So I’m wanting to get into serious grading, maybe even eventually starting my own middle man grading service. But I almost exclusively deal with WOTC era cards. And with the boom in the market over the last couple of years I wonder if the market for grading new product is strong enough to sustain my future goal. Finding Gradeable 1st ed base set cards just doesn’t happen, especially holos. I only see other WOTC sets becoming the same way over time. I see the market for stuff like shining legends and evolutions but I’m not knowledgeable in the newer sets. What do you guys think? Any advice or opinions are really appreciated!
It is not too late to start grading WOTC stuff. Never will be. As you said it is harder and harder to find. There are still plenty of mint WOTC 1st edition cards sitting in binders around the country. Just have to fish them out.
It is too early or maybe never appropriate to grade a lot of the new stuff from Evolutions to current that is being graded. Some will have long term stability and worth, but most are a race to the bottom out of the gate and some simply are never really profitable over just quick flipping the cards raw NM/MINT.
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Funnily enough, I saw the title and thought it was pertaining to new sets. Because there is a short term hype for new Graded cards, where there is a profit to be made, but they will come down a bit, and take a while to grow.
If you are going for new product, and open packs, every time the ultras aren’t 10 worthy, I would assume you are at a loss. And I’m not sure I would form a business plan around buying nm/m copies off ebay to grade.
The real issue here is, as you said, you are not knowledgeable in newer sets. You better be knowledgeable about the card you are going to grade, if you are trying to have a business. New product has small margins, and nobody has a guaranteed plan to make you money, so I’d research this all first!
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I wouldn’t grade typical miscellaneous ex or gx cards out of the new sets, especially newer generation pokemon unless the art is just particularly appealing, but I see promise in cards like the holo charizard from evolutions, the new shining cards, even reverse holos of the base set arts from evolutions like pikachu and charmander. But thats why I’m here is because that’s not my area of expertise. I couldn’t even tell you values of newer cards. Also another question I have, do you see unlimited (not base set) WOTC sets becoming more popular overtime?
Your last question is very good. I was wondering the same thing… I see people buy/sell certain Gym Series PSA 10 holos for like $20. It doesn’t make any sense to me. There’s such a huge gap between unlimited and 1st ed on most of these sets, I don’t really see that much of a bright future but at the same time I don’t think it can get any cheaper.
There was someone recently asking if $200 was a good price for a PSA 10 Blaine’s Charizard. That shouldn’t even be a question.
To answer your actual question, there’s still plenty of product worth grading. You will find a few Gems, many 9s, and even more ‘NM’ stuff. You mentioned 1st Ed Base… even PSA 7-8 worthy cards are worth more than most 10s from other sets.
Be very careful with the new stuff. Unless you’re guaranteed a 10 and it’s a sought after card you’re probably better off just flipping it as NM like @gottaketchumall said.
Personally I like unlimited sets. That stamp basically doubles the price… that mythical 1st edition stamp doesn’t mean the world to me. Don’t get me wrong I like it, and I want them to bring back 1st edition runs. But from a collector’s stand point I want the unlimited copy just as much as I do the 1st ed when it comes to fossil, rocket, etc. With base set I’ll pay the extra for that shadowless template that I prefer and I’ll pay the extra for the 1st edition knowing that it was literally the 1st English printing ever. But when it comes to other 1st ed sets they just don’t appeal to me as much unless it’s as an investment. I’m hoping that other people see it my way as well and unlimited holos start picking up in popularity.
If the demand stays strong and the number of “gradable” cards starts to drop something has to give. People will start shifting their idea of what “gradeable” means. That might mean seeing a market for psa 8s or a increase in demand for unlimited as mentioned. As long as people keep buying graded cards, there will be someone that needs to do the grading.
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I strongly recommend to try grading.
Even if you want to just do your own personal collection, it is great to help boost it’s authenticity, value, and legitimacy with collectors.
It is hard to source, so i’d probably just take it slow, don’t expect to get giant massive grades so easily. Take collecting slowly, or else it won’t be fun.
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I’ve been doing pretty okay grading evolutions and sun and moon the past few months and my listings sell consistently. The prices have dropped and will likely keep going down, but at the moment I am earning a little bit of extra income.
An example: just sold a psa 10 FA Brock’s Grit for $30 and PSA 10 charizard EX for $30.
I’m not making a killing, but that’s not my goal. I’m just trying to offset my costs for my overall grading fees for my personal collection cards and it’s a fun way to stay engaged in the market. If you’re trying to do it as a serious business though, the values are likely only going to decline due to the print creep.
There really isn’t a bad time to start grading WOTC cards though. Sure, ungraded copies of WOTC cards are hard to find in mint (although, even now you can still find mint holos fairly easily other than 1st edition base). However, NM is really easy to find for a low price. If you don’t start grading now, then in 5 years when NM or NM-M is the new normal (i.e. when the mint cards make their way to personal collections) you’re going to think, “dang, I wish I graded NM 1st edition holos back in 2017, look at the prices now!”
Short answer: the best time to start grading is right now (it’s not too late).
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It should continue to be worth grading wotc mainly because the cards are up in value and grading fees haven’t kept up with that growth;)
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I watched several unlimited WOTC 8,8.5, and 9s on eBay sell last night at auction from $7-16. The most expensive being an 8.5 fossil gengar but mint 9 dark weezing and dark arbok going at $7 each is insane to me. I’ll be hopping on this unlimited WOTC train. I don’t think there’s any reason to not buy any old school WOTC graded cards at those prices.
It’s really silly, especially when you consider weighed packs go for like $20-40. I just don’t know if there’s going to be increased demand for these cards/sets, but I don’t think you’ll take too much of a beating either way. Worst case scenario, you break even. 
Base Unlimited 9s go for $30-40, it would make sense if the other sets hit that price range eventually. I wouldn’t buy anything lower than 9 though… lower is basically binder collection worthy. Graded card collectors aren’t going to pay a premium for a 8 when they can buy that stuff all day for a couple dollars each in binder lots and such.