1k in May...didn't happen. So...June!!

in #hive-1679226 months ago

In my last post here, I was documenting my attempt to make 1000 USD by selling Magic: The Gathering cards on the tcgplayer website. Well, I made a very solid attempt at this daunting task, but unfortunately fell short of the mark. Let's take a quick look at the numbers for just the month of May:

Here are a few quick totals for May:

Orders: 76
Total Sales: 216.93 USD
Total Fees: 51.11 USD
Total Refunds 9.90 USD
(Sometimes the USPS screws up, sometimes it is I that makes the mess.)
Total Payment for the month of May: 155.92 USD.

This give each sale an average of 2.05 USD, which isn't too terribly shabby. Granted, I don't get to pick which cards sell, but I do get to pick which ones I list. 155.92 puts me at 15.592% of my goal of 1000. This is no reason to give up, ***but a reason to push for more! ***

Had I made 500 sales at that rate, I would have my sweet grand. As I was so far off my target goal of 1000, should I lower my goal for June?

Absolutely not.

So that was May, and we are a few days into June now, and the numbers are already looking better. Already over 200 USD in sales!

I have to put a disclaimer here: I only count the card(s) as ACTUALLY being sold when the payment hits my bank account. What you see in the above picture is just a rough estimate of sales/payments. Sometimes orders are lost, damaged, returned; sometimes the payments hit way before the scheduled date.

Here is what actually sold over this weekend, for the month of June(so far):
It all adds up in the end.

Often, orders consist of one card:
This Charcoal Diamond sold for .15 USD. Anything under 5 USD has 1.22 USD shipping and handling tagged on, regardless, so this ends up being a sale for 1.37 USD.

Then there are larger orders:
This buyer is snatching up a handful of showcase style basic lands and a few fancy reprints. That order comes to a total of 7.14 USD, so shipping and handling is included in the price.

Then you have these buyers that cherry-pick cheap cards to avoid the shipping fee:

The invoice.


The 30 card stack that comes to 5.08 USD, negating my shipping and handling fee. Shipping these in a PWE (Plain White Envelope) is a logistic challenge, but I have perfected the process using some cheap materials to get them all to fit, while also keeping the postage as cheap as possible AND getting them to mail without additional fees or packaging.

I don't mind these orders so much, as they free up space in my organizational scheme for higher value cards.

So that is where we stand; on the edge of the very beginning of June with great sales (so far) and a still very achievable goal of 1000 USD. Updates to follow.

Now if only I could get my Hive earnings to match.

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Keep going! I admire your industry!

Fascinating ! Depending on which cards you've got and which ones you choose to list, $1000 is probably achievable. How much does that give you as profit after their sales commission plus postage ?

Getting a Hive account to $1000 a month is possible, but would be a long-term plan. If you sold $1000 a month in Magic cards and put it all into HBD, you'd probably get there after about 4 years. Less if you're also making posts that get good upvotes. A lump sum of around $60,000 would get you there immediately, but that's way more risk than I'd be willing to take !

In reality it's a far more complex set of maths, because there are so many other ways to earn in Hive - author rewards in HP and HBD, curation rewards in HP, various delegations that can earn liquid HIVE, play-to-earn games (a slippery slope !), plus the compounding effect of all of these things. The really big money is earned by the witnesses and devs, but for that you need to be able to code and run a node.

All I can say is... go for it ! 😁

Thanks for checking it out man, and I appreciate the vote of confidence and good advice. I will take it to heart!

I have tried the Play(Now Buy and Lose) to Earn games: re: Splinterlands. I bought in when SPS was around .60 USD. That still stings a bit. So now I mainly earn on HIVE through staking (dude, $DRIP is a beast) and minor amounts through posting/curating/keeping HBD in savings. Long way to go, but fully achievable.

I usually keep my high-dollar cards off the site. I can get a better price and guaranteed shipping if I just meet up to sell those. After postage and fees, I make very little, but enough to keep the hamster wheel spinning!

That makes sense ! I've seen or heard about quite a bit of shenanigans both ways with high value card sales. Disputes about condition, authenticity, whether it even arrived if the tracking isn't clear etc.

As long as you're not the hamster in the wheel, it's all good 😀

I do lick a lot of envelopes.

lmao ! Yeah, that's why I use self-sealing Jiffy Bags and a lot of brown tape on boxes. If I had to lick an envelope for every order I send out, my mouth would be as dry as the Sahara 😁

Most of my orders are single cards. Envelopes are the most cost effective way to ship 'em. And, I don't mind the taste so much.

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