Student turns R100 boot sale gem into juicy profit
We’re not taking the Pichu – you just never know when your cards might come up. As student Cassandra Grützner found that out recently, after stumbling across a rare Pokemón trading card at a garage sale. She went on to sell her lucky haul for ten times what it cost her, and nabbing plane tickets to boot.
Grützner, a first-year at Stirling University – told Save the Student she came across the sale by accident and decided to splurge some of her Loan money.
£15 of mine went into a box of old Pokemón cards … mostly for nostalgic reasons. Turns out a near mint, holographic base set Charizard card was included.
While luck played a part (“I didn’t expect the garage sale in the first place”), Grützner’s a long-time Pokemón fan.
Seeing as I still play a lot of Nintendo games and buy them online, I was pretty aware that some merchandise could sell for quite a high price to collectors.
After a bit of nifty Googling to check the value, she went on to sell the rare card on eBay within days for £150.
Not only did she turn her £15 into 10x as much, Grützner used the extra cash to net chocolate, books, two tickets to Germany, “and … well, a Pokemón game”. Not a bad day at the office!
How Grützner got the best price
Credit: Cassandra Grützner
- She first Googled the cards to find the exact year they were released, as well as their rarity and how to describe their status. Cards can be ranked from Mint to Poor – check out forums for an idea.
- She then checked eBay’s sold listings, to get a rough idea what to expect.
- If anyone is looking for the cards on forums, they may be willing to pay a little more, but in the end she listed the Charizard card at a fixed price on eBay, and sold it in a couple of days.
- She sold the less valuable ones together, labelled as a ‘bunch of old Pokemón cards’, and got a few pounds more than they were worth individually.
Fancy turning a profit yourself?
You don’t need to get lucky to make a tidy profit: just have a clear-out. Off-loading stuff you don’t need, want or use any more can leave you with a nice earner in the long term. Check out the full eBay guide if you want to make it pay. Or, if you want to invest in tomorrow’s big-cash earners, check out the hush-hush Disney Vault right here.