I was at my local comic/card shop today and came across this little guy. It is in its original sealed paper packaging, and they are selling it for $25.
Now I’m no expert on Japanese cards whatsoever, but based off the pokemonprice.com listings, it looks like this is a rather niche card that could be realistically sold for $40 in graded mint condition (our very own smpratte sold a PSA 8 recently for $40). There is only one instance of a PSA 10 sale, which went for over $400 in an auction. Seems pretty out of proportion compared to the PSA 9 numbers–perhaps shill bid–but notable nonetheless. It should also be noted that the Mankey is the only glossy card in the 6-card Promo Natta Wake set, and a PSA 10 Natta Wake Birthday Pikachu goes for around $700. I cannot find any current or sold listings for a sealed Natta Wake Mankey; however, other sealed Natta Wake cards seem to be going anywhere from $40 - $300.
Given the research I’ve put into it tonight since leaving the comic shop, I plan on going back in tomorrow to purchase it. However, I wanted some advice on price evaluation and what you believe I should do with the card.
What kind of condition should I expect the card to be in if I were to open it from its original sealed case? What value should I expect for the sealed package? And is its potential worth the risk of opening it? My uncertainty here largely stems from the fact that there are so few sales for this card, only one PSA 10 sale, and zero (from what I could find) sold sealed copies. Any help here would be appreciated. Thank you!
(And if you’re in the same boat as me and have no idea what to make of this, I hope you at least enjoyed the card art–really wish this one was properly ported over to English!)
@nateg and @pkmnflyingmaster like natta wake stuff and might be able to answer your questions. I believe the PSA 10s are hard to grade for some reason so they have quite a premium over 9s (correct me if I’m wrong).
I feel like old glossy japanese promo cards are tough to grade because the gloss is easily scratched. That and peeling the card can sometimes lead to damage plus it could always be off center. Great card and a nice buy as an unpeeled card. I’m sure it can sell at a premium for being unpeeled!
I was tagged so I’ll just spew out some stuff I know about the cards. The Natta Wake cards illustrated by Kagemaru Himeno were sealed inside paper packaging that was placed inside the corresponding 6 volumes of manga also illustrated by Himeno ( bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_How_I_Became_a_Pok%C3%A9mon_Card_volumes ). The manga is split into chapters and is supposed to be an explanation of the “story” behind various cards she illustrated (Jungle Mankey in this case). Here’s an excerpt showing what I’m talking about:
All 6 volumes came with a promo card: Mankey, Pysduck, Hoppip, Jynx, Sunkurn, Hoppip, Pikachu
The prices tend to be all over the place due to popularity, difficulty of grading and rarity. For raw copies, I would rank them like this:Jynx < Psyduck = Mankey < Sunkern < Hoppip < Pikachu
Jynx, Pysduck and Mankey appear to be very common. I’ve seen raw NM copies go for less than $10 on auction. Hoppip seems to appear less often so even raw copies sell in the $50 range. Pikachu is pikachu and definitely the most popular of the set.
I would probably expect a similar trend for PSA 9. There’s a difficulty associated with grading them as they tend to sometimes be OC or have very tiny edge damage. They also don’t pop up in PSA 10 for sale so you will likely see a lot of variability in prices. @nateg would know the 10 market better than me. I think Mankey was the last one he needed (?) which he graded himself very recently.
Pretty cool cards though.
This set is one of my favorites; its what turned me into a collector. It’s still pretty niche. I think 25 is a fair price for an unpeeled Mankey. I have purchased them for around that on yahoo japan before fees. Mankey is the hardest natta wake to grade as of now, which is mostly due to centering. I have a decent amount of 9’s that are perfect except centering. I purchased a 10 last year from an Italian seller through a middle man since he wouldn’t ship to U.S. BIN price was 150 and I was about $230 all in on the card after shipping and fees. The only other sale I know of is the recent auction that you stated. I’ve pealed 3 so far and got a 10 on 1 which is about the odds the pop report reflects. Best of luck if you decide to grade it!
@pierce , thank you tagging the two Natta Wake experts for me!
@garyis2000 , yeah I would like it for myself. Although honestly–and I know this kinda goes against the “spirit” of the forum–my interest in the card is largely financial. About to go into heaping debt from medical school so trying to apply my Pokemon card knowledge to net me some cash haha. However, like I said, still love the card and genuinely enjoying doing Pokemon card transactions. Something fun about it, idk.
@joer , yes apparently it has to be peeled off of cardboard. Think it might be just for me to sell sealed to be safe.
@pkmnflyingmaster , thank you for all of that information! Makes me like the card and the others in the set more than I already did
@nateg , yes I noticed that the PSA 9:PSA 10 ratio is ~3:1, so I suppose the hefty 10 premium makes sense. Thank you for all of the information! It seems like it might be worth it for that ~33% chance of peeling a 10, but I like to play things safe. I was hoping the sealed would go for a bigger price considering its scarcity but apparently not so. Might just keep it sealed and let sit on it awhile.
@mikejofthecoast, hmm to me he appeared moreso nervous than determined. @pkmnflyingmaster, do you know the context of this one?
jb2448.info/picture.php?/45235/category/2211The full untranslated version is here. Remember, you have to read starting from the top right of the right page, top->bottom, right->left Here’s my interpretation of what is happening:
three hooligan mankeys, looking to cause trouble- one vandalizes a police car, another puts a snorlax on the road- time for the third one to show how much of a badass they are - but they look anxious- third dirty boi mankey tries to upskirt an innocent schoolgirl, but is too shy- girls turn around and think the mankey is so kawaii, they feed the shy mankey chocolate (is that okay? ? ?)- the first two naughty mankeys are disappointed and realize they have to harden their friend- they toss shy mankey off an onix on a bungie cord, get dragged by a tauros along the ground, tied to a diving golduck, electric therapy by pikachu, spooked by haunter, punched by a hitmonchan and taken away by a pidgeot, presumably to be fed to some pidgeys- shy mankey is now badass and needs to prove it- time to steal an apple- shy mankey still has a good heart so is sweating bullets when stealing the apple- success! apple was stolen- shy mankey is proud of the petty theft, throws apple into air- mankey with Gary Oak hair takes a crunchy bite of the apple…- shy mankey pissed now- evolves to primeape, chases down friends to beat them up because they were actually assholes.
Apparently that’s what the primeape in the Jungle card is running for lol.
Wow, thank you again for all of that context plus the breakdown! I know the cards were created before these comics ever came to be, but developing a post-hoc origin story for some of the cards definitely adds an extra bit of intrigue to them. Much appreciated, @pfm
