Hi Can I get a price check on the following items:
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PSA 9 Unlimited No Stage Error Blastoise
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CGC 8.5 2005 Championship Arena
Many thanks!
The Blastoise went +20$ not to long ago at the last auction it was in over its non-error counterpart and that was when it was 790$. The most recent PSA 9 Blastoise sold for 1300$ so I’d say a fair offer is 1450-1500$
Edited
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The Championship Arena is probably about $2k to 2.5k? I’m not sure how much being a CGC 8.5 increases the value over raw. I was the previous owner of that exact copy and, for transparency’s sake, we valued it at $2k (as part of a larger trade). And it looks like there are raw copies available at that price point, so I would imagine that it’s worth about that. Although maybe I’m wrong and the CGC grade/slab significantly increases the value. It definitely doesn’t hurt.
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Not sure how you can be the previous owner when I just graded it.
Ok, then that’s just a bizarre coincidence. I traded a Championship Arena to another forum member who just got it back as an 8.5 from CGC. I figured it was a safe assumption that you were trading for/purchasing that one, since I didn’t imagine there were would be multiple CGC 8.5 Championship Arenas. But I guess I was wrong. Sorry for the mixup.
My opinion on the price is still the same, though, of course.
I’m just curious as to your reasoning why getting it graded and slabbed doesn’t increase the value over raw? Asking for a friend 
Because an 8.5 is not a high enough grade to increase the value of a card over the raw value, typically. Especially since CGC doesn’t appear to count off much on the surface grade from the typical Championship Arena indents. So a CGC 8.5 Championship Arena is basically just a typical raw copy. The premium comes in if you have a copy without the indents (which is super rare, but they do exist).
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Okay thats fair. I don’t know much about CGC. My collection is almost entirely PSA and raw and in most cases at least a PSA 8 definitely increases the value of a card. So maybe I’m just validating that a graded card does not always increase its value.
Charlie told me they look for indents when I submitted. Anyways, mines does not have the indent. I lost points on corners and edges.
Charlie told me that too when I asked (before I traded mine away). He said it would max out at a CGC 6. But my copy somehow still got a CGC 8.5 despite having the indents. I assumed that your copy was similar in this regard to mine. It’s kind of unfortunate for you that CGC has already gave a different Championship Arena with the indents an 8.5. But your copy should be worth more given that it doesn’t have them. Odd situation.
The Championship Arena is a unique scenario where high grades usually mean the grading company missed the indentations commonly seen on the card. It’s a rare exception to have no indents.
When I was buying this card, it was a nightmare trying to get sellers to reveal if their copy had indents or not. I settled for a copy under $2k that I knew had indents. It’s a lot better than paying the $10k price tag for a PSA/CGC 8+ and later finding out that it’s indented.
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I got crazy lucky on mines. When I bought my raw one, it was still in the book and I figured that the book was being used to hide the indents. When I asked for pictures of the corners, the owner said he was too scared to take the card out of the book to look for indents so he declined to take those pictures for me. I then negotiated with him assuming that it had the indents. Once I got the card, I stared at it under the light, flashlights, sunlight, different angles, etc. There were no visual indents.
And yeah Zorloth, it completely sucks that another one got graded the same as mines with the indents. Was it pretty visually apparent?
I posted some photos of the card when I originally acquired it: www.elitefourum.com/t/championship-arena-price/28417/1
It was pretty apparent to me, at least. I’m very detail-oriented, but I would assume that a CGC grader would also be. So either the indents were missed or the info Charlie gave me was incorrect (maybe they revised their policy?). You might be able to actually get more for the card if you crack it and sell it raw. That way you can give buyers detailed pictures showing the lack of indents. This is what I would do, at least.
Oh my god thats bad. Really really bad on indents. Mines is luckily nothing like that. Is the seller of your card moj455 on ebay?
Yup; that appears to be mine (some of the other items he has listed were also part of the trade we did). I’m not trying to interfere with his trying to sell the card, though – it’s his card now and it’s not my place to trash the card. I was very clear when trading it to him that the card has the indents. He examined it and stated somewhere on this forum (before he got it graded) that he didn’t think they were indents. I disagree, but I think that’s his honest assessment. So I don’t think he’s intentionally misrepresenting the card.
But yes, the card definitely has indents (I mean, you saw the pictures I posted lol).
So was your surface grade above an 8.5?
I lost out on a bit of whitening on the back. Not much.
I’m just wondering if the surface grade was above an 8.5. I’m kinda doubtful that a copy that was still in the original pamphlet doesnt have indents as that is what caused them in the first place. It is possible for sure, but I would think very unlikely.
Indents come from pressure put on the book (like when it was shoved under the door). If there is no pressure put on it, the pamphlet doesnt actually damage the card
Right, so the person would have had to have gotten the pamphlet outside of the regular distribution method which I suppose is possible. Charlie has said that the only reason why he got one without indents was because he got his from someone who was able to get a copy before it was put in the pamphlet. I’m just wondering if the surface got an 8.5 because there’s another one on eBay with an 8.5 surface that doesn’t look to have anything wrong with the surface on the scans. This leads me to believe it has the indent and that CGC grades this card with indents an 8.5 surface.