After a long couple of weeks of fulfilling my employment duties, Buy/Sell/Hold is back! First of all I hope everyone has enjoyed the new release and was lucky enough to hit any desired PC 'chase cards'. Looking at how the hobby and market is performing, we are seeing some big cards commanding premium prices. But in the last couple of days, we've definitely seen an extraordinary sell-off with certain Legacy inserts. Two weeks have surpassed and therefore LOTS of transactions have been executed on both sides of the ledger. With this being the penultimate article before next week's finale, are we going to scrape together the remaining funds in the dying hours? So without further ado, let's look at the last fortnight for Buy/Sell/Hold!
STRATEGY.
As alluded to above, my god are we seeing one of the all-time great trading card sell-offs! Like sure, every Series 2 release goes through this period where it seems you can trade away your shorter printed inserts for a bag of chips, but for some reason this time round feels more intense. Reaching for my phone at the end of the day and scrolling through my socials maybe painted a stronger picture than everyone else's perspective, but it seemed like even cards priced competitively weren't selling. Like would I've thought that the Prime Draft inserts of big collector bases like Richmond and Carlton would remain unsold around the $40-60 range? Absolutely not. Same goes with the 'Cornerstones' and 'Vortex's' as well. It feels like there is a glut of these shorter printed inserts on the secondary market. I do think that these prices have swung too far the other way, and as you can see by some of my purchases this week, we were able to capitalize on this downward pressure on card prices.
Legacy has been a successful release, but reading through this section you're probably confused as to where all the market attention has turned towards? Draft Pick Signatures, they are going absolutely crazy. Looking back on how these cards performed in Optimum '22, I remember picking up the bulk of my Platinum DPS's between $80-150. All pretty decent players as well, but now you couldn't even get a sniff of the Gold variants for those prices during this release. People who haven't normally speculated on young players have seemingly jumped on the bandwagon, and to that I say good luck to you. But I also think that this subset is overperforming beyond anyone's expectations, especially given the fact that I believe this draft class to be significantly weaker compared to as early as last years crop. Has the lack of depth created an illusion among collectors that the "good" Draft Pick Signatures should therefore carry a premium? Maybe, but as I opened with there's probably a lot of people this release who have starting buying and selling these types of cards, and therefore aren't fully aware of how significant the price increase truly is. There's also a chance that I could be wrong on both fronts, and this type of demand is just a new hobby standard but I don't think you could make that judgment only 10 days after a release, and probably won't be fully understood until next year's Series 2 release.
With all that being said. I'm happy to just keep my nose out of the DPS trough for the time being, but cashing in on this heightened demand by flipping these cards could be how we secure our final amount of profit.
Only 7 days remain in the series, so looking at how we can maximize the cards remaining in our inventory is probably a greater priority than continuing to secure value purchases. We've taken an aggressive approach to our selling all series long, but maybe it's time to ramp it up even further!
'BUY'S'
Hayden Young Prime Draft 003/100 LOW, Legacy 2023 - $18
I know it's a 'Freo' card, but a low prime draft of one of their more popular players for $18 posted is probably too cheap a price for this card to command. The fact that it was low-numbered made me more inclined to try to strike a deal, because as talked about previously the market is surprisingly weak for this subset.
Jye Amiss Vortex 24/60 *JN*, Legacy 2023 - $59.95
One of the advantages you have working with cards all day, is that you learn players' jumper numbers very quickly. Jye Amiss was a player I collected heavily during Optimum 2022, so I knew pretty quickly that 24 was his jumper number. Besides Mitch Owens, Jye Amiss probably received the greatest price spike out of last year's rookie's, so hopefully the demand for his nicer cards are still at decent levels during the off-season.
Mattaes Phillipou Gold DPS 87/90, Legacy 2023 - $70
At the start of the release, I would've thought that $70 for a Philippou Gold DPS is probably around market value for this particular card. Fast forward two weeks and it seemingly feels like a bargain. Phillipou is among the ranks of the highly touted prospects found in Legacy, but at this stage I'm more than happy to try to move this card on for some extra profit.
