So, what i’ve noticed as of lately is that Tons of people are flooding the market with Graded cards. People Grading Pokemon cards in general to flip for a few bucks. My problem here is that cards are going way down in price…
I’ve also had problems selling Graded cards. Most of the cards I try selling are PSA-8 or so. But, ocassionally some PSA-10’s. And they don’t sell. It’s like everyone expects to get stuff for FREE. It’s really annoying and wondering if I should continue to persue grading cards or not. I enjoy it, but when it comes to trying to sell doubles to put back into my collection it doesn’t work out.
What are everyone elses thoughts on this? Feel free to start a discussion thread.
@blastoiserules1 First off, its a $7-10 card in Japanese when you’re selling in the US. Yes it’s playable, but US players can’t use it, so it’s worth less. Also, from a collecting standpoint, many collectors don’t grade regular EX cards, or don’t pursue PSA 10 versions of those cards.
This pricing is also complicated by the fact that Japanese cards are so easy to grade PSA 10. If I buy a mint Japanese card off of eBay or pull it myself, there’s probably an 80% chance of it scoring a 10. Japanese card quality is much better than English, so the prices for PSA 10 Japanese cards are usually less than their English counterparts.
Going off of that, English PSA 10s are much harder to get and therefore worth a lot more. For example, I purchased a Lysandre’s Our honorable president Card full art for $7 and it graded a 10. I then eventually sold it for $75, more than 10 times its base price ungraded. But people also need to realize that their PSA 10s aren’t worth as much as they think. I was recently talking with @hisoka107 about this. If you expect to get $300-400 for a PSA 10 English card, you’re just wrong and not gonna get it.
If you want to sell PSA 10s, you have to wait for the right buyer. They won’t sell right away. You also need a reasonable price. PSA 10 English cards are just not worth what people list them at.
Everything @fourthstartcg said is spot on in regards to your issues with pricing and what things are worth.
Only very rarely will a new set PSA 10 Full Art/Secret get anywhere near into the multiple hundreds, and that’s reserved for Charizards/Rayquazas/Mewtwos and the like. I would actually say that Regular EX in Japanese getting a PSA 10 is absolutely worthless because you buy a PSA 10 to guarentee you get a high quality card, but oh wait anybody who bought 5-6 or more Japanese Boxes are going to have multiple perfect examples of these cards because the cards are such high quality and easier to get a grade of 10 than falling off a log.
Check YahooJapan. That Shaymin Ex is ALOT more than $7. Also I tried working out a deal with someone on a PSA-10 English M-Kangaskhan Ex Golden SR. Apparently there were 4 people after it. I lost BIG TIME. Someone ended up buying it for $220. Not sure who. But, I figured it “might” sell for $100 on Ebay. Based off of the Japanese version of the card in PSA-10 won’t even sell for $100. And the Japanese versions are ALOT Harder to pull than the English versions…
$25 sounds really reasonable. At least seller has priced item it has good chances to sell quickly, $100 for japanese regular EX ( that is somewhat easy to grade ) would be just stupid showcasing.
The difference between English and Japanese is where you are missing, though.
Yes, mathematically Japanese Secrets are more difficult to pull than an English Secret. But you also forget an English Box costs 3x as much(or more) than a Single Japanese Box.
Add on top the major issues with English Card quality vs the Superior Japanese Card quality and you already have 2 variables making the Japanese cards much cheaper/easier to obtain in PSA 10 quality than their English counterparts.
The “thesis” of this topic is a bit flawed; Complaining about more people grading cards to make a few bucks, yet you are doing the same thing. Someone could of complained when you started selling cards a couple years ago, or whenever you recently hit the scene to make money.
Also, in regards to expecting $300-400 for an english card, if anyone has a Plasma Charizard PSA 10 for less than $300 I will buy all of them. Most Newer English cards are under that range, but not all.
At the end of the day it is an open market. If you don’t want to watch your cards get “saturated” invest in something with less quantity.
Japanese cards should generally be worth less than the English PSA 10s, because they have a very high chance of scoring 10s right out of the pack. As was mentioned, playable Japanese cards might be worth more in Japan since there’ll be more Japanese TCG players over there than here, but the playability is usually pointless when it comes to the US market (since the Japanese cards aren’t allowed in US tournaments).
I understand why you might be upset about people flooding the PSA market, and that sometimes graded cards will sell for less than you’d want, but there’s not much that can be done to prevent people from trying to make money. I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but Pokemon isn’t the only hobby that’s been flooded by resellers. Being a sneakerhead myself, I’ve seen the sneaker market get flooded by people trying to flip any and every sneaker for a profit (it’s actually worse in the sneaker market than it is for the PSA graded Pokemon market) for the past several years now. Most collectors there also frown upon all the guys only in it for the money, but it really isn’t something we can do much about. With the effect that social media these days, more and more people are bound to find out about PSA grading and the increase in profit that generally comes with grading cards…
All you can do really, is keep doing your thing and let the other people do what they wish with their cards.
Edit: Not trying to sound harsh or anything lol, just stating how I see this
As far as the harm done by more people grading…how do you think “I” feel.
I know I’ve told told this story before here but since many of you are new…
In 1999 three of us started grading Pokemon cards (myself, Eddie B, and Steve Gordon who passed away 10 years ago.) If you had searched PSA Pokemon on eBay back then you would have found about 20 listings…all Jpn CD promos. Why CD Promos? Because when the English release was announced we graded thousands of them and sold them on the Home Shopping Network which fed an English market that couldn’t find anymore 1st Ed Base. Soon after, when the cards were completed I put them up on Yahoo Auctions and eBay and started getting 1200.00 for PSA 10 Bday Pikachus and 500.00 for Lucky Stadiums. Life was very good.
Then you all ruined it lol. The old “Monkey see. Monkey do” kicked in.
Now EVERYBODY is grading EVERYTHING. Even post WOTC cards that generally are an awful investment…though fun collectible.
For many…PSA has become the hobby and believe me PSA thanks you.
So what’s my point? Instead of complaining about more people grading, and prices coming down, be thankful that PSA has added an extra dimension to an already fantastic hobby.
Plus…you should send me 10% of all your PSA card sale proceeds;)
PS: Good discussion here and great insight by the community.
Thought I’d just put this in here but how do you send your cards to PSA physically? As in what kind of sleeves/storage works best or is desired by PSA?
Personally, I use a penny sleeve in a Card Saver 1. Then tape bubble wrap around both piles of cards. On the bubble wrap mark “1” or “2” for which is first. Everyone has there own way of doing it… Do post-it notes actually help that much?
And Mr.Pratte.
I understand we’re an adult site and the F word or MF or sh*t is all acceptable here but you need to set some limits or things could get out of hand. I strongly object to the use of the “T” word being uttered here. Now I’m not talking about the measuring device one or the recording accessory one. I mean only the one that is used to fasten things together.
Come on Founder. Make this a rule for the good of the entire collectible world.
