Percent of Networth Invested in Pokemon...

[krill]

@alienlien

@zubat93

You can always buy raw cards in good condition if that’s your cup of tea. Most cards are fairly cheap in raw condition compared to their graded counterparts.
The good thing about this hobby is that there’s something out there for every kind of collector. Either one motivated by money or one motivated by nostalgia and pure love.

I have been buying raw cards instead of PSA cards because I like flipping through a binder. My frustration stems on the fact some people buy cards solely based on value. That isn’t a healthy way to get into a hobby. When people see a hobby as an investment it kind of destroys the meaning of collection (to me at least).

It’s a tricky road between ‘enjoy the hobby’ and ‘investing’. With many hobbies, they cost a lot of money, and you need to take that into account. Obviously you should buy what you enjoy but when you want certain things, you have to take the value into account. Buying a charizard from a set first would make sense because you get the most expensive card first before it raises anymore. Could be considered investing, but also just means a smart move from a collecting/hobby perspective to get the card you want/completing the set. I think very few people are just buying an expensive card because it’s expensive, theyre buying it because they like the card and want it. Exceptions would be people like Gary Vee who are literally just investing in cards without any seeming interest or passion which I would agree, I’m not a huge fan but they can do whatever they want with their money, so.

[alienlien]

@krill

@alienlien

I have been buying raw cards instead of PSA cards because I like flipping through a binder. My frustration stems on the fact some people buy cards solely based on value. That isn’t a healthy way to get into a hobby. When people see a hobby as an investment it kind of destroys the meaning of collection (to me at least).

It’s a tricky road between ‘enjoy the hobby’ and ‘investing’. With many hobbies, they cost a lot of money, and you need to take that into account. Obviously you should buy what you enjoy but when you want certain things, you have to take the value into account. Buying a charizard from a set first would make sense because you get the most expensive card first before it raises anymore. Could be considered investing, but also just means a smart move from a collecting/hobby perspective to get the card you want/completing the set. I think very few people are just buying an expensive card because it’s expensive, theyre buying it because they like the card and want it. Exceptions would be people like Gary Vee who are literally just investing in cards without any seeming interest or passion which I would agree, I’m not a huge fan but they can do whatever they want with their money, so.

Obviously value is a big factor in the collectible hobby, it gives it a certain achievement once you obtain your goals. I am not disputing that if people buy expensive cards it must mean it was a “value” or “investment” purchase, you can do both and like both at the same time. However the problem for me in this collectible hobby is that people see this hobby as an alternative investment strategy and stopped appreciating the hobby as a whole.

I had a discussion on discord with a fellow efour member arguing that 99% of charizard buyers are investors who buy based on monetary value while the 1% buys it for genuine interest. The figures is an exageration but not too far off of to what I believe to be true. I know I have no sway on how other people spend their money and they are free to do whatever pleases them.

[sgpokecollect]

the irony is yesterday was the best time to appreciate pokemon as an investment (due to the attractive risk return asymmetry of boxes and psa prices), and today the best time to appreciate pokemon as a nostalgic collectible (big run up in prices have changed the risk-return to be much less attractive for future returns…so you’d probably want to ensure whatever you are buying, you are deriving more non-monetary returns like nostalgia)

[krill]

@alienlien

@krill

It’s a tricky road between ‘enjoy the hobby’ and ‘investing’. With many hobbies, they cost a lot of money, and you need to take that into account. Obviously you should buy what you enjoy but when you want certain things, you have to take the value into account. Buying a charizard from a set first would make sense because you get the most expensive card first before it raises anymore. Could be considered investing, but also just means a smart move from a collecting/hobby perspective to get the card you want/completing the set. I think very few people are just buying an expensive card because it’s expensive, theyre buying it because they like the card and want it. Exceptions would be people like Gary Vee who are literally just investing in cards without any seeming interest or passion which I would agree, I’m not a huge fan but they can do whatever they want with their money, so.

