Toys to Retirement Weekly Wrap-Up #14
Probably the most profitable tip of the week I'll ever give out on this newsletter
Hello friends,
I hope everyone is surviving this brutal ‘Returnuary’. The light is at the end of the tunnel though, and returns should start tapering off if they haven’t already. I’ve had 124 items returned so far this month, resulting in about $4k in refunds. Seeing those emails pop up throughout the day is frustrating, but I feel a bit better knowing that several of them will still be able to be sold on eBay to recoup some funds.
Despite the returns, overall profit so far has actually been very solid. A lot of discontinued SKUs held their December pricing and are still selling steadily, despite the large decrease in velocity. I’m still offloading some weaker SKUs, and definitely already thinking about how I want to setup for Q4 2025 — with lots of cash on hand. Anyways, let’s chat about the week.
Social media as a toy investing tool…
I did a bit of a different style of article this week. Not so much specific analysis, but a lot more about a niche strategy I use to identify products I want to add to my toy portfolio. All Amazon sellers can use social media in a profitable way, even without posting themselves. Definitely check it out:
Another Pokemon bull run?
Today marks the official release of the newest Pokemon TCG set - Prismatic Evolutions. On top of that, Costco has been receiving the ‘Pokemon 151 Blooming Waters Collection’, another hit product and potentially the last Pokemon 151 release. Videos are already circling the internet of people stampeding into stores, fighting each other, and hogging entire displays.
Several cards have doubled or tripled in price in the last few weeks. Sealed product has been steadily climbing. Japanese sealed product also isn’t far behind.
Every few years the hobby has this sort of phenomenon, and I expect it to continue into 2026 as there are quite a few very hyped Pokemon sets coming this year.
As easy as it is to give into the hype and try to snag some for yourself, it’s an important reminder to invest in what you know and understand. You need to remember that people have been in this hobby since the late 90’s - you won’t outmaneuver those who have been doing it for decades just by looking at Keepa charts and buying anything with a Pokemon label on it. Don’t get shiny object syndrome and use limited capital on product that you aren’t sure how to exit with.
Sure, you can make a little bit of money grabbing this new set off the shelf and flipping it. But for the most part, Pokemon is a long term game. I personally use it as my own kind of ‘401(k)’ because of the high price ceilings, steady year over year growth, and security of the franchise. I also prefer not to sell Pokemon on Amazon or Walmart, instead opting for local sales or eBay due to the large amount of fraud returns during these bull runs.
So, this is just a gentle reminder not to get caught up in the hype you’re certainly going to be hearing in the coming days/weeks, unless you truly are ‘in the game’ so to speak — or you may get burned.
LEGO Valentine’s Promotion
There’s a cute new gift with purchase available on the LEGO site for purchases over $75 — a very fair threshold compared to the numbers they’ve required in recent times. I actually like simple holiday-themed sets like this. They tend to sell even in the off-season, with nice spikes during said holiday. There’s no right or wrong answer for when to sell these — now or next Valentine’s Day, it’s up to you and your capital wants/needs.
To answer the question that will surely come up (“Isn’t it too early to be buying retiring LEGO for this year?”): It depends. Here’s a fun fact that I tweeted out the other day:
After realizing that, it really made me want to identify those types of sets for this year early on so I can start stockpiling early. So personally, yes I am starting my buying now — in limited quantities. I don’t want to put my capital in a stranglehold, but there are some sets I’m not afraid to start grabbing now.
Oh hey, I should probably do a 2025 LEGO retiring overview shouldn’t I?
New Daredevil trailer dropped…
If you haven’t seen it, definitely give it a watch. There is a ton of hype around this upcoming season, and the whopping 11 million views on the trailer in 24 hours don’t lie. I would be surprised if we don’t see merch for this show, and my gut says it’s only a matter of time before we actually see Charlie Cox as Daredevil on the big screen in some sort of team-up film.
This aligns nicely with my article I posted this week that I mentioned above. It’s important to stay on top of these sorts of announcements so we know what merch to keep an eye out for.
Did you know that there are multiple Daredevil action figures that sell for between $75 and $150?
Do with that information what you will.
Tip of the Week #11
This tip is something I wish I implemented way sooner, and honestly might be the best tip I ever give on this newsletter. It will make me thousands of dollars, and it should make you lots of money too.
It’s all about repricing.
You hear me talking about it all the time, especially during peak season - raise your minimums!
But what about… lowering your maximum?
Yes, you read that right. I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with repricing lately, really trying to squeeze my best ASINs even more for every dollar that I can. I’ve had some very informative conversations with people much better at Amazon than me (shoutout to @jeffsendsit on Twitter), and I’m already seeing incredible results by implementing some new strategies.
Here is an example of a strategy I’m implementing for items that I’m trying to get rid of, but I still want to make as much money as I can on them:
This is from my repricer, SellerSnap. This strategy employs the ‘Yo-Yo Method’, which every X amount of time will take the price of my item to its maximum.
Historically, I’ve left this frequency at every 2-3 hours.
My new goal is to have it Yo-Yo more frequently. The real magic is in adjusting my maximum though.
During peak season, I’ll have very high maximums. That’s because customers will pay whatever it takes to get the specific Christmas present they want in time, regardless if it’s $10 more than usual. But when sales are slower and I’m trying to let an item go, it makes no sense to have my maximum be in the $40’s when most sales are occurring in the low $30s. Basically I’m just wasting my Yo-Yo and denying myself sales.
So instead what I’ve done is set my minimum to around break even or slightly above it — whatever it takes to get the buy box. Then I have my frequent Yo-Yo jumping up just a few bucks above my minimum. Enough to generate a few more bucks of profit, but not high enough to scare off customers or completely be out of the fight for the buy box. Remember, price isn’t the only thing that the buy box cares about — sometimes regional availability takes priority if you’re only a couple bucks more expensive than competitors.
To give you guys a specific example, I have an action figure that ended up being a bit weaker than I wanted because it got an unexpected reprint. I had about 600 units. My minimum was $34.49, and I was getting most of my sales between that price and around $36. My maximum was $49.99, and while I was snagging sales at that price during Q4, I don’t have any sales at $49.99 in January. My Yo-Yo was being wasted.
I dropped my maximum to $39.99. Since applying this strategy just a few days ago, 30% of my sales on this SKU have now been at $39.99.
I’m making $3-4 more on 30% of my sales bye simply lowering my maximum and increasing my Yo-Yo frequency.
Now imagine this spread out across hundreds of ASINs… thousands of units.
I’ll be talking more about repricing as the year goes on. It’s a constant game of tweaking, but you can literally make more money repricing than an entire day of sourcing depending on the time of year and really being informed about how your inventory performs.
Enjoy… let me know how this works out for you.
Alright friends, let’s wrap it up there. More toy and box office news will be coming soon as people begun settling back into the office and getting in the swing of things. For now, try out that tip of the week, and don’t forget to send me any questions you have for the upcoming Subscriber Q&A. It may be next week or the week after, haven’t decided yet.
Enjoy your weekend!
Any resources for Pokemon booster investing? Or just buy and hold em for a few years?
Looking forward to the 2025 Lego overview!!!