a deal. So just a little story to show you guys being fair and being truthful and standing your ground and demonstrating why you're giving a comp can result in business being done that you didn't think was possible, especially with that hot of a card.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00:You explained your reasoning and you did it in a respectful way. And then here, wow, look at we're we're coming full circle. Upside, downside. Upside is you actually get the card for what you wanted to get it for. Downside, there basically is none if you go about it respectfully. I I've had people give me, to be honest, like what I feel are are pretty far off on the value. That doesn't lead me to like 1% of ill will or bad feelings towards them. And I'd be more than happy to work with them on the next deal, even if we're way off on price, as long as they come at it respectfully. So there is, there is no downside. Even if you are like what's quote unquote in in an offensive offer, as long as you come at it with respect and you explain your reasoning, it's fine. Anyone who's an adult will be like, hey, we disagreed on this one, all good. We'll get the next one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Burning bridges doesn't usually lead to good things. But on the other side, we're saying a little bit of usually, so we are baking in a little bit of people not being adults, or sometimes where people do act in a way that just rubs you the wrong way and you know you'll never do business with them. How do you go about those situations or how do you know the best that I can do here is probably move on from this person, if you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:That's that's one thing I wrestle with. Like I I am careful to bite my tongue a little bit too, because once again, through we've all been through it. There's been some times where I'm like, I want to like kind of go at you right now and like have this out. But uh, that's definitely something I I try to remember. It's like, even if someone I feel like is not acting like an adult or is being a little combative towards me, I'm like, there's no reason for me to to kind of get to that level and just act like a little bit of a dick. Like there's it's not good for reputation. That's not what how I want to act, and that's not how I want to operate in this world. But yeah, just dealing with it in general, I think you just you just gotta stay neutral and and also sniff it out early, right? Like that's the other thing too. Like you kind of said, the people who are like, what's your lowest on this? I'm just like, okay, we all have finite time. I'm like, I I don't think this is where my time is is best spent. And then the other thing, and I still do it too much. Like, I'll wanna be right. So I'll be going back and forth with someone and be like, no, like this is just to kind of prove a point. It's just not a good use of my time, and and what am I accomplishing here? So I think that's something people should always remember too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well said. There's a there's an ego that gets in the way of us a lot of times, uh, it gets in the way of our rational thinking, and we want to be proven right and we want to feel better about being treated unjustly, and so the ego comes in. And to your point before, you were speaking about how in the long term it doesn't help you to kind of combat them. And that's absolutely true. You burn a bridge, you kind of feel this like weird feeling in yourself that it feels good, but it feels good for your ego in like a nasty, kind of slimy way. Whereas I think when you go about it the right way, there's a totally different feeling in your gut that you have where you're like, you know what? I handled that like a man. And so just a a beautiful point there. Like, follow your gut and um it will actually lead you where it should go. And sometimes take a pause, take a breath, walk away, think about what you're doing. Yep, 100%. I'm agreed. So selling secrets, we talked about really just basic stuff. Be a good guy, come at people respectfully, give them a little bit of insight into your thought process. Also hold your ground. Anything else in there that you want to highlight, touch on? What are the lessons that maybe you've learned that you want to do before we end?
SPEAKER_00:Uh specifically with selling, I would say definitely the big thing I want to hammer. We touched on a little bit, but always I always think through upside and downside. Think of that financially, but just also logic-wise. Um, the other thing, always, I would say always have a plan with the card. That's what what I tell people. Like sometimes people buy, and I'm like, oh, like once again, I'm gonna pick on someone a little bit here, but uh shout out my boy Brian, Sunday League Investors. Like, he bought like a Mussiala. This was this was back also when the market was way different and a bunch of things, but it was like a Mussiala yellow PSA 10 or something that was like 600 bucks. I was like, what's what's your plan with that card? Like what's the journey you think for that? He's uh I don't know. And then that's kind of where you get into trouble with it, right? Like, so if I buy a raw card, the plan is I was like, I think I'm gonna get margin because it's raw to grade. If I buy the Chavi Flawless, I'm like, I'm waiting for the right person to come along on this card because um I don't think I don't think the downside. So this is a card I'm gonna wait for for a long time. Or if, you know, even a simple, once again, dollar box. I'm buying a Yamal Wonder Kids for a dollar. This is this is a what not card for me personally. It's like if I'm buying this, where where's the avenue where I think I'm gonna sell it? Where do I think I'm gonna create that margin? Always have a specific plan when you buy. That's that's what I think. Obviously, the caveat if it's your for your collection. That's also, once again, could be your plan. This is a PC card.
SPEAKER_01:Hell yeah. Investment thesis and time frame. If you have both of those, then you know when you're looking to sell it. You're looking to get out of it at this time for this catalyst that you see. And you're also going to know when you're wrong, right? This is one of the things I've learned, Troy, is like we're going to be wrong. And it's good to figure that out early and move on. Cut bait, get your time back, put that money deployed elsewhere because we only have a finite amount of money.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I'll and I'll add a quick story to that real quick. I I was wrong very recently. I bought two uh Yamal high-end autos for like 10,000 and 15,000. And I thought, based on comps that I saw, that I could flip them for more. I was like, my my target sell was like 13,000, 14,000. New comps came out. Obviously, he's injured and stuff like that. And I was I was wrong. I'm not gonna be able to get that price. I I think I'm gonna auction both of them. I think, like you said, you know, you have an idea things can go wrong as well, too. You can't understate that. But um also another uh tip that's been said plenty of times, too. But don't be afraid to cut bait when things do go wrong. Uh don't just try to hold hold into oblivion either.
SPEAKER_01:If it doesn't make you feel good anymore when you look at it, sell it. That's my thing. Like if cards aren't sparking joy for you, why are they there? All right. Where's your eBay store? Why don't you go ahead and plug that since you might have those Yamals up for people?
SPEAKER_00:There we go. Uh yeah, eBay is eBay's trike cards. It's pretty much trike cards on everything. Instagram's trike cards, uh, YouTube, I think it's trike sports cards. So definitely check me out on all platforms.
SPEAKER_01:I bought from Troy in the past on eBay. I would say he's a reputable seller. I'd buy from him again. Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate you, man. Thanks for coming on. Pleasure to chat with you. Thanks for sharing some tips with everybody about how to sell better and also how to buy better. Because when you start doing that foundational stuff, I think that really helps you level up. So I appreciate you coming on, man. And let's do it again sometime.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm down. This was great. Definitely look forward to it again.
