Hello all! I have only recently gotten into collecting some WoTC sealed product. While looking at some of the theme decks and trying to assess if the current value on ebay was accurate to what the product provides you (given they used to once cost $50 last year). How do you assess value of sealed product? Find the value of the cards within.
A particular example of this is the Water Blast theme deck. Overview of the product and card list is here. Although unlimited, what is interesting is the cards printed are the same as their set counter part. For example, pulling a Vaporeon holo from an unlimited pack would be the same print of card as found in this theme deck.
After combing the forums and youtube openings the consensus is the majority of these Vaporeons would be in the 8-9 range. Based on this, the sealed decks value should obviously be at least in the window of of a 8-9 Vaporeon unl holo, but what if we consider commons. Commons are well, common, but with the recent spike in the PKMN market as a whole, even some commons are worth grading.
In the same conversations around condition of the holo’s, commons were also discussed and the consensus was to expect between 9-10 in most cases. Knowing this, these are the currently last sold of some of the unlimited commons (including holo vaporeon) in this theme deck:
This would mean if you hit an 8 on Vaporeon and all 9s on the commons above the range would be $372-558.
Best case scenario would be 9 on Vaporeon and 10 on all the commons which would be a range of $1560-2695.
Obviously hitting all 10’s on the commons would likely not happen, but it does give you a total range of $372-2695.
What this showed me was that even at a price of $200-300 for the Water Blast theme, which previously was $50-100, this was right where it should be valued if not under valued in the current market. I believe break downs like this should be done anytime when considering sealed products in these crazy price hikes to help valuate if said sealed product is either over or underpriced. I think most people do this, but I never considered commons in the equation until now.
For reference heavy unlimited jungle packs at time of writing are selling for the same price range if not more than this theme deck which is baffling considering this theme deck is basically a super heavy jungle pack with one of the best holos in the set and a slue of great commons.
TL;DR: Value of cards within sealed product, especially sealed product with a set list of included cards is an excellent way to assess value of the product and that the value of commons should be included as value can add up, even in lower estimate cases.
THINGS TO NOTE:
- I believe commons cards will be the most likely to decrease in value as people start to grade more, but even if you average $10 profit across grading all the above 20 listed commons, that would be $200 value w/o the Vaporeon
- For full discloser I do own a few copies, one for myself and other copies that I do view as “investment” (bleh, more investment talk, I know)
- Be aware you can get lower than the above ranges, but based on what I could research this wasn’t the norm