Obviously value is a big factor in the collectible hobby, it gives it a certain achievement once you obtain your goals. I am not disputing that if people buy expensive cards it must mean it was a “value” or “investment” purchase, you can do both and like both at the same time. However the problem for me in this collectible hobby is that people see this hobby as an alternative investment strategy and stopped appreciating the hobby as a whole.

I had a discussion on discord with a fellow efour member arguing that 99% of charizard buyers are investors who buy based on monetary value while the 1% buys it for genuine interest. The figures is an exageration but not too far off of to what I believe to be true. I know I have no sway on how other people spend their money and they are free to do whatever pleases them.

Is there anything wrong with wanting something because it’s valuable? We want what we cant get or whats hard to get, same reason we buy gold jewerly or diamond rings. At least with pokemon cards is there is an inherent value rather than a company marking up its own product or the whole diamond monopoly thing. I buy a charizard card for 1000 bucks, I’m gonna be able to sell it for about 1000 bucks. I buy a diamond ring, the moment I step out of the store its value halves.

[ruthlessrain]

Maybe 40% at the moment but it wasn’t a direct cash input of that much. It is mostly from growth in the last few years. I love the cards so it is a win win for me that something I love is also financially going well

[azulryu]

@fourthstartcg

@gottaketchumall

One doesn’t necessarily “invest” in real estate yet for many their home is a fairly substantial part of their net worth that can’t just be ignored (myself included). Whether for pleasure or business one should be mindful of their overall asset allocation IMO.

Investing is a dirty word around still here like flipping and weighing were a few years ago, but they both became a lot more respected or allowed at least. One can take the thread title very literally and shy away from the dirty “I” word or one can take it for it’s intent meaning what is the answer to your personal equation: Value of Pokemon/Total value of all assets*100. It doesn’t mean you have to answer it or like that it was asked.

Definitely agreed. I’m the first person to tell people to be financially smart about their collecting goals and to be mindful about the amount of money they put into cards. I’m also not oblivious to the fact that people have made a lot of money through Pokemon, although I don’t think it’s clear that the people who did so did it with “investment” in mind.

The market aspect for Pokemon is interesting and fun and I enjoy talking about it. But as I’m sure others have noticed, recently there’s been a massive shift towards viewing Pokemon as a moneymaking vehicle as opposed to a collecting hobby. We see it with the “whatshouldibuy” posts and the constant generic “how much will x be worth in the future” threads. This thread is a prime example, the question isn’t “how much is your collection worth in comparison to your other assets,” it’s “how much have you invested in Pokemon.” We might interpret it differently, but it’s clear the OP was approaching it from an investment point of view.

Perhaps I’m just salty and this is a necessary evolution of the hobby, or a natural consequence of prices literally going to the moon in a short period of time. But I do feel like a lot of enjoyment has been sucked out of the hobby by people reducing things to dollars and cents. Not to say that people can’t do both, but I think the people who put their money into cards to “invest” will always come out behind those who do it solely because they love the hobby.

I’ve talked about an idea before considering whether E4 gets split up into 2 Sub forums with their own Sub Discussions. One would be the Elite Market Fourum - where prices, investments, expenses, trades/buys, etc. get discussed there. In the other sub forum, the Elite Collections Fourum, you find people’s collections, set info, release dates, historical information about the hobby and tcg, etc.

I think as it is, my guess is that we all use the “New Topics” feature most of the time, and that’s when it feels like an overload when you see a bunch of money-talk threads. If you were able to split the function between those two, I think people would feel better about it.

[alienlien]

@krill

@alienlien

Obviously value is a big factor in the collectible hobby, it gives it a certain achievement once you obtain your goals. I am not disputing that if people buy expensive cards it must mean it was a “value” or “investment” purchase, you can do both and like both at the same time. However the problem for me in this collectible hobby is that people see this hobby as an alternative investment strategy and stopped appreciating the hobby as a whole.

I had a discussion on discord with a fellow efour member arguing that 99% of charizard buyers are investors who buy based on monetary value while the 1% buys it for genuine interest. The figures is an exageration but not too far off of to what I believe to be true. I know I have no sway on how other people spend their money and they are free to do whatever pleases them.

