Do you ever think about how many lost or forgotten WOTC Pokémon cards are out there waiting to be found?? I can imagine a lot of the parents of us 90’s kids put the cards in a box and tucked them in the attic or something when the kids left the nest. These cards are just sitting there forgotten about. Who knows, I’m sure there are a few forgotten 1st edition base set Charizards sitting in random attics/closets around the USA (probably more west coast for 1st edition base). I know I have a binder full of WOTC holos with a 1st edition Zard that was either stolen or lost in my parents storage unit in Phoenix.
Does anyone else ever think about this or is just me? I live in a small town of 10k people. I’m almost tempted to hand out flyers something like this,
Hey! Are you a parent of a 90’s child? Have they moved away from home? Do you remember where you put there old Pokémon card collection? If you do let me know! If they are cards I’m interested in and in the right condition I will pay COLD HARD CASH!!! Call this number 111-111-2222 and we can set up a place and time! I’m willing to do incalls or outcalls!
I have a post on the local classifieds letting people know I will buy their cards. Get the odd inquiry but usually have to go find adds that owners post. Buying bulk can be fun. It’s like an enormous booster that can contain any set. Often contains a lot of cards in played condition but if they’re cheap enough it’s easy enough to make your money back.
Great topic and excellent idea to search out attic treasures by putting flyers on doors. You could expand it to include old Magic, Yugioh, et all.
One quickie, of course there’s some but not a lot of 1st Base Charizards. Believe it or not, those cards have been highly collectible from the first day they were released. Both eBay and Yahoo Auctions USA were easily accessible in 1999 and that card was always the biggest seller. The unlimited versions came out very soon after and those were more played than collected. They actually came out so soon after en masse it was easy to collect the 1st ed cause the unlimited versions were already available.
I offer the same current bulk rates as the big guys (derium’s, etc…) on most. If there is older stuff in pristine condition or cards that I really want I offer a premium. Most are happy to unload bulk here without the shipping charge. No where to send it within Canada.
It isn’t something I’ve been doing long but I will just refresh the Kijiji ad when it expires. Same goes with my for sale ads which end up being mostly the cards from the bulk that I do not end up adding to my collection.
I typically like going to garage sales in more residential areas for that reason. You never know what you are going to find. One time I found about 30-40 ex cards in a tin marked $10… Oh what a find that was!