Grail vs Investment
Over the years I have said many, many times that I do not give “investment” advice with trading cards. Some view cards as investments while others do not. This has been a very heated debate on social media for at least the last year and probably much longer. My personal view of it is irrelevant and I say that as a business owner. My view is quite a bit different than a majority of collectors/flippers/investors.
Without getting into the nuts and bolts of what defines an investment, I do want to talk about “Grail” cards vs long term highly profitable cards.
With us being in the middle of a card value boom, a lot of people are looking to buy higher end cards with the intent to sell down the road for much, much more than they paid. Some are looking for a faster flip to profit while others are building a long term “portfolio” of bigger cards to cash in down the road in hopes of anywhere from 5-100x today’s prices.
Being a business owner in the trading card world, I get asked a lot of questions from potential customers regarding cards I am selling or just asking for advice on other cards they are looking at elsewhere. I am often asked the same question: “Is this card a good investment?” My typical response: “I am not the person to ask investing advice.” I really am not. This isn’t a scapegoat response. Its not deflecting. The problem with the question is that every single situation is different and I am not in a position to know every caveat of someone’s life, situation or mental state.
One thing that I do suggest to people, is to consider high end cards that aren’t Rookie Cards as “Grail” cards. What is the difference? A Grail Card is a card that is your highlight. It’s the card you covet and aren’t just fixated on the financial improvement side of it. If the card were to decrease in value substantially, you would still be proud to own it. An example of that is the 2020 Panini Absolute Football Russell Wilson KaBoom Gold #8/10 graded PSA Gem Mint 10. It is a moderately valuable card. The card is an SSP (Super Short Print) Case Hit Parallel but also happens to be a 9th year card of Wilson. To be clear, I am not saying that this card can’t climb in value. It very well can and will. If you are looking for a potential climber, the difference in this card and Wilson’s 2012 Prizm Silver RC would be astronomical. The ceiling price for the Prizm Silver RC may not be as high in overall price but the percent of value gain vs today’s price point is much higher.
In short, without laying out a math equation, there are higher value cards that will appreciate in value and then there are lower value cards with massive growth potential. A $5000 card increasing to $6250 sounds like a big increase but that’s only +25%. If a $200 card jumps to $1000, that’s a +500% increase. Again, not advising one way or another or suggesting to “invest” period.
Sometimes spotting the difference between the two types of cards isn’t as easy as seeing a chased RC vs a 9th year Case Hit. Then again, in today’s collectible values market, do many of us really truly know anything that is coming?
by Ryan Samuelson
