Japanese bulk lots and sorted bundles

Per-card price and sell-through

A per-card price tells you what you paid and nothing about what you can sell, and the gap between those two numbers is where a store's cash gets stuck.

A lot advertised by count has to be filled to that count. Whatever fills it costs the packer nothing to include and costs you shelf space, listing time, and the money you cannot spend on the next order. The cards that clear end up carrying the cards that do not, so the honest price of a lot is the price of the part that sells.

• Duplicates — the second and third copy compete with your own first copy, for the same buyer, in the same week.
• Dead names — cards that are rare on paper and still sit, because nobody in your market is asking for them.
• Condition — a lot sold by count is not sold by condition, and whitening or edge wear turns a sellable card into filler.
• Rarity labels — "AR bulk" names the rarity, not the demand; the same band holds cards your audience chases and cards it ignores.
• Your time — every card that does not move still gets sorted, photographed, listed and stored.

Sorting work in a bundle

Bulk and bundle can describe the same cards; the difference is whether the ones that will not sell were taken out before you paid for them.

In this trade the supply side says bulk — mixed cards by count — while resellers use bundle for the sets they build for their own customers. The curating work exists in both words. The only real question is who does it and at which point in the chain the cost lands: buy bulk and you do it yourself, after paying for the part you will throw away; buy a bundle and it is done at source, against a list you wrote.

That is why the lowest number on a listing page is the weakest number to buy on. Two lots at the same price per card can leave you with two completely different businesses a month later.

• What sets the price — bulk: the count. Bundle: what the cards are.
• Who picks — bulk: a packer working to a number. Bundle: someone reading your list.
• What you carry — bulk: everything in the lot, including the part that will not move. Bundle: stock chosen to clear.
• Where the work sits — bulk: your table, after the money is gone. Bundle: the source, before it ships.

Use in live selling

Sell-through per session, not cost per card, is the number that tells you whether a lot was worth buying.

A show runs on rhythm, on stream or at a table. Cards that photograph well, sit inside the ticket range your audience buys at, and carry names people recognise keep a session moving. Cards that need explaining stall it, and a stalled session costs more than the lot saved, because the viewers who drop off do not come back for the second half.

Run that count once and the per-card price stops being interesting. A lot that clears in a single session at a higher unit cost beats a cheaper lot you are still holding at the next show.

• What share of the lot cleared in the first session.
• Which names came back for a second copy — that is your restock list.
• What you have relisted twice and still hold.
• Which price band did the work, so you know what to re-order into.
• What you would have paid to simply not receive the rest.

Written order brief

The way to stop buying dead stock is to stop buying anonymous stock: write down what your store sells, and buy against that.

A supplier can only pick to a spec they have been given. Ordering blind — "send me a lot of AR" — hands the choice to whoever is packing, and packing to a number is a different job from picking to a market.

That list is what a Velocity Bundle is built from: you send the wants by DM on Facebook Messenger, and the cards are picked against them and verified in hand. Lots run 50 or 100 cards in three grades — Starter at ¥50,000 for 50 and ¥100,000 for 100, Standard at ¥75,000 for 50 and ¥150,000 for 100, and Exclusive quoted per request. Prices are JPY, tax included; dispatch timing and shipping are confirmed with each quote, and import charges stay on your side of the border.

• Pokémon and characters your buyers ask for by name.
• Era or sets — recent waves and older stock behave differently on your shelf.
• Rarity band — art rare (AR), special art rare (SAR), or a working mix, plus what to leave out. "No duplicates" is a specification, so write it down.
• Price band — the ticket range your audience actually buys at, not the one you wish they did.
• Budget, and the date you need the cards in hand.

Photos and first-order size

Every claim a supplier makes is checkable before money moves, and the check is the same one every time: see the actual cards, buy small first, and settle who pays what at the border.

A forum thread can tell you a supplier exists. It cannot tell you what is in the lot they are about to send you. Photos of the actual stock can.

Then run one cycle end to end: write the list, buy the smaller lot against it, sell a session, and count what is left on the table. Whatever is still sitting there names the thing to exclude next time — that is the whole method, and it works on any supplier you use. When you are ready to spec one, send your list, your budget and your date, and ask to see the cards in hand before you pay.

• Ask for photos of the actual cards before payment, not stock images or a sample from an older lot.
• Get the exclusions in writing — "no duplicates" means nothing until it is in the message thread.
• Buy the smaller size first — One 50-card lot tells you more about a supplier than a week of messages.
• Check what recourse each payment method gives you before you use it, and keep the thread as your record.
• Agree shipping and import charges before the invoice, and get a tracking number when the parcel leaves.