SAMMIE COATES JUST WENT OFF.
The Steelers receiver catches six passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns against the Jets including a 72-yard score.
Pittsburgh beats New York 31-13.
Fantasy owners might have found their newest breakout receiver.
$113 INVESTED. $23,693 SOLD. AND A STORY I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SHARE.
Last night, I sold a sports card through @altxyzofficial Auctions for $21,938. With my 8% seller bonus, my total payout is $23,693.04.
My investment? $113. I paid $88 for the card as part of a collection I purchased and another $25 to have it graded by PSA.
It’s my biggest card sale ever, but that’s not why I’m sharing this.
I’ve collected sports cards since I was 10 years old. After taking about 12 years off, I got back into the hobby in 2019 when I started selling cards to help pay for a trip to the 50th anniversary of the World Series of Poker.
Eventually, I got caught up chasing Wembanyama, Bedard, Brady, and all those huge bounty cards. I was ripping boxes like crazy, chasing that next big hit.
And I made a huge financial mistake.
Between buying boxes, cards, and paying PSA grading fees, I maxed out four credit cards and accumulated over $20,000 + in debt.
For the last three years, I’ve been digging myself out of that hole.
When I finally came clean to my wife about the debt, I told her I had a plan. I was going to stop chasing boxes, start buying cards with potential, grade them, sell them, and pay that debt down piece by piece.
I still needed to use a couple of credit cards to make that happen, and I know she was skeptical. How could she not be? But she never discouraged me. She supported me, even when I’m sure she had her doubts.
And that brings me to this card.
I got it back from PSA on September 14th. I offered it to a few people for $4,500, which was the last comparable sale. I wanted full comp because the card’s recent sales were trending upward.
Thankfully, everyone passed.
On September 17th, I shipped it and 13 other cards to Alt Auctions. The next day, FedEx showed the package being held at a Walgreens in Delaware instead of being delivered to Alt.
By Monday, it was still sitting there.
FedEx told me someone with access to Alt’s shipping account had requested the hold on the same day I shipped it. After I finally reached the right people at Alt, they jumped into action, recovered the package, and got my cards into the auction.
What could have been a disaster turned into the biggest sale of my life.
But here’s the part that means the most to me.
That one card now allows me to pay off the remainder of my credit card debt and my 19 year old daughter’s car also!
Last night, as the bidding kept climbing, things got a little emotional. Not just because of the money, but because I knew what it meant.
For three years, I’d been telling my wife I was going to fix the mess I’d created. I was going to find a way to make it right.
And last night, I finally got to look at her and know I’d done exactly what I told her I would do.
I’m not sharing this to brag. I’m sharing it because I made some terrible financial decisions, owned up to them, and spent three years trying to correct them.
Going forward, I’ll still buy cards and use one credit card with a set limit for purchases and PSA fees. But the days of letting this hobby control my finances are over.
The biggest win last night wasn’t the $23,693. It was keeping a promise to my wife and finally putting that debt behind us.
And that means more to me than any card ever could.
#TheHobby #PokemonTCG #PSAGraded #DebtFreeJourney #NeverGiveUp
@JohnErickson107 here is a condensed version of what I sent u lol