I cant get over the 30yr old prototypes being pristine 10s when my stuff is coming out of the pack fresh as a daisy as a cgc 9.5 
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I don’t think so. I see these “pristine 10” “cards” as a different type of collectible. It’s not the same thing as a production Pokemon card like 1st edition/no rarity.
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As @pokemonunboxing mentioned, these cards are the nichest of the niche. Most collectors in North America and Europe don’t know or care about Japanese promos, let alone trophies, illustration contest cards, test prints, prototypes, etc.
Sales of these cards will not adversely affect the Pokemon market. If anything, it might bring in some adjacent collectors with deep pockets who are looking to diversify (e.g., sports, coins, pop memorabilia, etc.).
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Imagine the buyer pays half a million and then a bunch more crop up over the next year.
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A lot of the big sports buys in 2021-2022 have lost 250k+ already, some of the losses are even into 7 figures. Big numbers.
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Of course its completely different, but with NFTS things like BAYC are nuked (and they are performing better than the vast majority of other NFT collections). Sothebys sold this kind of thing. Over the last few years there have been a lot of opportunities to make money, but also to lose it.
We are in quite a crazy time of speculation. If you have ever looked into the graded coin market of the 1980’s you will see the ups and downs that can happen. Like the 1980’s, I suppose the similarity is the volatility of new money creation and contraction. It can be good to get involved, but also to keep your head. Know why you are buying things, think logically.
Also as a side note. People are dropping all kinds of big money on cards these days, which is all good. But if you are only focused cards, you might miss the value you could get in other things for these large amounts of money. For example, there are lots of areas in antiques/antiquities/art that are actually historically undervalued. If you are someone spending thousands upon thousands on cards, your money may go a lot further in these other areas that tend to have an older collector base. I have noticed Rudy from Alpha investments diversifying into old paintings that are priced very cheaply in comparison to 30 years ago. These things do require learning/time investment of course (though if you buy from reputable auction houses/dealers you should be ok, though less chance for bargains). Japanese antiques (netsuke for example, og pocket monster? 
.Woodblock prints are a little reminiscent of cards too in terms of being printed media partly valued on condition concerns, maybe they will be graded/encapsulated like cards one day. Let alone metalwork, porcelain, lacquer, enamel etc)are currently undervalued in comparison to 30 years ago, I think this could be an avenue Pokemon people might like to branch into for example.
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A game boy sprite card would’ve been amazing in a 30th Anniversary Creatures Deck
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Hello, all. I want to make sure I’m following this thread accurately. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
So far we believe:
- The Playtest cards that are on the market at Goldin and Fanatics are most likely real and were held by a collector for a number of years until they got sick. (Hence the strange way to release these)
- We don’t have a great way to price these because we have no information on how this individual came across these cards or how many of these cards exist. They could either be impossibly rare or we are about to see the market get flooded in a few years.
- Since these cards are really just printed paper stuck to card stock, fakes will follow and it will be extremely difficult to tell the originals apart from the forgeries.
As someone who grew up with Pokemon TCG and has nothing of real value in my collection, the temptation to own a piece of history is strong. This still feels a bit off to me though.
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whoops im outbid that felt good winning on a sothebys auction for a bit 
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ya i dont really get how ppl thought some of these were a good buy. if you are paying 7 figs for some modern crap released in the last few years youre gonna get burned even if you are worth like 100M+ and how many of those ppl are in this hobby? prolly not very many
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How is this “Pristine”? Anybody is very welcome to explain how there is any way to “grade” these on condition
Not that I am in the market for these but they would look so much more legitimate and less like a money grab to me if they werent all graded on a number scale and simply authenticated
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Supposedly the prototypes have their own grading standard/scale.
So similar to how PSA is somewhat lenient with grading certain sets, that have known issues.
So this is a “Pristine” copy when compared to other pro types, not all cards in general.
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I do agree with you. There are a few “delta prototype” starters posted online that have an AU grade. I’m really interested in those, but since others have real grades, I wonder what’s wrong with these. I kind of wish they were all authenticated only too.
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Very little in pokemon (but I’m sure they exist besides Logan)…but surprisingly high amount in sports lol You’d think they would have done more due diligence but it just shows no matter your tax bracket, fomo is a hell of a drug
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That makes sense but theres so few on the market right now and their production means make that notion hilarious to me. It kind of adds to the rumors that grading companies are gatekeeping grades on specific cards/eras of cards in my opinion.
A “Pristine” 10 at CGC is accessible with a hand made card that is clearly not perfectly cut, has visible edge wear, has visible print lines and other artifacts…why? Why not just say “these are not an item we grade, but we can authenticate them”, and do whatever processes they’ve done with Akabane which apparently includes in person signings, give them the same shiny black and gold label as a pristine card with “AU” to make it extra special - and leave it at that?
In my mind, theyre all 10s in that they are what they are and thats really the only way these companies should handle prototype stuff like hand made stuff that wasn’t mass produced in my humble opinion…unless theres many more of these 
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I’m not sure if this is a bug or not, but almost every Playtest card on Fanatics weekly’s closed. Even the auction week that just started.
Looks like those in extended bidding and Premier remain open. This makes this whole thing more confusing.
Edit: Must have been a bug as they are restored as of this morning.
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Must be a glitch, I am still able to bid.
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I noticed it too, it shows as closed for me as well.
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A couple beta playtest cards ended tonight on Fanatics (formerly PWCC). A lot of them ended lower than a previous alt auction late Aug. 2024. Enough of these are hitting the market around the same time to start crashing the price.
There are also some alpha playtest sales shared by thefinecard in the same post from the same alt auction although I’m unsure if it is comparable at all to beta: The Fine Card ™ | Pokémon TCG Auction Info on Instagram: "Would you look at that 👀 These sold on @altxyzofficial Follow @thefinecard for more collecting insights💡 #thefinecard #pokemon #pokemoncard #pokemontcg #fyp #psapokemon #psa10card #highend #rarecard #psa10 #1steditionpsa10 #promo #pokemoncards #expensivecard #pokemonauction #pokemoncommunity #pokemontcg #ptcg #cardcollection #auction #cardcollector #charizard #pikachu #宝可梦 #ポケモンカード #ピカチュウ #リザードン #ポケットモンスター #ポケモン"
I think speculation is rampant right now and we probably won’t see a settled price floor until they stop showing up on auction in such high frequencies.
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I noticed that CGC just lowered the pop report for the Alpha Playtest from 95 to 89. I wonder what that’s about?
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