Hello, I just got back into the hobby last Christmas and went off the rails a bit. I convinced my wife that pokemon could be an investment and we agreed to purchase a legendary collection reverse holo master set. I don’t plan on selling anytime soon and would hope the value appreciates but the question I have is should I slab the whole set or keep in a binder? (P.s. was this a foolish purchase or is there some promise here)
No one can answer this without knowing what you paid, what condition the cards are in, and the goal behind the purchase in the first place. I think keeping them in the binder is a safe bet until you feel good about sending them in for grading, if that time ever comes. For the full master set, you’re looking at $1500-2000 in grading fees at the very minimum right now.
You’ll always have the option to grade, and having them all together in a binder is how most collectors would enjoy looking at them as time goes on. I would do research of sales for graded copies in comparable condition and make that judgement call on your own. Sounds like an awesome set and a great find 
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I paid 10,000 usd , the cards are all NM+ I think they could get 7’s or higher and I got them for nostalgia but also because it’d be nice to leave the hobby one day with some $
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Welcome to the forum!
Ultimately you will get more money for slabbed cards (assuming their grade is high like you suggest it would be) versus raw cards because the buyer has to eat the risk of the card’s condition, in particular for Legendary Collection reverse holos which are very difficult to get in high grades (and where the bigger payouts will come from, investment wise). That said, it’s impossible to know how Pokemon cards (let alone individual sets) will look in the future. We are seeing a major market boom in Pokemon right now, and future prices are mostly educated guesses. I would be surprised if Legendary Collection reverse holo values tanked substantially but it’s certainly possible they go down a bit and never come back up.
In terms of whether or not it was a foolish purchase is really a personal matter; I wouldn’t buy a reverse holo set of Legendary Collection for $10,000 for a variety of reasons, but namely because there is other stuff I would rather have for that money. If that is a price you are comfortable with, it didn’t break the bank, and you bought something you wanted then I don’t see anything wrong with it. If I did have the whole set in a binder, I would probably just keep it that way for ease of viewing and enjoyment and purchase individual cards that I wanted in a slab.
Best of luck!
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I think it’s genuinely baffling that people will “invest” $10,000 in something they don’t understand without doing any research ahead of time. In that respect, yes this was a foolish purchase. This is an iconic set so it’s likely to hold it’s value, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to do better than break even when you sell.
I put invest in quotes because I don’t really consider randomly purchasing something to be “investing”
I would think now about how you plan to liquidate this if you ever sell it - that will inform whether you want to grade the cards or not. I also hope you kept a record of the purchase so you can handle your tax filing if you sell.
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If your purpose was to solely invest, you could have probably picked literally anything else (including ultra modern) over this.
You’re new to the hobby so $10k might have been too much as a random investment purchase. Yes this is “investible”, but it is highly unlikely it will outpace the SP500.
Grading: Legendary Collection is tough to grade because the holos are prone to scratches so you may be at a net negative post grading if you didn’t inspect them
My opinion: Legendary Collections were off the radar till hype chasers hyped LC again, maybe I live under a rock but I think most collectors who were here before the boom don’t like LC Reverses because they remind them of fake cards.
Anyways if you’re happy with your purchase then that is awesome! But I really hope you didn’t spend this $10k and then ask for affirmation after..
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do you happen to have pictures of any of the following:
charizard
gengar
snorlax
mewtwo
pilkachu
blastoise
dragonite
Im referring to the reverse holos. Depending on the condition these cards alone could exceed the $10k that you paid, however, i doubt they are in great condition (psa7-psa9) as the collector who assembled this was probably in the know. It’s possible you bought out a childhood collection in which case you could be up huge but im not sure your that lucky. A few pics would tell us a lot
Regardless these have all gone up in value since your purchase, You could probably already cash out already with a gain but it really does depend on condition
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How much of your wife’s money did you spend?
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One aspect of a good investment is the easy transition back to cash. IMO youll have an easier time selling a complete LC set in binder as oppossed to a combination of mismatched PSA 6-10 LC cards (PSA 10 if youre lucky).
And then obviously the grading fees will add more cost to you.
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It was only from my savings
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Sadly, just from the edgewear I can see from the front of these alone I wouldn’t bet on a full PSA 7 set.
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That’s good by my book! Hope it works out for you. I only have the golem but that’s a cool set to have
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news… but based off of that one back photo, those look closer to PSA 4-6’s. I’d classify most of those cards as MP, with a few LP out of the 9 backs shown.
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You probably got G’d. You’re gonna have to “invest” even more to try to get your money back because you’ll need to grade/slab the cards to maximize your value. The good news is it’s a cool set, so maybe just enjoy them instead of treating them as a means to earn more money down the road.
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Is this a meme or something
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Welcome to the fourum!
Your best bet is to stick around, read the fourum often, and familiarize yourself with the nuances of grading and selling.
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I’m really sorry to say this, but you got absolutely screwed, @xajl. You’ve been collecting for 4 months and dropped $10,000 on MP-LP vintage cards, and some of the most difficult-to-grade cards at that due to their complete holo surface.
You might get a few thousand dollars out of this collection. I would be shocked if it exceeded $5,000. If you bought the complete set from someone, they knew what they were doing to you.
If I were you, I would stop buying Pokemon cards before you jeopardize your family’s financial future. Take this as a very expensive learning opportunity. Tell your wife the honest truth and then seek counseling for your marriage and/or your spending problem.
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Buying sets and then piecing out the better cards to grade & reselling the rest raw can be a great strategy, but unfortunately I think you just got hosed on this one. Almost every card in the set is selling for around $40 in MP condition, and I don’t think the ‘hitters’ are making up the 6k difference. Unless the conditions are better than those pictures look, I think whoever sold this to you took massive advantage of your eagerness
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i think the seller of this set was dirty to include exactly “1” graded card as a psa7. It sets the precedent for unknowing buyers that the set is of similar quality and to expect the card quality to be of that range. That card in particular might have been a quality outlier so he graded it.
It wouldnt be weird if he only graded charizard because the grade is a large factor for the value of the set, but to randomly have a moltres is very sus
The seller knew what he was doing
And it was evident in your post that you feel the rest of the set should be of this same quality level. He set your expectations with that card
a psa7 zard is over $2k. A psa 7 gengar, mewtwo, pikachu, dragonite, blastoise would be $350-$400
you would pretty much need a psa7 master set to get the $10k value but even then i think it would be a loser for you. Im not gona sit and do the math but I cant see it. Even if every card was psa7.. especially with grading costs
even the desirable ones like alakazam are a good $200 max in a 7 but all the bulk (majority of them) would be worth well under $100.
we are talking $50-60. Not even worth grading most of them (assuming they were all 7s) since you would lose vs selling raw after grading costs. And the problem is, as others have stated, that from what you have shown these arnt even psa7s
IF this was a ps8 master set i could see the collective value reaching $10k.
You have one this going for you though and that is a complete set which makes it more valuable than the sum of its parts
you can try to list this on ebay for $12,500 OBO and field offers to see where the market is realistically. There are a ton of ppl just like you who dont know the whole grading process. The whatnot crowd gets quoted psa10 prices all day and just think big numbers constantly. The ppl on this forum are more seasoned but thats not the average buyer
Legendary collection costs of fortune to open. The idea of a master set will appeal to many ppl
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