The short answer
At our measured sell through of 2.9% a month and $2.25 net per sale, a thousand listed cards produce roughly 29 sales a month, or about $65.25 before shipping and supplies.
To clear $500 a month net you need somewhere north of ten thousand cards listed at once. That is the number nobody puts in the videos.
This is the calculation to do before buying inventory, not after. It is also the one that stops most people, which is exactly why it is worth doing honestly.
The arithmetic
Start from the only two numbers that matter: how much of your catalogue sells per month, and what a sale nets after fees. Ours are 2.9% and about $2.25 before the shipping label.
Multiply and you get roughly $65.25 of margin per thousand cards listed per month, minus $0.88 a package and supplies. Call it real money but not much of it, per thousand.
What the targets look like
| Monthly target | Cards listed | Sales per month | Roughly |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100 | About 2,500 | 72 or so | A serious hobby |
| $500 | 10,000 plus | Around 290 | A part time job |
| $1,000 | 20,000 plus | Around 580 | A full time job with staff or software |
Those numbers assume you can list that many cards, which is its own constraint. We listed 999 in our first week with a document scanner and purpose built software, and that pace is not achievable by hand.
What it costs to get there
Ten thousand cards at 3 to 5 cents is $300 to $500 of inventory, which is not the hard part. The hard part is the equipment and the hours: a scanner that can take a stack, software that identifies cards without typing, sleeves, toploaders and mailers.
Budget for the process before the cards. A thousand unlisted cards in a box earn nothing, and a garage full of them is the most common way this stops being a business.
The constraint people get wrong
Everyone assumes the hard part is finding cards. It is not, bulk is abundant and cheap. The hard part is turning cards into listings fast enough that the catalogue grows faster than it sells.
Until that pipeline works, buying more bulk just converts cash into boxes. We said the same thing in our own first month writeup, and it is the mistake we would most want to avoid repeating.
The honest caveats
Our 2.9% is a brand new store with no feedback history, which is the worst case. An established seller with years of ratings moves more, though nobody in bulk singles moves dramatically more.
And a catalogue decays: the easy cards sell first, so month twelve is slower per listed card than month one. Plan for the average, not for the opening burst.
If those numbers still look good to you, the business works. If they do not, better to know now than after buying fifty thousand cards.
Frequently asked questions
- How many Pokémon cards do you need to make money?
At our rate, 1,000 listed cards produce about 29 sales a month and roughly $65.25 of margin before shipping. Around $500 a month net needs over ten thousand cards listed.
- What is a realistic sell through rate?
Ours was 2.9% of the catalogue per month for a new store with no feedback history. Established sellers do better, though nobody in bulk singles does dramatically better.
- What limits a bulk singles business?
Listing speed, not sourcing. Bulk is cheap and abundant; turning cards into listings fast enough is the constraint. We listed 999 in our first week with a document scanner and purpose built software.
- Does a catalogue keep selling at the same rate?
No. The easy cards sell first, so the rate per listed card declines over time. Plan for the average rather than the opening burst.
The number where this turns into a business depends on what your hour is worth. The break-even calculator works it out from a timed batch of your own instead of an invented average.
