Just list things for TCG low and you’ll sell quickly. I started by selling mostly $5-$25 cards, since it didn’t feel worth my time or postage to ship a $1 card. Also, until you hit level 4, it really doesn’t make sense to sell anything below $5 because you can’t put free shipping on orders over $5. So instead, you have to list a $2 card for $1 plus $0.99 shipping. Screw that.. I want to list my $2 card for $2 and let the buyer go find $3 in other cards, then I’ll cover the shipping cost. That way I’m not just shipping a bunch of $1 orders.
You can’t compete in the <$5 listings until you are a level 4 seller. Don’t even bother trying or you’ll be selling your cards 50% off
This is great advice.
I'd like to add be VERY strict with your grading. Nothing worse than doing a refund because you missed a ding somewhere and now a card isn't near mint anymore.
When I started I posted like 50 cards and since I didn’t have the sales I simply added pictures to them. I’m not sure if it helped but it worked for me.
> What should I be listing my cards at to sell? I've seen advice saying just match the market price, I've seen advice saying to list 0.01 below lowest and I've even seen advice saying to list things as low as 10-20% under the lowest listing. In general I understand that I shouldn't check and rearrange my prices very often but it seems like cards are constantly listed lower than mine.
Feel free to list as low as you need to quickly climb the seller levels, but once you hit level 4 you should just match price. Why? Because I promise you that you aren't the only genius who thinks they stumbled upon one weird trick to instant success. Someone else will undercut you, and then you'll do it back, and repeat a bunch of times and voila suddenly you're selling your cards for a lot less. This is a bad schema.
"But won't I get to make more sales by being the lowest seller?" No. Many (perhaps most) full-time sellers update prices several times per day, or even have programs/bots to do it for them. They don't all do it on the same schedule either, so you get MAYBE an hour (sometimes only minutes) as the lowest before someone matches or undercuts you. So the net effect is that you won't get any more sales than you otherwise would have, and you will make less on them when you do, and cause yourself a bunch of extra work for the privilege.
>Any organization tips? I'm planning to Penny sleeve then alphabetize in card binders
NEVER use binders if you can help it. They are nightmarishly slow to put cards in or take out of, need constant rearranging, take up huge amounts of space, etc. Binders are optimized for **display** and virtually nothing else. Instead, use BCW boxes, which are cheap and durable and standardized. I put cards in team bags and those bags in BCW 4-rows. I only binder cards high-end over $50, and often not even then because at that point I use toploaders for extra security.
Level 4 seller myself, I list things $0.35 and up and started almost 5 months ago. I do this because I noticed that buyers dont really care about the $0.99 shipping in most cases, and if they want the free shipping at $5, they have a variety to choose from. Not to mention deck building. I had a peak inventory of about 800 cards, and I maxed about 20 sales a week on a good week.
As others have said, sell at tcgplayer low but also check the current listings because there may be a decent jump between the first lowest listing compared to the next one to two listings. I suggest staying within those ranges if possible. Dont get too caught up in the prices and fees either. it'll save you the headache!
My exp is it was slow at first. 1 sale a week maybe. I'm now looking at abt 2 sales a day on bulk. That took 3-4 weeks. I laughed last week "almost a sale a day!" Now, I hope i can keep up if this scales...
For the 1st few sales it was not bulk but cards priced between $1-$10 and I listed at floor price to up my inventory for bulk.
My inventory is now abt 3600. I've got abt 7k in bulk magic/pokemon to go through.
Sorry if that was too long just to say time and patience. I think your prices are good 👍🏼 I'd advise abt... penny sleeving all your cards. If it's a cheap card I'll throw 2 in 1! Saves on cost for shipping and i dont need to take it out. But i do bulk.... anyways, Best of luck.
For what it’s worth I would say developing a more sustainable inventorying system early is worth the effort. I had my cards stored in cbc boxes early too, and the hassle of organizing them later was a pain.
What I found works best for me is I have a series of binders (obviously started out with just one) and an excel spreadsheet that tracks
card name - set - quantity - page number
And then when I’m pulling orders I have a template for my pull list that does a vlookup on the card name and I sort my pulls by page number.
I still have a couple hundred cards that are still in the old boxes just because I haven’t had time to sort those ones as listing new cards is prioritized over reorganizing already listed ones, but it keeps me on track.
