Having collected for 30+ years, and selling of my duplicates at a pace of 10k+ singles a year on ebay part time, I decided a year ago to do this full time. So far I am on pace to sell almost 75k ungraded cards this year.
The previous point about being a curator and not a seller is 100% correct...if you are not selling cards at a high volume quickly , then there is no profit to be made. 95% of my cards I list are commons and I sell them at the best possible price I can offer them for, and they sell at a point where I sell through my average amount of my inventory 2-3 times per year. Efficiency in listing and shipping is also paramount to selling these commons quickly in order to remain profitable.
The other 5% of inventory I have listed are what I consider lower population cards, such as the 64 Curt Flood card. Price guide shows $6 for a NM card, sells for $75-100 in NM on ebay. These 5% of the cards I have priced to be competitive with the market (not a price guide) and if they do not sell within several months, the best offer feature gets added to the listing and as time passes, the price I will accept is lower. However, I can not count the number of times buyers who bypass the chance to make an offer and have simply purchased the card.
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