My sports card hobby has picked up quite a bit in the last two months. As a teacher, I am used to being unemployed over the summer. This is the first time that I don't have a certain job to look forward to (I'm looking if you know of any in the Nashville area) so I have had some extra time on my hands. Thankfully, I somehow make a modest profit doing something I like: buying and selling sports cards.
Of course, I sell on eBay. Who doesn't? I have tried selling on SportsBuy, but I just can't seem to get the traffic I want. Occasionally, I sell on sportlots.com, but that is when I have something I feel like will sell better there (no final value fees!). Over the past month, however, I have ventured into the realm of sports card shows. Within a 30-minute drive of my house, there is a show four Saturdays a month. Not to bad, eh? I have sold at a show three of the last four Saturdays, and had mixed results.
The first show I set up at was in the gym of Lighthouse Christian School in Antioch, Tenn. There were about 41 tables set up, and I set up with about 50 cards I was looking to sell. The bad news is that I sold only four cards. The good news is they were some higher end cards, averaging about $75 a piece. So all in all, I considered it a successful day.
Two weeks later, I set up at the show in Goodlettsville at the Courtyard by Marriott. This time I was more prepared with a similar stack of mid- to high-end cards, but I also brought some boxes of random cards of commons, stars, and semi-stars I have accumulated over the years. By the end of the day, I had sold probably 150 cards with an average selling point of $1. So a completely different experience. There was solid traffic at the show; a lot of traveling baseball teams were staying at the hotel, and their games were all rained out, so we got plenty of traffic from them, but they weren't looking for anything high-end.
This past Saturday, I set up at the show in Murfreesboro at the Ramada Inn. This time I sold about $500 in cards to a couple of dealers before the show even got started. The rest of the day I probably cleared $50 in low-end cards, and spent $150 on some cards for my collection and some for resale. All-in-all the show was super slow. There was hardly and traffic, and if it weren't for the conversation between dealers, I don't think I would have stuck around till lunch. (This was also my longest drive--35 min). I'm not confident that I will set up at this show again since most of my action was from other dealers, but only time will tell.
I am going to set up this Saturday (Jul. 28) at the Lighthouse Christian show again. If you are interested, the show's official run time is from 8-3, but the action always starts before then! (5100 Blue Hole Road, Nashville, TN)
Here are some highlights from my eBay listings (each one is hyperlinked):
