Guess the Illustrator ending price on PWCC

[squirtle1000]

@pokeolivr

@squirtle1000

The PSA 7 Illustrator sold for 30x more than the PSA 7 1st Ed Charizards. Both are icons of the hobby in the same grade. Is 30x really not enough for a “trophy premium”? I see no reason to be concerned with the Illustrator ending price.

Is there 30x more 1st Edition Charizards than Illustrator?

Yeah there are almost 3000 graded Charizards and who knows how many more raw, compared to something like 39 total Illustrators. Although Charizard has a much higher population it’s also much more popular and recognizable. Still, the point stands that the most prized English set card in PSA 7 is 30x cheaper than the Illustrator in the same grade. If the two were comparable I’d be concerned, but I just don’t see how 30x is something anyone should find concerning.

[fresco]

@charizandrew

I had assumed the price would end well over $500k, trusting that efour had the best insight into the market. However, as the market rapidly expands, efour becomes a smaller subset of the massive hobby.

I still don’t understood why 1st edition base pikachu is selling at such a high price, yet sports collectors see it as THE rookie pokemon. I don’t understand how a topsun charizard sold for $480k. I don’t understand how no rarity is even close to on par with 1st edition base, yet collectors from MTG see similarities to their “alpha” set. Rarity collectors don’t understand why a person would spend $350k on charizard and set collectors don’t understand spending $375k on an illustrator.

Collectors from sports, MTG, crypto and everything else have joined. They all have different strategies of collecting. I’ve accepted that my opinions and beliefs are less relevant every day. I think the best way forward is to keep an open mind and observe. New cards will rise to the top. Others will fall. Ultimately, the market will price items appropriately.

Absolutely agree. This forum is just a very very very small portion of the overall collectors, i was expecting an even lower price for this card. In the current flows of the market, rarity and scarcity are not enough/good to the average collector/investor, you need popularity, hype, etc in which the illustrator is lacking at least outside the circles of the most hardcore collectors.

[ascendedbidoof]

Well if I learned anything from this, it is that my balls are in fact, not crystal.

[brownies]

It’s at the end of the day the illustrator is a niche card. More people know about base set Charizard than a Japanese trophy card. I think it did fine for what it is, popularity does not always equal rarity.

[kurtosisblakeinfini]

Yo dawg I heard you all like Illustrator but couldn’t bid on it but I’m still hit by that Lugia tho.