Basically there’s a mismatch between who has the desire to own these and who has deep enough pockets to pay.
The choice of Sotheby’s was a bet that it would get the attention of extremely rich people that aren’t already interested in Pokemon. It seems to not have worked as expected.
maybe they thought it would be a whole logan paul thing just w/o the logan paul 
another thing to note that it is a pita to get ur acct approved for resale on sothebys and u basically need a corporate account but i doubt that the ppl bidding on these care about that 
It’s a good example to bring up in contrast. The Logan Paul moment didn’t need to be explained. They were opening an expensive box of the first pokemon set. Or with the illustrator it was simply “the rarest pokemon card” in “the highest grade”.
Whereas, wtf is a disco holo? Who is Arita and why are two signed? Who is Akabane? Why does the charizord have two companies on it? These items are inherently weird.
That moment when some of the bidders unironically say Charizord.
since this thread got separated here is the last comp from sothebys
even tho this is the second highest i personally wouldnt even touch this one and the two zards seem like the ones to get
I heard from a couple ppl who the new owner of that allegedly is and that sold price is def spare change to them regardless, so I guess it ended up in the right hands.
All in all pokemon didn’t perform well there but most of the sports auctions didn’t do great either. I think a jordan, lebron, and kobe outperformed their expectations but that’s about it. Most of the entire grails block went at underwhelming prices.
Fun times though.
The shohei went through the roof. Good timing for that seller.
Also speaking of the kind of money sitting in the room…Robert Kraft pays $120,000 for Tom Brady autographed rookie card at "Holy Grails" auction - CBS Boston
Kraft is worth $10b. Couldn’t imagine him picking up a Zord tho 
Just because you offered 300k a month or more ago doesn’t mean you would take it now.
Essentially there was 1 bidder on this item.
It’s also a CGC P10 which DOES narrow the buyer pool.
At the end of the day, interest rates are still high.
Part of the reason we had the "boom’ or Pokémon was very high liquidity due to low interest rates, PLUS the pandemic.
Most high end stuff was/is purchased on credit.
Not the right time OR the best place to auction this guy off.
I reckon if he had waited until next year it would have way more potential.
a psa copy recently sold for similar price
I think it just means ppl are discounting CGC
I want to hear his rationale for not going through bgs if he thought the card was “perfect”
I think there is justified skepticism for his card
He obviously has the full intention to sell the card so why wouldnt he go to bgs for a gold label/lotto black label?
I fully understand and appreciate that cgc pristine isnt the same as a normal cgc 10, but cgc 10 labels are already heavily discounted and viewed as psa 9.5s by many, and justifiably so. For big cards, when psa denies the 10 its often cracked and cross graded for a cgc 10 or bgs 9
I think here we see the market valuing the pristine 10 the same as a normal psa 10
In fact, just from looking at that base pic. you can see the card is heavy to the right. It looks like 47/53 or 48/52
so right off the bat it possibly would score a 9.5 centering sub grade at bgs
at this 6 figure price range, ppl dont just buy the grade they really spend time analyzing the card
if you look at the cgc pristine 10 from 2023, the card is centered more perfectly
This particular one also has the stupid floppy corner on the top right… compared to more perfect corners from the other referenced pristine
Well yeah pokemon became a thing in the 90s and that dude was born during world war 2 I cant imagine him buying one either.
here is a recap although no real insights here other that it sold for xxx which seems low: 'Holy Grails' auction: cllct breaks down every result | cllct
ya looking at this crowd this def aint the right place for pokemons
It is certainly a tad OC (the CGC scan is terrible, not even square on the camera) but still within PSA 10 criteria (and could still get a P10 at BGS with 9.5 centering if everything else was spotless).
He likely did send it to BGS in the first instance but they are sooooo tough at the moment.
I also don’t know if they would give this 10 edges, likely 9.5 edges. Meaning overall 9.5 centering, 9.5 edges so a 9.5 max grade.
It is also a Pop 3, so there are other copies at CGC.
It would say though it IS probably just as clean as Gary’s old cert BGS 10 and Logan Pauls BGS 10.
Gary’s is quite an old cert, and Logan Pauls is arguably a “I’m a celeb, give me a 10” jobby as it was already rejected a couple times when it was owned by Gary.
all 3 copies are known i believe, the first one sold for like 500k privately the next one was graded at the national and then there is this one
Rip to whoever bought at 500k. Time to loss harvest , lol
cgc is more forgiving on whitening
Ive been denied a psa 10 for less on a vintage wotc charizard card
look at this blown up scan. see that itsy bitsy tiny bit of whitening on the top left. They legit 9’d my card for that. just look at the notes
in complete honesty, with the way that psa has been grading vintage in 2024, ESPECIALLY Charizard cards, it wouldnt surprise me if he was denied a psa 10 as well with all those white spots
I do dislike PSA inconsistencies.
But to be honest mate it does seem like its more than a little dot of whitening on your card, PSA scans can be quite deceptive and minimize things.
That being said yes, CGC standards are looser.
I would 9 this at PSA - maybe a 9.5 with 9 corner at BGS. I’m not super familiar with CGC but I’d say it does have a 10 shot.
Yeah I dont think PSA is really a good option for English vintage any more. They’re great for Japanese or modern but completely unviable for English vintage unless you feel like cracking and re-subbing 5x.
Overall
I am a tad bit concerned about 1st edition charizard 10s
But, pop is well over 100 at psa
Once upon a time cgc pristine was pop 1 and that made it special, now there are more. And even bgs 9.5s and even gold labels add to pop
Maybe its just an issue of pop, and not anything else
I think maybe i would feel more comfortable if zard was in the 250k range for the sake of the industry
But, if you take a look at ebay right now
You can find 8+ psa 10 skyridge charizards
You can find even more shiny charizards,
There are way too many psa 10 gold star available for sale at the same time
But regardless, these cards are maintaining their prices
So over all i dont think its too concerning of a trend
And LC
Are ppl hiding this card or something?
No sales all year
No cards even available for sale outside of the 100k listing that i dont even think that dude is serious about a sale. Outside of that you wonder if this card even exists lol
I think vintage is fine but its all about pop baby
Perhaps the Pokemon market is simply experiencing a downturn from the covid heights? Here are the auction results of PSA 10 1ed Charizard on PWCC/Fanatics for the past few months in 2024:
Note that I don’t know all too much about certs and how they affect pricing of high-end vintage. I have heard that earlier certs tend to not be quite as strict on handing out PSA 10. But these might still be comparable to the Sotheby’s CGC Pristine 10 (it certainly is in price).
