What is Flipping? Card Flipping explained

Welcome (back) Beckett boys and girls!

Today we will break down (quite simply) what the term 'flipping' is in the trading card world, and, importantly point out how it is being confused with the term 'investing' within the industry.

So what is flipping?

Flipping is buying something cheap, and then selling or 'flipping' it for a higher price. 

This happens in many industries, properties, vehicles and of course our very own collectables industry.

An example of flipping within the trading card industry would look something like the following:

Buyer purchases a Pokemon Charizard Card for $285 and then sells it or 'flips' it for $1k, making roughly $700 profit.

That's a basic example - and it happens all the time in the industry.

So with that out of the way what should be addressed is the difference between Flipping and Investing and with something I call 'FlipVesting'.

Investing is different again, Investing by definition is 'putting money into financial schemes or commercial items/properties etc' - with the commercial items in this case being trading cards.

Now usually Investors have a long term vision in mind when investing money into cards - they see the card as something that will grow over time in commercial value from the amount that they initially invested. Similar to stock and shares. 

Flipping usually occurs in bursts through the regular season of sports like NBA and Football, of all codes. 

We have seen flipping take on very random patterns which can be affected by players form, injuries and general public perception of the individual player. 

The short term profits is something that the modern generation has really taken to, particularly since the 70s, 80s, 90s drifts further and further from memory. 

We have seen recent trends of buying top NBA players cheap in the off-season, and then selling them off when they are deep into playoffs when they usually fetch a higher price point.

It can also be a way to burn your money off by bad choice of players etc, or buying at the wrong time, so buyers need to be aware of timing when aiming to buy for the flip.