Lol
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poor guy spent 5 grand 
maybe if it was listed empty box it would make sort of sense.
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Was ended earlie because it was sold by the seller, so it ended not at 5k?
oh, I saw sold and winning bid 5k out of 3 bids, maybe someone offered him 300k I donât know, still weird to start an auction with no reserve of something so valuable.
Absolutely not. Low feedback, no description, no other history of pokemon items. People donât just have sealed 1st boxes in their closet lol Either fake, or reseal, or money laundering or whatever other scam is out there nowadays
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Hi all,
Just wanted to get some other opinions other than mine and my close friends that also invest/collect. I dont need to hear buy what you like to collect because i do that for my collection but this is strictly an investment question.
Ive been around now almost 8 years in the hobby and remember the hate steam siege and also crimson invasion had when they were sub $80 a box and also when roaring skies and ancient origins were also sub $80 after the reprints. Im leaving out evolutions because i feel that doesnât count due to the nostalgia, having the reprint base charizard along with the other reprints.
Every one of those boxes all at least doubled, tripled and more even before logan paul. Also a box has never gone too far under the $80 range on open market (maybe mid $70s at lowest) in recent times.
I feel this is an over correction due to high print and the fade of logan paul euphoria but over time the product will dry up and eventually rise. What are your thoughts on investing into battles styles, chilling reign and other sets that reach sub $80 a box? I would appreciate thoughts from those smarter than me and more experienced.
Thanks in advance!
Invest in paying off debt, invest in tax sheltered accounts like 401(k)'s IRAâs etc.
If youâve finished all those off and want to speculate in Pokemon collectibles then sub $80/box booster boxes is a reasonable place as long as youâre not paying sales tax on top of them. Iâm currently offered an unlimited quantity of chilling reign from my distributor for $86.50 but can buy it on eBay after incentives on occasion for $75 per box or slightly less. Youâve gotta realize the big dogs pay ~$70 normally though if not a bit cheaper if things get saturated with over printed product.
A box has to increase in value by about 20% for you just to break even and in the meantime you may be storing it for years with some costs and/or risks associated with that. Then when you go to sell be prepared to have to sell at a discount any boxes that arenât minty fresh looking and/or deal with some percent of returns/exchanges/refunds.
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Going to assume everyone on here is smarter and more experienced than me, but if you have the money, surely itâs easier, more enjoyable, and more profitable to learn set and promo history and buy high quality graded cards (which are also easier to store and keep in good condition) than itâs going to be hoarding modern boxes which were printed to oblivion. I was buying gen 3 Japanese set holos for $100 last year which sold for $500-1000 this year. The thought of buying modern boxes seems extremely tedious in comparison
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Thanks for the response! Yes we do max out Roth IRAs and have 401ks as well. Only debt we have is our house.
I have thought of those points about having to pay fees, shipping etc on the way out and know this is a long term investment of probably at least 3 years to hopefully get to the high 100s maybe low 200s a box. I watched steam siege and crimson invasion come back from most hated sets to do the same thing in roughly the same period which is kind of the data i was going by.
Thanks for letting me know what the bigger guys pay which i did not know they got product that cheap. I was under the impression they paid mid 70s a box and may be trying to dump product before end of the year to get it off the books or just the market is way too saturated or something. Good to know!
Purely from an investment perspective, Iâd much rather put money in traditional asset classes. Everyone and their mom has sealed modern booster boxes in their closet.
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I thought a bit about this, and given though time has been incomplete but now sealed effect, itâs easy to come with net profit increasing. Collectibles growth in something you have for prices have parabolic growth in something you are to investors to do. This years; haha but maybe metaverse/virtual Pokemon family too!
Seriously though, 2021 was everywhere we see the first year. With that should stagnate, while we see linear, but now is not greed again after somethings are triple even the original base set trio. This data is from Sept. 30th. Also, AAs are released combined with more sets with Chilling Reignâs reprint, supply is higher the past month or two. Supply will fall further. The prices will fall further. Supply will greatly outnumber demand, though only slightly. I expect as more sets tank for the past month or two. Supply will greatly outnumber demand and prices will fall further.
That being said, when I see somethings that disagree with people. I donât mean it as a negative thing. I just like to express that interest me. Conversation is pointless if everyone agreement â not to be aggressive thing. I just like to express that is precisely the opposite of how I view arguments as an inherently negative thing I strongly disagreement â not to start a dialogue. Some people view them. I always remain civil, even when the opposite of how I view them.
I always remain civil.
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Two things Iâd say.
First: Consider the context that the first boxes grew in. They were released as unpopular sets to a smaller audience. Then they got their legs many years later after considerable growth in the hobby market. What would it take to replicate these same conditions for sets that were printed in excess of TODAYâS demand? This is still one of the largest markets we have ever seen. That necessary scaling is, in my opinion, a more important consideration than the more simplified âset low in price goes high with timeâ narrative.
Second: Consider the upside. Lets take Crimson Invasion. $75 was the price for a box at the peak of a hobby market collapsing under the weight of over-ordering by small stores and the greatest miss in recent history by the Pokemon company. They made a set that their fans simply didnât want at all. Today, 4 years later, that box can be purchased on eBay for $149.99. After standard shipping and fees, if you were that seller, youâre clearing something like $125. A meager 60% return over 4 years. Great in stocks, bad in Pokemon. And for a lot of risk.
Is this a good investment? Maybe. Is it the best investment? Almost certainly not.
That said, if its the investment youâll have the most fun making and be able to get the most joy out of as a collectible if it flops financially, it could still be the right choice for you.
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Ok. Letâs say you get boxes at $80 each shipped to you, and it takes them 3 years to double to be worth $160 per box. Youâve now tied up $80 in capital for 3 years, which could be making 10%+ in the market annually. So thatâs $88 (Year 1), $96.80 (Year 2), $106.48 (Year 3). So you earned $26 doing nothing, and that will continue to compound on itself.
