Sunday Looking Ahead #1

Hi!

I hope you are well. This is my thoughts on the upcoming week.

Overview

• Heading back (briefly) to MN with my good buddy.

• Our travel itinerary, modes of transportation, and my feelings on each.

• How we passed the time while onboard Amtrak for 60 hours.

Minnesota (but first, Vegas)

My good buddy and I will be leaving the Bay Area on a midmorning flight to Las Vegas, stopping for about 3 hours in that city before beginning our second leg. A few hours later, we will be to my parents’ house outside of Minneapolis. A few days at my family home before we’re off again, and this upcoming part is the majority of the travel duration.

Why Amtrak?

A few reasons, the most enticing one for me is novelty. I love making the drive from MN to CA, but it’s just so expensive, especially if you drive both directions. The freedom to detour and stay as you please is amazing, especially if you are unconcerned with your ride breaking down.

My next reason is more logistically-based. Another very good buddy of mine gave me his electric guitar and amp setup, this is amazing, but cumbersome to take on planes! When I found out about the Amtrak policy to bring a medium-sized instrument (like this guitar) for only a $10 fee, I then realized Amtrak was definitely the way to go to bring this guitar, as well as some other treasures, to my home in CA.

The bonus reason is that I can see the country with modern conveniences at a relatively cheap price. We stop in Portland for about as much time as we will have in Vegas, so I think a comparison of each layover would make a lot of sense.

How will we pass the time?

That I don’t know. I’ll have to get back to you. I have some ideas though.

Goodbye for now

Thanks for reading this far.

Cya l8r n3rds

Focus…what am I doing again?

Here we are again.

It’s been almost a year since I last posted on this site, yet I still pay for my subscription to keep this site up and running.

Why is that?

I believe deep down that we all want to feel seen and heard. This empty blog is my version of reaching out to achieve that.

My voice cannot reach everyone, but if I can affect one person positively, then I have made a difference to be proud of. In this pursuit, I will continue to share my experiences with you, reader, as I learn the hard way to appreciated interest.

Weekly Update: 10/9-10/15

The NHL season begins this week, with the NFL underway. Here are my current card sells (no buys this week):

• Yordan Alvarez

• Yuli Gurriel

• Aaron Judge

• Mason Marchment

• Nick Suzuki

• Patrick Kane

• Victor Olafson

• Tyler Toffoli

I think it makes the most sense to set a base profit for a card to be worth your time to sell. That time value will vary by the individual. Maybe that’s $1 after fees and shipping. It could be $100. The most important thing to remember is that you have to get it to the buyer in a reasonable amount of time. No one wants to buy from sellers with a bad reputation.

Weekly Updates: 10/2-10/8/2022

Hello! A brief update on my strategy for this week.

Selling

• Aaron Judge (He’s going for the solo AL HR record this week)

• Football lots (I’m looking to consolidate on football)

Buying

• None (I need to have a plan first)

10/24 Investment Update [Forgiveness]

Not much this week by way of addition. Instead, I did a decent job of avoiding additional spend beyond my means. I have yet to determine a reasonable weekly amount for investing into anything. Honestly, I don’t have much wiggle room from my paycheck.
This is a problem that can only be solved by increasing the amount I earn. The only real strategies I have at my disposal are looking for work (supplemental to or in place of my current occupation) or asking for a raise. Both options are intimidating, as reaching out and facing rejection can be scary, and standing up for one’s self is never easy to do.

Life isn’t always cheery. Sometimes, it’s easy to feel smothered by commitments and hopeless from the seemingly futile efforts when something is put forth to the world. Nothing seems to turn up lucky. No one seems to be your ally. It’s hard to remember that you’re not alone. But you aren’t. Other people feel the same way. We all struggle with things that others seem to get right away. So the ask today is for forgiveness. Forgive people who have slighted you that you have taken personally. Most of all, forgive yourself. Every day you invest into yourself and you have to remember that investments don’t appreciate overnight.

10/17 Investment update

Last Week Recap

Last week’s investments included 3 graded rookie basketball cards and several packs of hockey and baseball cards which I opened with some positive success.

In addition to the graded cards, I made a connection with the seller to mentor me for a few weeks. This mentorship is the big win of the week, as even if they don’t know all that much, they have taught me quite a bit about ensuring a square deal in the Wild West of online sales.

Next Week Strategy

My strategy for next week boils down to one word: research. An intelligent investor is an informed investor. Before I get too deep into buying and selling, I need to research the historical trends of the products I might buy. As I plan to expand into the world of sports cards as an investor, rather than a collector, I need to know when buyers are going to pay the most for a product, as well as when sellers will let products go for the least each year.

Due to the cyclical nature of sports seasons, I predict that there could be very clear and obvious times to make profit on productive players. However, I need to keep in mind that not all players will pan out. Most of the time, sellers are selling because they do not feel that a card will increase in value at all, or at least the product is at a local maximum and the seller predicts a decline in their ability to sell over the short run.