Is there anything wrong with wanting something because it’s valuable? We want what we cant get or whats hard to get, same reason we buy gold jewerly or diamond rings. At least with pokemon cards is there is an inherent value rather than a company marking up its own product or the whole diamond monopoly thing. I buy a charizard card for 1000 bucks, I’m gonna be able to sell it for about 1000 bucks. I buy a diamond ring, the moment I step out of the store its value halves.

I personally don’t like the fact it’s pure investing to these people. Takes away all the fun into collecting. But that’s just me. They’ll have a mindset of “I must buy the most value because I want to be able to be rich in 5 years”.

Like I said, maybe I’m just naive and not thinking broad enough.

[muddy]

1-2%

[belch]

About 30% but that’s only due to recent price spikes

[poke-geri]

I have 0% of my net worth INVESTED in pokemon

[Fireftw_TCG]

I never brought to invest, just to collect. With the values of cards I brought over the years having increased dramatically my net worth is probably split something like:

Pokemon 70%
Real Estate 25%
Cash savings and Other 5%

[ccrntrade]

Probably 75% of my networth is in cardboard, pokemon and sports cards. Other investments would be my house, some farmland and stocks.

[Cerulean]

@alienlien

@krill

It’s a tricky road between ‘enjoy the hobby’ and ‘investing’. With many hobbies, they cost a lot of money, and you need to take that into account. Obviously you should buy what you enjoy but when you want certain things, you have to take the value into account. Buying a charizard from a set first would make sense because you get the most expensive card first before it raises anymore. Could be considered investing, but also just means a smart move from a collecting/hobby perspective to get the card you want/completing the set. I think very few people are just buying an expensive card because it’s expensive, theyre buying it because they like the card and want it. Exceptions would be people like Gary Vee who are literally just investing in cards without any seeming interest or passion which I would agree, I’m not a huge fan but they can do whatever they want with their money, so.

Obviously value is a big factor in the collectible hobby, it gives it a certain achievement once you obtain your goals. I am not disputing that if people buy expensive cards it must mean it was a “value” or “investment” purchase, you can do both and like both at the same time. However the problem for me in this collectible hobby is that people see this hobby as an alternative investment strategy and stopped appreciating the hobby as a whole.

I had a discussion on discord with a fellow efour member arguing that 99% of charizard buyers are investors who buy based on monetary value while the 1% buys it for genuine interest. The figures is an exageration but not too far off of to what I believe to be true. I know I have no sway on how other people spend their money and they are free to do whatever pleases them.

The real problem here is you caring so much about why/how other people participate in the hobby. You also seem to think that enjoyment/collecting and investing are mutually exclusive, which is entirely not the case.

Why do you care? Just do you.

I personally don’t like the fact it’s pure investing to these people. Takes away all the fun into collecting. But that’s just me. They’ll have a mindset of “I must buy the most value because I want to be able to be rich in 5 years”.

Like I said, maybe I’m just naive and not thinking broad enough.

Again, why do you care? How does other people viewing the cards as an investment take away your personal fun? I don’t get it.

The “true collector” thing is the absolute worst. Collect how you want to collect and let others collect how they want to collect. It’s that simple.

[alienlien]

@Cerulean

@alienlien

Obviously value is a big factor in the collectible hobby, it gives it a certain achievement once you obtain your goals. I am not disputing that if people buy expensive cards it must mean it was a “value” or “investment” purchase, you can do both and like both at the same time. However the problem for me in this collectible hobby is that people see this hobby as an alternative investment strategy and stopped appreciating the hobby as a whole.

I had a discussion on discord with a fellow efour member arguing that 99% of charizard buyers are investors who buy based on monetary value while the 1% buys it for genuine interest. The figures is an exageration but not too far off of to what I believe to be true. I know I have no sway on how other people spend their money and they are free to do whatever pleases them.

The real problem here is you caring so much about why/how other people participate in the hobby. You also seem to think that enjoyment/collecting and investing are mutually exclusive, which is entirely not the case.

