eBay for pay

Shane Meyers, a junior general studies major, says his dream job is no job at all.

“I don’t really like to work,” he says. Which would probably explain why, for three years, Meyers didn’t have a job but still made money.

Meyers started selling sports cards on eBay when he was 20.

“I originally started selling cards I had from when I was a kid,” he says. “Then I started going to card shows and buying cards for cheap and selling them for more online. I was making about $500 a month.”

Selling sports cards on eBay fit perfectly into Meyer’s work-as-little-as-possible mantra. He’d go out once a week to look for cards, which only took about four hours of his day, and wait for bids the rest of the week. A little savvy bargaining at card shows and competitive bidding online made for quick profits.

Rob Vanhoose, an expert in sports card collecting and employee of 1st Choice Sports Cards in Kent, says there is money to be made in selling sports cards.

“A lot of collectors collect players’ rookie cards,” Vanhoose says. “Players like Ken Griffey Jr. and Kobe Bryant — famous guys you see on TV all the time. We’ve got a Michael Jordan rookie card worth $1,600.”

The fame of a player isn’t the only thing that makes a card worth money — the condition of a card is important as well.

“People are picky about condition,” Vanhoose says. “You can send cards away to have them graded on the gem mint scale. If the card gets a 10, which is extremely rare, it makes the card have ridiculous value. A Derek Jeter card that’s usually worth about $100 sold for $22,000 online because it was a 10 on the gem mint scale.”

Meyers had a lot of his cards rated on the gem mint scale, which rates the edges, surface, corners and centering of a card.

There’s not enough money in sports card trading to become fabulously wealthy, but Meyers can attest that it can be enough to pay the rent. He once sold a Kobe Bryant card for well over $1,000.

Meyers has stopped selling cards online full time but is keeping a hand in the game while looking for his dream job — one that will make him a lot of money fast.