I never mentioned any of those cards. Illustrator, pikas, unikarp, etc. are not the only rare items.
Here is an example of rarity which is currently cheaper than a PSA 10 gs zard: Rocket 20th Anniversary. This is rare, but of course not the top of the mountain. The release was contained, brief, and look at the result. In 2-3 years it’s done nothing but grow, because of its core rarity.
People are truly naive to the production of sets. Throw at me your scarcest set, I know a business with at least a case of boxes.
Yes your example is good… Also for example munch pokemon recently released was a good investment. Etc… The man ask if the gold stae zard is similar to shadowless base set or 1 ed base set. To the question if there is something equivalent to the basic set, I would answer only rayquaza gold star psa 10 and lugia 1 ed neo is equivalent for base set top holo and nothing else. Perhaps mine is a wish that not everything reduces to only 3 cards of all sets and all people collect trophy card only (and I say this as a collector of both things). More than anything else because the reason that led us to start the harvest would have died. If pokemon live is because there is charizard gold star for example not a particular rare card not nostalgic but only rare. “why you collect/invest” is the first answer that people could ask himself because people buy always what like…
@marco, If we want to breakdown why people collect, that is a never ending discussion.
The point of 99% of future valuation threads is to make money. People are correctly responding to the cost of capital aspect. More specifically they are providing invaluable perspective. If I ask a financial forum, “should I invest in PSA stock or an equally terrible stock”, they will correctly say “neither”.
That is the objective answer here. 1st Ed Base Zard is not GS zard. No set is increasing, because again, the average collector is extremely naive to how many of every set exists. Therefore generally banking on perceived “popularity” has already been proven to be a terrible outlook. The card is easily $1,000 less today than a year ago. Popularity can change, rarity cannot.
Not to disagree at all with most of what has been said in here but it’s worth noting that the pop on the 10 has really slowed down. It’s not like there’s no incentive to grade this card either.
The pop makes the case even worse. If the pop hasn’t increase, but the price has dropped $1,000, and copies are always available; that should put into perspective the value of “popularity”.
Also maybe worth noting that if I was in the market for this card, I would personally opt for the 9 and save the majority of my money for a card that is actually hard to find.
It all boils down to the least risk of saturation, which is what Scott always harps on. People can go through their binder collection and pull out a gold star Charizard to grade and sell. That explains why the price has dropped $1000. That’s a significant drop. Meanwhile, rare cards can continually sell for higher prices because supply is always low or non-existent.
Buying what you love is extremely simple, but valuable advice for this hobby. However, if you want to “invest”, then there are better options than gold star Charizard.
It’s really simple. If you’re holding onto copies of the card you’re looking through whiskey glasses. Of course you want to believe your card(s) will climb at a fast rate, that just isn’t always the case. If you’re not holding copies, you can look more objectively.
@marco, Haha I was using too many words instead of the right words.
I should mention, I have a PSA 10 Gold Star Zard. As well as too many 1st Edition Base yet simultaneously not enough 1st Ed Base! So my perspective goes against those cards I own!
was indeed a good purchase back then, but every card was to be honest.
