Resources

A list of sports card resources, services, and supplies to level-up your sports card venture.

Disclosure: Cardboard Profit participates in multiple affiliate programs as an Amazon Affiliate and part of the eBay Partner Network. This means Cardboard Profit may earn a commission if you click a link and make a purchase.

Cardboard Profit’s Sports Card Strategy Book

Available at Amazon. Link: Cardboard Profit: The Strategic Playbook for Making Money with Sports Cards

Services

Comprehensive market analytics and insights on Card Ladder – Card Ladder offers years of sales data from multiple marketplaces (eBay, MySlabs, PWCC, Goldin, etc), as well as market analytics, player indexes, and a way to track your own collection or inventory and its changing value over time. By contrast, eBay research is great but is limited to only show eBay sales.

We use Card Ladder daily, and it’s where we conduct almost all of our market research. The premium version requires a subscription (either $15/month or $120/year if paid annually), and it unlocks some of the most incredibly valuable data you’ll find in the card market; so this is a subscription fee we happily pay month over month.

Card Ladder is also an extremely valuable tool for card shows. There’s a feature within the app that allows you to take a picture of a card and it will automatically identify the card and pull up recent sales.

Any of the links in this section will get you access to a free trial of premium Card Ladder so you can see how you like it before deciding if you want to buy it.

Market Research

eBay Sales History Search – eBay Research – Searchable Full Year of eBay Sales History – Consider bookmarking this site if you don’t use Card Ladder. It’s a great resource to use in your card venture if you don’t want to pay for a premium data provider. It’s free to anyone with an eBay seller account. Use this link to access a year’s worth of eBay sold listing data for anything you’d like to search.

Auction Sniping Service

Gixen is a fantastic tool to help win auctions with automatic bids. It’s also inexpensive and has a user friendly app experience.

Shipping

Buy & Print Discounted Postage Labels at Home – Pirate Ship – An online shipping service that offers discounted shipping rates through USPS, UPS, FedEx. Pirate Ship is our favorite, although there are other good online postage providers too. No matter which you use, we highly recommend finding one that works for you to save yourself both money and time. A pre-printed label is generally cheaper than buying at the post office, and it also lets you drop and go instead of waiting in line at the post office.

Supplies

Shipping

Bubble Mailers – This is one of the cheapest shipping supply sellers on the internet. For bubble mailers, we recommend the 6×9.25, which in bubble mailer lingo is called “size #0.” The linked quantity is for 250, which reduces price to around 20 cents per mailer (for reference, a quantity of 250 mailers comes in a box that measures roughly 22″x19″x15″). You can also use the following eBay link to buy other quantities – just make sure you select size #0. Bubble mailers would cost you in the range of 65 cents to $1.20 per mailer at retail stores like Target or Walmart, so it’s recommended to buy a larger quantity online.

Bubble Wrap (see on eBay) – This is one of the cheapest shipping supply sellers on the internet. We recommend small (3/16″) bubbles and 12″ width. Length is up to you based on volume and how much space you have for extra rolls of bubble wrap without your significant other getting angry 🙂
***We typically buy 350′ at a time to get a better per foot price, which is what is linked here. If you’re selling fewer than 175 items per year, it’s probably best to start with the 175′ option.

Card Protection

Graded Card Sleeves – This item works for PSA and BGS slabs. We also recommend Perfect Fit PSA sleeves (see on eBay here: Perfect Fit PSA sleeves), which are exclusively designed to fit PSA slabs with no empty space. The purpose of graded card sleeves is to help prevent scratches to the graded case.

Card Saver I Semi Rigid Holders – PSA requires cards to be submitted for grading in semi-rigid holders. This is the best size for standard sized cards – they’re big enough that you don’t have to jam the card in.

Slab Scratch Remover

Graded Slab Scratch Remover – This is one of my favorite recommendations for anyone dealing in graded cards. The frustrating thing about graded slabs is that they scratch easily when they’re not in a graded card sleeve. This takes away from the eye appeal of the card and also can cause problems if you run into a picky buyer.

One fix is to send the card in for a new slab. The problem is you pay a fee plus shipping, and it takes weeks or months to get your card back.

As a simple alternative, we recommend using a plastic scratch remover polish. We prefer Novus 2 (linked above). A drop of this can help with light scratches and scuffs, and leave your slabs looking refreshed.

***Application tips for using Novus 2 on card slabs: A little of this stuff goes a long way, so start small (a drop is plenty) and add more if needed. Polish with a micro-fiber cloth or other clean fabric. Try to avoid getting the polish close to the edges of the slab, as it can be hard to remove from crevasses.

Don’t ever use this on a card itself, only on the outer plastic case. It’s not complicated, but be aware that you can make a mess or even ruin a card if you’re careless. Use common sense and proceed with caution.