I would just keep your childhood cards right where they are. It’s unlikely you’ll see any significant money with these. It likely won’t be worth the inevitable trouble of grading and selling.
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Bingo! I’ve bought countless collections like this over the years, and turned down even more. The number one thing I tell people is your collection most likely has more sentimental value than monetary value.
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Exactly! My original cards are a mix of many different sets and conditions, and these I will keep forever. But I will buy cards today as close to mint as possible, and I buy these because I like the art.
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I’m comfortable parting with them if there’s value to them. Understood the odds may be low, but it sounds like it’s worth PSA checking the ones that were mentioned above (Chansey, Neo Genesis Lugia, the Japanese Umbreon, Shadowless Base Set Gyarados, and Unlimited Base Set Venusaur.). If anyone sees anything else that could be valuable (>$200?) as a PSA 9 or 10, I’d love to know so I could include that in the shipment.
I’ll try to remember to follow up with the PSA results to give some closure. Thanks again for the help.
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Like all things in life the devil is in the details. I would pull the cards you just listed and take a close up picture (front and back) that way you can assess more specifically what makes sense. “Mint” to the untrained eye is different than mint to PSA. For example, the shadowless Gyarados looks pretty rough and may not be worth grading.
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The same thing plays out all the time. Probably more commonly on other social media platforms.
Someone posts a childhood collection of WOTC or other vintage holos. They attach front-only images of cards in an old school binder, possibly sleeved but likely not. One or two shadowless cards. One or two first editions. The best cards are not in English or are in obviously rough shape.
Then that person gets great advice from knowledgeable people: “It’s probably worth more in sentimental than monetary value”, “Your cards are likely not in as good condition as you think they are”, “grading is a hassle, not cheap, and not likely to end in the outcome you expect.”
Then one or two eternal optimists chime in: “that one card is worth 10k in a PSA 10!”
Of course that’s the only response that actually registers with the OP as it’s what they were hoping to hear. Then OP forks over an amount equivalent to the value of their collection to grading and shipping companies. Gets back a bunch of PSA 4s through 7s. They might still break even selling off the collection, but that sentimental value and appreciation for their cards is probably never going to recover. And so the cycle continues. The real winners are the grading companies.
Sorry to be a downer. PokemonOG, if you post high quality photos of the front and backs of a few of the cards you will probably get more helpful advice. I would do that before grading so you at least will have better expectations of what to expect and can judge if it’ll be worth it (if your mind isn’t already made up).
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I second posting good front and back pictures of the few cards you’d hope to be grading. Members here may be able to chime and give you realistic expectations for what grades to expect.
With this info, you can check out estimated PSA prices for the cards at TCGfish.com and see whether it’s worth the effort to grade and sell for you. Also keep in mind that you should be expecting roughly 85% of thr prices shown, due to marketplace fees.
Wish you the best if you’re still thinking of selling.
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Hi All. Wanted to give everyone an update. I just got my scores online (they’re currently in QA Checks).
It ended up with a PSA score of 9, unfortunately 
I dont understand the scoring at all… I sent in a rainbow holo energy that was in absolutely perfect untouched condition, and it ended up with only a 7… I checked 100 different ways… is there a way these scores get changed?
Here are some other scores for those curious:
9’s
1997 POKEMON JAPANESE FOSSIL 94 GENGAR-HOLO
1999 POKEMON FRENCH 3 LEVEINARD-HOLO 1ST EDITION
2000 POKEMON JAPANESE NEO 182 BELLOSSOM-HOLO
8’s:
2000 POKEMON GAME BASE II 18 VENUSAUR-HOLO
1999 POKEMON GAME 10 MEWTWO-HOLO
2001 POKEMON JAPANESE NEO 4 229 DARK HOUNDOOM-HOLO
2000 POKEMON ROCKET 21 DARK CHARIZARD
2000 POKEMON GYM CHALLENGE 8 GIOVANNI’S PERSIAN HOLO
2000 POKEMON GYM HEROES 17 LT. SURGE-HOLO
Also, any recommendations on best auction sites to sell on? Thanks for all the help.
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9 is still an excellent result for a difficult to grade card from a childhood collection! Also about the rainbow energy, i certainly don’t have the best knowledge about grading here but some of the issues can be basically invisible to bare eye, for example a tiny indent which basically every time brings the grade down. You can always crack and resubmit if you think it has a shot for better grade, that’s most likely the best way to try to change the grade
Honestly, these are awesome grades. I’d be happy. Especially, as has been mentioned, for cards from a childhood collection. Very nice.
I went to a card fair today and a seller was trying to convince some attendee that Aquapolis Psyduck could go for $170 in a PSA 10. Here, any seller that is going to set up a stall also already grades cards (I suppose this might be the same everywhere) so attempting to get the buyer to buy a binder Common Psyduck based on a potential unverified PSA 10 value was scummy tbh.
So on one hand you have potentially ignorant and uneducated buyers or would-be prospective sellers, and on the other you have already experienced people trying to take advantage of them. Like even PokeRev’s PSA10 values flashed up for every card was ridiculous. Pack fresh vintage cards (even modern) are not guaranteed PSA10 so why would that be the standard value to flash up? It’s manipulative and also it just reinforces and associates the only value in the space to what a card can grade to be flipped.
I suppose the media is also complicit in this with half-baked reporting when an eyewatering sale happens but even then, how people can look at an obviously not mint card and think that someone else will pay them a down payment on a house or whatever for it…
Well, can’t say it wasn’t an expected result! But you’ll probably still end up ahead.
For selling your best bet is to use a consignment service if you don’t plan on continuing to sell after this. @manumalin had offered to sell some of my cards the other day. https://www.zandgemporium.com/ is another option for ebay. https://www.pwccmarketplace.com/ can auction your item for you.
These are solid grades for vintage binder holos. Grades are a combination of centering, surface, edges, and corners. Some surface damage (like print lines) is so subtle it requires high-intensity lighting and certain angles to see clearly. Frankly, your grades seem a lot better than I would have expected given the circumstances (childhood collection, unsleeved in a binder).