Now instead you buy a booster box and sell it for $160. Iâll assume you likely will have to go through an online marketplace where youâll immediately lose 12% to fees bringing us down to $140, and shipping for a booster box is what, $8? $132. Your delta is now $52 which you owe income tax on. Letâs just say 20%, so youâre down to $41. Then thereâs the risk of returns, chargebacks, anything that could happen to the product in those 3 years, etc.
Honestly, itâs a whole lot of work and headache for not a lot of gain. And the risk that the product doesnât appreciate at the rate you anticipate, for me, far outweighs the potential.
Thanks for taking the time to give that detailed of a response. A lot of good points that give me more to think about. This is the reason i wanted to ask on here before purchasing. Thank you I really appreciate it!
Thanks for taking the time to reply with such a detailed post.
I understand the math. I am also invested in the market through Roth IRA and 401k. Also the 10% is an average over long periods of time in the market meaning if you invest now when the market is peaking then you could lose in the next 3 years if there is a downturn in the global economy. That 10% is only really used in 10+ year growth figures where you invest the same every month/year to get an average of 10% because there is plenty of 3 year periods in the history where you would have lost money in the market if you invested today and just held for 3 years wihtout averaging in and reinvesting consistantly.
That being said there is not a single pokemon box that is less than it was released for 3 years ago and never has been in the past 10 yearsâŠ
I appreciate your thoughts though and gives me more to thing about. Thank You!
For sealed products, I often think itâs far better to flip immediately rather than hold long time.
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@ajhenry ,
You received a lot of good feedback from others already so I wonât repeat what they said.
However, if your sole desire is to invest in something then I would strongly advise against buying boxes as new as Battle Styles or Chilling Reign.
Traditionally you will not see any meaningful price movements on any sealed product in this hobby until a set goes out of print. The $85 booster box price can persist for years. Case in point: XY Evolutions. It was under $100 for four years before its meteoric growth in 2020. If you were holding it for the first four years you would have made absolutely nothing in that time.
You may find more success if you stick to sets that are already a few years old (so less susceptible to reprints, close to rotating out of standard), while still being valued under $100. You probably wonât find any examples right now thanks to the recent growth in the hobby. In that case Iâd say it simply isnât a good time to buy any of those products. You might as well wait 1-2 years before picking up those same Battle Styles or Chilling Reign boxes because if history is anything to go by their value will be nearly the same as it is today. Obviously none of us know for certain, but short of another boom in the hobby one should assume a return to the status quo, which is precisely that.
Thanks for the response and i have thought about that too. I just know in the past everytime i wait too long i miss the opportunity so i have been okay with being early now days instead of trying get in at the perfect time. Thanks for the input though i do need to think about that side of it too!
^ Thereâs no satisfying answer to that question.
All anyone can tell you is to to look at the facts:
- All Pokémon sealed product has increased in value over a long enough period of time.
- Some products are subjectively âbetterâ than others (think Evolving Skies vs Rebel Clash), but nobody knows with certainty how much one product will rise in value relative to another.
- Past performance does not guarantee future results (a cliché at this point I know, but still incredibly relevant). Nobody knows what the % return, if any, will look like.
It boils down to you having to make a choice based on your knowledge, experience, and gut feeling, and sticking by it. Nobody has, or ever will, make the perfect investment choice. Aside from PokĂ©mon, this goes for picking stocks, crypto and real estate. No matter what decision you make, it will never be enough. You will always think âI wish Iâd bought more of product X because it quadrupled in valueâ or âI wish I didnât buy product Y because itâs been stagnantâ. The real skill in all this is to practice being truly grateful for the returns you do make, and grateful for the lessons learned from any losses.
In any case, to me the consideration more important than theoretical % ROI on sealed product is the practicality. If you look at sealed product vs individual cards, you need much more storage space per $/ÂŁ spent, thereâs greater risk of damage, greater risk of discontented buyers (âoh no the cellophane has a ripâ, âhow do I know this product isnât resealedâ, âmy pulls were wank so you must have scammed meâ etc), perennial risk of a reprint, and more shipping inconvenience when it comes time to sell.
I think you are better off buying Evolving Skies and sitting on that versus Battle Styles or Chilling Reign.
I am basing my view heavily on the set contents themselves. I mean EVSkies is literally a set jammed full of amazing alt arts of Eeveelutions, the most popular Pokemon next to Pikachu or Charizord, while CHR and BS have less of that âpopular appealâ or whatever you want to call it. EVSkies are ~$110 on ebay. An âunpopularâ set will still go up in value, but popular ones should go up more I would hope 
A lot of value in sets comes from the set cards itself and the nostalgia people have towards opening it and the Pokemon that can be pulled within it.
If EV Skies are about $30ish dollars more right now than BS and CHR (~$80 vs ~$110), in 5 years I would be very surprised if this was still the case. I think EV skies will see a larger % increase in price from whatever its current price is than BS or CHR will. Thus, if you hold EV Skies for 5 or so years I think you will see a much much much larger change in market price than whatever they are going for right now. The benefit of BS and CHR (as people have mentioned) is that they are cheaper sets (right now), they have a certain degree of unpopularity (which when compared to prior sets this variable does not hold forever: Evolutions, Steam Siege, Crimson Invasion, etc), and they are readily available in larger quantities on ebay.
However, I do understand the extra cost will add up if you buy multiple boxes, so the BS/CHR may work out better if you crunch numbers, but thats above my paygrade Additionally, theres so many people keeping EV Skies and every other set that it may take much longer than 5 years to see some sort of change, and when such change comes, Iâd be surprised if it is on the level of Evolutions.