Awesome seeing the new Masago slabs, but especially that wonderful Scyther decor with his featured slab.
It’s as if you bought, mmm, 30 Scythers before finding the 10 slab
Grats on the beautiful new additions my dude! They look great. Not many left to go, bet that Ho-Oh Rev/waking legends might be a tad challenging, but thank god for JP card quality is all I can say. Oh wait, maybe you’ll just wind up getting a ready-made 10 with better pricing now. Either way, it will be effing sweet seeing the full collection when that time comes!
(sorry, didn’t realize this was the 16th post of the page, haha)
@brendantheclayboy , hey buddy, thanks for chiming in and the encouragement
Yeah, the Scythers… Honestly, as much as I love the artwork, I’m just glad I’m done with this card. Luckily none of the raw copies was more than max. $2 each.
Not that many Masago’s left to go, that’s true. Unfortunately though, two of the cards I still need are in the pricier range; namely Umbreon and Skyridge Houndoom. The latter maybe even more so, because I’d actually prefer UED over 1st Ed, which is still only pop 9 (or pop 8 if the one that got lost on its way to me is gone for good). I’m always on the lookout for raw candidates, but it’s incredibly hard to find mint e-series holos, let alone in unlimited.
Anyway, at least the Ho-oh you mentioned is actually one of the cards I luckily have a close-to-perfect copy of already. Acquired in 2018 for around 20 bucks. Ahh, good times.
Dude, I totally, totally forgot about Skyridge Houndoom. Totally escaped my mind. That is a serious heater. I still need many Sky’s in ENG and that one makes me reconsider my life choices.
You’ll get it eventually but yeah finding a gem copy either graded or not will be the biggest Maasago challenge bar none. Sorry to hear one is/was on its way to you. What a nightmare. Umbreon, however, while pricy, is still easy to find gem quality, thankfully. I see mint copies all the time. Nowhere near as expensive as eng.
I got this PSA 9 Zap for a pretty decent deal, right after losing two auctions for PSA 8s. So even though the lost auctions were pretty frustrating, everything became alright in the end
As others have said before me, Zapdos might actually be the card that profits the most from the holo treatment compared to its Vending version. The already stunning, atmospheric artwork gets even more highlighted somehow.
… and that wasn’t even main attraction. I actually bought a card that I didn’t think I’d be ever able to get after the latest price jumps. Probably one of the most iconic Pokemon cards ever in its (imo) most magnificent version. By far the most I’ve ever spent on a raw card, but absolutely worth it. Behold, the scary red monster sausage:
I definitely agree here, I remember my little sister pulled a forrestress non-holo a long time ago and I was so entranced by the card because it was the first metal card I had seen at the time. It felt like the whole thing was holographic to me. I had honestly forgotten about this memory until just now as well, so thanks for giving me that wave of nostalgia haha!
Great stuff overall, glad you managed to find the PSA 10 Scyther! iirc you had that as your buy thread for a heck of a while.
But most of all, CONGRATZ on the PSA 9 Zapdos! 2 of mine came back as CGC 8.5, and 1 at 8. The Articuno I posted a while back came back an 8 as well. Definitely a good one to buy, and a good time to do it to. I think these are pretty underpriced for what they are.
Glad you lost those auctions for the 8’s. It might’ve been one of those voices nagging the back of your head until one day you just got the 9. Congrats!
And that Gyarados… no matter how many times I see one of those, I bow in reverence. It really is one of the greatest cards ever. And that clip you gave really just made me grin. And as Pulp said, the Cactus was a wonderful touch. We just so happen to be in monsoon rain season, here in the desert, and so that timing was extremely fitting in my eyes.
@pulpyfan, thanks buddy! Plants, gardening and stuff are definitely another big hobby of mine. I’m actually pretty happy that my lil cactus dude is so well received, haha. Maybe I’ll start adding a nice flower (if I can find one) per collection post in the future, hehe.
@pigeonsyndicate, that’s a wonderful memory, thank you for sharing!
The JPN “steel type sheen” is very rarely talked about on here. I assume many English collectors haven’t really seen it before. It’s like Media Factory at the time really tried their best to make the new steel types as exciting and special as possible
Yeah, the birds seem be kinda hard to get 9s and 10s on due to centering and sometimes whitening on the back. No matter the grades though, your army of birds is still absolutely magnificent an 8s and 8.5s are fantastic grades and will be even more so in the future, when there are less and less mint ones to grade.
