Starting off - 1 lvl Pallet Town [Q's on markets]

General
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Hi Atlas here,

New to efour and super excited + keen to start my collection, I left a bit of the background in the new members thread. I appreciate any advice, comments and criticism are welcome.

After looking where I should start, I have decided to start collecting All gens Starters Pokémon Cards. Since it is the entry point for anyone playing the games and most are common and affordable.

I noticed the Goldstar starters Mudkip, Torchic and Treecko.

Mudkip looks super cute! :blush:

I thought a Goldstar would be a great high value cards to add some ‘woah’.

Before I begin, I need to know how to find the local/international markets.

Other than ebay, local marketplaces (FB) etc. Where else is a good places to look for people collecting, trading and selling pokemon cards?

I would like to get a few cards graded myself just to see how I feel about the process. (being from Australia the turn around time is LONG!)

I’ve seen some varying results in the “NM” and “Mint” card claims from the ebay sellers and if cards have to be returned, who has had to do this? How did it go?

Research – Currently using pokemonprice, however only goes to 12 months back. Is there any other sites? Do they offer a longer history?
I have created some data scrap*ers (censor was deleting word) on ebay to get some more data. And will start building my spreadsheets.

PSA says this is the current Population of the cards.

**48 - PSA 10 – Treecko

35 - PSA 10 – Torchic

57 - PSA 10 – Mudkip**

Thoughts on collecting Goldstar?- My initial thoughts are, they are x3 rare that other like cards in sets, and being this rare I assume most people kept them in un-played conditions?

I will possible look to collect other goldstar further in the future.
( i’ll leave my mindset on how I am collection to another post, this one is long enough).

Thanks to those who read this far and answer my question.

Cc

Edit - Spelling

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You’ve asked a lot of questions back to back so many I’ll just answer the same way.

Other than Ebay or Facebook, I would say the only other large marketplace is probably Instagram. For Japanese cards there are other marketplaces available.

The benefit of Ebay is that the protection for the buyer is unparalleled, to the point where you can be a malicious buyer and get away with it (not recommend). If there’s a discrepancy between the listed item and the one you received, it’s fairly easy to return it. Just keep in mind it’s kind of shitty as a small seller to make a sale and have the buyer upset about some trivial issue and return the item. Carefully evaluate the item and pictures before buying. I usually eat the cost unless I think the seller was being disingenuous in the listing.

You can look up sold Ebay listings on PWCC (you need an account) that go further back. But Pokemonprice is by far the best option in terms of usability. Sold listings over a year old are usually not even relevant today.

Gold stars are cool. They’ve seen cycles of up and down. The Torchic in particular is a tough one to find in PSA 10. In the end, if you just buy what you like and what makes you happy, you’ll probably have a good time.

1 Like
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PSA is a headache. In your situation its probably better to purchase the cards of your liking already graded. I have read some of the horror stories of people having to send cards back and fourth multiple times to PSA on their own dime because of PSA made mistakes. I cant imagine having to deal with that all the way from Australia. If you insist on sending the cards in to grade yourself the process is pretty straight forward if they dont mess anything up lol. You purchase a membership for around $300 USD from the PSA website and you get 15 “free” grades. You just follow the process on the website. Alternatively, you can also use a middle man service like Ludkins or “willtheautographguy” on instagram.

As for buying cards online if you aren’t 100% sure of the condition ask the seller to send more pictures with a bright light and showing all angles of the card. Card grading is all relative so if someone says the card is “mint” or near mint just take it with a grain of salt. Most of the time if the card was as mint as they say you have to ask yourself why wouldn’t they send it to PSA and double or triple their return?. If it seems to good to be true or the pictures aren’t CLEAR than just stay away. In the case that you do make a purchase and the card comes to you in worse condition than pictured or described you can file a claim with paypal or ebay. Just remember that filing claims for item not as described is a good way to get blacklisted in the community as lots of scammers will buy a card and than complain about the condition and get a partial refund from Ebay or paypal.

trollandtoad.com is decent for pricing and you can also purchase cards directly on their site. I personally have never made a purchase from them and the reviews seem pretty hit and miss, but its an option and I know lots of people from this fourm and collectors have bought from them. Instagram can also be decent if your able to verify the seller is legit. Also,I have seen people talking about the Japanese yahoo auction site but I cant figure out how to use it lol. Additionally, as pokemonflyermaster said, Ebay sold listings is a good indicator of what cards are currently selling for.

I don’t collect gold stars so I cant really chime in to much, but in the wise words of smpratte “collect what you like”.

Im still half asleep so this is the best answer I could come up with for now. Good luck and have fun!

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You can always make a thread here stating what you want but only if you put down what you’ll pay.

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As a fellow Australian, I will impart some exclusively Australian wisdom.

Facebook groups like Pokemon Australia, Team Rocket Australia, etc. are terrible for big cards. Sellers know the demand of what they have and will get the exact price they want because the market is just starved of goldstars, 1st ed base, etc. It’s great if you find people who really need to sell random cards with little demand but you just pay more for everything.

The best thing you can do for yourself is set up a freight forwarder in the states and buy off ebay and US collectors. You will save thousands in the long run. You dodge GST, high shipping costs and there’s just no substitute for a deeper market.

On the flip side, NOBODY checks Australian ebay. If you want to sell cards spam every fb group you can.

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im in nz and these are all great relative points. take this advice.

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Thank you for your advice and replies,

@pkmnflyingmaster, I prefer this style, keep all the questions and answers in 1 spot, rather than a longer mega thread. Sorry if this puts people off answering, will look to limit the questions in each thread in the future.
OK, thanks for the info.

@seeingdouble, I agree, collecting what you like is always more rewarding and the way I plan to go with it. I have seen troll and toad, I thought it was an intermediary site, similar to eBay?
I think I will go for membership once the collection is well underway, but I have seen a few local PSA 3rd party for now. Thanks!

@budget, Thanks I joined those two groups today and saw their “live stream” which was interesting. I definitely see how the price floats to the higher end. I may need to get some more info off you for the freight forwarding if you don’t mind.

@gott006, Hello, thanks for the comment.

I’ll continue to trawl these forums, the discord for more information and see where I end up.