I found my WoTC era cards in dustproof protection from storage after all these years, and came across a card, to which I cannot understate the extent to which it’s affected me.
-Kadabra (Base 1)
-Triple Ink Hickey (2 Small, 1 Large)
-Heterochromatic Ink Hickeys (2 Red/Yellow, 1 Blue Cyan)
-Registration Error of 30/70 front ~50/50 back
I took the photos to my LCS, to which the assistant was initially curious at the triple hickeys, then his jaw dropped at the Registration Error on the same card and booked a specialist for the weekend to look at it (along with some spitball offers if signed off as genuine).
I’m still at a loss for what to do. I’m thinking uncleaned and WalkThrough with CGC solely for the authentic and forensic report over an actual grade. I made an account to get the views of the Elite Four(um).
It’s a neat error card with the combined hickeys and miscut. I’m not an error expert or collector, but I would think it would fetch a premium over a normal Kadabra. But I wouldn’t expect that premium to be some over-the-top amount.
I think errors like this are just better sold as raw rather than graded, as the grading doesn’t really add any premium. It’s also probably not that difficult to verify that it’s an authentic card (looks real to me)—no need to pay CGC to do that.
It’s cool but I wouldn’t suggest the errors increase its value tremendously (centreing isn’t off massively and the printer hickeys are small). Unfortunately condition is rough as well.
I would only get it graded if you’re doing so for personal collection. Majority of the money spent grading this card will not be able to be recouped!
The LCS assistant stated that the errors individually wouldn’t be worth much, a little bit of premium for the registration maybe, but that specific combination of errors on the same card was something he hadn’t seen before.
I looked at the mass-produced error card catalogue and couldn’t find it in there before heading down, and the assistant said they’d do a bit of research themselves before the meeting.
The store has a Beckett sponsor, but conceded taking it to CGC solely for getting the errors listed over the actual supplementary grade. IF CGC listed all the errors on the one plaque, as well as depending on the specialist’s views of the card, they’d probably put it up at around AU$2,000 absolute max.
Also, not mold, just dirt and gunk on the back of the card
Agreed. It’s pretty clear that the card is real, so sending it to grade for Auth only is redundant. Anyone worth their salt should be able to determine this is Auth, but as it’s only an unlmtd card (Still a very cool card!) grading might not add much value, if any.
Welcome to e4! Thanks for sharing your cool error card.
I collect errors and see things like this from time to time. This card is worth between $30-$50 to the right person, either an error collector or a Kadabra collector. That’s a 30x-50x premium on a card that is typically worth ~$1 or less given the condition!
I know that this might not be the type of feedback that you were looking for, as finding treasure is the most exciting part about looking through old collections. But I thought it might be helpful to have a realistic view of what’s going on; if this was a $2,000 card, I would be the first to tell you.
Sorry for the bad news, but it’s still a cool card that you can keep in your collection.
