Just wanted to see opinions on what you think is better investment or is more sought after.
1st edition PSA 9s or Unlimited PSA 10s?
Thanks!
Hey looks like youāre newish here so I just wanted to help you out. Generally market/investment posts are reserved here: www.elitefourum.com/t/the-giant-english-market-thread/27424/1
Best of luck with your question!
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This isnāt investment advice but I prefer unlimited PSA 9 cards. I can buy so many of them and they really are mint condition. As for PSA 9s, I actually prefer white marks on the backs because a āpack fresh (no marks on the edges)ā PSA 9 usually means itās off center a bit, but you can have a āPSA 10 in the frontā that got knocked down due to a few white marks on the back. Slightly off center backs are fine too. I just care for the front of the card for the most part.
1st edition isnāt my cup of tea but theyāre definitely more sought after even at lower grades such as PSA 6/7.
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1st Edition PSA 9s for sure IMO
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100% 1st Edition PSA 9s. I personally think the premium for PSA 10 over PSA 9 isnāt worth it in most instances, anyway. For me, itās tough to justify paying significant amount more for a card just because a third party service deemed it slightly better. I also think thereās a risk of the PSA 10 premium not being quite as significant in the future. For now, PSA is the dominant grading company, and almost certainly will be for the foreseeable future. But in 15-20 years, who knows? Maybe PSA will be less dominant and no one will be willing to pay 10x more for a PSA 10 vs a PSA 9. Iām not saying this will be the case, but itās possible.
Another thing that makes me prefer the 1st Edition PSA 9 is the fact that the PSA 10 pops for Unlimited cards will grow a LOT more than PSA 10 pops for 1st Edition cards in the future. Look at how few Unlimited cards have been submitted vs. 1st Edition cards. People simply used to not really submit Unlimited cards to PSA. If Unlimited PSA 10 prices end up going up significantly, you better believe that a TON of raw copies are going to be sent in for grading, and a lot of Unlimited sealed product will start being opened. For anything pre-Neo, Unlimited sealed product (and especially cards) are plentiful. 1st Edition cards have already been regularly submitted to PSA for years now. PSA 10-potential raw 1st Edition holos have largely already been graded since the monetary incentive has been significant for years at this point. So I donāt see the PSA 10 pops growing nearly as significantly for those in the future.
EDIT: also, another factor is: which card? Is the PSA 10 Unlimited version half the price of the PSA 9 1st Edition version? Or vice versa? Is the card from Team Rocket or Neo Destiny? All of these things would make giant differences. Itās possible one or the other is underpriced relative to the other.
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Given the volume of Unlimited cards I think finding a 1ED in a 9 is harder and worth more than an UNL in 10.
Would be interesting to see POP reports of both for same cards and how many of each there are
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Buy the card not the grade
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Base Unlimited product is being opened everyday, there are not that much sealed base 1st edition product out there. Base 1st edition trumps unlimited any day. Even though later sets do not have the same disparity in rareness between 1st edition and unlimited I would take a 9 1st edition over a 10 unlimited any day
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A better investment would be real estate or a 401K.
But as for collecting Pokemon cards, I prefer 1st edition no matter the grade.
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Appreciate the advice. We do own our home and invest in 401k as well as max out our roth IRAās each year. My Pokemon investing and collecting is just extra on top of those more stable proven investments.
Obviously i am collecting first and for most but wanted to make sure im making smart decisions as far as the value of PSA, total population and the 1st edition stramps are concerned just so im making smart decisions.
Thanks a lot. I really appreciate the detailed response. Makes sense.
Thats the way i was leaning as well but a lot of WOTC cards are going for more as PSA 10 unlimited than PSA 9 1st Editon which i thought was odd. But im sure like you said as more product is opened that should reverse eventually.
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1st edition every time bro
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Iāll never get my mind around a person wanting to spend more for a PSA 10 Unlimited Base Set card than a PSA 9 1st edition Base Set card.
