Yep, what everyone else has said.
You'll need inventory, and unless you specialize that means laying out a LOT of money.
Or
You do quick turnover on Ebay for a small profit each time. And you still have to buy more stuff to resell. Even decent sized lots of T206s on Ebay seem to go for about what they'd be individually.
Any collectibles business can be a tough one. People complain about not getting anywhere near retail for a collection, without considering the time to list the things for sale, or if you're doing shows, merely putting the stuff into new holders. While it's ok for me to have my cards in old yellowed toploaders, slightly cracked cardsavers and a variety of other holders that's not what people expect or usually accept from a dealer.
Sit down one night and simply reholder and price 50-100 cards. And track the time.
If you still want to do it full time, go for it. the advice at that point?
1)Find someone to do the stuff you're not good at. For me that would be the paperwork.
2) Decide what your "angle" will be, and stay with it long enough to know if it will work.
3)Change if it won't work.
4)You can make money with anything if you buy it right
5) You don't always need to be an expert, but you do have to be a good guesser.
6) Offload your mistakes and move on. Nobody gets it right every time. As long as you learn from it the mistake was probably ok.
Steve B
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