Buying to Sell

Virtually anytime I purchase Baseball cards, whether I buy packs or individual cards at the show, I'm selecting these cards for my own personal collection. I mean, why else would I dedicate an entire blog to Baseball cards? 

My primary goal is usually to buy cards for my collection, not necessarily to sell them online. Sure, I sometimes list cards from box purchases on eBay in an effort to make back some money, but I don't collect cards to make a profit. 

That's the reason why I've been collecting Baseball cards for most of my life. I grow too attached to many of the cards that I pull from packs which stops me from turning this hobby into a business of sorts where I buy and sell cards predominantly for profit.

With that being said, there are some instances in which I will buy cards as an attempt to profit off a purchase and put the funds towards cards for my personal collection.

I can't think or a better example of this than the Target-exclusive Bowman mega boxes, a product that is absolutely loaded with valuable cards of Baseball's top prospects.

Unlike most other sets, I have no intentions of holding onto expensive cards from the Bowman mega boxes, and I have no qualms about selling them in order to make back the money that I spent on the box itself as well as a profit of some sort.

I actually purchased a 2019 Bowman mega box earlier this year and have since made back the money that I spent, but I never expected to see the product restocked at my local Target roughly 6 weeks later.

After pondering the decision for a while, I realized that purchasing another mega box or 2 was the perfect opportunity to make a reasonable profit and put the money towards upcoming Baseball card expenses, maybe even The National.

The likelihood of making money back from Bowman mega boxes is extraordinarily high, and I hoped that my luck didn't run out as I decided to test my luck with a few more of these incredibly sought after boxes.

In addition to the much-desired mojo packs, each mega box delivers 4 regular packs of 2019 Bowman, but there's no possibility of pulling any inserts or parallels. Otherwise, they would simply have too much value.

While the probability of pulling something valuable out of the Bowman base packs is slim, all the top prospects from the set are included, including Joey Bart and Wander Franco. They may not be worth a fortune, but the chrome Franco comes close to paying for 1 of the boxes, so I can't really complain.

Clearly, the main thing attracting collectors to the 2019 Bowman mega boxes are the 2 exclusive mojo packs. With 5 cards per pack, there's a significant chance of pulling a valuable mojo refractor as well as numbered refractors, autographs, and even image variations.

I've seen some unbelievable pulls from these boxes on Twitter and YouTube, and I've also discovered that it's uncommon for there to be a terrible box. 

Usually, collectors walk away with at least a couple of decent cards, though it's absolutely dependent on luck; the player whose card you pull plays a pivotal role in determining the value of a card.

There are serial numbered insert refractors as well, but I've only seen them listed on eBay, not pulled by any particular collector. The mojo inserts themselves aren't too valuable, but I assume that the numbered versions are rather expensive.

As I've mentioned earlier regarding 2019 Bowman, Wander Franco and Joey Bart are the top prospects across the entire checklist, both in standard Bowman and the mojo refractor checklist. 

In my first Bowman mega box, I pulled a Wander Franco mojo refractor, and I was thrilled and surprised to land another my subsequent box. Soon after listing the 2nd on eBay, a buyer made an offer for both of the Franco refractors, and I accepted.

Thus, I was able to make back the money I spent on 2 of the mega boxes with this one purchase even taking into account that I gave the buyer a very fair price.

Even though, as far as numbered cards are concerned, the mojo refractors are somewhat common, I took a reasonable amount of time before I landed one in one of my mojo packs. Nonetheless, I was quite pleased with the outcome, for I landed a 1st Bowman purple refractor, numbered /250, of Victor Mesa Jr.

As far as the mojo refractor checklist is concerned, I could've done a lot worse than Victor Mesa Jr. He's a respected 1st Bowman prospect with enough upside that this card could certainly sell for a moderate amount of money.

I don't typically obsess over value and profit when it comes to cards, but I'm treating these Bowman mega box purchases as an investment. Thus, it is imperative that, if nothing else, I make back all the money that was spent on these boxes.

In the exact same mojo pack as my 2nd Franco card, I pulled my first ever Bowman mega box autograph of Diamondbacks prospect Alek Thomas. The on-card auto, I must admit, looks gorgeous with the mojo refractor design.

