Hobbying in sports cards has caught the attention of many in quarantine causing the prices to skyrocket. As soon as sports card vendors drop off basketball and football cards at stores, they fly off the shelves for 40 to 50 dollars a box. People that can get their hands on a box can turn around and resell it on eBay for upwards of one hundred dollars. The reason the resell prices are so high is that if you are to open a pack and get a card of a rookie player that is good or has good potential, that is instant profit. When a rookie card is good, it means that the player on the card is playing well for a young player and is looking to be a star basketball player in the future. People want a star player’s rookie card, so the value of the card as a rookie is high.

   Sports card hobbyists love rookie cards because the supply is low. This means that in the future if that player becomes a star, their rookie card could be worth a fortune. As an extreme example, in 2019, a LeBron James rookie card sold for 1.8 million dollars. Just a few months ago, a Giannis Antetokumpo rookie card, the current league MVP, sold for 1.2 million dollars.

   If you want to start buying and selling sports cards it is very simple. Three things are needed. The first is an eBay account. Opening an eBay account is fairly simple and is the main way people buy, and sell, sports cards. The second need is shipping materials. This includes things like stamps, packages, and sometimes boxes. Fast, reliable shipping is needed in order to satisfy customers and to build a good reputation. The third and final thing you need is cards. Inventory is needed in advance to start making a profit. You need cards in hand to sell them for a profit. It works like stocks, if a player does well in a game, the price will go up. Therefore, it would be smart to hold onto that player’s card and sell it after the game. 

   If you have a hunch or think that a player will do good in an upcoming game, you would buy that player early and sell it after the game is over. That is called ‘quick flipping’. Quick flipping is a term used by sports card enthusiasts to describe the rapid buying and selling of cards based on predicting a price increase. This applies to both single cards, packs of cards, boxes of cards, or cards in bulk.  It is the collective agreement among sports card fanatics that certain cards of certain players are worth more than others that keeps the money circulating. So get out there and start collecting cards.