And paper money would be worthless if we didn’t buy into the idea that it is valuable.
For a lot of my cards I would have paid the fee just to have them encapsulated regardless of if it increases the value any or not. I like having my cards protected in a sealed case. No dust. No water. No uv light. I feel like that is the service psa provides. Not a secondary market price increase. People seem to have forgotten this.
I respect your opinion here. The prices for some of these items makes them unattainable for a lot of people.
I definitely agree in preservation, and am all for that; and understand that inversely monetary value has become a subsidized component of this. However we can all preserve cards in our own right through a number of methods. People are generally going through psa these days for the pricing component. Which is why it is exemplified on there website as the first title to their ‘why?’ “Let PSA Help Turn Your Cardboard Into GOLD”
We shouldn’t have to authenticate, preserve, and pay higher premiums to receive a premium through them; and that is ones choice, fair enough. Yet the industry is continually growing and favoring this option, so much that it is eventually eliminating the chance for regular people to purchase particular cards.
There are cards which are now appearing only available as a psa graded item. I.E certain Japanese player promos, or searches for specific shining / gold star cards which now have over 60% psa results.
Eventually these may be 100%, and the pricing may then diminish, but it is concerning seeing the impact and favoritism of having to get at times ones entire collection graded.
Let’s not overlook the fact that most collectors would want to buy at the lowest possible price and sell at the highest possible price regardless of whether the card is graded or not. 
I do agree it’s making it harder to find item but the same goes with any hobby. When a hobby increases in popularity it’s up to the production company to make cards harder to copy and if they don’t do that then people will gravitate towards third party authentication. The same thing happened with coins and now grading coins is the standard. It helps to authenticate the coins being bought and sold. The sellers also bring in more money. The grading of coins has become such a norm that there is even 4th part authenticator who verifies that the coins were correctly graded. This brings even more money into the graded coins.
I think arguing about condition is almost pointless as people will collect both graded and ungraded regardless of what they are collecting. There will still be many people collecting ungraded cards as it’s a trading card game. The other thing is that you seem to be charging a premium for the cards you pulled from packs. You call the items GEM MINT. You are grading them and trying to get a premium for the price so there isn’t much of a difference between what PSA collectors are doing and what you are. You are just targeting both types of collectors.
You are charging quite a premium for the cards you say are GEM Mint so if you are talking about fair deals you clearly aren’t offering them. You are charging Near PSA prices or excatly at PSA prices so why not grade? The other thing is that you call the cards GEM Mint or 1st edition (many of them arent). In the description you later describe your cards as GEM to MINT to NM. Your trying to take advantage of PSA but not having to grade. I think that if you are looking for good honest deals it would be nice if you were offering the things you are looking for.
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I guess I’m biased in that I don’t think Pokemon collectibles should inherently be achievable to any collector with some interest. So when a card is selling for a thousand dollars more because it’s verified to literally be the highest quality available for that card, I’m unfazed. If the market sustains the price, so be it. While we question what can and cannot be sustained, I don’t think you’re likely to see some cards ever falling within even the two-three times price range of their ungraded counterparts. More desirable cards will fetch higher increases in price once graded highly.
I want the best collectibles in the hands of the most dedicated collectors. Typically, the best way to do that given a blind market is to disallow those who aren’t willing to allocate a significant amount of resources to obtaining them from having the card. Certainly the system isn’t perfect, but outside of making all sales exclusively private and relying only on connections as being known, I’d argue a better system doesn’t practically exist.
“All things have value because we say they do” is, again, logic I typically get behind. The counter argument here makes sense from that perspective. But that perspective is misplaced here, as it falsely groups together the entire range of collectibles, wherein PSA is making necessary standardized distinctions.
Essentially, I just see it as someone who likes the cards being bummed because they can’t afford them. I’ve been in that position before. But I don’t hold the market accountable for my disappointment. That’s just silly.
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Charity auctions, or auctions pitched as charity auctions, don’t deserve to be accounted for when considering reasonable market prices. Anyone that tries deserves a bucket of steaming shame poured over their head.
If someone argues about that, I’d immediately challenge them to place the item up for auction and let me win it that way. They usually won’t because they know it’s not a fair price. Haha
Yes but the reason he asking such prices is because of their condition. He may not agree with the PSA craze but he understands that people will pay more because it grades well or matches their condition required for ungraded collections but he’s clearly trying to capitalize on it.
