Go for the sealed WOTC product. Just look at what has the greatest growth potential and keeps decreasing at the greatest rate. Sealed boxes will only get more and more and more expensive. I bought a first ed jungle and fossil box for 400 and 500 respectively about 4 years ago. Look where we are now…
Pokemon will keep hitting these points where the product will spike. The 25 years anniversary is not far off and then 30 years I’m sure will be big also. Pokemon is not going anywhere any time soon, so SEALED first edition product will be big. Even something like loose booster packs have gone up.
Why not diversify and buy a bunch of different sealed packs even? Some neo, fossil and jungle and rocket I’m sure would do well.
Sealed product is safer, but as someone else suggested what I would do is be patient and look for deals.
It’s not uncommon getting product at 60-80% value at auction or private sales. With something like booster boxes you’ll have to pay top dollar.
I also don’t agree that booster boxes are a better investment than loose packs. Packs are very liquid. They sell like hot cakes and at this point collectors don’t care if they’re weighed or not, they’re just after the artwork. The packs sometimes grow in value much faster than the sealed box too!
I noticed a Charizard artwork for $1500 on eBay. From Australia but didn’t check its condition. Any other option is a lot higher. I’m not sure what Base unlimited boxes are going for but if I had $2000+ to strictly invest for Pokemon I’d love to have that
I would suggest putting your 2000$ into a high rate savings account, stocks, ETFs or anything more liquid.
If what you are saying is legitimately for pure investment purposes only, buying collectibles is not the greatest idea.
Here’s my issues with buying sealed product/cards for pure investment purposes:
It’s extremely non-liquid. If you need money immediately (for example, seeing an awesome card/product you want at a good price), good luck trying to get read of your investment quickly without selling it below market. Compared to stocks or money in your savings account, it may take weeks before that money hits your account, assuming you want to wait for your buyer to give you the green light that the transaction went smoothly.
Since you don’t want it for the collectible purpose, you’re going to be more antsy about the price of the product going up or down, and feel zero attachment to it. You can’t get rid of it easily, so you may feel bad having a lot of money tied to a product you don’t really want. Trust me, I’ve been there, and I have a stack of WOTC cards that I don’t really care that I feel bad for wasting my money on.
If you want to sell it in the future, note that you’re essentially starting your investment with a -10% return, unless you find a private buyer. If you sell through ebay/consignment service, you’re going to eat those fees. Not to mention, you will have to pay for shipping, your time, and the possibility of being scammed or having your time wasted by buyers. You’re going to need a pretty substantial return for you to want to get rid of your product, otherwise you won’t think it’s worth your time.
That’s my two cents though, and anecdotally from my personal experience. Good luck
If the thing dems keep losing especially the Senate, which we’ll see next week, then there should continue to be a lot of great investment opportunities. Until you get those results though, I would sit on the cash. Just look at the Poke growth since 2016…and hope it continues.
I’ve got to agree with these points here. Investing in Pokemon is a speculative thing and banks on more people entering the hobby than leaving.
I’m in both the share market and pokemon and trying to offload pokemon is a lot of work, leads chasing, and wasting time and can easily be out of favour when the next big thing occurs.
It’s sure cost us more money to add to our collections. Collectors are doing better financially so competition is keener. But at least our collection values have gone waaaay up too this last couple years.
You see, when people are struggling they don’t spend as much on collectibles cause they need their money for necessities like food. My customers, some I’ve had for 20 years, are doing very well right now which helps me and my personal collection;)
Believe me, this is no secret to the wise guys,
Agreed. If you’re really looking long-term, then just put your money in index funds with the lowest possible expense ratio and leave it alone. I like to mess around a bit with money outside of safe investments, but it’s not in large amounts (moreso for fun) and with the knowledge that it’s quite possible I could end up with a loss.
I will say I think getting into trying to predict the market based on politics is a pretty iffy business. Historically, US GDP has grown significantly faster under thing 2 presidents vs. GOP presidents (4.33% to 2.54%), but the composition of Congress has not mattered as much (especially with respect to under a GOP president, where a divided Congress vs. GOP controlled Congress has resulted in basically identical growth). Ultimately, reasonable minds are going to disagree on pretty much every economic policy out there. The market was great last year and has been shit this year thus far. All you can really say is that Pokemon cards are decidedly luxury goods (notwithstanding the fact that some people don’t seem to view them that way, given that I get PMs from people on eBay asking if they can wait until their next paycheck to pay for a card), so their value will probably track the market to some degree (though obviously with collectibles, there is far more at play that can complicate matters, which is where the heightened risk comes in).
does anyone know what the value is of the three 1st edition neo boxes? Im thinking of maybe trying to get my hands one those, seems like they are in short supply and carry a big demmand
not sure if that $160 team rocket return booster pack auction is indicative of trends, but that pack used to be about $80-90 3 months ago. Ex era is one that is possibly going to have a surge, since those packs contain the prized GS cards which are about as popular and desirable as the shining.
thanks for all the insight everyone!! i have decided to sit on the money and trade the shadowless charizard i own for wotc sealed product or at least see how it goes
Many packs are weighed. It’s a huge gamble.
I would buy the Psa 9 Zard. I remember I first purchased mine for $525 3 years ago. It’s Charizard Psa 9. Card will always hold a good value.
Personally, if i choose to invest in an item i stick to purchasing what i love, but with that also comes the fear of not being able to let it go when it comes to the point where i think it’ll earn a good ROI. Therefore, i try to buy a double of what i already hold so i can offload it down the track, or be just as satisfied if i decide to keep it.
