The overall sports landscape continues to evolve from year to year. An industry that once saw fantasy sports and sports card collecting as a hobby and sports betting legal in select areas. Flash forward to now and Daily Fantasy Sports or DFS is worldwide and legal in most states, sports card collecting has evolved into sports card investing, and sports betting is becoming legal in more and more states. As DFS players look to make money so do sports card collectors looking to sports card investing. With that is their similarities between DFS Strategy & Sports Card Investing?

While DFS is an opportunity to invest daily into a group of sports stars in hopes of winning cash, sports card investing allows investors to invest in the same sports stars with hopes of turning it into real cash. Now if you are new to sports card collecting or sports card investing and/or new to DFS you are probably wondering how DFS and sports card investing relate. Honestly that is a really good question and one we will take a look at.

We are also going to help you understand more about sports card investing, how a DFS approach to sports card investing can help you make money with sports cards, and even help you learn more about the entire landscape of the sports card industry. Read on to learn more about DFS Strategy & Sports Card investing. In addition, read our latest Hot Sports Cards to Collect and Hot Soccer Cards to Collect to see some of the hottest sports cards on the market right now.

DFS Strategy & Sports Card Investing

What are Daily Fantasy Sports?

Maybe you are sports card collector who doesn’t play fantasy sports or maybe you are accustomed to season long fantasy sports. Nonetheless, it is never too late to learn what Daily Fantasy Sports or DFS is and even get started playing today. DFS is fantasy sports such as fantasy baseball or fantasy football but skimmed down to daily competitions compared to waiting all season to win. The same approach as full length daily fantasy sports with some DFS sites offering daily fantasy drafts for competitions while others work around a daily fantasy salary. DFS sites include FanDuel, DraftKings and FanTeam.

What is Sports Card Investing?

Most fans of sports cards are in the hobby of sports card to collect for their own collections. This may include building a Personal Collection (PC) of their favorite players or their favorite teams. However, like DFS owners looking to make money on sports, sports card investing continues to grow as investors look to make money with sports cards. In theory, sports card investing is much like investing in stocks, but an investor invests in sports cards in hopes the value of the sports card increases to deliver a profit. To learn more about sports card investing read our Sports Card Investing Strategies guide.

How are DFS and Sports Card Investing similar?

As DFS is all about looking at the daily sports schedule for various sports, building a lineup you like, then cashing in on that lineup. Sports card investing is all about researching players you like, investing in those players, then selling them to make a profit. Both DFS success and sports card sale success revolves around the success of the player on any giving day or over any stretch of time. In theory you invest part of your daily fantasy salary on a player to produce the same as when you invest in sports cards.

Can you use a DFS approach to invest in sports cards?

Now before you jump right into sports card investing as a DFS player, you must realize you have to understand and know about sports card collecting. This includes understanding about sports card grading, knowing the differences between the types of sports cards, and knowing where and how to buy sports cards. That said, you can absolutely in some aspect use a DFS approach to invest in sports cards, but it may require a little modification to your DFS strategy.

For instance, in DFS you can jump on a in game trend such as a players batting splits vs the opposing starting pitcher since it is at your fingertips. Investing in sports cards isn’t nearly that easy as you must already own the card to sell it for a profit or you have to buy the card, wait for it to arrive, possible have it graded, then either resell the sports card or keep it. By that time frame, that batter had already faced multiple pitchers who may have put him into a slump and possible lower his card value.

DFS Strategies and DFS approach that can be used for sports card investing

DFS Strategy & Sports Card Investing: Research

One of the biggest DFS strategy that all good and great DFS players use daily is research. Yes, but honestly, we should have said Research! Research! And More Research! This approach is the same when you look at sports card investing. You must take time to research the sports card industry, take time to research what sports card brands are selling for the most, how sports card grading impacts the value of sports cards, what sports cards are hot and so much more.

Luckily for you, sites like ours is always looking at various topics to help you research and learn along the way. Other sites that could assist you include sites such as Beckett and the Sports Card Investor as well as any forums you might stumble on such as the ones provided by Blowout Cards.

Simplify your approach & Focus on one area

When you first start to play DFS it can be overwhelming, however over time you learn the concept and learn to simplify your approach to how you play. For instance, some DFS players focus try to play all the various types of DFS contests, while successful DFS players focus on one or two specific types while simplifying their approach. This could be a DFS player looking to just play head-to-head matchups or 50/50 contests. By using this DFS strategy, they learn how to build a lineup for that type of contests, what type of trends lead to winners, and become an DFS expert in that type of contest.

