My belief is that only 9 people can own PSA 10 copies at the time of this post. So what are the other people trying to complete the set supposed to do? Leave a gap in their collection or fetch the 9?
Okay the set collectors are fetching 9’s now. Demand went up. WOTC isn’t printing anymore of these things so naturally the supply goes down.
And up goes the PSA 9 price. Now the casual “Doesn’t need to be PSA 10” collectors are seeing that a PSA 9 is gonna cost them $2000+. They ask themselves “is it REALLY worth the extra $1000 to have 1 less nick or ding on the card… hmm screw it I’ll get the 8”.
The hobby has more collectors (and “investors”) now than ever. Even if hardcore collectors got the 10’s and 9’s, deep pocket “investors” who think 1st Ed Base 2 exist will notice the card is expensive and pick some up. Not taking shots at anybody of course. Just keep in mind that there are less informed consumers who impulse buy after viewing recent sales metrics on eBay.
The only two cards that I can think of that collectors do not mind to have lower grades in their collections are 1st edition charizard and GS Rayquaza.
Charizard and rayquaza have a huge fan base.
People want to pay high dollar on PSA 8 T17, does not make any sense to me… Lugia is the king of Gen 2 Pokemon.
one problem with low pop items is unless there’s a few fresh data points, its strength of being rare is also its Achilles heel. Most people like to have a frame of reference to feel safe about throwing a bunch of money on a card that pops up once in a blue moon. they need the market’s validation before making a huge bid on an item that is truly rare and sought after. i think the T17 only caught fire because we finally had some eye popping public data and people suddenly came around to it.
You stated your opinion as if it was widely accepted by all collectors. “Only cards worth collecting in lower grades is Charizard 1st and GS ray”. I dont sit here and claim that t17 is king of pokemon, Other people as well as myself gave you about the same answer to your question. You came back with YOUR FEELINGS… Which frankly the market does not care for.
YEs i agree, some people do have to get over those barriers. But at the same time BiN gives the perception of availability. An auction, you have to make a decision within 7 days. You either want it or you dont. If you hesitate and think oh but would TCA gaming pay this price for this card, then guess what, you lost the auction.
I think ya’ll should just stop worrying about T17 so much. You’re only beating a dead horse now. It is what it is, nobody of you can singlehandedly change the value. The market moves in mysterious ways sometimes and isn’t always ‘reasonable’. Fact of the matter is that there are enough people agreeing on a certain price, even for played conditions. I don’t think the price is justified either, but that also goes for many abundant Charizard cards. Doesn’t matter. Move with the flow and enjoy the show
They are already there!
My PSA 10 1st Ed Yanma (Y17) sold a couple months ago for $12,000 and other low pop cards have been hitting highs as well. Typhlosion is unique in that I haven’t seen an actual PSA 10 that’s free of print lines or defects, but even just the label is 5 figures.
