As a draw nearer to crossing that magical $1,000 number, I wonder what e4 considers the best cards sub $1k. Personally I feel shelling out that amount needs to come with some level of rarity, conditional or others, but as I collect Japanese I appreciate there’s far less $1k set cards than in English which may sway me.
While I’m not looking at this as a ‘best investment’ type question, I know it may go that route but would love to hear some answers about obscure cards with rich history and low cost if they exist.
It’s slowly turning into a meme, but PCL (Pokemon Card Laboratory)
In Japan, this card was awarded to those who challenged and won against Gym Leaders or Pokémon Card Laboratory employees present at the Gym Leader & PCL Challenge Corner event held at each regional Summer 2004 Battle Road tournament.
Pokémon Card Game Laboratory is the dedicated playtesting room from within the Creatures, Inc. office.
Well, this may be a bit biased as I love Espeon, but I bought a PSA 10 copy of Dark Espeon for under 1k. Underrated I think (this also goes for the Dark Tyranitar).
I had a pretty significant one-time jump to buy the fan club eevee. It ran me…a lot. But other than that, I’ve never bought a single card worth more than $250 (Munch eevee).
A lot of people are really into that ES umbreon, but they should save $600 and buy Karen’s umbreon from vs instead
1k USD is quite a bit of money now so here is my list of cards.
Please consider my suggestion to be only for ungraded but beauty goods, which I personally would consider best bang for buck. Grading just is a different ball game.
Complete L-P shiny preset campaign - maybe stretching your dollar to the maximum or may go slightly over. But getting the full set should be economical.
The link doesn’t show a picture but is this the card which depicts an actual lab, has lab coats and no pokemon? Awesome card if so!
@Will I’ve actually tried to strike a deal for a 10 but unfortunately it’s closer to $2k. I believe there’s a 7 over here listed for around $500 but as things stand that’s above what I can justify for a card that would go in the binder.
@DarthEevee as a binder card it would be easy to achieve but a PSA 10 copy of Karen’s Umbreon (on my wants list fs) currently runs about $1500.
@mrbubbles thanks for the extensive list. I believe the XY promo Charizard is slightly under $1k, although it may bounce between slightly under and slightly over. The JP Rally cards as well as the L-P present campaign cards are top tier! I’m not yet at the level to spend $1k on binder cards but I certainly hope one day my binders can rival your own!
The title isn’t meant to confuse and is open to interpretation. Just because I wouldn’t pay $900 for a card to put in my binder doesn’t mean it wouldn’t qualify.
Personally I wouldn’t spend $1k on a binder card but everyone differs. If someone thinks a Rayquaza Gold Star PSA 2/3 is the best value card under $1k I’d have no issues with the answer.
Maybe I should’ve specified condition as a requirement to individual answers.
Just for further clarification, what do you consider a binder card? A few suggestions here could be under 1k in a 9, which most would consider owning in slab form. I get that many people crack 7s and 8s, so just curious of your perspective! Obviously if you’re hunting for 10s that will limit your options as there is a premium to be paid. That said, I’ll play it safe with my entry and recommend a card under 1k in PSA 10:
This card was on my wants list for quite a while and I finally was able to add it to my collection a couple months ago. It’s a very unique card with the vintage holofoil backing, and decently rare in a 10 with a pop of 229. It cost me $600, which is still enough to pick up a nice raw PCL for under 1K total!
(Pokemon Card Laboratory)
That said, I’ll play it safe with my entry and recommend a card under 1k in PSA 10:
