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pop 7, not psa 7 
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Whoops! I was trying to be sassy and now I look foolish.
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I bought so many blue label CGC 8.5 Lv.X cards because I grew up with that era, had a lot of nostalgia for Lv.X cards, and they were dirt cheap. Iām now almost complete with my (ungraded) binder Lv.X master set and am debating if I should just crack all my CGC slabs and submit to PSA and aim for 9s. Almost seems financially irresponsible not to.
Even 8s seem to be selling for higher than Blue label CGC 8.5s on ebay, so weird.
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Unless you need the money, enjoy your cards and be thankful that you spent a fraction of what it would cost today.
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Yeah I mostly am leaning toward this approach, itās just that I enjoy these childhood cards more in binder form anyway. The slabs are just something on top and were cool to display from time to time
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check out some of the recently graded 9s and compare your condition against em first if you go that route
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Yup def will. From looking so far, condition in general looks pretty similar. Those whitened corners are the main thing
If a chicken sold for 2.7mil with a pop19, I canāt even imagine how a much more popular PokĆ©mon with less than half the pop is worth in todayās marketā¦
Why would people pay a million for a niche unlimited card when they can get first Ed PSA 100 for 600k? 
first they came for 1st ed base set, and i did not speak because i do not collect 1st ed base set
then they came for gold stars, and i did not speak because i do not collect gold stars
then they came for stamped reverse holos, and i did not speak because i do not collect stamped rev holos
then they came for Lv.X cards, and there is no one left to speak for meā¦
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You forgot Tag Teams.
I dunno, why would someone pay nearly a million for a niche Lv X Garchomp?
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Not sure if yāall ever heard this story, but there was this story I heard long ago about this Wall Street investor who decided to sell everything that he had when the boy who was shining his shoes was giving him stock advice. Soon after the stock market crash of 1929 happened.
(Hereās a quick google overview)
I canāt help but think about the parallels with Pokemon and how everyone and their mother has some financial interest in Pokemon. These people arenāt collectors or even remotely interested in Pokemon at all, but they care about how much money it could net them.
Anecdotally, my boss told me that his mom had found his old pokemon cards and called him because she knows that theyāre worth some money now. Then he took pictures of them and ChatGPT told him that one of them was worth $3,000 (it wasnāt, it was basing that off the PSA 9 price). So he called me all excited and asked how to best sell them. I had to then share with him the unfortunate news of the actual price of the card.
I also noticed @CardboardInsanity post a picture of a shoe store now offering mystery bags where you could pull a graded Pokemon card. Iāve also heard stories deep in the cabal of peopleās motherās and mother in laws asking E4 members about Pokemon and if thereās money in it.
To me, the parallel is worth mentioning, and my personal opinion is that the market is going to crash hard once this all gets done.
I wanted to know if anyone else had heard this story before and what their thoughts are on it. Iād also like if yāall could share stories of people who would have otherwise not known anything about pokemon suddenly having a vested interest in the value of their cards/Pokemon cards in general?
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Iāve heard the phrase āwhen the shoeshine boys are giving stick tips, itās time to sellā. Never knew where the phrase originated from, though, interesting.
Surely we donāt need a 1000th market thread on the same topic, do we? 
This should be merged to the Crazy Market thread.
Yes, everyone is talking about Pokemon. Yes, desire to ābuy-inā from people outside of the circle of original buyers is a possible top signal. This is how meme stocks work, how NFTs work, how shitcoins work.
The major difference with Pokemon and other TCGs is that the physical items are desirable to collectors. They are not solely a vehicle to make money or to flaunt wealth, but clearly desirable for non-financial reasons that will create a solid floor. In simpler words, collectors donāt leave when speculators move on to the next thing, and this cushions the market from a total collapse like youād see elsewhere.
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Iāve moved this to the giant market thread! Just a note that as @Dyl pointed out, we do not need 500 different threads with the latest market take. Market takes are fine, just put them in the right place so we donāt clutter up the forum!
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Iām framing this in my homeā¦
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Do people really know regular friends/family IRL that are pumping pokemon cards? I know I donāt. Only my collectibles friends and people Iāve chatted with on IG have taken the leap lol
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