Enough people have reached out to me privately or commented on my WTB post that I feel the only way to start discussions is to start a register of interest if this is to become a realistic prospect.
I’ll start this by saying that I think I’d make a fine number two as I love a bit of organising but I wouldn’t make a good frontman. Being in the UK means that I would be hammered on fees and on exchange rates and I have never done this before so it would need an experienced hand, ideally who has done it before. I am absolutely on board with doing whatever I can to make it a thing though obviously!
So with that in mind, at this stage, I would be interested in hearing from people who would be interested in joining up and sharing what they would be going for. There shouldn’t be a figure included, that’s just giving out free information at this point to anyone else interested in bidding who will see this post.
Please only register if you are in a position to actually pay what these sorts of things are likely to go for around the time of this auction. But I don’t have a ballpark of what I’d expect them to go for, maybe someone else can help. The last deck of graded CGC versions went for $175,000 back in 2023.
In case you haven’t seen them, they can be found here and I’ve copy pasted the card and grade below
Card
Grade
Tropical Breeze
8
Clair’s Mantine
9
Jasmine’s Raichu
10
Bugsy’s Yanma
9
Pryce’s Cloyster
10
Bruno’s Hitmonchan
10
Janine’s Beedrill
10
Chuck’s Donphan
9
Morty’s Hypno
10
Falkner’s Fearow
8
Whitney’s Furret
10
Karen’s Rapidash
10
Will’s Girafarig
10
Super Scoop Up
8
Switch
10
Energy Ark
10
Potion
10
Fighting Energy
6
Fighting Energy
7
Fire Energy
10
Fire Energy
9
Lightning Energy
6
Lightning Energy
6
Grass Energy
9
Grass Energy
10
Grass Energy
9
Water Energy
9
Water Energy
10
Psychic Energy
8
Psychic Energy
10
I have not included any of these people as “confirmed” unless I am told otherwise but at the moment I am aware of interest from @smpratte for the Tropical Breeze @camrok37 for the Janine’s Beedrill, @lyleberr@Profunda were interested in whichever Pokemon were going to be cheapest to pick up from the set as well as someone who was watching my thread who contacted me on Instagram who was after the Chuck’s Donphan.
And obviously I’d love the Jasmine’s Raichu! I have also said I’d be interested in a lightning energy if that helps move things on as well, though they are only a 6!
Anyone who has done a group buy before, how does this work? If everyone puts in their offer, but the lot ends lower than expected, how does that work? Just curious as I’m interested in the breeze, but have never done a large group buy before.
I would recommend a % reduction for each card from the total combined offer bid to the actual bid.
Example:
$100k sum of all offers
$90k is the winning bid. Everyone’s bids for individual cards are lowered by 10% for what they owe the organizer. Also in this case I think the organizer should get some of that difference to account for the time to ship out all the other cards and taking on all the risk. I am guessing extra fees and shipping from the auction house are not considered when totaling up all the individual card offers.
And +1 to what Moo said on hosting a spreadsheet and working out high bids ahead of time. Lots of trust needed, and someone with a high enough bid limit on Heritage.
I confirm that I am interested and based on what I have seen prices should be doable for me.
Some thoughts:
I think eeveeteam’s pricing method works (if I understand this correctly, if the final purchase price is lower than the total commitments, everyone’s committed amount gets reduced proportionally - minus a fee to the organizer, which I think is very fair).
If we have commitments for less than the full amount of cards and we win the auction we need to decide what to do with the uncommitted cards. Easiest might be to sell them and reduce everyone’s committed amounts proportionally.
I think the only concrete way forward is for someone to agree to be the organizer. This person should I think have received settled cash in their bank account from every participant before any bids are made I think (to avoid the organizer fronting a potentially very large sum).
Organizing this is ultimately a big responsibility and I am not convinced that we can find someone (haven’t seen any volunteers yet but people might be holding back in public).
Tbh I wouldnt trust anyone who isnt a moderator with the money personally if there was a preference for an organizer to help you all. Just my 0.2 though. Even then its a trust fall.
Just noticed there seems to be a complete French deck as well which will be going in the same auction.
I’d also put my name down for a Beedrill in that one too But I doubt there would be traction on that.
Edit: I am happy to share my max bid with whoever will be on the organising end so that I can potentially be made aware that it is infact too low, if that helps assessing how realistic this group buy is!
But I doubt there would be traction on that.