The Cardboard Investment

Every End Is A New Beginning

Like all good things, running a retail storefront had to come to an end at some point. I had gotten married during this period of my life and my wife was now pregnant with our first child. She felt neglected by the distraction of cards, and I was slightly obsessed. It was not fair for me to leave her alone one or two nights a weekend to travel an hour away to play with baseball cards while she was at home with a newborn. My brother and I had also been butting heads about the direction of the business. He wanted to continue buying and expanding our inventory and footprint, I wanted to reign in our buying and begin showing a profit after over a year of not getting a penny out of the business. With fatherhood on the horizon, it became evident that I would have to leave the business. There was no hard feelings. I still had a nice collection that was mine and separate from the business. We took some time documenting and calculating all the inventory and my brother bought me out of my share of the business.

My brother carried on the business by himself for about another year. Him and I are still very close and discuss different cards and what is happening with the market almost daily. Looking back several years later, it was a great experience in my life, I met a lot of great people, and I had fun. Thoughts still occasionally pop into my mind of trying to make this hobby into a business again, but for now I am just enjoying the ride.

This would not be the end of my hobby days, just the end to one of the chapters. I continued my Ebay store, was a part of the online card community, and still attended card show, but this time now as a customer for the most part. One thing this cardboard investment had turned into was the ability to turn my collection into cold hard cash in a matter of minutes. Albeit an unexpected bill, car repairs, or taking time off for the birth of my son, selling off a part of my collection was an easy alternative to putting something on a credit card. It didn't hurt that the majority of the cards I could sell actually sold for a profit. 

In the few short years that I had returned to the hobby the card industry was already rapidly growing and new money was flowing in from everywhere. The longer I was involved in buying and selling, the easier it was to notice the trends of certain cards and players increasing in value. High grade vintage cards were increasing exponentially, sometimes outperforming the stock market. Rare inserts from the 1990's were now selling for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. People were beginning to invest in sports cards in hopes that they would someday turn into their retirement fund. This was sounding all too familiar to the dream that many of us collectors had in the early 1990's.

I thought it was crazy, and was hesitant to put too much of my money into cards, especially with having a family. That mentality might have been my biggest financial mistake.