I had another thread closed for being a "brag" thread. Here's the tl;dr version of the scenario:
I have the chance to buy the inventory of a store that closed in the early-mid 90's. 30,000+ loose cards and sealed product, too.
I remember the inventory as a lot of A/B/U in the 5-row boxes and sets of P9 in the display. The guy selling it just wants it gone because it's taking up space in his warehouse and he doesn't care much about getting actual value, he just wants it to move. I've been hounding him for about 15 years, so he called me first.
I need advice on how best to approach this scenario. (ex: what to offer for money, to go through it all or not, what to be wary of, etc)
I had this thing going with my LGS owner. If I looked up a value, he looked up a value. Otherwise, we bartered solely on our price knowledge. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost.
What I'm saying is that if you take the time to work through and look up the prices, he's also going to want to be privy to that knowledge. If you both are willing to just take a gamble and agree on some price, you can win substantially or lose.
So...how many forums you gonna post this thread in? It's understandable you're excited about hitting the jackpot and I'm sure you know by now how much to offer, just depends on your own personal ethics.
Just thowing this out there but has anyone noticed the stupid "add all to cart" button when online shopping for cards? just those buttons invites hoarding and speculation shenanigans. Imo that isn't healthy for the marketplace for online stores to do that but if someone can explain to me the relevance of those buttons so I can get a different take on them.
Don't worry about the buttons. For like 90% of the shops out there, if you attempt to utilize that button for any sizeable quantity for any card that might be spiking, your order is going to get cancelled.
Don't worry about the buttons. For like 90% of the shops out there, if you attempt to utilize that button for any sizeable quantity for any card that might be spiking, your order is going to get cancelled.
Well I hope that's the case:) and props to those stores that do follow up on that.
Mmm I don't think it's a bad thing to have the buttons, man. Whoever really wants the cards is probably going to get them anyway via separate orders. Stores might argue it's quite healthy for them to have customers who want to buy cards, I'm inclined to agree. I like the button option to exist to buy cards en masse. No worries on how it will contribute to speculation, at this point I think the easier it is to speculate the faster it'll be until the whole thing cools down. Maybe I'm just optimistic, hehe. In any case, people have been hoarding stuff since the beginning, it's just the nature of things. You can too, just click 'buy'...
P.S. You should prob open a new thread for that instead of bumping this guy's
One thought: the thing about tech millionaires is that they tend to read articles on the internet. And former card shop owners, seem likely to read about their former hobbies. So when he read about the single black lotus that sold for $27K a few months ago, he probably started trying to recall how many of those he had in his shop.
His expectation of value - if he really does have this pristine collection of P9 cards - might be $50K, $250K or more. Particularly if he did say - as indicated in your other thread - that "you're going to make a killing".
Making the question to you not "how much does he think the cards are worth." But "how much money does he think you have access to?"
Unless you are also wildly successful, even Fortune 500 executives are aware that a few grand is a pretty large sum of money for the average American. So I might start there.
Two thoughts on how to reduce your risk:
When you get there, you could eyeball the sealed product to inform your bid. 10 sealed Mirage boxes lying around might tell you to pay $3K (i.e., buy the sealed for what you can sell it for, then get the 30K of cards for free.)
An entirely different approach could be to offer him a percentage of what can you sell the cards for.
I have the chance to buy the inventory of a store that closed in the early-mid 90's. 30,000+ loose cards and sealed product, too.
I remember the inventory as a lot of A/B/U in the 5-row boxes and sets of P9 in the display. The guy selling it just wants it gone because it's taking up space in his warehouse and he doesn't care much about getting actual value, he just wants it to move. I've been hounding him for about 15 years, so he called me first.
I need advice on how best to approach this scenario. (ex: what to offer for money, to go through it all or not, what to be wary of, etc)
Thanks!
What I'm saying is that if you take the time to work through and look up the prices, he's also going to want to be privy to that knowledge. If you both are willing to just take a gamble and agree on some price, you can win substantially or lose.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=589508
Well I hope that's the case:) and props to those stores that do follow up on that.
P.S. You should prob open a new thread for that instead of bumping this guy's
His expectation of value - if he really does have this pristine collection of P9 cards - might be $50K, $250K or more. Particularly if he did say - as indicated in your other thread - that "you're going to make a killing".
Making the question to you not "how much does he think the cards are worth." But "how much money does he think you have access to?"
Unless you are also wildly successful, even Fortune 500 executives are aware that a few grand is a pretty large sum of money for the average American. So I might start there.
Two thoughts on how to reduce your risk:
When you get there, you could eyeball the sealed product to inform your bid. 10 sealed Mirage boxes lying around might tell you to pay $3K (i.e., buy the sealed for what you can sell it for, then get the 30K of cards for free.)
An entirely different approach could be to offer him a percentage of what can you sell the cards for.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.