Thats super helpful, thanks very much for that. Not looking for people to look into their crystal balls for me so your answer is perfect.
I really do like the cards but if they’re likely not to gain value over the coming years, it’s better for me in my current situation to invest the money in another way. Before the price increase last year I’d have said I’d prefer the cards over the cash, but now they’ve gone up in price that’s not really the case now. I might keep the sealed boosters and list the cards for sale.
Yeah no problem. Regarding the cards, I mean it certainly is possible they could go up a lot in the near future. In my post I was just arguing for why I think they are safe in the long term. I can’t comment on the short term. They could double soon after you sell. It’s a risk we all take when we decide to sell.
PSA 9 Unlimited holos have fallen by as much as 70% in just 2 months. However, the prices aren’t that different from where they were 4 months ago. Some might argue that this is a buying opportunity. It’s all speculative. As I said the PSA pops will only increase, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be other market factors that cause the prices to nevertheless increase in the short term.
I just wanted to add that because if you do sell I don’t want it to be unduly influenced by my cautiously optimistic focus on only the long term.
Regarding eBay, yeah I do think it’s one of the best places to sell these cards. There are other platforms, but eBay has the largest audience. You’ll pay fees, but with that comes increased protections and a little less nonsense compared to social media platforms.
I have a pretty extensive wotc/japanese old back collection graded in 9. They’re all unlimited cards I was picking up for 5-20$ in 2017-19 besides certain holos like Charizard. Still, I only paid around 150$ for the Charizard. I have over 500 PSA graded cards. I’m extremely bullish on the cards. Charizard unlimited PSA 9 peaked at around 6,000$ and in my opinion that is just a glimpse of the future. Short term I believe non-holo wotc, japanese old-back set cards, and modern will go down because people have a financial incentive to grade them and population sizes will increase. I could pull up my eBay history and show you 80% of my non-holo base unlimited collection was around 7$/card. Those cards sold for less than grading fees + shipping. And well not many people want to lose money like that.
There’s been unprecedented inflation in both underdeveloped countries and economic strongholds. It has been said on here before that it would be weird for Pokemon not to go up in price and I agree with that. If we look outside of Pokemon. Metals, stocks, crypto, vintage comics, sneakers, vintage sports cards, vintage video games, etc. They all have similar trends.
These are just my thoughts of course and the cards could go back to Pre-COVID prices or flatline where they are now for the next fifty years. But I can say for certain as I get older (I’m only 29 now) and more monetary opportunities arise I will very likely continue on buying Pokemon cards as they rise in price and I believe many collectors share the same sentiments. That being said if anyone asked about financial security I’d never mention using Pokemon cards as an investment vehicle. I just really enjoy them like you and they just so happen to appreciate in price over time. Not everyone is great for at their jobs but if a professional financial advisor recommends selling your cards and putting the cash into something else I say to listen to them rather than a bunch of us on the forums as you will naturally get biased advice towards Pokemon cards.
Exactly! We have the power to stop this. Who cares about the newest set no matter how cool. Just don’t pay more then $40-$50 a ETB or $100 a booster box point blank period. Buying singles is always smarter anyways. The print runs for these new sets are already humongous! The funny part is a lot of its in the hands of people who don’t even want the cards themselves. We have the power to turn the tables. Just stop and make a stand guys!
It would take so many people to stop that from happening its not realistic theres much more demand and much more capital out there than any of us will ever understand and also in hindsight these print runs according to PSA pop arent that high especially compared to modern sports…if demand for modern pokemon continues those pop reports will still be considered miniscule.
I still don’t think $80/ETB is that unreasonable. Shining Fates has a ton going for it, and there’s way too much demand. Of course I wish I could get them for $50 each, but that simply isn’t possible in this market. The only way is if you somehow are lucky enough to get them from a big box retailer right after release. I gave up trying to get any Pokemon products at my local stores. The good products always seem to be out of stock, and I don’t like taking unnecessary trips to the store during the pandemic.
Originally I planned on waiting until I could get Shining Fates at MSRP, but I’m realizing now that may never happen. Hidden Fates is a 2019 set. It was literally just reprinted and it is no longer new, so where are the $50/ETB opportunities for Hidden Fates? Unfortunately it’s just the opposite: $120 seems to be the cheapest price on the secondary market, 50% more than Shining Fates.
If Shining Fates is likely to follow in the footsteps of Hidden Fates, then there’s no point waiting for it to also become a minimum-$120 ETB. I might as well get it while I still can for under $100, because sooner or later that opportunity will be gone. Again, I don’t like it, but it is what it is. The market doesn’t care what I like.
I think $80 is pretty reasonable as well considering that the website you linked includes tax and shipping in that price, as well as the fact that they guarantee their preorders. It just doesn’t seem worth it to me to visit my local stores on release and hope that they have some product left. If the ETBs do become wildly available for MSRP, my wife and I will just buy more.
You just cant compare a set which is establishing as probably the best modern set to collect to shining fates. One released 1 year+ the other is still a couple of months away.
HIF has something going for it. Will Shining fates probably be the little brother of HIF? Sure thing, but we still dont know how it will go. You can speculate on SF but HIF has everything backing up its prices.
Along the lines of recent sets, any thoughts on Team Up… was looking to buy a case and noticed that the retailers that had them sold out in past week. Price also jumped. That set doesn’t seem to get hype so just curious what your thoughts are? It is outpacing burning shadows as far as sun and moon sets go…
Why is VV Pikachu V (#170) so much more expensive than the Pikachu VMAX (#044) now? They were both around $30 a few weeks after release, and now the regular V is ~$65 while the VMAX has maintained its value at best.
Differences in playability maybe? I would have expected the VMAX to be a much more popular card as an affordable alternative to the rainbow chonk.
As every single card, is about rarity/popularity. The pullrate of Pikachu V FA is significantly lower than the vmax pika which is extremely common.
Vmax (non HR rainbow) are very common hence their price is very cheap. In fact the thicc pika is only above $30 because it is Pikachu, otherwise you will see every single Vmax card in modern (except Pika and zard) well under $30.
I want a Torchic / Treeko / Mudkip English Rookie card for my collection…
I know these are shite commons but there are only a couple in PSA 10 for each…
Someone has gotta put together a guide on the rookie card for every Pokemon. That’d be cool for people looking to collect them and also for people who are probably sitting on a bunch of each without knowing what they are.
I have easily 10-15 of each that would potentially get 10s, but I’m not going to spend $10 to submit them only to potentially sell them for $30 a year from now lol. And if any got 9s, that would be $10 in the garbage.
You’re honestly better off just buying some raw copies. They’re worth like 50 cents a piece, max. Except for #75/#59/#74, which are the non-theme deck appearances and are probably closer to $1 a piece raw.
Or try to get your hand on a Sapphire theme deck. It contains 4 copies of Treecko #75 and 4 copies of Mudkip #60. You’re bound to get a few tens out of that.
I think you underestimate the insatiability of todays market for graded cards. The amount of cards that sell raw mint for <$5-10 and I’ve sold graded < PSA 8 for more than $20 is too damn high lol.
I do worry though sending too many because I don’t expect it all to be the same in the 1-2 years time when the cards would come back. Who knows though, if I have some really solid copies I’ll use this list and try and get at least a couple of each out in my coming subs. Thanks for the list.
But as you said, the real question is what will the demand be like in a year? It wouldn’t surprise me if you couldn’t sell a PSA 10 Torchic for $10 a year from now lol.
If we’re talking about reverse holo versions of those starters, then it’s a different story. But the non-holos are so easy to find in mint condition.
