I’m looking at buying a box that is a little expensive. I have a choice between two boxes that are almost in perfect condition, but each one of them has a specific defect. One of them has a looser wrap with a tiny quarter inch small hole on one of the seams. The other one has a perfect tight wrap, but the box has a soft crease on the side of the front face.
What would bug you more, a small hole in the seam or a soft crease on the box?
The loose wrap with a hole would bug me more, cosmetically.
I agree, loose wrap with hole is worse. However, sealed is sealed. Its the one area where we dont have to fight about “oh is this gem mint or just mint” and then charge 2 or 3x the items value for that random assessment.
People who will come to you saying they only collect gem mint boxes or something like that are not people you want to deal with
100%
whichever has better eye appeal, so probably the one with the crease vs loose wrap
Like the others said, I’d prefer the small crease any day over a torn plastic wrap.
I guess I wasn’t the clearest with my description. The wrap isn’t torn, it’s more of a factory defect. Just a small hole where the wrap it’s seamed together.
From least problematic to most problematic (relatively speaking) in my opinion:
*does not matter to me as long as the provenance checks out
Probably add a * to dirt under wrap but besides that yeah I agree
We are in sync, I don’t mind it either unless there are lots of them and they’re big, and even then I’m not sure.
Another thing that i should mention is that id take a LP box with good provenance (example; tcg store owner, big auction house etc.) Over a
MINT box from charizardballer on ig
Yes and yes! It’s not 2011 anymore unfortunately, provenance is alpha omega.
Perhaps if you plan to open the box immediately, provenance holds more value than condition. But I feel once the box reaches a certain value it more than likely is destined to be part of a sealed collection and the condition would be more important.
I don’t mind if a box has a little dented corner or crease, or if the wrap is a little loose. But something about holes just turns me away from the product immediately, I know most people say it’s okay if it’s smaller than a quarter but I just would prefer the wrap to be in tact 100%.
I’d venture to guess most people buying boxes these days are not looking to hold them long term. Or long term for them is like 10 months max. Provenance is most important, I have seen many big wig IG pokemon people selling awesome boxes that they got for steals. Sure enough every now and then they get a convincing fake. They can deal with it because the only own it for 30 seconds (and are within dispute time frames) before ripping it for that sweet 10% profit and clout points on whatnot, but still.
Just look at PWCC opening boxes before sales. I thought for sure it would kill value, but they do just fine. most people bidding just want to rip it
its all about flexing on instagram. Those are the #truecollectors
Its just like donating money:
If nobody knows you bought a rare box, you didnt buy a rare box.
And even if they were holding for forever, provenance would still be alpha omega. I doubt we’ll ever get to the point where boxes are actually authenticated (properly anyway,) so I’d imagine most people would prefer to have something that they’re confident about being real rather than being the prettiest, even for display purposes. Unless you can have both of course, but that feels like a tall order nowadays, at least if you’re going for multiple.