6 years from now Charizard could match current day Black Lotus. One day I could even see Charizard surpassing Black Lotus as well. Pokemon is growing a much broader and, I assume, a bigger audiance then MTG. Would I put money on that bet, not right now, but demand is a bigger part then you’re giving credit.
There are only 1100 copies of Alpha Black Lotus printed though. I think we can all agree that is the rarer card. With over 1400 copies of 1st ed base charizard graded and probably 100s ungraded also the possibility of a few in unopened boxes, there is no chance that charizard is rarer than the black lotus.
I noticed that a lot. I had a psa 9 1st suicune listed at 134.99 free shipping. (I know much lower end) And the one they had on auction went for like 15 dollars over.
I found it very interesting so i raised my price quite a bit and put a best offer on it.
Not only that, but the card I was bidding on for myself from PWCC, were going higher than live buy it nows so I quit bidding. It was strange.
I live in the same city as 1by1 so I felt like adding something to this:
Negative gearing (tax deductions on property) doesn’t contribute as much to Melbourne and Sydney’s perceived “housing crisis” as much as people think it does.
If anything we have an infrastructure problem that will take decades to fix. There’s been a huge influx of foreign investors buying up underpriced houses in one of the world’s fastest growing cities, we also have a huge population growth as well as an ageing population who continues to buy a 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. investment property in high density areas.
All these factors have happened quicker than policymakers have been able to adapt. We don’t have the infrastructure to get people on the fringes of built up areas to the CBDs quickly and efficiently so people who are first home buyers are desperately trying to buy or rent in dense areas.
Melbourne and Sydney are comparable to Toronto, L.A. and San Francisco.
But $20K to $100k in 6 years… it sounds like a lot of money but if you want to make more there’s better ways to use your money. The trade-off is that you have to work at it rather than locking cardboard in a safe and forgetting about it. You get out what you put in though.
In Pokemon I’d never buy a card over $4k to “invest” in because at that price point or higher the time it would take to see a significant ROI would be too long compared to other things I can do with that money.
When it comes to buying collectibles your best ROI isn’t at the high-end (Black Lotuses or the PSA 10 1st Charizards) of the hobbies after they’ve already gone through huge periods of growth. It’s about finding underestimated or forgotten cards and waiting for them to jump. Then you sell those once they go to the moon, rinse and repeat.
I live in Hobart but my family is from Sydney and my mum owned 3 or 4 houses by her 30s I believe, she sold them when we moved down here. She currently owns 3 houses and I own two. Real Estate is still relatively affordable here but I don’t know how long that will last, my tax agent advised me last year I should start negative gearing for the tax benefits and gave me the number for his broker friend who could help me do so. Needless to say I haven’t taken him up on that advice, I did the math and if I saved my current budget all for a PSA 1st Ed Charizard I could afford one in about 2 years with the current price. Prices are definitely going to continue to rise but I’m not an “active” investor when I look at Pokemon, this is purely a collection. It would be nice to own such a fetch card but I’d rather grow a collection than just sit for 2 years for one card.
Nice stuff. I have toyed with the idea of selling my inner melbourne property and then purchasing a purchasing a larger property yet still in an affluent suburb of hobart whike cutting my debt in half lol, then i remember i have no friends and family on that island. In terms of collecting vs investing, it makes sense to want to build a collection and mix of cards rather than sitting on one. So instead of a 10 zard you could get a 7 and then each week/fortnight/month have funds allocated for purchasing a card you want/like. That way you actively grow your collection 1by1 and in instances invest. You might find 20k usd gets you all the starters in psa 8 and gives you the ability to complete X amount of wotc holo sets in psa 9 for example. COLLECTVESTING