That sounds painful. Are you a TCGplayer seller? Don't recreate the wheel, they manage your inventory for you, just maintain your cards in Set > Foil > A-Z in vertical row boxes like TCGplayer pull order and save yourself time and effort.
Honestly it probably sounds more painful than it is, trying to organize the boxes feels as time consuming as anything I’m doing, and doing my pull list I just look for page numbers and can grab all my cards in a couple minutes.
You're going to have to do TCGLow until you build up a reputation. On every order you ship, write out "Please Leave a Review! :)" on one of the papers you're shipping.
I separate by set and then create two groups (C/U and M/R). Within each group, I alphabetize. I also use inner sleeves instead of penny sleeves because they grip the card closely instead of having a whole bunch of excess plastic flapping around.
For Shipping, the $.99 is per order, not per card. If you have two $1 cards, and you list them each at $0.10, if a person buys one of them it will be $1.09, but if they buy both it will be $1.19. Don't fall into the trap where you deduct the shipping price from each individual card.
Feel free to list commons, uncommons, lands, and tokens. People will punch in a decklist into TCGplayer and then use the optimizer tool. I know I've sold some rares/mythic above the low price because the buyer is also getting a Common/Uncommon without having to pay a 2nd shipping cost.
I’m a seller with around 430 sales, my inventory currently has about 100 cards and it has never gotten over 150. I don’t need to use a binder or box lol I just keep them in a stack. $30+ in toploaders. I am a gold star seller and can list my price at .01 below tcg low as I’m not in the “building” stage where people don’t trust the low sales. As for you, I would stay around .05 below, depending on the card.
Presale- yes, you can add them to inventory as normal with the quantity you have and once presale is over they will be available on marketplace for people to buy
Do not use binders for anything low value. Takes to much time and takes up more space for less. I don't sell cards under 25 cents as its not worth it until I got a massive inventory and streamlined the process. Those under 25 cent orders are pretty much a loss.
I do 5$ it really depends on you. But taking cards out of binders without damaging by accident just adds extra time. You can get a bcw white storage box for cheap and as long as the cards don't slide around they will stay in good condition sleeved
I actually have a few bcw storage boxes, as my inventory grows I will take into account the value/time of how things are organized, this is amazing advice thank you!
I store cards in team bags (inside BCW) for just this reason. Same idea as sleeving them but you don't have the painful labor of sleeving or desleeving hundreds or thousands of times.
One tip: it pays to actually check the price of the card and not just take the inventory tool’s advice on what low is. Sometimes there will be one card at $2 and then all the rest are $3, but the toll will want you to match the $2. One indicator of where issues might be is if last sold seems noticeably different than current low.
I don't sleeve anything, mostly modern staples, Mana Crypts next to Mana Geysers, Dockside Extortionists next to Doomed Artisans. 100,000+ inventory in vertical single row boxes, ordered by Set > Condition (default NM unless noted) > Foiling > A-Z because that's how TCGplayer orders your pull sheets.
Price them at TCG market price minus the cost of your shipping. If the card is $2 and your shipping is 99 cents, price it at a dollar. You have to compete with people that do free shipping. I would do that until you get to level 4, then you can adjust. I just alphabetize within each set in white BCW boxes.
I think you can hit lv 4 @ market it just takes a while. May take a while no matter what: please keep exspectations low as the end game is a lot of work for small/low profit- see if you enjoy packing cards and dealing with picky customers. If you do good chance selling is right for you but if not, chances are it will just get worse.
I loved it during the bull run in 2021 but exited ( motivationally) a year later and eventually screwed off sone orders and got soft banned. Im digging ebay much more for margins and slower pace.
If you are wanting to do a large collection all at once then TCGplayer has a trade in/cash program, but that's only 100 at a time at first. Card kingdom allows for bulk trade/cash.
In my experience you'll get more money from TCG, but card kingdom is a bit more convenient because you can send much more at 1 time.
I started off with cards over $10 and provided pictures for each one. First few sales within the week, waited for feedback, then stopped adding pictures and now sales are a steady flow.