With other setsā¦ sure. Go for the grade over the 1st edition stamp.
But 1st edition Base Set is another world from Unlimited Base Set.
Some reasons I say this:
- itās the first set, making the idea of 1st edition itself much more special
- the cards actually look very different, the āshadowlessā distinction is the least of it; whatās much more significant is the far more vibrant colors that you get with the 1st edition / Shadowless cards
- the disparity in the distribution between 1st edition and Unlimited is far greater in Base Set than for other sets
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Prices are driven by a combination of supply vs demand. Everyone has their own opinions on what future demand will look like, but itās impossible to predict. What we do know is that 1st edition supply is significantly lower than Unlimitedā¦ by a factor of 5-10x, maybe more? As Bulbasaur mentioned above, this may be most apparent in Base set, but comes into play for any set.
There are *far* more than 10x the number of Base Unlimited cards than there are 1st ed Base cards.
Donāt let the PSA population report (1st ed cards have a much better chance of being submitted to PSA) and the high-end PokĆ©mon card market in general skew your perception of the actual distribution.
The 1st edition cards were printed during a time when WOTC / The PokĆ©mon Company werenāt sure how well the cards would sell outside of Japan. I recall seeing that after the initial release, demand for the cards was literally 10 times what they were expecting. So while 1st edition / Shadowless cards were the first print run, they ended up having 7 additional print runs that were *all* much larger than the first print run.
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1st edition. Fin.
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The ārarityā of PSA 10 UED relies on subjective grader opinion, while the 1st Ed is inherently and objectively rarer. Furthermore, the minuscule condition differences between 9s and 10s often arenāt a bother to many collectors. On top of that, 1st Ed is just way more popular than UED.
So yeah, PSA 9 1st Ed all day.
And I say that as someone who personally isnāt a fan of that stamp at all.
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IĀ“m collecting PSA 10 1st and PSA 10 Unl, hereĀ“s my opinion:
For Base Set, it is not even a question for me, 1st Ed all day. The most memorable set of all time, and itĀ“s overall value for the hobby is unparalleled.
For other sets, the allure of the first ed stamp dwindles away, as I was mainly collecting unlimited as a kid. I have almost no attachment to the 1st ed here. I think a lot of the people who are blindly preaching PSA 9 1st ed over UNL 10 all day, have no idea of the actual difficulty grading these cards/finding them in actually pristine condition. Look at some popular examples: Sabrinas Gengar, or Blaines Moltres from Gym Heroes Unl and you will quickly realize the difficulty. And I can guarantee you, you wonĀ“t find any 10 worth copies (readily) available on the market.
The argument by muk that the inherent rarity is tied to PSA is of course true, but thatĀ“s not the whole truth imo. I canĀ“t imagine that the collectors community will go back to binder collecting/grading companies becoming less prevalent. You can cross an average PSA 10 to whatever company, it should almost always get a better grade than an average 9. Unless grading itself dies, PSA 10(aka superior condition) will always have a certain premium.
Edit: I also think that the general consensus that there is massive supply of raw gem mint unlimited cards out there is just not true. Looking for gradeable copies myself over the course of the last years, I found more 1st eds than unlimiteds.
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Great points. I assume most people donāt collect multiple versions of one set (=not both a PSA 10 UED set and a PSAx 1st Ed set), so it comes down to āwhat is the next best thing to 1st Ed PSA 10ā, if they canāt afford the latter.
I assume most collectors value the 1st Ed stamp over PSA 10 condition without that stamp.
But thatās just an assumption and future might prove me wrong. After all, Iām collecting Japanese cards so my expertise is limited on that subject.
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Thanks for all the feedback. It looks like its a bit strong on the PSA 9 1st Edition stamp over the PSA 10 Unlimited.
I appreciate the advice and opinions. Always better to have other ideas other than your own. I know none of us can predict the future but it makes it a lot easier than taking shots in the dark!