Today, I’m going to give you homework.

I do my absolute best to teach you in this newsletter how to avoid all the dumb investing mistakes I made, plus the frameworks I’ve pieced together over time that work.

But if someone were coming to me today and said, “I want to master sports cards, where do I start?” here’s how I’d answer it:

Let me show you what I mean.

CardLadder is my favorite card pricing tool. You can see sales data on many of the more popular cards.

For example, here’s a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander PSA 10 Prizm chart of all the sales from the past two years:

When I learned about price charts, I started using them EVERY DAY in my sports card investing.

The simplest way to use them is to ask yourself:

“Am I buying at a low or a high?”

This alone has kept me out of so many bad buys.

But once you start getting the hang of understanding price charts, you can use them to more easily predict the future.

So, here’s Homework Assignment #1:

Of course, this works much better on players that you know well. For example, basketball is my best sport, so I’d start there.

In fact, I’ll give you an example. Let’s take a look at Giannis’s Prizm PSA 10 rookie card:

Why did he rise or drop at each of those numbered portions on the chart?

Here’s my take:

This particular example is a good one for understanding the twists and turns of a star on the move.

If you can’t explain why a card had a recent spike or drop, I wouldn’t invest. We invest on predictability.

For only the cost of a $20/mo software, that’s one of the best ways to level up.

I’ve sold 1,000+ cards under $10… and I hated it. It’s a ton of hustle for few results. It doesn’t fit in my 5 hours per week investment strategy.

But I thought that’s how you built a card business. I guess I followed too many people on IG where the “hustle your butt off, even if most make less than minimum wage” lifestyle is celebrated.

In fact, I even wrote a recent post called Why Cheap Cards Are Riskier Than Expensive Ones.

But all that said…

Buying a bunch of low-end cards is one of the best ways to learn how to flip sports cards!

Let’s say that you have $300 to start with.

You could either:

Now, for making money, I much prefer route #1.

But if you’re new? Route #2 probably makes more sense for you. You have real money in a wide array of cards, and you’ll experience the ups and downs with each. You’ll have to make real decisions about when to enter the market, when to sell, and when to hold for more profit.

It’s not much of an education when it’s just 1 card you’re following.

And there’s something to be said about having skin in the game. Yes, you could keep a spreadsheet and track 50 cards. Write down why you would buy them, at what price, and then track price over time.

But your brain handles things differently when you have real money on the line.

So here’s homework assignment #2:

Just because we’re buying cheap cards doesn't mean that you should buy whatever you feel like.

This is your education to get you up to buying & selling more expensive cards fast. Treat it like a real business.

So, you should still follow my frameworks for picking cards to invest in right now, but then you’ll just go cheaper.

For example, if you really like SGA, you’re not going to buy his Prizm PSA 10 rookie…

But you could buy a raw one for around $22. It’s still a flagship rookie of a desirable player. You might only make $10 profit here, but the win is seeing a profitable flip through.

Or, consider Luka Doncic. You could go buy a Topps Chrome parallel for this season. Looks like his refractors are selling for around $15 - $20 (if he does end up having a crazy MVP season, cards from this year may carry a slight premium moving forward).

I also like autos for second-tier players, as those move pretty well for cheap cards. Topps Chrome baseball autos or football position player autos (WRs, TEs, and RBs) still have a decent market. You can certainly get these autos for under $20.

So, you’re still buying:

But just at a cheaper level.

I don’t have a solid answer here other than:

“As soon as you possibly can.”

What usually happens is this:

You buy a bunch of those cheaper cards, and when they start selling, you naturally start buying more expensive cards as you gain confidence.

My advice is to push that envelope.

If you want a benchmark, after you sell 5-10 cards and can explain what happened with your wins and losses, start moving to the $50-$150 range.

Here’s your homework for this week:

And when you can explain most of your wins and losses, stop. Move up to the bigger cards.

Hit reply and tell me which chart you studied and what you think caused the spike. I’ll share a few of my favorite answers next week.