Condition Disorder and Seeing Monetary Value

Hopefully you didn’t buy yet, if you did they have a return policy, but I accidentally linked the mini euro. You want standard wire which is this one wondertrail.com/games-and-puzzles/card-sleeves-binders-deck-boxes/board-game-sleeves/mdg7028-euro-game-card-sleeves-59-mm-x-92-mm-by-mayday-games.html

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Just send your cards to SGC and it will solve the monetary value part

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I did not, planned on doing so today. Thanks for the correct link :smile:

This is the problem I had with Pichu cards. It was becoming increasingly harder to find raw copies of certain cards, so inevitably I ended up having to buy a graded card or miss out. Suddenly I had a binder with empty slots where I owned the card in a PSA slab and for me the choice was either crack the slab open or move over to graded cards completely, of which I chose to do the latter. I still have my old binder and look at it from time to time.

My logic with cards being graded is that I may as well shoot for the best grade possible (when I picked up my first graded card, most PSA 10 Pichus were around the $15-$25 mark and PSA 9s were $10-20, so it made sense to just spend a little extra).

Now that I’m approaching completion of my collection, however, the difference in price between PSA 9 and PSA 10 is pretty significant for some of the cards, so in some cases I can’t afford to be as picky. However it’s still pretty easy to pick up a raw card and get a 9, so I only ever buy PSA 9s or lower if they’re otherwise very hard to find.

My ultimate aim with Pichu is to have all cards in PSA 10 slabs. Realistically that’s not going to happen any time soon, and that’s a good thing because it means I get to enjoy collecting them for longer.

As for monetary value, I don’t really pay attention to the value of my collection. I have intentionally overpaid for cards in the past in order to secure them for my collection, and I’ll continue to do that in future. My long term plan is to one day hand the collection over to my grandkids; what they do with it will be up to them. Considering I don’t have kids of my own yet, that’s going to be a very long way off.

Maybe once I’m done with Pichu I’ll move on to Pikachu. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Baseball, basketball, football, coins, us currency etc all blow pokemon out of the water in terms of volume and sales

It’s kind of hard to escape from though when you are spending your money on old or modern. Like you always know the chase card and that is sort of down to its value. I know what you mean though, would be nice to not have that in the back of your head.

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I’ve been advocating for damaged love a little bit on here haha! I feel that any card should be appreciated, and even damaged ones have their value. Potentially more value than others since you’re less afraid to handle them. At least that’s how I see it. Obviously, a decent condition is better, but there is nothing wrong with a few marks. Totally agree with the partial binders… My Neo Genesis 1st edition section has energies in place of the graded cards with the received grades written on them haha! It’s absolutely hideous!

Most of my base set 1st edition collection is MP stuff. If you care about value, I got them for next to nothing, and they continue to go up in value so who cares haha! It’s not the meteoric rise of some cards, but it is still something. and I can still say I own them and appreciate their art.

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You need to be careful with citing record-setting prices for a few key items as indicative of an entire market. Rarer memorabilia associated with the handful of greatest stars ever are not indicative of a complete collectible market. Part of that can be associated with PSA derangement syndrome. If you see values of NrMt 7 or Mt 8 examples of lesser stars making new highs, or even Trout, Jordan, or James non-rookie cards surging, that may indicate greater popularity for the hobby as a whole.
Don’t get me wrong. This year is the first since 1984 that my fantasy league isn’t active. As a long-time baseball fanatic (I started collecting in 1958, went to my first MLB game in 1960, and still play softball today) I would love to see a resurgence in the game. But the Mike Trout card is like certain Wayne Gretsky memorabilia, quite expensive but not necessarily indicative of increased popularity for the sport. More like an investment in art.

Good points. And like I said, I don’t know much about those markets. I am good friends with the local sports card shop owner and has said that quarantine has been the period of best sales for him since he opened over a year ago. He hasn’t been able to keep stock of high end prices and distributors haven’t been able to supply him with anything since he doesn’t have a sales record from the previous year with them. Many of his basketball hobby boxes have tripled in price and although it’s been good for business somewhat it’s also discouraging because he can’t sell the same product to a lot of the younger crowd who now can’t afford it.