This $550, 2,000-Card Bulk Sale Completely Changed My Pokémon Selling Strategy

How a Small Order Turned Into a 2,000-Card Deal

It started with a fairly normal sale on Ricardo, which is a Swiss platform similar to eBay. A customer bought about 15 single cards, mostly lower-value cards around the $1 mark. Nothing out of the ordinary.

After the sale, he reached out to me directly. He was looking for a large number of specific bulk cards to complete his sets, mainly reverse holos from Sword & Shield, Sun & Moon, and Scarlet & Violet. I sent him a link to my Cardmarket store where he could see my inventory. He came back with a CSV file marking every card he needed.

In total, he needed nearly 2,000 cards. He was happy to buy them all from one person to save time and shipping costs.

I offered him free shipping since it was such a large order. The final deal brought in $550 in revenue and about $450 in profit. It was my best week by a long shot, but it came with a significant, non-monetary cost.

The Hidden Cost: 10 Hours of Picking and Sorting

The biggest challenge wasn't finding the cards in my database—I used a small script to check my inventory and price everything out in about five minutes. The real work was physically locating, picking, and verifying all 2,000 cards from my bulk storage. That process took me a full 10 hours.

This is a critical factor for anyone selling bulk. The profit on paper looks great, but you have to account for your time. An order this size can completely derail your other business activities for a day or more.

Learning #1: Custom Wantlists Beat Pre-Made Master Sets

This experience highlighted a major flaw in my previous strategy. I had been trying to sell 'master sets'—complete sets of all common, uncommon, and rare cards from a specific expansion. To date, I have not had a single sale on those.

The reality is that most collectors aren't starting from zero. They open packs, trade with friends, and buy singles. They usually just need to fill in the gaps, especially with harder-to-find reverse holos. They don't want to buy a full set of commons and uncommons they already own.

My New Approach: The 'Send Me Your List' Service

Based on this, I've changed my approach. I now include a note in my Ricardo listings inviting buyers to email me their wantlists. They can send a simple list or a CSV file, and I can quickly check my inventory for them.

This turns my large, unorganized bulk into a custom picking service. It's more labor-intensive per order, but as this big sale proved, it's what some buyers are actually looking for and willing to pay for.

Learning #2: Expect Sales to Drop as Inventory Gets Picked Over

Another learning from this past week is how quickly sales can slow down once your best bulk is gone. I was averaging $4-$5 per day in sales on CardTrader, but that has recently dropped to $1-$2 per day—a decline of 50-60%.

The reason is simple: the most popular cards, especially Trainer cards, get bought up first. What's left is a 'colder' inventory that is less desirable and moves much more slowly. This is an expected cycle when selling bulk.

Adjusting Inventory and Pricing Strategy

To combat this, I'm adjusting what I list and how I price it. Going forward, when I process new bulk, I will focus on listing only certain categories:

• Reverse Holo cards
• Holo Rare cards
• Older cards (Sun & Moon, Sword & Shield era)

I won't be adding most common and uncommon cards from modern sets like Scarlet & Violet, as they just don't sell (with the possible exception of special sets like 151). The rest will be sold off as true bulk for little to no profit.

Repricing Based on Sales Velocity

My pricing is also changing. I used to have a flat price of around 14 cents for all bulk. Now, I'm increasing the price on cards that sell well and lowering it on cards that don't.

• Reverse Holos: Increased to 80 cents.
• Holo Rares (Modern): Set to 20 cents.
• Holo Rares (Older): Set to 25 cents.
• Modern Common/Uncommon: Lowered, often to the platform minimum of 10 cents on CardTrader.

This Week's Numbers

Thanks almost entirely to the one large sale, this was the best week to date.

• Total Revenue: Over $600
• Total Profit: $460
• Total Profit (To Date): $1,100 after about two months

While I don't expect to maintain this weekly profit, hitting over $1,000 in total profit in the first two months is ahead of my own expectations.

The Takeaway

The key lesson here is to be flexible. What you think will sell (like master sets) might not be what the market wants. By listening to a customer and accommodating a large, custom request, I not only made a significant profit but also discovered a much more effective business model for my bulk inventory. It's more work, but it's work that actually leads to sales.