jonandek collection post

Collecting
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[main photos under construction until 2021 - apologies need some time to revamp everything]

In the meantime here are my binders which are mainly full of PSA 9 cards, with some 8s and quite a few 10s. These have been my labor of love and are where I spend the bulk of my collecting energy and time. They are mainly complete from 1st Ed base through Skyridge with all holos, reverse holos and secret rares. Starting in the EX-era I only collected the reverse holos, EX cards, gold stars and secret rares. I am extremely meticulous about these and almost every time I open them end up finding a card I don’t like for whatever reason and “upgrading” it.

Videos of my binders will all be posted here. As of now I have gotten through the WOTC era.

My Intro:
vimeo.com/432320621/43b3d4f57a

First Edition Base, Shadowless, Unlimited, First Edition Jungle, First Edition Fossil, First Edition Team Rocket:
vimeo.com/436175742/0adf2dd1c4

First Edition Gym Challenge / Gym Heroes:
vimeo.com/438045280/da6b05c07e

First Edition Neo Genesis, Neo Discovery, Neo Revelation (includes shinings) and Southern Islands:
vimeo.com/439315925/c545e1b7d8

First Edition Neo Destiny (includes shinings):
vimeo.com/442189909/2256f4882a

Expedition (holos and reverse holos only):
vimeo.com/442197757/7653a0ffc9

Aquapolis (regular holos, crystals and reverse holos only):
Video got broken into two - sorry!
vimeo.com/443211128/c640f21841

vimeo.com/443216091/1949fc097b

Skyridge (regular holos, crystals and reverse holos only):
vimeo.com/443217824/28f6d96337

Ex-series Gold Stars:
vimeo.com/448976646/69472f8347

**Videos To Come:**Every EX-series set, including all EX cards and reverse holos in mint condition

Thanks to the great feedback from forum members, I have collected mint copies of all of the Japanese set variants for my binders:

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Very impressive collection. I wouldn’t crack my cards out, but each their own.

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Glad you went for base set, good job! Flexing hard

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Love the Dex portfolio. Nice collection.

Those are some expensive cards you cracked. Makes for a nice binder though.

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It was always my fantasy back when I collected magic the gathering to have a gem mint graded alpha, beta and unlimited set. As I collected them over the years the cards got so valuable that I had to start keeping all of them in a bank vault. And there are ~300 magic cards in each original set and I collected Beckett cases so it got really unwieldy to have 900 graded cards. The fun had gone out of it so I started wanting a binder set of A/B/U so I could actually flip through the cards and enjoy them. But I ended up with so much relative capital tied up in the sets that I sold everything before ever doing the binder set.

But I did it with Pokemon! First I bought the raw binder set on the left but realized I really wanted every card to look even more pack fresh. Had to be PSA 9 or better quality for the right feel. I didn’t have the patience to churn through one raw card at a time so just bought graded for efficiency and so I know it’s authentic. I had initially bought the PSA 9 holos to crack for the binder set. But couldn’t bring myself to do it. Especially the Charizard it really could be a 10 on the right day at PSA. So I decided “solid 8s” were good enough for the holos. Some of the ones I bought didn’t meet the standard. That’s why I have all the doubles. I was nervous cracking the 1st ed and shadowless charizard for sure but they went ok. Just went very slow as I was cracking them out. It was a fun project. I think my wife thinks I’m nuts but it’s always been one of my collecting dreams. I love being able to reach out and actually touch the cards (still through a sleeve of course and very carefully).

I hope this all comes off the right way. I know this set is pure “entry level” to many here but aspirational to others. It would have been aspirational to my younger self too! I still need the PSA 10 Chansey which I have yet to see for sale and the PSA 10 charizard I am being very picky on.

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@jonandek, definitely not an entry level collection so good for you. Glad you were able to finish your goal of it. Keep it up!

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Amazing collection man :blush:

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Wow. Just wow. Awesome. I too love the binder way of doing things. Like you say there is something really organic about getting the cards and filling up the pages. But to crack those sort of cases. Boy you got some cojones!
Fair play

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Binders are the way to go for viewing. I just could never crack a PSa 7 or better. I’d easily crack a 5 or 6. Great collection tho and i see you’re quite the perfectionist. What’s your next collection goal?

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Glad to see your name pop up in the forum ! Youve boughten a decent amount from me & glad they went to a good home

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Thanks for the replies. Was hoping I’d see folks I have bought from here. Nothing better than buying/trading with fellow collectors in the community.

In terms of my next goal… definitely want to get the Chansey and Charizard in PSA 10. The zard PSA 10 pop is so deceptive. Clearly grading standards have shifted over the years. of the five or so PSA 10s I’ve seen available so far, they’ve had centering issues or issues on the back of the card that didn’t make me want to pay $40-$45k for the card or whatever the going market rate is. Also I really want a thick stamp adding a further complication.

I have a bunch of other sets that I plan on posting. Just started with base set. Current goals are more focused on some of those other sets. With all of this time right now I will hopefully get to post everything I intend.

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edited

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Amazing collection, nice work

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Hey I’ve sold you the Mewtwo! It took time but it worked :stuck_out_tongue:
I really like your collection, that’s why I have a psa 10 1st edition base set holo collection… but mine is not perfect because the Charizard is in French (which costs 10 times less lol). I haven’t bought the English Charizard for the same reason as you, I dont spend 40k for a low psa 10.
It will be very complicated to collect another 1st edition psa 10 set (jungle, fossil,…) card by card. Or you will buy the whole set or it will take long (and expensive).
To be honest, I dont consider many jungle/fossil holo deserving the holo, the base set will stay forever the Number 1 set. You can already be satisfied with your cards, if you like other holos buy them but I wouldnt buy another whole set. This is only my opinion (and what I’m doing) :stuck_out_tongue:

edit: wow you have bought so many 1ed holos, really WOW

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thanks! the mewtwo is safely tucked away. very nice card and well deserving of the grade. I don’t plan on collecting entire graded sets past these first three, with the exception of japanese no rarity and skyridge which I’ll post in the future. I don’t see the same value or appreciation potential in jungle and fossil either. I don’t expect the jungle/fossil cards as a whole to be great investments. But that’s just my opinion - clearly I saw enough value in collecting them and they are part of the original sets. In general I don’t believe set collecting is as “smart” as collecting key cards only and it was the same in magic the gathering. But I am and always will be a set collector. I’ll try to post some additional sets each day.

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So much money - my head hurts! The binder sets are my favorite though. Would love to have mine back I sold :slightly_frowning_face: Awesome collection.

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edited

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Amazing set! Unfortunately though PSA no longer grades the Venusaur and Raichu, because the set number on the card is misprinted. They have graded these in the past and they may in the future but as far as I know, they are actively rejecting Venusaur and Raichu that people submit.

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Thanks. That’s interesting I didn’t know that. The set number on the card is mis-printed? sorry don’t follow. Would you mind elaborating?

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Yeah the number on the bottom right is 25 for Raichu when the pokedex number should be #26. Vensaur says 68 when it should be #3. I guess PSA doesn’t like the discrepancy between the number on the label and the number on the card and they just choose not to grade it. This is a combination of what I’ve heard and speculation but regardless of whatever the true reason is, they just don’t grade these cards currently.