Heys guys.
There is a lot of debate as to whether or not too many people are speculating on modern. Maybe if we share what we have, we’ll have a better idea.
Without further delay:
14 Special Delivery Charizard
20 Yu Nagaba
11 Stamp Promo
600 Japanese Amazing Rare(200 Kyogre, Yvelta and Reshiram)
Not pictured:
8 Honchkrow Japanese alt art
8 Beedrill Japanese alt art.
15 Amazing Rare Rayquaza
40 Charizard Vmax Decks Japanese
Anyway, that’s what I have. Anyone else care to share?
I ran a poll on IG (the most reliable source) if people had at least 1 sealed box of evolving skies. Not sleeved, etbs or other crap. it was 70-30 in favor of not owning even 1. Did they all dump it? Idk, but If the 70% did have 1 box I bet the price would not be $400 right now
swsh etbs baby
When you say modern how far back are you looking? SS, SM, XY, or even BW? When it comes to modern, for those who are holding, I think it would be interesting to see what era folks decided to draw the line at mostly. I wonder if we’d see potentially a large gap between even those holding SS vs SM product.
nice try, irs
I have a couple of Evolving Skies boxes I bought in 2021 on a promo (around $120 each). I also have boxes of other later SWSH sets, mainly Astral Radiance through to Silver Tempest. Got them all on a combination of promos/Black Friday + loyalty discount through the LGS I buy from. So bascially at or below MRSP across the board.
I have a few Japanese S&M era graded singles that I’ve purchased, but I mainly bought them because I actually enjoy the cards. Whether they’ll perform in the future or not, I have no idea.
I also recently acquired a couple of VSTAR Universe boxes just to shove away. It’s such a great set that even if it doesn’t go up in value, I’ll eventually just open them to have the cards in my collection.
Around this time last year I went all-in on certain Japanese Tag All Stars cards that I thought were undervalued.
The biggest culprit was Eevee GX HR. The price on this made no sense. A few things I considered:
The full art Eevee GX (non rainbow) from this set was already released in an English promo product. That would’ve been the perfect time to release the rainbow in English in the same product. So I figured since they didn’t release it then, they never would in English.
It’s an extremely popular species with a beautiful hearts texture background. People who collect eeveelutions will definitely want it. The heart pattern also matches Sylveon GX HR which is a popular card in Japan.
You can’t pull rainbow cards from a god pack, so there is only one Eevee GX HR per 40+ boxes (can’t remember the exact number of ultra rares in tag All Stars)
Stores were opening boxes en mass at this time going after trainer full arts, which led to huge quantities available of rainbows, full arts and other less coveted cards from the set. But eventually they would run out of boxes / decide no longer worth the EV.
No one I knew was investing in Tag All Stars. If anything, after a reprint dropped the gold prices, a good amount of people felt burned and it clouded their judgment on the set’s potential. If you want to make money in Pokémon, it’s always better when collectors are buying a card instead of investors. They are much less likely to sell the card if it goes up in price.
The price had been stableish for years. Too many people rely on others’ opinion to make speculative purchases. They only want to jump in once the card price has already begun to climb. You need to be willing to trust your gut and be patient. And pay market value instead of obsessing over getting a deal.
I purchased more of these than depicted here but I took a group photo since they were all sequential serial 10s in this sub which was nice.
This was another card I found underrated. I bought a lot lot lot of gold cards in general.
The Eevee has tripled in price since I bought them. The birds are pretty similar price as last year but I’m confident in my purchases and expect this to change within a year or two.
Any time local sellers tried to dump modern boxes over the last year or so under market value i pretty much bought them. Wound up with lots of astral, fusion and lesser sets obviously lol
Amusingly, these are two of the few Japanese cards I’d purchased a while back on their appeal alone, without any intention to invest. They’re so pretty.
They really are! My tag team binder is one of my favorites. Money doesn’t grow on trees so I’ve always tried to be involved in the market to make the money needed to expand my collection. These Chanseys don’t pay for themselves! 
I guess my decision to collect Greninja instead of Charizard is a bit of speculation, expecting it to keep gaining popularity over time. Early XY stuff was already hard enough to come by, if I can get it all now value can only go up when I eventually sell anything.
You prob bought one of mine lol xD
I recently decided that SWSH092 Rayquaza and SWSH129 Umbreon are very nice cards so bought 100 of each, if that counts as speculation?
obligatory 100 greninja gold stars as well
I dont really buy anything with the intent to sell later but I will go after cards I think have a lot of potential to raise that I want to own. The cards that fell into that catagory would be japanese eeveelutions V alt arts. Given how crazy japanese singles are going right now and how much better the art on v’s is compared to vmax alt arts imo, I was surprised to find most of the eeveelution v alt arts below 100 so I’m trying to complete those. I also purchased a set of the stamp promos because I fully expected them to raise and knew I wanted them. And I was right considering I got both sealed for 200 bucks and theyre now about 300 sealed.
An Eevee? I bought them all raw from Japan and graded myself.
Have engaged in a good bit of speculation myself… good bit of sealed:
Handful of Celebrations UPCs, ETBs, Hidden Fates tins/ETBs, 1-3 booster boxes of probably half of the Sun & Moon/Sword and Shield sets, some cheap Black Friday/under MSRP type specials on collection boxes/tins/ETBs… handful of pokemon center exclusive ETBs… it’s a lot of physical storage room on the ETBs and collection boxes though so have tapered back and don’t really want to continue with that as much.
Edit: also japanese booster boxes from S&M / Sword and Shield era as well… in addition to the Eevee Heroes Gym Box/25th Golden Box/Japanese Stamp Box… however I’m not sure if I would put these in speculation or collection category. I thought they would increase, but am happy to keep for collection as well!
I bought that Eevee from a Japanese seller, and by the time it arrived a month later the price had doubled. Unfortunately the condition wasn’t as described (the seller did refund me 50% though) so thank you for reminding me to get back in while it’s not too pricy! I adore the heart holo.
100 modern English promos eh? You’re bound to get at least 5x PSA 10’s. I swear, it’s impossible to find one without obliterated corners. The Rayquaza does indeed look great in person too!
the first two rays i graded both came back 10’s, im not sure what voodoo magic i did to make it happen though
