Right. We need a “Most you’ve spent on a single card” thread. JKJK. Too personal-I get it.
I still haven’t spent over 10k on a card, but several over 1k, and I used to think I was nuts, but when 2020 happened and those items 8-15x I was happy I did.
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I couldnt handle the idea of $1500 for an open or sealed one just for the trainer kit style, then a sealed one immediately after went for $3000+. Really any of the collection boxes sealed have been outrageous on price recently. 2019 I could find these post boxes all day for $50, now $500+. Wish I gotten them then.
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It’s the trophy Kang for me. Remember when I started collecting there were copies at around 3k available…
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1st Ed Base Set Bulbasaur in PSA 10. I can afford one if I really wanted to, but I just can’t stomach the price for some reason. It’s a bit of thorn in my side because then I would have all the Kanto starters in PSA 10 if I get him. Eventually I’ll get a deal I hope.
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Totally get that, it’s a sentiment I see a lot of.
For me it was never about that, it was only ever about being poor and also not knowing the future. When I was more involved in trains it was easy because those were much more stable, and it was easier to manage wins & losses. Took a beating in 2008 when everyone stopped spending for a while due to the fear, but even then I didn’t lose out. Emptying my bank account to buy a few trains ultimately didn’t feel that risky, I knew how to spin those, but emptying it to buy a $1000 Charizard felt much more risky. I always bought booster boxes with a “this is money you probably won’t get back” attitude. Cards being cards, dealing with international, import taxes and all manner of other bullshit that was never a problem with the trains.
But I never had the feelings of “oh this isn’t supposed to be worth this much” or the “this is crazy”-feeling. I remember discussing that notion with myself about the $1000 Zard for like a few moments, ultimately reaching the conclusion that it made total sense and I was just trying to talk myself out of entertaining the idea.
So I guess what I’m saying is that the thing that kills me is having underestimated the pace and rate of growth, in combination with underestimating the sheer amount of continued bad luck that I’d have in other areas over the next decade which, together with my perpetually starved bank account, were the biggest dragon’s teeth when it came to my spending on Pokemon. Not the clueless family members doing their best to sabotage me, not the disapproving peers that I couldn’t give less fucks about, not failing to understand how collectibles work like almost everyone else I knew in my age range.
The short version: I always felt loooongterm spending on Pokemon and the prices commanded made total sense, I just never envisioned myself coming to a place where it would’ve made sense to rearrange my sacrifices.
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This is a really good reply. I relate to this a lot.
Buying, holding, liquidating, then buying, holding, and liquidating used to be a really consistent cycle for me in my first few years. I never bought anything with the explicit intention of selling it for profit, but as prices climbed year over year I would often sell things and buy newer things with the money. At the time I thought popular WotC set cards were really predictable purchases and I’d always be able to sell them if I needed to. In an emergency, or if I had a change of heart, I could just sell it all and come out with more than I ever put in to it. Technically this was true, and always remained true for me. But I didn’t appreciate that these rarer, more niche cards carried a certain promise of exclusivity and longevity that a set card could not offer.
I think still there is some truth that the inverse of “there’s always another copy” is “there’s always another buyer” - the popularity of set cards and the WotC era means the collections will always be really malleable. Easy to build, easy to part with, and that kind of consistent rotation makes the cards really safe to collect. Rare Japanese prints like Kangaskhan felt so niche, like they wouldn’t impress anyone and I’d never be able to resell it. I figured there was safety in Charizard that trophy cards did not offer.
But, you know, it’s not that I made the wrong decision. I benefitted a lot from the choices I made. I wanted predictable and safe and that’s what I got. But I do dream of those opportunities I passed up too.
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That’s a $30k card!
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Not particularly priced out of but price memory has me prioritizing other cards instead. The big ones being scream mimikyu and alolan friends. MIssing out on those at around $100-200 each.
At their current prices I’d rather go after something like a fan club eevee or save towards a bigger trophy.
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I remember buying and flipping Shining Neo cards, and I die a little inside when I think of the return on investment or collection I would have had today if I had kept even a fraction of them.
Buying shining magikarps for 15 and flipping them for 20, and shining gyrados’s for 20 and flipping for 25 is…ow, that hurts.
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I’m not priced out of it, since I could never afford it in the first place ever since I started collecting ~8 years ago: SNAP Pikachu.
Some cards I have been priced out over time though, are the five missing Art Academy Pikachu. Especially these two below are annoying, since one is my favorite Pikachu artwork and simply hasn’t popped up for sale yet even once since it’s been given to the winner, and the other is one of two English Pikachu cards I’m missing to have all 281 of them.
Greetz,
Quuador
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How much is it?
How much are they?
Honestly for me it would be a 1st Ed base set charizard in a minimum grade of an 8. But an 8 is like 10k 9 is 15-20k. Can’t justify that kind of money in a card.
So I settled for a shadowless
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I’d love to buy all of the DPP tins I opened as a kid. I still have nearly all the original promos from them, but getting a sealed tin is tough enough, let alone a full set. Not really a specific one in mind, maybe Rayquaza (my favorite pokemon) or Charizard/Mewtwo (my favorite promos)
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When I first started in the hobby in 2017-2018, I wanted a worlds trophy. Someone advised me to just go to worlds and pay 5k for a third or fourth place trophy. That seemed crazy back then and I never did it. I am still looking for a numbered trainer as a final collection goal (ideally 1st place) so I can stop collecting.
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Going off of my old ISO thread that got closed yesterday…apparently a psa 10 1st edition neo Lugia lol. Was looking for one when they went for like 1700-2000 and never pulled the trigger.
I’ve also been priced out of pretty much everything I sold that I wanted to re-acquire.
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I was feeling similar when shopping for 1st Ed Base Charizard and ended up with a ‘strong’ PSA 5. It’s got a clean holo and good centering, but rough whitening on the back. Honestly, I’m really happy with it, and it was much cheaper than an 8 or 9. In the end, it was more important for me to just get the card in my collection than the grade.
Either way, nothing wrong with Shadowless/1st Ed Charizard in any condition IMO 
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I always thought a worlds trophy would be an unattainable card, but there was a brief glimmer of hope where I thought I may be able to get one and I was very excited about that possibility. Before the boom, a good offer for a No. 3 or No. 4 trainer was around 4-5k and the best way to get one was to be there in person with cash at worlds. I thought in 2019 or so that if I planned it out, I could swing the money and be able to rely on help from experienced friends to get a deal done in a year or two.
Obviously things went pretty nuts with trophies and I doubt I will ever get one now. Even if I had the money one goes for now, I don’t think I could justify spending it on one. I’ve been priced out on some other cards as well, but those I’ve mainly been priced out on condition and have settled for lesser condition copies when the 10 is out of reach.
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Someday I will own a trophy kanghaskhan. Or a sugimori signed metapod. I’d be happy with either.
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If I absolutely had to pick one card, it’s honestly just a 1st base set Charizard in nm+ condition. Never had one as a kid and even back then my parents would have never spent the money on it. In my early 20s I seriously considered buying one since I made okay-ish money, but never pulled the trigger. My wife (gf at the time) went to a card shop to buy one for me, but they had sold it. I don’t recall its exact condition, but it was pretty clean. Fast forward to today and here I am making this post lol
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