Ricardo Pepi
Our Investing Thesis
The hobby is huge. There is a ton of temptation and FOMO. It's easy to become undisciplined and sloppy in pursuit of making money investing in sports cards.
Our sports card investing thesis is three fold.
1. Don't Chase. The way to make money investing in Sports Cards is NOT to chase the hot players or cards, but to have the ability to identify the NEXT hottest player BEFORE their card prices take off.
2. Stay In The Game. Since each player has a countless amount of cards, it's necessary to stay disciplined in identifying and purchasing cards that will have the ability to rise in value. Go Low / Mid Risk as much as possible. Everyone wants the big names. If the price is already high, then the upside is already baked in. Buy the dip on either the card, the player or both. Have reasonable expectations. Not every card will yield a profit, but overall, if you stay in the game, you should make 20% over the long haul.
3. Be Set Up To Sell. The most overlooked part of profiting in sports card investing is actually being set up to sell your cards. This includes acquiring cards that are frequently transacted, so as to instill confidence in your future buyer by being able to show consistent sales comps. We're not saying not to acquire short prints and variations, but if you're looking to make an ROI quickly, these aren't always the best cards.
There are two windows. The long term window and the flippable window. The long term window is when you believe a player has a season or more of relevant potential "moments" ahead. The flippable window is when a player actually never has to perform well on the field or court, but only has to generate enough "hype" to see an increase in card value.
We know that our background of professional sports front office work and player scouting, high stakes fantasy sports expertise, digital content creation and sales will make our Sports Card Investment Report a critical piece in your pursuit of positive ROI on your Sports Card Investments.
Ricardo Pepi
The Reward
As the 2022 World Cup approaches, more and more attention is being paid to members of the US Men's National Team (USMNT).
Pepi is a 19-year old phenom who just transferred from FC Dallas of the MLS to FC Augsburg of Bundisliga.
He's a potential starter at striker for the US in the World Cup, and at such a young age, seems like a solid prospect to be one of the faces of the USMNT even heading into the 2026 World Cup in North America, making an investment in his cards now potentially a great long term idea.
Latest Update on Pepi from MLSSoccer.com clears up the cloudy situation a bit.
Loan to Groningen from Augsburg
Life in Germany hasn’t been a dream for Ricardo Pepi after his historic $20 million transfer from FC Dallas to Augsburg in the winter. The wonder kid has yet to score for Augsburg – in fact, he hasn’t scored for anybody since October. It hasn’t been easy.
Pepi slowly fell down the depth chart at Augsburg after his arrival and it continued to start the 2022-23 season, so all parties decided it’d be best for the player to move on loan to Groningen in the Dutch top flight.
The move for Pepi should be a good one. He’ll be a key starter in a league known to be advantageous to strikers and attacking play.
This is still the beginning of Pepi’s career, a slow start at Augsburg won’t derail the train. He’s still only 19! Already with 10 caps for the USMNT, including a legendary debut in World Cup qualifying against Honduras, the future remains bright.
Goals and form at Groningen will do wonders for his chances to be in Qatar for the World Cup. It’s up to him to make it count over the next few months.
Center forward is wide open for the USMNT, but all of Pepi’s competition for roster spots are in form. FC Cincinnati's Brandon Vazquez, Haji Wright, Jordan Pefok and Josh Sargent are all scoring goals. Former FC Dallas teammate Jesus Ferreria is too, I just didn’t mention him in that grouping because I think he’s already a lock for the roster.
The Risk
Even though he boomed out of the gate in Fall 2021 with 3 goals in 5 games, Pepi has been in a drought in international play, having not scored since October, and there are growing concerns about how much of a load he can actually handle.
The US has not named a starting striker, and while he's in contention, there's also a chance he warms the bench.
His card prices are not cheap, and I see him much like a boom or bust baseball prospect right now.
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