The Numbers: July 3-9, 2022

My average sales price was unusually high this week, which I think was in part due to ending and repricing a lot of listings over the last few weeks. The National Sports Card Show is coming up later this month, so maybe there are more trading card buyers right now as well. Whatever the reason, this was a really nice week of sales for summer and probably the best week I’ve had in a month or two.

My favorite sale, by far, was a book which I picked up a few years ago at a local library sale. There was a whole stack of thick Aegean archaeology books by a local publisher, all published within the last 10-12 years. I figured there are enough archaeology departments out there that some graduate student or professor would want to add these to their library but look on eBay instead of spending $80 buying it from the publisher. So I put them all up for $50 each and…nothing. No offers, no messages, nothing. I had thought about donating these books back to the library a bunch of times since they are big and heavy, and shelf space is always at a premium for me.

But after I did my end, reprice and sell similar last week, this book with a lot of words I can’t pronounce in its title sold for $40. Even after expensive priority shipping, I’ve made a profit on all those heavy archaeology books — and got a little reminder that sometimes the most important part of scavenging is waiting for the right buyer to come along.

7/3/2022 – 7/9/2022

Total items in store: 2020 (down from 2043 last week)

Items sold: 40 (32 via best offer, 3 via seller initiated offer, 23 via promoted listings)

Gross sales: $2950.57 (up 25% from one year ago)

Net sales: $2007.98 (up 25% from one year ago)

Average sales price: $73.76 (up 56% from one year ago)

Time spent searching through online auction listings for new trading cards inventory: 17 hours (up from 14 hours last week)

Highest price sold (net): $154.78 — Giancarlo Stanton 2010 Bowman 1/1 cyan printing plate rookie card

I had two of the Bowman rookie printing plates from Giancarlo Stanton (formerly known as Mike Stanton) sold one of these last week and then the other one this week for a few bucks more. The Yankees are having an all-time great season, so maybe Stanton cards will rise if they make their first World Series in quite a while, but I don’t know enough to predict or prognosticate, and I don’t really want to. I like to make a sale and move on.

Lowest price sold (net): $11.55 — Cooper Kupp and Darrell Henderson National Treasures jersey card ##/99

The Rams won the Super Bowl earlier this year, and as they were making their run, I went through my many boxes of unlisted cards in an attempt to list anything and everything Rams that might net me $10 or more. Cooper Kupp is their top wide receiver, and had an unexpected historic season last year. So that’s where the value in this plain jersey card comes from.

I have thought often about experimenting with auctions for these types of trading cards where my cost is minimal and their value to a prospective buyer is time-sensitive. Maybe that’s something I will try later this year as I continue to think about the best ways to spend my time and energy.