I’ve noticed that I am holding onto more cards, I had lofty goals of grading sets myself especially wotc non holos but with PSA coming to a halt and the stoppage of bulk it looks like I might not be able to achieve those goals cost effectively. Paying well under $10/card to grade over the years has ruined by brain. I don’t think I can bring myself to pay $20, $30, $40 or whatever the new bulk price may be if at all, trying grade like Neo Discovery Weedles in a 10 however cute the card may be.
I’m buying a lot more graded cards and that adds up for sure. I have also found great deals outside cards, delving more into the toy and peripheral items space. There are a lot of bargains out there with as much history and dopeness behind them as the TCG. You definitely have to mold your collecting goals to the times if you don’t you will feel dissatisfied and much more likely to up and sell your collection. The longer you hold onto and add to your collection the better.
I feel that, I had originally wanted to do all the non holos graded too but now its only financially possible to grade holos. I have stacks of raw 1st ed base holos that are probably like 8 or so still not worth grading at current tiers. Idk whats up with these people grading celebrations rn
The hobby has changed my investment strategies drastically towards becoming more risky and speculative. Prior to 2019, I was very conservative with regards to finances, but seeing how the prices of my collection goals have outpaced my rate of increase in income, I’m now much less hesitant to invest in high-risk-high-reward assets. At this point I’m determined to go to a million or straight to zero, just to stay in the game.
This is one of my primary motivating factors in buying complete vintage PSA sets right now. People take for granted the fact that PSA is going to return to pre-backlog prices. I disagree.
I got back into the hobby (as most of us) in early 2020. I got caught up in FOMO and spent nearly all of my savings and excess money outside from bills in the hobby. Luckily, last year was not normal so most worked out, but not all of them. Since April of this year, I have become much more intrigued by doing my homework on what I believe is “undervalued”, instead of listening to anyone’s advice.
Personally, I think the slow down in the market is the best thing for me as it made me more accountable. I have not sold any items for over two months, and I buy for the long term. Any short-term adjustments do not mean anything to me. I couldn’t keep up if I wanted to, haha.
Great thread subject btw!
Great thread and lots of good posts.
Whilst Pokémon is still a hobby, some prices have appreciated to the point where most people will need to approach collecting in a financially conscious way.
I’ve built a pretty decent collection in terms of value by doing a couple things.
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Never getting caught up in emotion and overpaying. For 99% of cards there will be another one that comes up, so don’t fomo into overpaying (
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Use credit sensibly. If you’re into collecting not just as a collector but also as an investment, then you can leverage credit if you are financially sound and know your limits. Personally ive used around 10k this year in credit only on cards and paid it all off with a total interest fee of 110 (so around 1% interest). I only do this if I find a deal and don’t have the cash liquid at that time. Any interest rate of 4% and under is ok (but interest free credit cards are great).
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Find deals and trade up. My first purchase was a complete psa 9 graded Japanese base set which I bought before the price rises for 1700. Sold all and made a bit of money, reinvested into other cards I was interested in.
I had a complete psa 7 Shadowless set that I sold to buy my 9.5 Shadowless Zard, a good trade I think!
At the moment I’m buying cards I that are a good deal. Lots of deals at the moment.
I do think prices will stay down for a few years at least until the market heats up again, so you should have loads of opportunities for the next couple years.
All in all, look at your disposal income, put some aside for emergencies and if you want to buy cards with the rest you can!
Hope that helps 
This is great advice. What’s your ultimate grail at this point in time?
Thanks mate, appreciate it!
Actually Pokemon has taught me a lot more about finances than anything/one else - who would have thought?
Long term goal is to collect a BGS 9.5 Shadowless Holo Set (I have 3 holos so far, Zard, Venus, Magneton) - but this is going to be a very long term thing as pops are so low - so I am buying the strongest PSA 9s I can find in the hopes of cross grading.
This month I’ve got Chansey, Gyrados, Hitmonchan and Mewtwo - just waiting on them arriving from the US.
Outside of Base Set I’m pretty spontaneous otherwise, I will pickup cards I like here and there if I like the artworks - eg got a T17 1st Edition on auction from PWCC recently at a great deal and a very strong CGC 9 Crystal Golem.
