I have a bunch of 2017 Pokemon The Movie “I Choose You” Ash’s Pikachu 3 card promo sealed packs as well as sealed Ash’s Pikachu SM108 promos. After ripping a few packs I’ve pulled at least one copy of each card in the set so I’m thinking about selling the remaining packs.
After doing a little research, I was surprised to see that the 3 card packs are selling for between $50-$65 because the value of the cards in NM condition ranges from $80 - $135 depending on which 3 are in the pack.
Based purely on the numbers, it seems like the best way to maximize value would be opening all the packs and selling the cards individually as opposed to keeping them sealed. This would allow me to inspect the condition for grading opportunities to further increase the value. It’s also likely I’ll be able to make multiple NM sets SM108 - SM114 which presents another option for selling.
Even though the numbers seem pretty clear, opening the packs just feels counterintuitive to what I’m used because sealed typically carries a premium. Maybe that’s not the case with the 3 card promos though.
I’m curious to hear everyones thoughts on this because it’s a situation I’ve never encountered before. Maybe I’m missing something
It could be one of those situations where the packs lag behind and are actually gonna go up in value. Or, there are just more buyers for the cards rather than the packs, since that way they know they’ll get the card they want.
Honestly, I think I’d open the packs then, even if it does feel kinda bad. It might be worth it anyway, just based on grading purposes alone.
And selling a complete set could just be another good bump in price.
You sell a set to me for what you thought they were worth before you looked…
But really, i had this same question with generations mythical boxes about a year ago. My solution was to break it all down to save space and maximize profit when shipping but same idea applies to you, break it down to maximize profit and still list the ones that arent gradable. Its not like youll be hurt either way due to value increases.
Using 108 as an example, seems like 10s aren’t super hard to get, but not a guarantee. If some of the others seem to have high 10 rates, that would be another point to open them to potentially grade, IMO.
Maybe the packs are lagging behind because a lot of folks are just unaware of these promo packs and what it contains? From a buyers perspective, I would be very much interested in buying a complete set. It is a nice little mini-set of the anime Pikachu.
But I know realistically it will not be possible for you to complete many of these sets. So in that scenario I would open and maybe grade them and then sell for max profit.
Right. My only other guess is the pack price is lagging because the cardboard cover blocks the cards so people can’t just look at it and immediately understand what’s inside. I stumbled across mine at a comic shop a couple years ago and I had no idea what they were until I looked them up.
Even then, the price of the packs were lower then the value of the cards inside so I bought all 20 thinking they would eventually catch up to the value of the cards and if not I could just open them and piece them out. Even though the price of the packs have gone up significantly since then, they still haven’t caught up to the cards inside so I’m starting to doubt that they will. Kind of works out for me though because I really like opening things
Whoops I saw this after I posted my last comment but my theory is the same. I think people don’t understand what’s inside unless they do research to figure it out. I completely agree that it’s such a cool little set!
I opened 3 packs to complete mine and also have 3 duplicates from those packs. I have 17 packs remaining. If I were to open them, best case scenario it would yield an additional 9 sets of SM109-SM114. That happens to be exactly how many sealed SM108 promos I have left to round off the entire set…
I’m thinking I might go for it . I’m certainly open to offering complete sets to E4 members with a friends and family discount
Just a tip, but you don’t necessarily need to open them to find a complete set. You can carefully move the cards around to find which ones are in each pack and find another pack with the corresponding ones. I remember doing that when these came out so I’d have a sealed full set.
Just got a be careful to move them individually. Try holding the cards together on the sides, then use a finger tip to nudge just the Ho-Oh card to the top while leaving the Pikachu promos in place. Then proceed to do the same with the front most Pikachu so you can see the next one. Sorry if the explanation doesn’t make much sense. I’d get mine out to show it, but they are stashed away in an unown box.
You basically want to do this, but on the bottom so you can see the promo numbers.
Got it thanks! The first pack I tried was too tight but I was able to get it to work on a different one. My packs have the cardboard front then a Pokemon center advertisement card before you get to the Pikachus. I just watched a pack opening and their packs didn’t have the Pokemon center card. It’s pretty thick so I imagine it would be much easier to peek at the cards without it as they have more room to move
. I’m certainly open to offering complete sets to E4 members with a friends and family discount 