After doing a little bit of research, I learned that Thomas is the #7 prospect in Arizona's organization. While that may not be fantastic, he's only 19 years of age, and he's had a fantastic year so far in single-A. 

Usually, an autograph, especially out of a retail product, is the crown jewel of all the cards that one pulls. However, as I mentioned earlier, the most valuable cards in 2019 Bowman feature the top prospects.

One of those prospects is Wander Franco, a guy who I pulled 2 mojos of. The other is Joey Bart.

I'm not always the biggest fan of image variations and those kinds of SPs, but none of that truly matters to me when it comes to this SP 1st Bowman card of San Francisco Giants prospect Joey Bart. 

Immediately upon pulling this card, I knew it was an SP, for I already pulled his base mojo and knew what it looked like. The largest shock, however, came when I looked up what this card was going for on eBay and discovered that sellers were charging anywhere from $90-$100 for this image variation.

Despite the fact that this card will go down as one of my greatest retail pulls ever, I 100% intend to sell it on eBay. I've already listed the card and obtained numerous views and a watcher, so I feel confident that this sale will come through.

If I'm able to sell the major cards that I pulled, especially the Bart image variation, I'll more than make back the money that I spent on these Bowman mega boxes, and I likely won't have any regrets about making these sales.

Sure, Joey Bart, Wander Franco, Alek Thomas, and Victor Mesa Jr could blossom into the next superstars of Baseball, but I don't have any qualms about listing and selling these prospect cards. 

My primary goal when purchasing these boxes was to make money to spend on cards for my own collection. While I truly appreciate the cards that I pulled, I'd much rather convert these cards into select cards for my PC.

Thank You, eBay

Before the New Year even began, I had already become dedicated to selling certain cards on eBay and using the profits to pay for various Baseball card purchases online. Now, almost 2 months into the year, I'm beginning to reap the benefits of listing these items.

Originally, I intended to save the money I earned for a case of 2019 Topps Allen & Ginter, but I soon realized that I would be unsuccessful in this endeavor. Sales began to gradually decline towards the beginning of February, and the eBay seller's fees affected the profits that I was making. 

Ultimately, I talked myself out of saving for an A&G case and instead, decided to spend the available money one of the craziest and most entertaining sets I've ever opened before in my life. Consisting of over 15 different products all rolled up into 1, I'm talking about 2018 Panini Chronicles.

Back when the product was first released, I opened a couple of blaster boxes that I was fortunate to find at my local Target, and it immediately captured my attention. Some packs consisted of all rookies, others delivered fantastic parallels. 

For likely the first time ever, I was unphased by the logoless cards across the entire set. I thoroughly enjoyed almost every product within the Chronicles set, and my interest in the product was revived after I opened a few hobby packs at Monday's trip to the Baseball card show. 

After my success with those 3 hobby packs, I made a decision regarding what to do with the money I earned on eBay. Instead of dedicating all the funds to one cause, I discovered it would be better to spend as I please on both supplies and cards. 

Therefore, the first of these purchases with the money I earned off of eBay would be a hobby box of 2018 Panini Chronicles.

In addition to a plethora of other products, the Chronicles set, oddly enough, also consists of a 60-card subset featuring the Chronicles base design. Like all the other insert sets, the Chronicles cards include a ton of different parallels, including, but not limited to, the teal parallel of Red Sox ace Chris Sale above, numbered out of 199.

From what I know, the products featured in Chronicles, besides Donruss and Optic, include sets that Panini produces for Football and Basketball, but not Baseball. Included in this discussion are highly-desired products like Prizm and Select, both of which are sought after by NBA and NFL fans alike. 

In the case of many of the designs, especially Status (top right), there's too much going on for me to truly notice the fact that no team logos are present.

But don't worry, there's far more where this came from.

The 9 sets I've shown so far are only about half of what Panini Chronicles has to offer, but that doesn't make the creative Crusade product or the elegant Studio set any bit less impressive. 

Even though some of the subsets seem to feature almost an almost identical selection of players, the vastly different styles of cards and the wide variety of parallels are what make Panini Chronicles the incredible product that it is.

Now that I've given somewhat of an overview, let's move on to the cards I was able to pull from my hobby box of this stellar product. 

Each hobby box promises 3 autographs and 1 memorabilia card per box on average along with 2 hobby-exclusive Spectra cards. Out of all 18 or so products within this larger set (if that makes any sense), the Spectra cards have the largest checklist at 100 cards. 

