I want to see your pickups from garage sales, thrift stores, pawn shops or a place that you wouldn’t have expected to pick up cards or packs. Vintage and ultra rare stuff is encouraged!
I got lucky during the 2020 boom and found two 1st edition Shining Gyarados. I frequented the thrift shops and pawn shops to see what would turn up, but unfortunately the prices were at retail and they wouldn’t budge. I probably spent the most in one purchase at the store in that day, but I’d bet during the whole week lol
One graded a CGC 5.5, I can’t remember what the other one was or if I sold it raw. It’s been a while. I came across the pictures when I was looking through old cards.
In June 2020 I bought a binder of cards for $200 from a guy on Craigslist. The binder came from a neighbor of his who passed away. Below is a sample of what was in the binder. There were probably around 300 cards total, many were E series commons and uncommons along with other LP WOTC holos. I sent the Kingdra to CGC in September 2020 with a few other cards as a test and was fairly happy with the grade although I was hoping for an 8.
In 2019, I saw on craigslist a guy selling a heavily played gold star celebi for like 25 bucks or something. I drove to his house and im guessing his mom answered and called for him. This guy comes down with a ton of piercings, tattoos etc and hands me the card and says 15 bucks which I give him. I specifically remember him asking for 10 bucks less in person than what it said on craigslist. It may be a pretty beat up celebi, but even at the time for 15 bucks it was a steal.
So he told me that his friend handled the estate sale for his neighbor and had a bunch of stuff left over that did not sell. I guess it was a woman who had children that moved away. He said his friend found the binder in a box in an upstairs room and asked him if he wanted it. He didn’t seem to know much about Pokemon but said he did a quick search on the Kingdra and wanted at least $150 for that and $50 for all of the other cards.
Truly the most unlikely place, I’ll give you that.