People are way too quick to condemn worn vintage boxes and boosters as resealed. These things were mass produced of worse than toilet paper 22 years ago to be rough-handed as globetrotting pallet fodder for comic book guys greasy hands to throw into piles at the storage room. Not exactly something out of Bentley Crewe.
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This is a good point! The most resealed box is 1st Ed Base. There isn’t a strong correlation to condition of the box.
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True. Another example is that confirmed (one box was opened) shadowless green wing booster case that “Ok beamer” had at one point, those boxes had royal provenance and were as legit as could be, yet the right hand side of all the boxes looked like someone had put them into a frying pan.
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Mass printed or not they’re still things people are paying 5 figures for. I think people are wise to be cautious, especially when “imitation” boxes, booster packs and shrink wrap are readily available on websites like Etsy:
What’s worse is that people are actually buying these items - this particular seller has sold at least a dozen of those shrink wrap packs and over 40 of those unlimited Base Set boxes for a total of over $30k.
Ultimately the more money sealed product sells for, the more money scammers will be willing to put in to producing replicas and in turn the more accurate they’ll become. We’ve already seen this on an industrial scale with MTG and it’s starting to happen with Pokémon.
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I agree, but what is happening now is that this also turns into a witch-hunt where every non gem mint box and booster is over scrutinized because some collectors see damaged boxes as an opportunity to flex their knowledge by pointing out every teensy-weensy imperfection and deeming them suspect. Old school collectors roll their eyes, intermediate and new collectors have their fears amplified and follow it blindly. The result? Gem mint/royal provenance or bust, which was bullshit even in 1999. Vigilance, yes, but we should not encourage Stalin-esque paranoia.
That’s different.
Here’s my thread attempt on the matter: www.elitefourum.com/t/the-legitimacy-of-sealed-booster-boxes-going-forward/30222/1
This thread didn’t really produce much. Some decent responses here and there. I probably formulated myself somewhat poorly in the OP, and I had a low post count at the time so I got the usual “new guy”-treatment despite trying to explain the issue at hand. This is how serious this matter is taken by the community (or maybe it’s just mentally avoided out of fear?). Like-fishing, condescension, derailing, one decent mini-conversation killed in the crib and a lot of fear being projected onto me. I gave up pretty quick. No-one has a clue how to deal with it, not the collectors, not the authenticators, not the grading companies, no-one has a clue (and if they do they keep it to themselves until they’ve trademarked it).
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New opinion- authentication only slabs are underrated for exceedingly rare cards. I mean cards that only appear once every few months if that, not cards that are a hard grade but are common
My point is, I’d rather see an label than a grade 6
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Some of the scrutiny over worn boxes is because damage on the box that does not match the plastic wrap is a good giveaway the box was resealed with fresh wrap. Example a heavy scratch on the box but plastic in the area is flawless. So it is natural to over examine. Though I agree, if anything perfectly crisp boxes with no provenance or no trusted seller should be a red flag.
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Is it just an aversion to the number on the slab then? I don’t own any exceedingly rare cards but I can’t imagine I would care between a low grade or authentic since it doesn’t change aesthetics the card itself or its rarity.
I think I’d actually prefer a psa 6 over an authentic. Maybe if it was 1-3 then I wouldn’t really care between that and authentic but psa 6 is still an “excellent to mint” copy of a card.
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To some extent, yes. I personally don’t really like seeing a 7 or below and the few slabs in that range that I have purchased have been so that I can crack them
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Many of these instances are baked into the basis of my argument. Yes, there are examples with stronger correlation there, I won’t deny that for a second, but this does happen with the genuine article as well.
Cardboard box gets a bump/scratch/stain/crease/smudge/speck in it at the factory before being sealed. Seen it on multiple occasions (sometimes I wish I could go back and print screen my entire collector history from a decade ago).
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If I could have it my way without losing a fortune, my entire collection would be graded as authentic only. People would have to use their brains when judging individual cards and it would encourage physical interaction between collectors. Another pipe dream.
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Authentic labels exist only to coddle weak egos. Take the grade in all situations.
More polarizing than unpopular I think as it’s probably close to a toss up.
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1000% Pokemon is still so young that 95%+ of cards are available in mint condition. Plus some/most collectors don’t understand actual rarity, and what that means over time. You cannot successfully maintain a condition preference on the rarest cards. Authentic only exists for a reason; for people who simply don’t care that much about condition.
Potential unpopular opinion: Condition is the thing people collect when the cards aren’t a challenge.
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*Blue Pill: Condition is the thing people collect when the cards aren’t a challenge.
Red Pill: It’s all about the l00k$.
Fixed.
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I don’t really agree. Like theoretically if I had a psa 4, 6 figure trophy that nobody in the world saw but me, I’d rather look at an authentic label rather than be reminded that it’s doodoo quality
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I don’t care about the 25 anniversary set. Maybe I’d be a bit enthusiastic about it if it actually signaled a fundamental change or restructuring of their model. As it is, this is probably just a faint blip of milking the fanservice cow and then it’s back to the regular schedule of unicorn vomit and wannabe Exodia with Mewtwo’s oily ballsack fingers.
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ripping other peoples packs for them via box breaks is the biggest scam that has ever been normalized
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Exactly as I said then.
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Tell us how you really feel 
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If you say so. Wanting a private collection that nobody else knows about or sees to be a certain way doesn’t have anything to do with ego in my eyes. It’s just a preference
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