Thought I’d start up a discussion on this as I’m a bit uncertain how I want to proceed with cards from this set.
So I’ve been buying up a number of base 1st edition cards for a while now. Generally I get some pretty good deals on them when I do buy them. I’ve been torn if I should sell off my duplicates or not. At this point I have multiple complete sets. With the recent uptick in popularity and prices does it make sense to sell off a set now?
Alternatively I have a lot of cards that should do well at grading. Would it make sense to piece together a PSA graded set from the stock I have? Having realistic expectations I’d imagine most would grade in the 7-9 range for the best examples I have of each card.
I know a lot of it is preference. But as far as investments go it seems to make sense to hang onto these cards as the value continues to rise. But how much higher could they realistically go?
One last question. Would there be any premium on having thin and thick stamped versions of all the holos or is there not enough people that distinguish between the two?
Obligatory “I’m not an expert” but I feel like there’s still a good 5-10 years left of price increases ahead. The kids who grew up with base set are just now getting to the point in their life where they’d want to spend money on nostalgia. I think it’s something people in their late 20s/30s tend to do and base set kids are probably around 30 now. Personally if I had doubles like you I would hang onto them for a while longer.
You probably thought the same thing in regards to price a few years ago when Charizards were 1k, 3k or even 5k. Buying the other holos in 10s seemed tough at $300 a piece, now it’s a bargain.
It’s brought up a lot, so I’ll bring it up again… Incomes of the “Pokemon Generation” are just getting started. The analogy is everyone is getting their first career jobs that are above minimum wage. The wage growth from this group will keep on growing. It really only takes a few people taking off financially to seriously impact the market.
The Pokemon TCG market cap is also fairly small compared to collectible category investments. A 5 million injection into the hobby would be significant. The demand for the staple cards will only continue to grow. There are many 1st edition base holos, and they are limited by one production run 20 years ago. The Pokemon Go injection of demand is a sudden example of what has been gradually happening over time.
I would confidently say prices will continue to gradually rise with a slight correction from the Pokemon Go boost.
