I paid well above the last sold listing from a day ago, and I paid above what I saw other collectors offering on threads on here, or an ongoing Facebook auction I witnessed.
But you know what? I got in return what is quite literally the cleanest PSA 9 I have ever witnessed. Before buying, I received several videos and pictures of the card, and the seller was very cooperative during this private sale.
And boy, am I happy with the card. Thanks for the advice, Scott! I hope many others will follow this advice.
In my opinion, if you’re going to keep the card indefinitely or it’s mainly for collection reasons, then I think it makes sense to buy the card not the grade (assuming you get some sort of satisfaction from the cleaner card).
If you’re mainly concerned about resale value down the track, a slightly cleaner 9 is probably not going to sell for any more than a slightly less clean 9 most of the time, unless you find a collector like yourself to sell to!
one thing I can say for sure… buying an exemplary copy of the card for the grade is a purchase you won’t regret. you’ll be happier in the long run and less likely to want to trade up to a 10. your copy will be more saleable (on the margin) and may command a higher price (on the margin). it’s a no brainer move to try and buy the best copy of a card that you can. It’s a fact that there is variability within a certain grade, and that mis-grades can and do happen.
that said, unfortunately, I believe that most of the time the next buyer of your card is probably going to buy the grade more than the card. hardcore collectors (aren’t we all Monday morning quarterbacks when it comes to grading?) are the ones the most focused on the micro-details unless there’s something really obviously wrong with the card
i only buy PSA graded cards because i am a slave to what everyone else does, and because i am a hypocrite. i do not trust minimum wage employees to accurately and consistently come up with the right grade. where do you go to school to become a professional grader anyways? at the very least, i’ll always buy the card over the grade (unless i need a 10 to complete a set ).
i refunded a psa 10 card for usd280 about a year ago because the holo had too many scratches, and just paid usd4.6k for another psa 10 copy with far less scratches.
do what you gotta do, to feel good about your collection
although in hindsight i should have just kept the prior psa 10 as a placeholder to hedge the risk of not being able to find another
Fuck that, I’d rather just keep the other 10 and my extra $4.3k and just feel bad about the scratches(not really) while I buy other collection goals lol
It was for a PSA 9 Gengar from Skyridge. It’s a heavy hitter for me, that’s for sure. I’m not that used to buying expensive cards. I know it’s daily business for many of the collectors on here to buy cards in this price range all day long.
The thing is, I took the decision very recently to start collecting the Aquapolis and Skyridge H1-32 sets in PSA 9. I’ve been undecided for well over a year now, and took the decision to start doing it, potentially at the worst possible moment, haha.
But figured I would get the Gengar out of the way first, being the most expensive card of the bunch. And the most expensive card of the set being a clean 9, I have to say is a comforting feeling. The card is after all intended for the personal collection, and I have no plans of letting those sets go again (if I ever manage to complete them, that is!)
@voltagic Beautiful Card congratulations to buying the card and for finally opening up to buying higher priced cards. I originally set my limit to max i pay is $200 a card. But I’ve broke this rule 2 or 3 times now. Also even the $20-$50 cards add up eventually. And Gengar is hard to find. Or was when I was originally looking. Only one I found months ago was a ungraded light played for $300 which is one of the reasons I temporarily skipped those sets. Way to go for a big goal! 64 holo’s at high prices can be intimidating Edit now that I think about it I’ve broke that $200 rule abunch of times now haha and plenty that were about $200 even
I bought a PSA 7 1st edition zard last year and I have honestly got worse looking 10s. Considered regrading but I’m never going to sell it so a number on a bit of plastic doesn’t bother me.
).
Edit now that I think about it I’ve broke that $200 rule abunch of times now haha and plenty that were about $200 even