I don’t think it’s wrong as you can charge whatever you want but if you’re charging high prices and complaining about them it’s kind of hypocritical. He mentioned honest good deals but If you yourself aren’t offering them why complain? He seems like he was gone for awhile and is just surprised by the change going on. Prices have gone up and the gravitation to grading/authenticating is natural in most hobbies. Even cars with matching VIN numbers goes for more than non stock, non matching number cars.
I agree that everyone would like to make a profit on their cards. I wasn’t trying to be mean either about pointing out the store and comparing it what he said. I’m just saying if you want honest deals you got to be giving them. I am guilty of charging premium price for certain PSA 10 Gold Stars. Through this discussion hopefully both KK (who seems to be returing after a hiatus) learns some things about the current market and becomes a better seller. I’ve learned a lot through my phone calls with a certain large ebay seller.
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No uv light. I feel like that is the service psa provides. Not a secondary market price increase. People seem to have forgotten this.
I respect your opinion here. [/quote]
Actually, as has been discussed here on upccc… The PSA cases aren’t effective against long term UV exposure:(
The cost would be prohibitive.
This is so reflective and good it could be a signature quote!
In regards to the general discussion, Criticizing third party graders and also complaining about how people are not honest on ebay about condition is pulling from both ends. Third party grading companies remedy the falsely advertised “mint” cards on ebay.
Realistically, PSA’s standard is the standard. If you want to buy an actual mint card, your best bet is a graded copy, especially if it is an older card. If you want to roll the dice on ebay on and ungraded card, go ahead, but there is always an inherent risk. Even seasoned collectors can only analyze so much from a digital photo. When a card is graded, especially by psa, the guesswork is unnecessary.
In regards to cards tripling in value, find an actual gem mint ungraded copy of an english gold star charizard, or other rare cards. If you do find one, the price will be high if advertised correctly, and most likely, it will grade a 9. The reason why the prices increase dramatically when graded 10 is because finding an actual ungraded gem mint copy is very difficult.
This point is in relation to what @kkthxbai mentioned about 60’s-70’s sports cards. Why vintage sports cards are expensive is because there are little to no ungraded copies of them left in nm/mint condition. The probability that you will find an actual ungraded, unaltered vintage rookie card from the 60-70’s and before is slim to none. Go ahead and fine me a PSA 10 Wayne Gretzky rookie. There is literally 1 PSA 10 copy. The reason why those stories of cards locked away from 100 years hit yahoo are because of they rarely occur. Yahoo like to write articles about rare cards. 
Also, generally speaking, if someone doesn’t like PSA or third party grading, don’t use their credibility to earn better prices. I had a guy claim his cards were BGS pristine, wanted a beckett pristine price, the cards ended up getting a psa 8, 9… neither a BGS 10 as he claimed. Third party grading originated because dealers authenticated and graded their own items. Do some quick research on sports cards and how the market changed when third party grading and authentication arrived. Short answer, It helped the hobby, especially for signed memorabilia.
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Much harder to get a BGS 10. I don’t think there’s more than a dozen BGS 10 pokemon.
I believe I have the only BGS 10 with all 4 subgrades being a 10;)
Are there even a dozen BGS pokemon cards?
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BGS using 4 sub-grades is in fact deterring more collectors from using their service and pushing them more towards PSA. Given the chance, every collector would like to get a card in the best condition possible - pristine or gem mint - which means a grade of 10.
There was that Jungle Kangaskhan a couple months ago that had 10s across the board.
In regards to the high listing price, it isn’t as high as other Australian sellers, and we cannot list reserve auctions. So I tend to keep the item at a high price, then always accept offers. Everything has open to offers, and I never charge the full BIN. I accept fair prices generally 35-40% less than the listed price… I just sold a mint genesis set for $140, when the original was at $260. So I drop a ton from what is listed. Please don’t go off the buy it now, as it is all open to offers on my page.
I feel allowing the offer price, makes people feel happier about a purchase and to the price they agree and feel is personally fair.
Isn’t there a rule on this forum not to discuss other peoples pricing methods… this is not allowed on Nintendoage.
Authentication just seems so powerful I guess, and why psa stands out so strong among people. Many have a fear of trusting other sellers on ebay, and they’re not wrong, because we all have those horror stories. Therefore this pushes PSA to be the authority and as they are.
We’re not going to be able to avoid them, just have to learn to live with them.
Btw didn’t BGS get in trouble after they regraded some baseball PSA card higher than it previously was?
Yes…that Kangaskahn is it…and all mine lol.