Yeah the celebrations upc reminds me of the prerelease/staff evolutions charizard. Both were really popular, but that level of demand didn’t hold with following releases. Then again modern sealed has a ton of buyers, so maybe it will do well. 
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This seems more of a “farewell premium collection to SW & SH”. So i guess it will feature some iconic mons from that gen.
Doubt it will reach the heights of the UPC from Celebrations which had a wider appeal.
But who knows, maybe the art featured in these boxes is pretty cool and unique.
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that’s the vibe i got too. i actually cant believe swsh is ending this year. man, it’s been a wild fucking ride lol
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Well, I never thought buying scarce items in GBP would be a viable option…
GBP = 1.18 USD 
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has anyone noticed a decline in english product quality lately? i havent opened any in a while, but decided to grab a pokemon GO etb. there was minor things i noticed, like the plastic bag the sleeves were in was way too big and thin, but the big thing was the set list booklet. you used to get a nice glossy thick cover, with high quality glossy pages. this pogo booklet was literally on printer paper. the cover and the pages were all on low quality paper and because of that, the ink was smudgy, blurry and dark. it’s a shame cause that booklet was literally the highlight of buying etbs when i used to collect more english. i was incredibly disappointed. it also feels like they’ve changed the card stock to a more matte, thinner feeling cardboard. it was a really weird experience.
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Skyridge reverse holos in mint grades 
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Especially the colorless holos. They look really cool. Sandstorm RS and Dragon colorless holos are damn near imposaible to get mint but theyre really cool too
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Big reason I stopped buying modern stuff. All around the board I feel its quantity over quality. From how the sets are set up with 200+ cards to the pack and card quality, it’s just not a very pleasant experience.
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Hi all, any tips for someone just getting started in WotC era collecting? I’m based in the UK and looking for sealed boxes.
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The best time to buy a sealed wotc boxes was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
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Educate yourself on how the boxes were sealed, and how to spot counterfeits and resealed boxes. That’s likly the biggest barrier, outside of the prices of course.
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Try to get an overview, a general understanding of the ecosystem of box collectors, the people within it that collect/buy/sell boxes, the who’s who and such.
Provenance and trust are essential parts of the box world. Knowing that someone is a former store owner, a former distributor, someone that’s been doing it a long time, someone that has left many quality posts about the subject online, someone whose reputation depends on integrity etc etc. Learn about the warning signs and how to recognize them, use your best judgment when applying them.
Youtube, google, forums like this one, search functions, CTRL+F and time.
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Honestly I would test the waters with singles or packs before jumping all the way to boxes.
If you do want to jump straight to boxes, I’d recommend learning about what legitimate boxes look like and trying to find a box from a reputable source
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Compared to 2020, it’s a buyers market for wotc. I know it sounds vague but the real answer is do what you want. I’d echo others advice about starting smaller. Certain boxes are scarcer than others. Singles and packs are more accessible. But really it’s just a solid time to start collecting wotc.
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Thanks for all the feedback.
To give more context I’m very familiar with the modern TCG market as I own and operate a webstore in the UK but new to purchasing vintage for my personal collection.
I guess the safest route would be to buy from reputable sellers with a known track record, but I’m aware that comes with a premium to pay. Lots to consider - thanks again!
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With the SCG Mantle up for auction the description had this video with the history of the card. The card came from a find in 1985 where there thousands of cards (including 100’s of 1952 Mantles) where stored in an attic.
It’s an interesting thought that a cards from 30 years prior, when nobody took collecting seriously, excess stock was dumped into the ocean and little hoarding/speculation of the product occurred can have such a large amount in one location. Especially one of such great value.
It makes you wonder how many cases of WOTC boxes are there. We know excess Skyridge stock was in a warehouse with WOTC employees allowed to take whatever they liked as Pokemon International ripped the license away. Or somebody hoarded cases like our friend Gary but on steriods. Possibly a distributor like FreshMagma who has been selling base unl boxes for decades may be sitting on cases forgotten in storage.
Yes all speculation but if I had to guess there’s a lot of the stuff than anybody is willing to admit (myself included).
Anyway a nice video to watch and little bit of application to keep it Pokemon relevant.
Another interesting collecting find
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It would be fascinating to know what product is out there undiscovered. WotC recently announced a promotion with the upcoming MTG set related to a warehouse find:
Anyone who knows the history of Legends and the circumstances of its release isn’t surprised by this news in the slightest. There were issues with the distribution of Legends product, which resulted in WotC establishing an exchange program shortly after its release to ensure all regions had access to all of the cards in the set. An exchange program like the one WotC launched would require holding back a significant amount of sealed product to ensure a deep enough inventory of cards to exchange.
Similarly, the circumstances surrounding Skyridge’s release would make it relatively unsurprising if there turned out to be a significant hoard of sealed product left untouched in some warehouse out there.
Where it gets complicated, though, is as it relates to products with uneventful releases. Like, is there anything that suggests that there might be some giant hoard of Expedition sealed product out there? That I’m aware of, no. I think the likelihood is very low of there being warehouse finds of gigantic stashes of boxes of random, old sets that didn’t have odd circumstances surrounding their releases.
But for a set like Skyridge or hell, even Unseen Forces? Common sense suggests that the likelihood of a warehouse find is much higher.
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What I thought was interesting was the 50k sale 30 years ago. I remember selling an illustrator for 50k years back, when Pokémon was significantly smaller. We still have another 20 years to match the mantle. Already the trajectory of Pokemon cards has outpaced the same timeline with baseball. We just lack the age & time.
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does anyone have an idea how rare the corrected unlimited holo zapdos from fossil is? or what kinda price a psa 9/10 would bring? i was under the impression they were quite rare, but i feel like im seeing them for like <$300 in psa 10 and under $100 in other grades, which seems undervalued if it is as rare as i thought.
i personally prefer the fossil zapper to base, but have held off bc i dont like the missing foil (too bad there’s no corrected 1st edition)
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I do always wonder more about old WOTC Pokemon product than even Magic, mainly because so much of it is a mystery compared to MTG (print numbers, pre-release cards, error cards, etc). I do wonder if they had any extra product from that era either stored away or whatever else. Even old retailers and shops who stocked the product, where did it all end up? So much speculation around a lot of this.
I also wonder if they ever did uncover some old Pokemon product how it could be distributed if at all possible given the WOTC and Pokemon company being separate.
I guess time will tell. Many things have surfaced just in the past couple years that a lot of people probably never would have expected with regard to sealed product and odd ‘legendary’ cards like the test print Blastoise for example.