For sure this was not a topic where we were young, cards were cards and the main goal was to simply HAVE that card. Also because, maybe was only me, but the budget was pretty close to 0,00
Then you grow up and you decide to spend all your money on Pokemon, the modern gambling, and accidentally you start to think about cards conditionsā¦oh my god but I have really beaten up cardsā¦oh my god these are not minty at all! What Iām doing with my life, I need to start from scratch!!!
Jokes aside I think that we always look for good looking cards, maybe we have a little more margin than who need to grade but I try to have more NM cards as possible.
So I have various questions!
Do you also try to collect near mint to mint cards or you just donāt care when it comes to binder cards?
How many cards on your collection you would like to upgrade and how frequently you search for upgrades of cards you already own?
Considering that upgrading a card means less budget for a new card you are missing!
Even if Iāve raised my budget in the last few years there are still many cards that are out of my league in mint condition, or at least they have a crazy price that would erase my budget for other things so I try to find a compromise.
I think I have 8/10 cards Iād like to upgrade but Iām not scratching my head if I donāt.
I usually try and get nm-mint as well to most of my cards, except for the more expensive cards which for budget reasons, I donāt mind if some are even damaged.
I have a few cards which were hard to find as well so I took whatever I can get.
I collect only raw and mostly for my binders, so usually if the front of the card is looking decent Iāll be happy with it. I only look to upgrade if the price of a card has gone down quite a bit.
I mostly am fine with MP and up for my collection, Iāve never been too picky about condition. There are a few cards Iād like to upgrade though, particularly my Legendary Collection RH Slowpoke with a huge crease down the middle.
I donāt give a crap about condition once itās in the binder, as long as the front looks decent and it doesnāt have to many creases or holo scratches (if the card is holo) I like to avoid perfectionism if I can in this hobby, creates to much stress for something that is supposed to be fun
Pack fresh mint always, regardless of storage option.
Iād rather own a 8.9 condition card that I pulled myself with no human intervention and only factory wear than buy a 9.8 card from some schmuck at a giant upcharge and pray that I donāt find a hidden crease or booger. So upgrading is more a matter of āmaybe Iāll pull a better one at some pointā without any real sense of urgency.
Unless youāre rich, this is of course a completely antiquated way of collecting vintage Pokemon. But even if I was an active collector today, Iād forgo a great amount of collecting goals simply to be able to continue to collect this way, just like I used to.
I care about the condition of my binder cards. I want them to be as minty as possible. Iāll accept minor whitening or corner dings if theyāre on the back, but I want the front to look great.
I think a couple of years ago or so, I would always look for upgrades for cards that I felt were āless than idealā to my own internal standard. However, it was a struggle since there are always new cards to buy. Now, I have realized that the card condition does not bother me as much as it used to before. I have come to peace with the fact that my cards will always be less than ideal in some way or the other and they were purchased because they were at a great price point. I think looking through my binders a lot really helped me with this since it made me realize that the card condition does not matter in my binders when I am looking at it and for me the price is a much more important factor than the condition.
So now, once the card is in my binder, I probably will never search for the same card again and it gets marked off as acquired. There are a few which I have purchased as doubles when I thought the buy value was just too good to pass up, then the āworseā out of the 2 cards will go into my trade binder.
To answer the question, my ideal card condition as described on Mercari JP is 'No noticable scratches and stains" which I think is LP (but can range between LP to NM) and offers a nice balance between some great binder cards for a good price point.
I generally prefer mint or near mint, but will go below for rarer cards if I just cannot find or afford better conditioned ones. As for upgrading, Iād generally just sell the one that I replace
Like some others I look to just aquire the card at a good price point to check it off as acquired. My binders are handled a lot, so I donāt worry about condition more than aesthetics. The standard of condition varies greatly with rarity and price. Usually if itās a card I really like. I will buy a separate copy graded or for grading display.
Over the years iāve replaced a lot of my binder copies with psa 9ās. Then selling the binder copies after securing the graded cards to recoup some of the cost
Yea iāve moved mostly to a graded collection. Finding raw mint copies of (semi)-vintage cards and submitting them to grading is one of my favourite parts of the hobby. So eventually i kept moving further away from binder collecting. I do understand the appeal though
For my binders it depends a bit on which binder it is. For example, in my Komiya artist binder, I care less about the card itself and more about the artbox, so as long as that is in tact and generally looks good, Iām far less concerned about the card condition (and even less so about the back because the cards never leave their slot). For my base set binder though, I try to get every card to be as mint as Iām willing to pay for, which is the key. Generally speaking that means for me cracking PSA 6 or 7 cards, and the occasional 8 if the price is too good to pass up (bonus points for finding mint cards with a binder dent - sometimes PSA 6ās are a wonderful value buy). This becomes the biggest hurdle getting the 1st Edition Base holos and takes the longest to find a copy that looks good without setting me back 6 grand (thanks cHaRiZoRd).
Generally, once the card has been obtained, I physically delete it from my list of cards Iām searching for and donāt look for an upgrade.