Given that they fall at only 2 per hobby box and have parallels, it's a safe bet that it's nearly impossible to complete the entire Chronicles set with every single subset included.

The Spectra cards, although unnecessarily thick, are one of my favorite sets within the Chronicles product. The larger checklist actually works towards Panini's favor as it allows them to feature a wider variety of players and even different uniforms. 

Pulling a Rhys Hoskins is already a plus, but the powder blue Phillies uniform elevates this card to another level.

This is what I meant when I previously mentioned Spectra parallels. Seriously, this product is insane, and I cannot fathom how anyone, given the checklist and all the big-name rookies, would be able to complete the entire 545-card Chronicles product. 

My 2nd and final Spectra base card of the pack was a neon blue parallel of (likely) future Hall of Famer, Max Scherzer, numbered to 99 on the back. The parallel looks just as crazy in-person as it does when scanned, and after pulling this card as well as the Hoskins, I'm dying to see what Rhys' Spectra card would look like as a neon blue parallel.

And as long as I'm talking about parallels, it's a good idea for me to show a couple of the many, many different colored parallels across the Chronicles product. Whether the cards are on paper or chrome cardstock, every different insert set features at least 5 different parallels, almost all of which are serial numbered.

One of the chrome stock sets, Phoenix, features a different selection of parallels than Crusade, another shiny subset. The Alex Verdugo card is a red parallel, serial numbered out of 99. 

On the other hand, the Dominic Smith card features a parallel, hyper (numbered out of 299), that can be found across numerous Chronicles subsets, including Contenders Optic and Prizm.

All the different subsets and parallels throughout Panini Chronicles can become somewhat baffling so it can be nice to take a step back to something that's, by this sets' standards, a bit more simple. Even with the 4 hits that I pulled, the Contenders Optic green parallel above of Ronald Acuña Jr could possibly be the highlight of the box. 

On the left, there's the base version which I also pulled in this hobby box, but the card on the right is serial numbered out of 50 and despite my best efforts, I haven't spotted another one of these Acuna cards online, so I'm unsure of the true value of this card.

Going into this box break, I repeatedly convinced myself that this was about more than just the hits as is shown through the serial numbered Acuña. With that being said, it doesn't make it any more enjoyable to pull 2 rather uninspiring autographs that make up half of the box's hits. 

In addition to neither one of them being rookie autographs, both cards feature sticker autos, both of which are noticeable in-person and when scanned. The Chris Flexen autograph, at the very least, is serial numbered out of 99, making it slightly more appealing towards potential buyers.

As for the Chad Pinder Chronicles autograph, the whopping $1.92 that it's currently going for on eBay is all that really needs to be said.

While I didn't expect the relic card to be better than 2 of the 3 autographs that I pulled, I was pleased when this Ryan McMahon Spectra Triple Threat Materials neon blue relic card (that's a mouthful), came out of one of the final packs of the box. 

Even though he's still not a huge name, the card is pretty gorgeous, and 2018 was McMahon's rookie season as well. Like the Scherzer neon blue, it's numbered out of 99 on the back. 

Besides, if I'm going to pull a card of a lesser name for one of my hits, I'm at least pleased that the card is a low-numbered parallel as stunning as this McMahon relic.

I've saved the best hit for last and unsurprisingly, it's another Spectra card, this time a neon pink rookie jersey autograph of Amed Rosario, featuring an awesome tri-color patch and the only on-card autograph of the entire box. 

Admittedly, Rosario is far from the best name I could land, especially given the surplus of rookies in this Spectra autograph relic subset. Still, this card provides me with my very first look at the neon pink parallels. 

The regular Spectra parallels are numbered out of 75, but because this one's an autograph relic, it's out of 49 instead, making this Rosario card, by far, the best hit of the entire box.

It's pretty difficult to be disappointed in a box of Panini Chronicles. I mean, what other product will deliver 10 serial numbered cards in a 48-card box? Plus, like I mentioned earlier, with a set like Chronicles, the hits don't matter quite as much as the endless parallels you can pull.

Sure, the 2 Spectra hits were pretty awesome, but it's hard to beat that Acuña card. That card alone could go for over half of what I paid for this box in the first place.