Hi I’m looking to save up some money in the next few months and get a PSA 5-7 1st Edition Base Charizard. I’ve looked at a lot including prices, old and new, and my question is why has this card gone up so much in the last few years and the last year specifically? I’ve only been collecting the TCG seriously in the last year. Would love to hear from someone who’s been around longer about 1st edition Charizard changes over time and I guess if anyone thinks the prices are inflated at the moment or anything else. Thanks for the advice in advanced 
It is the most iconic and recognisable trading card ever to be printed. Pokemon Go created a huge interest in the franchise with the most casual of normies to experienced trading card collectors coming out of the woodwork who see potential in Pokemon with intentions of using it as an investment vehicle to people who are buying into the nostalgia. They all want a 1st edition base set Charizard and there’s demand for the card in any condition.
Hello!
The answer to your question is pretty simple. 5 years ago the number of collectors that were after a PSA 10 copy of the first edition Charizard were less than the number of available copies of the card, hence the price was established by the demand. If there are 5 listed and only one buyer, the buyer will tend to purchase the cheaper copy hence keeping the price “low”.
However with the recent pokemon craze and with the 90’s kid now established as adults, with jobs that provide enough disposable income to spend on other luxuries, the available copies started to disappear. Eventually there were 10 buyers for one copy, so those buyers needed to compete to get it, which mean spend more money, hence increasing the price of the card.
This is very good example of supply and demand and how it affects the prices of the market…any market.
There is of course inflation, because inflation is forever increasing, which affects the prices of everything. But with inflation, normally there are adjustments on salaries and taxes to keep things “balanced” (kinda of). So the price is true to what people are willing to pay for it and if you want it, you too need to pay that price tag.
If you don’t want to buy because you think the price is too high, even if you can buy, then you are tricking yourself to think you will able to get a copy for cheaper, because the moment the prices drop, there are collectors who will remove them from the market happily, which will make the price go up again.
This is for the PSA 10 copy, and of course when that one goes up, the lower grades follow the same pattern, however “cheaper”.
Hope I could make myself clear
Take care!
Thanks for the great advice everyone 
will post when I eventually get my card.
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i would also say this,
if you was going for a psa 10 1st edition set but now that the charizard 10 has gone out of alot of people price range they might just stick a PSA 9 in there so atleast they have completed the set.
and same for the rest if you was going for a psa 9 set but now prices have risen so instead of a psa 9 charizard you stick an 8 in there and so on.
and psa 7s is still a near mint card thats 20 years old which is still good i think the longer we get away from the release date of a set ( especially base set 1st edition ) the more people will careless about grade and focus on your completing the set as the 9/10 will be out of most collectors price range so instead of going for all 9s or all 10s just go for the set but i think thats 5 or so years away yet.
Longer you leave the more your spend on shadowless 1st edition charizard
The way I always felt was how can I afford NOT to get this card now? Trends and wise guys knew that, especially 1st Base Charizards, these cards were going up.
Don’t wait. Buy today…even if it’s a 4 or 5.
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