This is my first post. New to forums in general and thought you guys can help. I am looking to build my first pokemon card collection. Very new to this. I am looking to start off with Pokemon 1999-2000 booster packs 1st editions. Fossill, jungle and base sets. Unopened of course. I have concerns with possibly being resealed and weighed confusion. Again im new to this so bear with me. Any help would be appreciated. I am looking for reputable sellers on ebay too for unopened booster packs. Thanks
Personally I would assume that any sealed packs from that era have been weighed. Keep in mind that the seller selling the packs right now doesn’t need to have weighed them, they could have been weighed at any time since they were released. Occasionally sellers don’t even know if the older packs they’re selling have been weighed or not. Resealed packs really aren’t too much of a concern, especially when weighing is so prevalent.
If I was going to go out and buy some old packs, I’d do it from a highly reliable seller, one with high feedback, a return policy, and experience selling Pokemon cards. Be prepared to pay more to get stuff from one of these sellers. Additionally you should ask them where they got the packs as that can be very important. “I got them off of eBay from some guy” = problematic, “I opened a damaged box and am selling the loose packs” = good.
While this is correct, its also difficult to trace packs back to the source. I have TONS of packs and blisters that I have no idea the original source, but I can bet they aren’t weighed. Hell, I just bought quite a few blisters from someone and opened a few, they were fine and he had all of 25-30 feedback. I just happened to get a stellar deal and am going to flip them as I don’t need all of them, he didn’t know the origin either. Not really sure why the return policy is a thing, if someone gets unlucky and wants to return after opening or whatever, they are no better than a pack weigher.
I think selling and buying packs is the most difficult thing to do on ebay to be honest. Customer has bad luck with 10 packs and pulls 1 or 2 holos? MUST BE WEIGHED! Its a double edge sword, even selling packs you feel like if they don’t get what they expect to be a correct amount of pulls, its your fault and the claim of weighing will be on you. I bought 4 packs from someone a little while ago who listed an entire box in 4 pack lots, I pulled 0 holos and the first thought that came to my mind was I wonder how much negative feedback someone gets when doing that. And if a seller DOES weigh the packs to hopefully get the 1:3 odds correct, does that make him bad as well? Its such a frustrating market for the WOTC boosters, false claims along with trying to pinpoint the origin is madness.
Oh I guess my rants over. You can never be safe when purchasing loose packs technically, especially in the WOTC era, but try not to assume the worst in people. If you REALLY wanted to be safe, sealed boxes are the safest bet.
Selling on eBay can be really tricky. I have sold packs right from a box, and gotten “neutral feedback” because the buyer didn’t get a holo in his ONE pack. WTH!?
A lot of people say/assume that older packs on eBay and Amazon are weighed but I’ve never had a situation where I received weighed old packs. Within the last month or two I’ve bought a few hundred worth of packs ranging from Base Set to Neo Revelation and I got the expected holo out of every 3 packs.
I think it is a matter of luck. Check out seller feedback is all I can recommend.
Have you actually received consistent pull rates from Amazon? The review section below every listing always spouts “weighed” but one can assume that in some cases the customer didn’t buy many packs and had some bad luck, then jumped to conclusions. Also, it would probably differ set by set, as there are different packs sold by different online stores which are simply “fulfilled” by Amazon i.e. “Bargain Hunter Sales”.
I actually bought 5 packs of Neo Discovery unlimited from Bargain Hunter Sales about 2-3 weeks ago and pulled two holos from the packs.
On the topic of that seller - before I bought the packs I had a hunch that they would raise the price once I bought them and what did they do? Price was raised to $25 within one day after. I paid $20 a pack.
Dang dude, nice. 1st ed Neo Destiny packs for $65 doesn’t sound bad, but I would have to see to believe they were not weighed. Not that I don’t believe you, just that I don’t trust the company to consistently conduct their business ethically, across the board, for every product, all the time.