Closing Taps

Trades are quite quiet at the moment. I have yet to find another bulk collection to buy in for restock. In fact, many times I have contemplated to bulk out and re-buy, but that honestly serves me no purpose other than an immediate huge loss due to the bulking process and buy in. I'm looking to buy in rares that between $0.10 to $0.15; from what I can find online, the bulk lots are sold between $0.20 to $0.30. It's nearly impossible to sustain with that kind of buy-in. At the moment now, I'm relying on the main trade to sustain but also because of my current exam schedules I do not have the time to head down for trading. I'm looking to be trading slightly more regularly in July. At the moment now, I'm looking to either save up or invest in cards for possible price rise.

I was reviewing the expenditure and I came to realise my profit margin is not anywhere high enough to call it successful so far. I'm doing trades with a small success, yes, but not anywhere at the point where I'll say I can make a decent profit. I had a bit of time to look through the workflow of my trades and I have found loopholes which makes me profit margin seems much less than what it should be. Essentially, if I want to have a reservoir, I need to close all the leaking "taps".

As I did mentioned earlier about myself buying too much booster packs, that was one of the "taps" I have to close. The money spent in the booster packs can easily go into singles which have better economic and trading value. Financially, it's the most sound way to ensure your money is not wasted.

The second "tap" I have to close is the way my transaction is done. I usually give regular's discount to my regular buyers and sometimes will knock off a few dollars to make to a consensus, but this actually may hurt my profit margin. While sometimes it's good to do it, I have to learn to be firm in my prices and negotiate accordingly. Any trade is a deal, if you are at the losing end, it's not a good deal. That said, it's something that I have to look to control but not necessary to close it shut entirely. If I'm at risk of losing a few dollars to profit more than the loss, it may be a good thing to lose that few dollars to earn more.

Third "tap" to close; hoarding. I'm not too sure on this now. I've read several articles discussing about inventory management and stock. Having a binder full of cards is a good thing, but having to manage and keep stock is a hassle. My point is that having a large inventory is one thing, but in trading perspective, this means more cards to handle and trade, which can lead to losing track what you have traded away/for and this can make keeping stock a pain. Reason as to why this is a third "tap" is because for one, the amount spent to holster the cards with binders and sleeves are eating up money, which translates to more spent than earned. Two, unable to keep track a large inventory can lead to miscommunication on quantity of stock and potentially lose out on a deal which you could have made.

Forth, this "tap" is referring to the literal shutting out of my expanses from my card expenditure. This is the biggest problem for me. Yes, it's a simple thing but it's always the simplest thing that makes the greatest impact in your life. For this case, I mixed my expanses with my card expenditure. Yes, I know the consequences but I didn't do anything to prevent it. Every month I draw up a budget but often overspending. The predominant reason is the expenditure of cards and worse still, it was usually on booster pack opening. What's more is that I sometimes can push back the expenditure for other things so I can buy the required cards. I know the problem and I have written out here. Now I have to fix this before my money goes down the drain.

Solutions:

1. Priority, separate my card spending from my expenditures and savings. 2 Bank accounts are opened for myself, one for my savings, the other is my main expenses. I would have to draw out and keep separately for my card expenditures in another manner (secondary wallet maybe).
2. Stick to the budget. If I foresee a large spending, adjust accordingly. If I cannot manage that kind of spending, weigh out on the options of proceeding on the deal and letting go of the deal. If I can let go of it, do it.
3. Weigh out each deal; if I get nothing beneficial out from it, drop the deal.
4. Stop spending on boosters. (I'm clean as of the A-DICT-SHION article. Yay!)
5. Start saving. Time does not wait for anyone, so does opportunities.
6. Manage the inventory; sometimes I have to cut dead weight and tie up loose ends.

I want to be successful in my trading, but in order to do that, I have to make sure that I clean up myself before moving on.