Using this same approach to sports cards can always be successful as there are so many types of sports cards from base set cards to parallels cards to Short Prints (SP) to autograph cards. The list can go on and on but simplifying what you are investing in to just one or two types of cards such as vintage cards and autograph rookie cards allows you to turn all your attention to those types. Then over time start to master additional types of cards.

Looking for Value

A third DFS strategy that is key for daily fantasy sports owners to win Guaranteed Prize Pools or GPP is looking for value and hitting on that value play. With DFS most lineups are set to a specific salary cap structure for example $50,000 or whatever it may be set to. That means a 10-man lineup would allow you to spend $5k per person on average. A player with higher value such as a LeBron James or Patrick Mahomes may cost you $10k or ore $15k lowering your average cost per player meaning you must find some value plays to offset that cost.

The same is true in sports card investing as you must take the time to find cards that have value and that can reward you with a profit. This can be done through your research as well as by comparing the sites driving the prices of sports cards such as eBay. eBay marketplace is such a key driver of the sports card market so finding the value of cards that have sold on eBay can help you price a card. You then use that price and search other marketplaces such as Check Out My Cards, Facebook Market Places, local sports card shows, and sports card forums.

When you find cards that you can buy at value compared to the going sports card market price allows you to make profit.

Bankroll Management

One of the most important approaches to DFS is bankroll management. Bankroll management is a combination of components to include setting a daily DFS budget as well as how you will spend that daily budget of money. In DFS you might set your budget to $100 daily with $75 going to cash games and 50/50 contests and the other $25 going to GPP. GPP are higher risk contests that are harder to win cash in but have the upside of paying out $100k and even $1 million dollars on a $15-25 entry.

Setting your bankroll management strategy is key in sports card investing as you do not want to overspend what you can afford to spend. In addition, you must spread the money around to ensure you not only have sports cards that hold value but also sports cards that might reward you with a much higher Return on Investment (ROI).

GPP’s VS Cash Game

Falling in line with bankroll management, is the GPP VS Cash Game approach in DFS that can also be applied to sports card investing. In DFS, DFS owners can elect to play in GPP contests that are higher risk higher reward contests or in cash game contests such as head-2-head or 50/50 contests that have much higher potential to win. Setting a budget for these types of games can help you ensure you bankroll doesn’t evaporate while also giving you more opportunities to cash in.

With sports cards understanding the GPP types of cards and cash types of cards is key to building a successful card collection as well as to make money with sports cards. In sports cards GPP type cards could include unknown players that have an upside or a player who has been hurt to start their career where the cards are lower value. If that player has a big season the cards could increase 2-time, 3-time and even higher in value rewarding you with a nice ROI. Meanwhile cash options would include buying proving players who will cost you more money at first but will also see an increase in value over time.

Furthermore, buying individual cards of specific players is a cash game approach compared to buying sealed boxes or cases of sports cards which fall in line with the GPP approach. Higher end products such as Panini National Treasures and Panini Flawless hold value over the long haul while lower end products may have a much higher rate of volitivity.

Split Your Game Types – Diversifying Approach

Understanding the type of approach, you will have in DFS is key to becoming a good DFS player and one who has the potential to consistently win money. However, it starts with learning how to diversify your DFS entries and spreading your bankroll around in a way that you have shown to be successful. For example, if you are winning 70-80 percent of your head-2-head matchups and 50/50 contests, your bulk entries and cash should be spent on those contests. If you are consistently taking home cash in low entry GPP ($.25, $.50, $1, $3, and $5) entries it might be worth spreading additional money there.

Taking this approach and applying it to sports cards can be easy to do as well. For example, proven stars such as Mike Trout and LeBron James continue to see an increase in value over time while their overall values stay consistent. Buying these cards will ensure you a portfolio of sports cards that will hold their value. In addition, you can take a risk on undrafted rookies or players that have struggled whose cards are much cheaper in value. While they expose you to a chance to lose money, the opportunity to be rewarded with a big sale is worth it.

Should you apply a DFS approach to your sports card investing approach?

In closing understanding how to play and approach DFS can be rewarding both in playing DFS as well as in sports card investing. However, like any type of investing opportunity, you must make your own decisions based on what is successful for you. Don’t allow any individual person or article dictate how you invest. It is always key to remember that making money with sports cards and DFS is an opportunity, losing money is also on the table.

Always do your own research, tinker around with what trends you have had success with, while taking chances to add new approaches. In the end sports card investing is not for everyone and can be time consuming. Good luck with all your sports cards investing and DFS plays.