Student businesses: John Ramírez sells and trades cards with ‘Cool Cards Ready To Go’

By Olivia Gonzalez

John Ramírez, ‘22 is a small business owner who trades, buys, sells, and grades cards of any kind, while navigating the last semester of high school. 

In September of 2020, “igotcoolcards” was established.

Ramírez says he, “had a bunch of cards laying around because [he] used to collect them. So [he] decided [he] wanted to just sell them to see how much [he] got for them.” 

“I’m a collector, so then I bought more. Those cards shot up at price, so it started a big cycle of me just buying and selling them,” explains Ramírez.

His card business heavily relies on the process of selling, buying, and also trading. 

A lot of challenges have to be faced to create a successful and working business. 

Ramírez says, “The first challenge was making sure people knew I wasn’t going to scam them because it’s mostly online.” Being online creates challenges like credibility to show up within the selling process. 

Gaining a following base becomes an obstacle when creating a business, “The second was getting exposure… it’s really hard to identify yourself when you’re online because you have to show that it’s you and prove you have the items you’re selling,” says Ramírez. 

He continues, “Another challenge that I didn’t think I would have is maintaining everything that I have, like being able to make sure I keep a cycle of buying and selling.” 

Maintaining a balance between life, school, and work requires adjustments in schedules. 

In Ramírez’s situation, “[He] think[s] it helps that it’s [his] senior year, but [when he] started [his business], COVID started, so [he doesn’t] think it was much of a challenge to balance school.”

“I didn’t pay attention to school at all, I focused most of my time on that,” admits Ramírez.  

Varieties of items help to attract the attention of interested buyers. Ramírez sells cards such as  “Pokémon,” “Yu-Gi-Oh,” basketball, hockey, soccer, and baseball cards.

He says, “Just anything that has an audience [he’s] trying to get into.” With the different collections of cards, it becomes a benefit when trying to reach different audiences. 

Redwood student Joshua Rosales, ‘22 is one of the many customers that have bought from Ramírez. Rosales purchased various “Pokémon” cards. 

An important detail for both the sellers and buyers ties back to being reliable, “I was very content with my purchase. The cards were in very good condition and they looked and felt really nice,” says Rosales. 

Buying locally helps demonstrate the support that comes from buyers. He says, “It feels really good supporting a local business especially when that local business is run by one of my best friends.”  

Opportunities and advantages are the bright sides of running a business.

“It’s amazing because I don’t have to rely on my parents at all, I can do it on my own and make decisions that they would usually make for me. It’s super enlightening.”

John Ramírez, ’22

Owning your own business creates responsibility and later benefits the owner. 

As Ramírez approaches his last year of high school, he plans to expand his business with or without attending college. 

Ramírez plans to go to college if he gets accepted into his preferred universities. “In high school, you have to be there a straight five days a week, but in college, I’m going to be able to pick the days I want to go. So I can work around that schedule and still be able to go to events,” he explains. 

“[He] wasn’t able to go to a lot of events because of being in school. School is the only thing that is stopping [him] from doing everything [he] want[s] to do,” adds Ramírez. 

The feeling of enjoyment is important when trying to share and sell something you love. 

He says, “My favorite part is being able to have a whole bunch of cards because when I was a kid I was told ‘no you can’t have this.’ I had a lot of limits as a kid, so being able to not have limits now is cool.”

Investing in successful businesses is extremely popular nowadays, and Ramírez was able to be a part of an investment. 

He explains, “I showed people in my hometown over in Salinas that I was [selling cards], and that I was serious about this. They set me to the side and they said that they wanted to see what I could do with their money.”

“So, I’ve been given money from other people to invest in me because they have seen that I was able to make a profit in a decent amount of time,” he adds. 

For more information, Ramírez can be contacted through his Instagram: @igotcoolcards.

https://www.instagram.com/igotcoolcards/

Tags: clubs and lifestyles, john ramirez, journalism, Olivia Gonzalez, pokemon, Redwood, redwood gigantea, small business