@brendantheclayboy, thanks friend, indeed it seems that I was lead to this PSA 9 Zap by pure destiny. I’m glad everything turned out that way
The Gyarados really is such a nice card in person. Media Factory really accomplished a great feeling of exceptionality with the full holo for Shining Mew, Gary and Karp! And, you know, I kinda had to step up my game to keep up with the crazy nice additions in your collection thread
Also congrats on the bird set, those game-references in the art are to die for. I also love the cactus. My partner would be jealous as she’s been having a hard time having hers flower. XD
@haggiscollects thank you! I can very much recommend picking them up right now. With their age and stunning exclusive artwork, I don’t see them dropping in price anytime soon. In fact, they have been stable for the last 9 months or so, so maybe they’re due for an increase.
@azulryu thank you, I had a feeling you might enjoy this update
My ““secret”” for the cactus flowers are to really keep them bone-dry for the most time (hardly even water them in the winter at all) and place them as sunny as possible. If possible, they very much appreciate a spot outside with direct sunlight during the warmer season. Just gotta be careful of sunburns if they aren’t yet used to direct sun.
But anyway, this isn’t a gardening blog … not yet, at least
Thanks a ton, my dude!
Really glad I snagged mine when nobody cared about them. Goes to show that “buy what you like” and not caring too much about current trends really is the way to go, I guess.
How is your GB promo journey coming along? I think the last time we were talking was when your Dragonite got a 10, right?
On that note, I actually wish I would’ve sent mine in to PSA a bit earlier (I still haven’t), because realistically I won’t have my set slabbed in the foreseeable future. But hindsight is always 20/20, eh?
Haha, thank you! I figured a card of this caliber deserves a little video to capture its glory. This is also a card I want to get slabbed, because I don’t really have a binder it would fit in thematically and it will surely look magnificent on my desk together with the other two sparkly Shinings, Mew and Magikarp. Just need the Karp and PSA to open up lower tiers again, hehe.
I guess it’d grade a 5 or 6 due to minor indents on the back, but there’s hardly any whitening and front is almost flawless, so I don’t really care.
Yes, my Dragonite did get a 10! Right now my priority is acquiring the GR Mewtwo as soon as possible. Since I rebranded as ‘greatrockets’ I feel like a fraud not actually owning the card I’ve been scouring Japanese Yahoo & Mercari but no deals just yet. Probably going to end up buying a 9 off eBay at this rate!
As far as I remember, it’s one of only two cards in the WEB set that doesn’t have its artwork printed on any other physical card (the other one’s Electrode). In fact, the original version to this “reprint” comes purely digitally in the “Pokemon Trading Card Game” for the Game Boy Color.
Also, of course, unlimited with pop 6, for which I always have a soft spot.
Then there’s this beauty. I’ve seen worse 10s and better 9s than this. Honestly don’t know if it can possibly score a 10, but in any case I’m quite happy to finally own a copy of this (unlimited ) Masago artwork.
The next one was a really lucky score. This Shiny Collection Mew was advertised as “very good” and I won it for $42. Now, with the card in my hands, I have to wonder if this seller accidentally sent a wrong copy or if they always DRASTICALLY understate the condition. Because this sucker is a minty boy, if I ever saw one. They’re actually quite expensive in PSA 10, but this one will stay in the binder with the other Shiny Collection cards.
Speaking of the binder, I was able to fill some empty slots with all of the Secret Rare Stadiums. Shoutout to @dizzylochs , whose Giant Stadium Thread was a great help for putting these together (and is always a bliss to read through ).
Like I said, this month wasn’t too extreme, but that only means I have more money to spend when the big opportunities come up - and they surely will
Thanks for stopping by!
Edit: I knew I’ve forgotten something! Since the cactus flower pic was so well received, I actually do make this a thing now in this thread. Every update gets a flower pic I made. Period. Please enjoy
I’ve been scouring Japanese Yahoo & Mercari but no deals just yet. Probably going to end up buying a 9 off eBay at this rate!