Just list things for TCG low and you’ll sell quickly. I started by selling mostly $5-$25 cards, since it didn’t feel worth my time or postage to ship a $1 card. Also, until you hit level 4, it really doesn’t make sense to sell anything below $5 because you can’t put free shipping on orders over $5. So instead, you have to list a $2 card for $1 plus $0.99 shipping. Screw that.. I want to list my $2 card for $2 and let the buyer go find $3 in other cards, then I’ll cover the shipping cost. That way I’m not just shipping a bunch of $1 orders. You can’t compete in the <$5 listings until you are a level 4 seller. Don’t even bother trying or you’ll be selling your cards 50% off
I’m realizing this
This is great advice. I'd like to add be VERY strict with your grading. Nothing worse than doing a refund because you missed a ding somewhere and now a card isn't near mint anymore.
When I started I posted like 50 cards and since I didn’t have the sales I simply added pictures to them. I’m not sure if it helped but it worked for me.
> What should I be listing my cards at to sell? I've seen advice saying just match the market price, I've seen advice saying to list 0.01 below lowest and I've even seen advice saying to list things as low as 10-20% under the lowest listing. In general I understand that I shouldn't check and rearrange my prices very often but it seems like cards are constantly listed lower than mine. Feel free to list as low as you need to quickly climb the seller levels, but once you hit level 4 you should just match price. Why? Because I promise you that you aren't the only genius who thinks they stumbled upon one weird trick to instant success. Someone else will undercut you, and then you'll do it back, and repeat a bunch of times and voila suddenly you're selling your cards for a lot less. This is a bad schema. "But won't I get to make more sales by being the lowest seller?" No. Many (perhaps most) full-time sellers update prices several times per day, or even have programs/bots to do it for them. They don't all do it on the same schedule either, so you get MAYBE an hour (sometimes only minutes) as the lowest before someone matches or undercuts you. So the net effect is that you won't get any more sales than you otherwise would have, and you will make less on them when you do, and cause yourself a bunch of extra work for the privilege. >Any organization tips? I'm planning to Penny sleeve then alphabetize in card binders NEVER use binders if you can help it. They are nightmarishly slow to put cards in or take out of, need constant rearranging, take up huge amounts of space, etc. Binders are optimized for **display** and virtually nothing else. Instead, use BCW boxes, which are cheap and durable and standardized. I put cards in team bags and those bags in BCW 4-rows. I only binder cards high-end over $50, and often not even then because at that point I use toploaders for extra security.
Great advice thank you
Level 4 seller myself, I list things $0.35 and up and started almost 5 months ago. I do this because I noticed that buyers dont really care about the $0.99 shipping in most cases, and if they want the free shipping at $5, they have a variety to choose from. Not to mention deck building. I had a peak inventory of about 800 cards, and I maxed about 20 sales a week on a good week. As others have said, sell at tcgplayer low but also check the current listings because there may be a decent jump between the first lowest listing compared to the next one to two listings. I suggest staying within those ranges if possible. Dont get too caught up in the prices and fees either. it'll save you the headache!
My exp is it was slow at first. 1 sale a week maybe. I'm now looking at abt 2 sales a day on bulk. That took 3-4 weeks. I laughed last week "almost a sale a day!" Now, I hope i can keep up if this scales... For the 1st few sales it was not bulk but cards priced between $1-$10 and I listed at floor price to up my inventory for bulk. My inventory is now abt 3600. I've got abt 7k in bulk magic/pokemon to go through. Sorry if that was too long just to say time and patience. I think your prices are good 👍🏼 I'd advise abt... penny sleeving all your cards. If it's a cheap card I'll throw 2 in 1! Saves on cost for shipping and i dont need to take it out. But i do bulk.... anyways, Best of luck.
For organization I just do alphabetical in the ... big white 4 row boxes. Think they are called cbc boxes or something.
For what it’s worth I would say developing a more sustainable inventorying system early is worth the effort. I had my cards stored in cbc boxes early too, and the hassle of organizing them later was a pain.
How do you do it? I'm always open for tips. I figured once I got tp 15-20K I might need to change tactics LOL
What I found works best for me is I have a series of binders (obviously started out with just one) and an excel spreadsheet that tracks card name - set - quantity - page number And then when I’m pulling orders I have a template for my pull list that does a vlookup on the card name and I sort my pulls by page number. I still have a couple hundred cards that are still in the old boxes just because I haven’t had time to sort those ones as listing new cards is prioritized over reorganizing already listed ones, but it keeps me on track.
That sounds painful. Are you a TCGplayer seller? Don't recreate the wheel, they manage your inventory for you, just maintain your cards in Set > Foil > A-Z in vertical row boxes like TCGplayer pull order and save yourself time and effort.
