As a binder-collector, I totally agree with this sentiment. I have vintage Shining and Masaki promos sleeved in binders with no grading to ever be done despite really nice quality. I don’t like slabs and won’t. 75% of the Full Art Supporter collection too. If prices are down as hell, I’m down with buying more, it’s always been a collection and will always be a collection for me. (Not a sale point.)
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You would be surprised.
First and most importantly, POKEMON IS FUN.
Stupid people dont want to learn and cannot get out of denial.
Day traders have a lot more stress, research, lose sleep when day trading than you can imagine. If you think people on wallstreet or dabble in stocks dont do research, i dont know what to say.
FOR ME, Pokemon is outdoing my conventional investments, NFT and Crypto. Actually even Crypto this last 6 months is up 100%., better than 12% in that article.
Crypto is doing fine the last year
Crypto (the most basic BTC)
is doing much better than 12% the last year
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Personally bought more pokemon this past year than any prior.
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I have definitely noticed a drop in the UK. Much harder now to find raw wotc cards in good condition. Graded cards are still pretty easy to come by though, however sold prices seem to vary wildly. Its a good time to be a buyer if you can be patient and snap up a deal.
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I totally agree. The time to buy most stocks/crypto was late 2022 due to the inflation/interest rate fears hitting the peak level of fear. I was lucky to have loaded up on a lot of stock then that I owned for a while and picked up a large return the past year or so. Daytrading can work, but honestly it’s a full-time job if you want to have the most consistent results. And even then, you don’t know for certain as it’s all based on probabilities even with rigorous analysis applied to it all things can still blow up in your face. I much prefer just holding positions longer term now and building on them during bigger drops/corrections.
I’ve been doing the same thing with Pokemon the past while, slow & steady purchases and trying to score deals at auctions. I find it more enjoyable this way and it’s worked out well so far with less stress and worries.
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same
At least, in the US market that’s been a trend for i would dare to say a 1-2 years. Raw wotc stuff (holos, popular pokemon, 1st) is hard to come by and if its in great condition its almost an anomaly.
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Definitely noticed this too, along with way fewer older-gen Japanese singles in NM+ condition eg promos, BOXY, pokekyun, dream shine coll etc.
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I think the pandemic bubble-era seriously damaged the current market for anybody who only wants raw NM cards. Everything being worth money and an “investment” saw so much available stock graded and tip the raw vs slabbed scales for many cards.
As somebody who only collects raw, it’s a bit of a downer as even lower grade slabs for cracking open command some sort of premium (even if it’s just a small one) over what raw used to be just for the simple fact that the card is graded in any form.
But it’s swings and roundabouts as I have also acquired NM cards from slabs that were cheaper than trying to buy a NM raw copy. 8’s are really good for this. Not always PSA too. I’ve found 8’s from Ace Grading to be pretty much NM quality and undesirable enough that they are good value.
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Yeah as I have been dipping more into binder copies you’ll notice at points raw NM+ copies will be listed for more than 9s due to their potential gradability. Definitely a less common thing to see a few years ago.
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I agree raw doesn’t make sense, but I think there is a huge value proposition by buying PSA 6-9 slabs. The pricing is very competitive and you have a much smaller range of condition variability when you get the card in hand. Buying a PSA slab significantly de-risks finding a dent or scratch compared to the small premium you pay for it.
Ultimately what I’ve found is I can spend less time searching for a card, and have more confidence and execution in that purchase for a relatively small premium. It’s a great value trade off especially for an amateur collector.
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Raw collectors will soon crack their way through half of the psa pop report and bring everything back to how it was before lol.
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Im pretty much in the same boat as you. I had to pretty much buy graded 6-9s and crack them because the vast majority of the time they are more available than the raw counterparts and cheaper than what a raw “NM/LP” would go for.
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Currently many 9s have a very small premium over a raw NM-M. Probably as it should be but also weird since we have been wired differently over the last couple years. Modern 9s are always a loss though so at least modern collectors got something logically correct
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I’ve especially noticed this in Japanese new backs. You’re almost better off paying for the PSA 9 than the “SUPER RANK A++” condition raw card as it is going to likely be cheaper and even if it isn’t (to your point), you’re paying a slight premium to ensure there’s no hidden surface scratching, dents, etc.
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I am fairly new to buying and selling raw but seems a lot of people think raw NM equals PSA 9 or better now so they want to charge for that price.
But if selling a NM card (PSA 7 (NM-M), they’ll think it’s MP-LP. Seems the standards for raw have stiffed, not sure if this is due to so many modern cards being traded now, which are mostly mint due to pack fresh.
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You are referring to modern, right?
At least for Japanese “WOTC” era cards. Most 9s keep selling for a good chunk more than their raw NM-M counterpart.
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Well I was more referring to ex and WOTC era English Holo rare set cards. There’s still a margin with 9s and profit can be made (unlike modern) but imo it’s not very substantial for cards that aren’t super popular species. And it’s no longer a strategy worth going after (flipping vintage 9s) from my experience and observations
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