Since I follow the corcoro Pika a fair bit I am invested emotionally and literally, full disclosure. I saw this sale go by and had a small double take at the price. Turns out to this day PSA is mislabeling these cards. The low sale price makes sense since informed buyers know it was not the 96 Nov glossy Sugimori yet the price it did go for exceeds the non glossy Kinebuchi. Meaning the buyer was likely uninformed or lazy and thought they got some what of a deal.
Well this shouldn’t be to hard to clear up, right. Phoned up PSA, spoke to a very nice gentlemen that looked at it, doesn’t doubt its mislabeled, yes current auctions affected for real ones, comps thrown off… long story short, sorry my friend unless the owner of the card asks for a correction, cannot help you. Ok I vented feel better now. I feel bad for the two guys currently running auctions on a PSA 6. how badly in impacts them if no one is paying attention to the ill in the corner and simply relying on the label.
i doubt the investor bros buying into the hype of the “first pikachu ever” even know how to identify them much less know that like half of them are mislabeled
If the card pricing can’t survive a few bad sales then it was not at the equilibrium price in the first place. If people are really seeking out this card they will pay what it takes when the real ones show up.
This has turned into a meme card with enormous “group-think” and “bag holder” energy. As more copies sell, it will put downward pressure on the price as the new flavor of the week eventually changes.
So in the current climate, isn’t that applicable to just about everything? If we had to make check lists for those cards that meet the standard… what is the first TCG Pikachu missing in comparison to others?
I imagined the holo element would be brought up but then who was conditioned or influenced to believe something was superior to something else? By an individual or a corporation. If rarity truly mattered it kind of proves my point, the market as a whole fails the test. While there may certainly be more corocoro than say illustrators or no rarity, prize cards etc, it has elements they do not. I find it mildly head tilting to hear the arguments against a card that is very cool for many reasons simply because it was brought to light to the masses by a Paul. That it was cheap before therefore its value now is not justified. On the flip side I agree with your line of thinking for the most part and refrain from modern but the corocoro Pika is not sword and shield.
You words read as emotionally invested in this. I can’t predict the future but I can look to the past. When I was recorded for that Cardbound doc, at the time I wasn’t aware the thing was basically only about the Corocoro Pikachu (they approached me about the prototype thing). They asked me what I thought of the Corocoro and I basically told them you had to be in pretty deep to even know what it was and there were other Japanese oldback that people gravitate to without being “sold” (ie. grand party, masaki). I guess that didn’t make the cut though lol. I don’t think much has changed other than a massive amount of attention being shifted onto the Pikachu, but that could go as fast as it came.
Let me put it this way. I’m currently sitting in Japan typing out this message because I sold a PSA 5 corocoro for $5k and it paid for the trip. I don’t value even remotely close to that high and would take that trade all day. I get that the higher grades are harder to get and maybe they deserve the price more but the damaged copies are very abundant to me and there are so many other cards I’d rather have personally. But that’s just my opinion.
I appreciate your reply and understanding, I love history of all sorts so to me, I am like wow this Pika is so cool and hey if it appreciates as others appreciate it, great. I suppose me trying to apply “rules” from other hobbies to Pokemon may not translate. Maybe you are right and as fast as it came it will go, and yes the emotional side of me is sad about that because its part of the origin story and so why wouldn’t people care as much as a Skyridge reverse holo LOL
Again appreciate the time, enjoy JP and so cool a PSA 5 helped make that happen
