So I recently found an old store that has a couple of leftover opened (partially sold) booster boxes from the golden age of pokemon that they used to sell individually. Needless to say I bought them up real quick, but I was wondering what is the deal with graded booster packs. Looking at psa.com they don’t have nearly as rigid of a system for grading them, with a lot of emphasis being placed on “eye appeal” and clean seals. The packs I have are box fresh but the boxes have been open for 15ish years so not like flawless like a modern pack. I am considering grading the light packs but don’t know what the market looks like for them.
Also checking the pop report for graded packs, I was surprised to see how low the total pops were for the pokemon packs (many rare sets below 50 total all grades). Does this mean I’d be an idiot to grade these. I don’t mind if they take a while to sell or if they get like an 8 or 9, but if a total pop of 50 means nobody cares, am I wasting my time and money?
Surely some of you here are the people who would submit, buy and sell these packs so any help would be gtreat!
A couple people said they don’t like PSA’s booster cases and I think that’s the overall sentiment. Sure you can make money grading & selling packs, but so many people would submit if PSA didn’t fold over the flaps. When I grade to collect, I want the condition to be preserved and not altered, maybe even damaged over time.
My analogy was, imagine if PSA encased sports balls by letting half the air out of them. It’s just not the same aesthetic, even if the condition remains.
Expect the pop to rise substantially if/when they change the cases, I’d then expect more buyers (like myself) too!
There’s a market. I and many collectors don’t like them, but there’s always people looking for thing that others don’t like. It’s actually a lot easier to sell these now compared to the past. I used to have to wait months for them to sell and recently I waited days. There’s a bigger demand for them in specific sets, and very few people are supplying any.
Keep in mind where there’s opportunity others will come. So be cautious about sending in a lot. You don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of less desirable packs. Also make sure not to get too many lower grades. I’m not as well versed in the market at this time, but in the past low grades sell for less than raw packs.
I submitted Bandai Carddass cards at 42x and 44x certs respectively and they did change the case within that timeframe to better fit the cards, at least if my very small example size represents every Bandai order at the time. Boosters would probably require an entirely new concept though, not just a wider case frame.
@modestmudkip
Pokemon pack grading is niche category, I don’t think there’s ever enough demand so PSA will consider making seperate holders ( after all the current ones are originally made for older ice hockey/baseball packs ).
Save your money and buy seperate plastic sleeves.