Why do you care? Just do you.

I personally don’t like the fact it’s pure investing to these people. Takes away all the fun into collecting. But that’s just me. They’ll have a mindset of “I must buy the most value because I want to be able to be rich in 5 years”.

Like I said, maybe I’m just naive and not thinking broad enough.

Again, why do you care? How does other people viewing the cards as an investment take away your personal fun? I don’t get it.

The “true collector” thing is the absolute worst. Collect how you want to collect and let others collect how they want to collect. It’s that simple.

There is no right way to collect Pokemon, I simply wanted express my feelings and frustrations.

Thats how I view this, we can agree to disagree.

[primordialaa]

I’ve been where you guys are (other mediums), 75% is not healthy there (likely) will be retraces. You have more attachment to this than in many other things because it’s collectibles by nature, but do yourself a favor in most case and get your NW% down to something reasonable.

edit: from someone who made and lost generational wealth on paper in a very short timeframe. It can be haunting

[masterteal]

Percentage is starting to get higher than I’d like. Probably around 10-15% now and rising every month it seems, it was well under 5% this time last year… Been selling things but price increases continue to outpace sales. Still buying also to try to fill the holes in my collection. If prices continue to rise I will probably sell more aggressively.

[danza21]

@azulryu

@fourthstartcg

Definitely agreed. I’m the first person to tell people to be financially smart about their collecting goals and to be mindful about the amount of money they put into cards. I’m also not oblivious to the fact that people have made a lot of money through Pokemon, although I don’t think it’s clear that the people who did so did it with “investment” in mind.

The market aspect for Pokemon is interesting and fun and I enjoy talking about it. But as I’m sure others have noticed, recently there’s been a massive shift towards viewing Pokemon as a moneymaking vehicle as opposed to a collecting hobby. We see it with the “whatshouldibuy” posts and the constant generic “how much will x be worth in the future” threads. This thread is a prime example, the question isn’t “how much is your collection worth in comparison to your other assets,” it’s “how much have you invested in Pokemon.” We might interpret it differently, but it’s clear the OP was approaching it from an investment point of view.

Perhaps I’m just salty and this is a necessary evolution of the hobby, or a natural consequence of prices literally going to the moon in a short period of time. But I do feel like a lot of enjoyment has been sucked out of the hobby by people reducing things to dollars and cents. Not to say that people can’t do both, but I think the people who put their money into cards to “invest” will always come out behind those who do it solely because they love the hobby.

I’ve talked about an idea before considering whether E4 gets split up into 2 Sub forums with their own Sub Discussions. One would be the Elite Market Fourum - where prices, investments, expenses, trades/buys, etc. get discussed there. In the other sub forum, the Elite Collections Fourum, you find people’s collections, set info, release dates, historical information about the hobby and tcg, etc.

I think as it is, my guess is that we all use the “New Topics” feature most of the time, and that’s when it feels like an overload when you see a bunch of money-talk threads. If you were able to split the function between those two, I think people would feel better about it.

I like it. This forum (which I love) is so polarized between “true collectors” and “people who only care about money.” I personally sell cards for profit, as well as collect because I love pokemon. Too many people around here think they have to be mutually exclusive, and the constant salt (along with pissed off ebay buyers lol) is so exhausting.

[pigeonsyndicate]

At this point, I’ve only invested maybe 8-10k of my own actual dollars into this collection, and that number is decreasing due to active selling. But in my own non-moving collection, I own roughly 6 figures. My net worth is incredibly minimal other than Pokemon. If you base the number off of how much I’ve spent, maybe 20-30%. But if you base it off of the value of the collection, its like 80%+. No actual math done here, so no idea realistically. That being said, the recent price hikes significantly increased the percentage difference for me.

[nickpoketrader]

As a student I feel my net worth is 90% cardboard (which won’t be sold) and 10% car and other stuff.

I definitely plan on balancing things out as soon as I start working

[noviate]

House: 93%
Cash: 2%
Cardboard: 5%