Thinking of becoming a trader – pros and cons?

[rogerD]

I've enjoyed collecting cigarette cards for quite a few years now and every now and again, when I get a bit sick of my job the though flickers across my mind to give it all up and do something I'd enjoy - like becoming a cigarette and trade card dealer. Has anyone done this? What are the good and bad points?

[IanSammel]

I think you would need to ask a dealer to find what it's really like.  However I have sometimes asked myself the same question and come to the conclusion that whilst it might be fun, it probably wouldn't be very easy.  Firstly you would need stock which could be expensive.  Secondly you need to find customers.  Also consider that the internet is completely changing the way people do business.  Once upon a time, dealers bought cards cheaply and sold them on at a profit.  That becomes ever more difficult as sites like Ebay mean that buyer and seller can deal directly with each other without having a dealer in between.  As a rule of thumb, a dealer buys for 30% catalogue price and sells for 100%.  If buyer and seller agree on say 60% then they are both better off and the dealer gets nothing.  A lot of established dealers are still going but I don't know how easy it would be to start from scratch. 

You may have heard of Franklyn Cards.  Franklyn tried to start up a cigarette card business on the internet in the late 1990s and had a large, informative web site.  He obviously made a great effort but in the meantime seems to have given up.  Well, who knows what his reasons were, but personally I wouldn't give up a successful business if I found it fun.