Beware doing this and going by it 100%. Often times shilled items will skew the market value in this way. Another reason it is a despicable, illegal, unforgivable act forbade by eBay and the forum.
Sometimes sellers will intentionally do it over a period of a couple months. When you see the last 4 skyridges or LC boxes at auction went for ~$2k and then one comes up at BIN for $1500 you likely won’t hesitate. The fact is sometimes those previous “sales” weren’t really sold, they were just put there to gain a higher price for an item.
Quick example. Search Pokemon and sort by high to low and sold items only. You will see a sh*t ton of sold 1st edition base set boosters. Collector’s cache’s shows as sold for $10,999 but they relisted it. Many others are a combo of fakes and shilled items. Going off the sold page alone can get you in trouble. I know many of the skyridges that show up near the top were shilled as well.
The ana airlines cards were reprinted as ur or sr cards in supreme victors I think, awful with sets from that period so I could e wrong but it was a diamond and pearl era set for sure. Also that lot doesn’t look like particularly good value imo, can’t be sure on condition from the photos at all.
Just to add to the anecdotes that make us all wish time travel was a thing, I remember opening 2 Skyridge boxes for $450 posted to Australia back in 2012. Wasn’t even a steal at the time, they were readily available on ebay for $250-280 each.
When i got back into collecting in 2011 i picked up a 1st edition neo destiny box for $450, base set box for $225 and 500 team rocket booster packs at $1.50 each, bargains!
These stories are crazy to me. It makes me feel like we are in a bubble. Thing is a lot of the bubbles happen in real estate, stocks etc. things that are in (or at least can be) expanding supply. With Pokemon, this is happening with things (sealed boxes) that only go down in supply over time. They will never be made again, every day more and more are opened/destroyed etc. It’s hard to say what the future will hold. In 3 years will we wish we bought out all the skyridge we could find at $2500, because they are worth $10k? I think not, but have no idea.
Out of curiosity, have the gem mint rare examples from these sets gone up near proportionally? I.e. what were the shining PSA 10’s in 2011/2012? What were the crystal PSA 10’s worth compared to now?
The prices have more to do with social media than a bubble. I have been watching box prices steadily rise for a solid 10 years. The biggest bump was around 2012, when social media started to become an outlet for pokemon. Prices have continued to increase as there are now established youtubers, and more people discussing collecting as a whole. This has essentially marketed the collecting aspect of the hobby that previously had little to no marketing.
I think the prices have actually gone down a little for PSA 10s. I didn’t get back into collecting until 2014, but I remember seeing stuff like Charizard Gold Star PSA 10s going for $800-900. Now they go for $550-650 if you auction one. 1st Ed. Shining Charizard was worth ~$1000. The last few PSA 10 1st Ed. Shining Zards I’ve seen on eBay auctioned for $700-800. The difference with PSA cards is that the supply (pop) goes up, while the supply of booster boxes for old sets can only decrease over time.
Interesting. It seems there is just a huge premium for sealed then. Which makes sense when you think about it. I know I was able to be very profitable last year buying/opening/grading many early WOTC boxes as well as many ex era boxes. I was shocked at the relatioship between the value of PSA 10’s/9’s and the cost of the boxes. I actually did really well on my Aquapolis box with a PSA 10 crystal Lugia that helped me become profitable also. That was a risky box. I can’t even imagine how profitable it would have been to crack boxes of neo destiny and skyridge etc. back when those boxes were so much cheaper. It makes sense that the supply of cheaper boxes dried up.
