It sounds weird to say out-loud, but I love to audit my collection. It allows me to identify pieces that I can sell off + it gives me the added joy of revisiting my favorite artworks. 10/10 would recommend quarterly.
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I would say 90% of my collection is core. Last year I went through my collection and decided to part ways with a decent chunk to help fund other goals. What I have left that isn’t core are some cards that I am too lazy to sell or cards that I feel are undervalued.
95% of my collection is core the 5% is bulk I’m accumulating to give to my nieces & nephews once they start collecting.
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About 98% is core, really focus on Pikachu because there are so many amazing cards out there featuring that lil idiot. Mainly slabs and a little binder featuring non graded singles.
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My core changes over the years as well as my goals but it usually comes down to these questions. What would I want to keep if everything goes to $0? Would selling the rest be worth it to me financially? Would I want to buy those cards back in the future if tings change? etc.
My core now is Base-Fossil (all editions, variants, errors) for binder collections and all WOTC secret rares and Gold Star Set. Something like this can keep you busy indefinitely when working to upgrade conditions!
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The change in value is the biggest struggle. My collection could probably put me into retirement overnight. I used to never think about the value, but it’s difficult to not consider, especially when time is the biggest trophy card.
If prices dove to 2008 housing crash levels, it would be less worry. I’m probably speaking for a lot people; price increase is great for investing/sales, but can be stressful for collectors.
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Definitely stressful. One of the great things about the 2009-2013 era for me was the attainability. Sure, prices were steadily increasing, one had to compromise and there were things one simply couldn’t afford. Still, it felt like you could actually partake.
It didn’t have that “I have to jump 12 social classes to keep going at this”-feeling that slowly started building with seeing Base unlimited box prices after an extended purchasing break in late 2014.
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The price increases over the years made me re-evaluate how much I’m comfortable displaying in my home. When things were more affordable it wasn’t a concern but with the price increases over the years I’ve had to put a lot more items into secure storage. It certainly takes a non-zero amount of enjoyment out of the hobby but I’d rather be safe than sorry
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What was exquisite about buying in at this time was that you saw really rapid growth on anything you bought, so even a casual collector could sell some stuff they had bought only a couple years ago and have way more money to put back into their collection in new ways. This capability was what got me to switch from Unlimited to 1st Edition. Everything was in a much more manageable context, even with the growth, and it made collecting really fun because if at any point you changed your mind about what you wanted to collect you were basically guaranteed an easy and profitable turnaround.
Now the stakes feel too high to do that as freely. And sure, I can sell some of my stuff and have more money than I spent on it in 2017, but that won’t be enough for the “next thing” and chances of me ever recovering the sort of stuff I parted with is so much lower.
I know it’s mostly psychological but it really makes a big difference for me.
To answer the OP, I’d say 99% of my collection is core. I don’t collect duplicates (probably to my own detriment) but it does help keep the clutter down
I have always thought of my core as the last things I would sell. I am also holding literally everything for at least another 5 years since I do not churn Pokémon market inefficiencies as so many others do to fund my collecting goals. I try to only buy cards/species I like (which is a speculation “problem” for SELLING down the road). I instead budget and sell other things I’ve accumulated over the years.
All sealed product is outside my core. All non graded is also outside my core since I don’t do binders and I grade anything I consider core irrespective of grading costs. My problem is most of my core also holds most of my collection value. My hope is to keep and pass down maybe 100 cards and sell the rest when it makes the most sense—hopefully right before my son’s college if the market isn’t ass at that time.
tldr: 10% of my slabs and probably 2% of everything I own. Great question!
Very true. Perhaps more so than the promise of profit, I’d argue the promise of continuation was the magic ingredient.
I have a 360 slot binder with all vending series, masaki promos, bulbasaur squirtle deck, neo intro pack, CD promos and other old back promos.
It’s the first thing I put together when I got back in the hobby because it’s the one thing I wanted back in ‘09 but could never get. It’s basically all I ever truly wanted in Japanese.
I remember a YouTuber named Arcanine88 posted a video of a vending series and he unpeeled them on YouTube in ‘08 or ‘09. That exposure changed was my first taste of Japanese stuff.
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Yeah that’s a better description of how I feel towards the financial side. I’ve always been a collector first but the last to years have been a struggle (in a good way). I just want everything and wish it wasn’t worth enough to make me consider going without it. But we like what we like and things will never be the same now ;(
I live in new zealand so have never really considered selling much of my collection as the shipping and stresses involved sending high price items overseas gives me anxiety. The local buying pool is quite limited as well. I may this year go through and do an audit and get rid of most of the low value items and try sell locally though.
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