I’m deciding between investing in a 1st Edition Gym Challenge/Heroes booster box or WOTC heavy packs.
Honestly, it might just be that both are good options, and it’s just my preference, but I’m interested to hear your thoughts!
Originally, I was going to try to get my holy grail, PSA 10 Play Promo Umbreon, but last offer I made of 10k was rejected. Now, I’m looking more towards sealed product.
(Note, I’m thinking of keeping whatever I decide to buy for at least 5 years).
Reasons for going for the booster box:
Keeping a whole booster box could see more growth than individual boosters in 5+ years
No question about whether or not I weighed it, since the box is sealed (although I’ve seen a listing for a weighed box, so I’ve seen everything now haha).
Reasons for the heavy packs
Could diversify across different sets
No issue from future buyers (or less issue) about it being weighed because they’re heavy and more likely to have a holo.
Individual packs typically will sell faster since there’s less psychological inertia to buy something that’s $500 vs. $7000
Final option: wait it out until the price retrace…
TLDR; I’m Paralyzed and Confused! Which should I get?
I don’t know how much sealed vintage product will retrace, it never has before (significantly). Also the only reason I could see for sealed old stuff dropping is if pokemon losses fans, and I can’t see that happening soon
Also, have you considered maybe saving up some money and just purchasing your actual grail card a little bit later on? Both the sealed product and that particular card have about the same likelihood of retracing (unlikely). Believe me when I tell you that nothing will scratch the itch like getting a card you actually really care about.
These are both, IMO, basically the two safest investments one can make in Pokemon. Just buy whichever you prefer. I personally am more invested in heavy 1st ed. packs because I believe the supply is (generally) in a faster state of decline. Ultimately, though, the deciding factor should be whether or not you want your investment to be tied to the value of the cards or the rarity of sealed boxes. As long as PSA 10 1st Ed. prices remain high, heavy packs should be in very high demand. If the prices on PSA 10 1st Ed. holos dropped significantly, however, I would expect the box to be less negatively impacted than heavy packs. The value of the box is mostly divorced from the value of the cards. Collectors typically buy boxes to keep sealed, whereas collectors typically (or at least more often than with boxes) buy them to open and grade the cards.
As far as waiting it out until “the price retrace,” I would not make that assumption. I expect that many set cards will experience a price retrace, but I would be surprised if sealed product experiences anything more than an extremely minor retrace (if any at all). Over the past decade+ of collecting MTG I’ve witnessed my fair share of price retraces on cards. But sealed product rarely, if ever, has dipped – because even if demand for sealed product declines, that decline in demand is typically counteracted by the simultaneous, constant decline of supply. So if you want to buy sealed product, I’d honestly just go for it. If you wanted to buy certain individual set cards, waiting out the current bull market might be wise, though.
It’s equally easy to scam someone out of a booster box, though. They could open the box, take out the packs, reseal it, then open an INAD case claiming the box was resealed and return it for a full refund. The reality is that if someone wants to scam you out of your item, they will succeed. Of course, that would have a lot more risk associated with it than falsely claiming a heavy pack didn’t contain a holo. But both are instances of fraud, and I would think that the sort of people who commit return fraud in the first place are rarely deterred by this (and rarely commit fraud opportunistically, but instead thoroughly plan it).
Yes, unfortunately booster box scams have become more common. But with sealed packs it’s effortless to scam even without eBay buyer protection, especially if the seller is an outside investor with no reputation in the hobby.
The benefits of lower cost are also a downside because the barrier to entry is lower and the potential to scam is even easier.
Personally I have read horror story after another with sealed stuff lately so I am selling off my sealed via pwcc to purchase cards.
I can only agree with qwachansey. If you are not really involved in the community/hobby I’d rather recommend purchasing high value cards than sealed product. Not only for selling later down the road but also for authentication purposes. There’s a small chance you might also get tempted to open as well
That’s a really good point. I do already have sealed product from a lot of wotc sets. Any recommendations on how to sell while covering yourself against scammers?
I’m thinking taking close up video of the packs/box to show it hasn’t been unsealed and showing that exact pack going into a box with the shipping label.
You know, I might just do that myself. Have you worked with PWCC before? I’m guessing it’s one of the best ways of selling sealed product because then they have to handle any scammers trying to claim it’s been resealed etc. I’ve heard you have to wait a bit to get paid but worth it if you’re not in a hurry.
Either you try to sell to a very big dealer (TCA, TT etc.), that will prevent any potential headache regarding scams. On the flip side you will also not get full market value, so PWCC or any other trustworthy broker would be an alternative. Just being cautious in general who you sell this product too is a good starting point - I don´t know if you are active in the IG pokemon community e.g. but I´d definitely strongly advice against selling high end sealed product to “random” people without some kind of good reputation.
For the uninitiated who do not frequent the discord, the Shining Tyranitar artwork is the :whatshouldibuy: meme.
Basically it’s in response to the frequent threads like this, where people ask what items they should buy given a certain amount of money. Usually they frame it as “investment” and want us all to get out our crystal balls and tell them exactly where the value of Pokemon cards will be once some arbitrary time period passes.
The Shining Tyranitar art reflects that the poster is, to quote this one, so “paralyzed and confused” by being unsure as to which children’s trading card products will appreciate in value the most, that they have nothing to do but spread their arms and scream to the heavens “but WHAT SHOULD I BUY?!?!?”
The implication being that, instead of the OP figuring out what they should buy for themselves, they ask a bunch of well-respected collectors what they should buy for a “flawless victory” or good ROI. The use is similar but I guess our interpretations are slightly different lol
Filming yourself packing it will make no difference to eBay or PayPal or wherever a dispute might be happening. But if it makes you feel better, do it. Yes, your best bet for selling sealed product is PWCC unless you have a lot of eBay feedback. I’ve sold boxes of Gym Heroes, Power Keepers, and Ruby Sapphire on eBay (as well as mid-high end MTG boxes like Urza’s Saga, Exodus, Mirage, etc.). Never had even the slightest issue. I just stipulate in the description that the buyer must have at least a 500 feedback score and have no negative/neutral feedback. I’m not a big-time seller on eBay or anything, but I do have an almost 1k feedback score and a 12-year old eBay account so that helps a lot – scammers (I would imagine) tend to target newer/inexperienced users who wouldn’t know how to handle a situation like this. Point is: it’s not that risky or difficult to sell boxes on your own. If you’re looking for a stable investment, I’m of the honest opinion that sealed product is much, much less risky than individual cards (maybe unless you’re talking about PSA 8-10 1st Ed. Base Charizards or the like).