I’m personally more bullish than ever, partially because I have a lot more income to spend than I did when I started, but also because I just see a lot of value in collectibles going forward as an alternative asset. Tons of data to support it at this point. When you consider the price of sealed products and the cost and probabilities at play to actually pull some of the top most rares cards in a high grade condition, there just simply is not enough to go around as each year goes by. This is talking strictly from an investment perspective, but first and foremost I simply love collecting in general since I was 7 years old and I love getting what is the best possible condition cards or collectibles that I can obtain and get a lot of enjoyment out of owning them.
Basically, even if the whole market completely crashed and tanked someday, I would still be a buyer and collector because I simply love the cards so I care and worry less about the prices I pay. It’s not about the monetary value for me it’s more the experience and enjoyment of obtaining such a rare collectible that keeps me buying/investing… and if they go up more and more over time it’s just a bonus long term.
Quite significantly seeing as I discovered I have a lot of issues when it comes te selling. An added factor being that I have depleted a lot of my finances and I refuse to touch any of my stock/shares.
Had a lot of mental issues the last 3 years and I just kept hoarding and only selling occasionally.
Now im at a point where I need to push myself to sell, its quite an interesting excercise and it`s not easy at all for me.
I promised myself I would stop buying but I broke promise today cause there were some cool eeveelutions on yahoo japan.
I am doing my best however, just posted a few k worth of stuff on facebook. Quite sad to see that Ebay has changed so much, I can only sell 250 euros/month for now 
Its interesting how my perception of the hobby changed once my funds were running dry, combine that with the market changing so rapidly and the fear of it all crashing has much more weight than before. Its helped that Ive stopped spending so much time on youtube and in toxic fb groups. I have also started to change my environment so theres less friction when I want to organize and sell, it`s been a blessing. Thank you atomic habits.
Edit: mailed ebay - 250 euro cap has been removed woop woop
My financial approach has evolved over the last couple years. When I re-entered the hobby I was definitely seeking quantity over quality. Buying played - nm lots on eBay, having multiple short term goals going at one time. Now I have decided to start selling and letting go of most of what I had purchased during that time for a larger more fulfilling, long term goal. Essentially I learned to stop doubting myself and what I would be able to accomplish/buy with enough patience and determination.
Since I’ve gotten back into collecing Pokemon cards 3-4 years ago, 2021 is the least I’ve spent on vintage in any year. And not due to a lack of interest on my part. I’m most interested in vintage binder sets, and while mint graded prices have come back down a decent amount the last few months, prices for binder-quality copies of most cards have not decreased much. It also didn’t help that the last couple years I pivoted to spending about 50/50 on Japanese since they were much more affordable than English, but that trend also seems to have caught on this year.
I could be totally wrong, but my guess is the future of Pokemon cards will look like a K… the rarest, most in-demand cards will continue increasing (significantly) in value over time, while most mass-produced, non-super rare cards (i.e. nearly all set cards) will come down in price (or at least appreciate much more slowly) once the hype moves away from Pokemon in a year or two. I have no problem being pateint to find good deals so I’m able to buy more cards for my binder.
One side effect of this, I started working on my first single-Pokemon collections. I had a lot of the WotC cards for the collection already, and majority of non-Holo post-WotC set cards are dirt cheap. So that’s been a fun new way of collecting. 
What trophies are you referring to
I second that
One of the biggest joys I got from the hobby was finding raw gradable copies of cards I like. From 2018-early '21 coming across a $5-$20 card that I really enjoyed and spending $8 to grade it was really all I did. I didn’t mind spending $30 all-in to get a potential 10 of a card I like that may only be worth a little more as a PSA 10. Now, unless you’re grading valuable cards worth $300+ or more as PSA 10 it’s just not financially feasible, at least not for me.
I’ve definitely bought more graded cards this year than in the last 3 combined as I much preferred to grade cards myself. I haven’t felt the urge to seek out raw cards much since they’re just going to sit in a grading pile until it’s cost effective to grade them. It’s not as exciting as getting raw cards that are going to be shipped to PSA soon. I’ve gotten more into other hobbies like sealed and graded video games so balancing the budget has been a bit more difficult.
All-in-all PSA returns help spark a lot of my joy in collecting, but I haven’t sent a sub since January due to the price changes and am looking forward to being able to send in my stack of cards waiting to be graded.