Jason Horne-Francis Gold DPS 62/85, Optimum 2022 - $130
Throughout this series we have now purchased THREE Jason Horne-Francis Gold Draft Pick Signatures, all for around this $130-150 range. I think this pickup could be a handy reminder to those looking to speculate during Legacy. Besides Nick Daicos, Horne is probably the next cab off the rank in terms of hype and ability from the Optimum release, and the fact that his second best rookie signature is still at an affordable level, even after a stellar season on field, it may put some current prices and players into perspective.
Errol Gulden GEM Base 58/90, GEM 2023 - $25
Errol has been a dominating force this season. with all of his Optimum rookie signatures flying out the door all throughout this year. Definitely a player who has a growing 'Player PC' fanbase, and securing his aesthetically pleasing 'GEM Base' for only $25 posted is a price I'm happy to take a punt on.
Chad Warner Rising Star 34/199 - $28.90
Another youngster with a strong individual following. Maybe took a small step backwards this season after being the best Swan afield in last years Grand Final loss. His cards definitely still carry a reasonable premium, and this card in particular doesn't appear all too often. Will be a good test to see if the market is still somewhat 'Chad-crazy'!
Mitch Owens Vortex 34/60, Legacy 2023 - $29.99
Mitch Owens is definitely a player whose prices I track pretty closely. Throughout that whole Saints outfit, he's probably the one with the greatest 'x-factor', which usually correlates to collectability. Insert numbered to 60 for $30 delivered, shut up and take my money!
Jason Horne Francis Cornerstone 18/85 *JN*, Legacy 2023 - $53
Whether you like the Cornerstone insert or not, JHF jumper number for $50. Enough said!
Jacob Konstanty Gold DPS 06/90, Legacy 2023 - $33.50
This was actually my first pickup for Legacy 2023 after a few days of hard slog. I think there's definitely some value plays for those draftee's who didn't feature in any senior footy this season. Obviously there's risks associated with that, but just because you aren't a footballing prodigy by the end of Year 1, doesn't mean that you are a "flop" or not destined to become a handy footballer. Jacob Konstanty is one of a few that fit this mold, so remember the name.
'SALES'
Angus Brayshaw Carbon 15/195, Footy Stars 2023 - $9.99 : $5.52 Profit, 230% ROI
Kysaiah Pickett Carbon 100/195, Footy Stars 2023 -$9.99 : $5.52 Profit, 230% ROI
Max King Carbon 84/195, Footy Stars 2023 - $9.99 : $4.42 Profit, 126% ROI
St Kilda Platinum Wildcard Brownlow Predictor 59/60, Footy Stars 2023 - $19.99 : $13.08 Profit, 374% ROI
West Coast Plat. Wildcard Brownlow Predictor 17/60, Footy Stars 2023 - $19.99 : $13.40 Profit, 421% ROI
West Coast Platinum Rising Star Predictor 43/60, Footy Stars 2023 - $19.99 : $13.40 Profit, 421% ROI
West Coast Platinum Coleman Predictor43/60, Footy Stars 2023 - $19.99 : $13.40 Profit, 421% ROI
Harry McKay Rookie Card 169/240, Select Certified 2016 - $35 : 19.18 Profit, 245% ROI
Rowan Marshall Clearance Kings 60/120, Prestige 2021 - $10 : $1.86 Profit, 53% ROI
Mitch Owens Rising Star Nominee 186/306 - $22.99 : $13.11 Profit, 375% ROI
Jack Steele Carbon 006/195, Footy Stars 2023 - $12 : $3.59 Profit, 103% ROI
Darcy Moore Sapphire 66/70, 'AFL GEM Football' 2023 - $130 : $34.56 Profit, 46% ROI
'WEEKLY TOTALS'!
One week remains in our social experiment, and we require another couple of $100 to try make our second $1,000 profit in the space of 5 weeks. I'll be busting my gut to try surpass our targeted total, but we might need a bit of luck to roll our way to get tick off the accomplishment. Be sure to tune in for the final article next week, something tells me you won't want to miss it!