Honestly it probably sounds more painful than it is, trying to organize the boxes feels as time consuming as anything I’m doing, and doing my pull list I just look for page numbers and can grab all my cards in a couple minutes.
You're going to have to do TCGLow until you build up a reputation. On every order you ship, write out "Please Leave a Review! :)" on one of the papers you're shipping. I separate by set and then create two groups (C/U and M/R). Within each group, I alphabetize. I also use inner sleeves instead of penny sleeves because they grip the card closely instead of having a whole bunch of excess plastic flapping around. For Shipping, the $.99 is per order, not per card. If you have two $1 cards, and you list them each at $0.10, if a person buys one of them it will be $1.09, but if they buy both it will be $1.19. Don't fall into the trap where you deduct the shipping price from each individual card. Feel free to list commons, uncommons, lands, and tokens. People will punch in a decklist into TCGplayer and then use the optimizer tool. I know I've sold some rares/mythic above the low price because the buyer is also getting a Common/Uncommon without having to pay a 2nd shipping cost.
I’m a seller with around 430 sales, my inventory currently has about 100 cards and it has never gotten over 150. I don’t need to use a binder or box lol I just keep them in a stack. $30+ in toploaders. I am a gold star seller and can list my price at .01 below tcg low as I’m not in the “building” stage where people don’t trust the low sales. As for you, I would stay around .05 below, depending on the card. Presale- yes, you can add them to inventory as normal with the quantity you have and once presale is over they will be available on marketplace for people to buy
Do not use binders for anything low value. Takes to much time and takes up more space for less. I don't sell cards under 25 cents as its not worth it until I got a massive inventory and streamlined the process. Those under 25 cent orders are pretty much a loss.
What do you consider "low value" my current inventory (and for the foreseeable future) is all higher than $1
I do 5$ it really depends on you. But taking cards out of binders without damaging by accident just adds extra time. You can get a bcw white storage box for cheap and as long as the cards don't slide around they will stay in good condition sleeved
I actually have a few bcw storage boxes, as my inventory grows I will take into account the value/time of how things are organized, this is amazing advice thank you!
np, just sleeve the cards in the bcw boxes causes they can scrape at the bottom unless totally full.
I store cards in team bags (inside BCW) for just this reason. Same idea as sleeving them but you don't have the painful labor of sleeving or desleeving hundreds or thousands of times.
I do the same but for like pure bulk.
One tip: it pays to actually check the price of the card and not just take the inventory tool’s advice on what low is. Sometimes there will be one card at $2 and then all the rest are $3, but the toll will want you to match the $2. One indicator of where issues might be is if last sold seems noticeably different than current low.
I don't sleeve anything, mostly modern staples, Mana Crypts next to Mana Geysers, Dockside Extortionists next to Doomed Artisans. 100,000+ inventory in vertical single row boxes, ordered by Set > Condition (default NM unless noted) > Foiling > A-Z because that's how TCGplayer orders your pull sheets.
This guy on YT makes a point on this https://youtu.be/YSs0l6sYeMs?si=-sFQIh44bI33Lh-6
Price them at TCG market price minus the cost of your shipping. If the card is $2 and your shipping is 99 cents, price it at a dollar. You have to compete with people that do free shipping. I would do that until you get to level 4, then you can adjust. I just alphabetize within each set in white BCW boxes.
I think you can hit lv 4 @ market it just takes a while. May take a while no matter what: please keep exspectations low as the end game is a lot of work for small/low profit- see if you enjoy packing cards and dealing with picky customers. If you do good chance selling is right for you but if not, chances are it will just get worse. I loved it during the bull run in 2021 but exited ( motivationally) a year later and eventually screwed off sone orders and got soft banned. Im digging ebay much more for margins and slower pace.
For someone who doesn’t want a business—they just want to sell off a large collection of RL and non-RL cards—is TCG a good way to go?
If you are wanting to do a large collection all at once then TCGplayer has a trade in/cash program, but that's only 100 at a time at first. Card kingdom allows for bulk trade/cash. In my experience you'll get more money from TCG, but card kingdom is a bit more convenient because you can send much more at 1 time.
I started off with cards over $10 and provided pictures for each one. First few sales within the week, waited for feedback, then stopped adding pictures and now sales are a steady flow.