What was it like? Jw

General
41

Here’s a perspective: I basically use the same amount of money for raw cards now that I used to for graded cards in the past. And I can’t afford graded cards or grading anymore for the most part.

Also like people have mentioned before in this thread: most product was always available and I had no difficulties getting my hands on product I wanted, pre-orders never sold out weeks before release like now. Grocery stores here used to always carry packs but now there were no Pokemon product anywhere for months! Now I’ve seen some Battle Styles in stock so things are improving but stuff is selling out fast.

3 Likes
42

Well said …thank you for putting that out man and to concur to that point and add:

Sometimes I second guess making these almost car payments towards a card collection but there’s a certain joy and satisfaction to collecting you will never understand unless you are in it and doing it
m…so im starting to learn what my collecting means to me and what I want out of it …also its plain addicting lol… I always want the next piece and I can’t wait type stuff

Anyways appreciate the discussions as always

1 Like
43

Yeah although I don’t have much interest in modern stuff myself I always peep in the isle just to see what’s up when I’m at a store … Never any pokemon… I do take home the empty display boxes though sometimes !! Haha

44

I’m now relying more on product I have in storage that was purchased in 2018 or earlier. It’s my old bulk purchases that fuel my new purchases and while I do buy more stock, it is notably less than I used to buy, but now everything is worth more so it balances out a bit I guess?

It was nice being able to buy a lot of cards or sets for what now seems like just a few cards at the same price.

2 Likes
45

I started up in mid 2019 when unbroken bonds was new, and yes things have definitely changed. I think not finding any cards in stores is the biggest change, I would say the online influencer craze doesn’t even seem THAT much bigger than it was when I first started.

It sucks now hunting packs and having to go in store risking covid exposure to not see a single product, but the fact that so many people are into it now makes it more exciting when you do find them!

46

graded wotc 1st ed 10s and 9s were nearly all under £100 except the odd few popular cards.

Psa turnaround was around 4 months and that was a long wait XD.

There was plenty of stock in stores, booster boxes were £70-85 a pop in the UK (we pay a premium compared to the US).

If you got a psa 8, sometimes 9 you likely lost money grading on alot of cards lol. That is why people weren’t sending in anything and everything as margins weren’t there.

You could buy psa cards for under grade and card cost!

There was an abundance of cards are super cheap prices(it is crazy looking back at prices I paid or could have paid for items. I am still hunting for a Doc Brown of my own)

5 Likes
47

I bought my first graded card in 2016-2017 and it was just a random whim due to wanting my OG Dragonite from fossil since I was trying to get one in Pokemon GO. I got a PSA 10 1st edition one for $250 and it was so cool to me that people got them graded. Throughout the next 2-3 years I would buy a few cards each year just for that feeling we all talk about. I passed on a PSA 10 1st Edition Vaporeon because someone asked $600 for it. I was the guy aiming for $450 hahaha!

Personally, I think the difference was the lack of stress prior to April 2020. Now there is the hussle aspect, but that is fun too as it keeps me intrigued. I can say, the business side of Pokemon has opened my eyes to much more than WOTC and I still love learning about new sets and I’ve been wide open for a full year.

The one thing that I do not believe will ever change is that I still receive the same excitement when a new card comes in the mail, or when I go through my cards each week. Yeah, I am a loser and look through my stuff EVERY week :blush:

4 Likes
48

The hobby was more about collecting before the boom, today it’s more about investing. the higher end at least, which efour is closer to

I suspect this trend is irreversible; i can’t think of any major collecting hobby where the high end did not morph into something more investment focused. Be it paintings, sculptures, cars, coins, stamps, watches, handbags, jewelry, baseball cards, basketball cards, comics, sealed games - the top 0.01% of any hobby is always more investment focused

Because the investment (higher values) and speculative (look at how many of the october / november sales have already resurfaced; a lot of flippers) element is much more present - the stakes are higher, the downside risk is greater, and the hobby today is much trickier to navigate; you have to think more and research more thoroughly before committing to a purchase

It’s not good or bad imo, just something to adapt to. Some have decided to build a career in pokemon when it was a childhood passion and i think that’s great

10 Likes
49

I’ll echo most of what everyone else is saying, product was way cheaper/easier to come by and generally the biggest thing was no FOMO.

The one intriguing exception for me is that modern competitive staples are actually FAR cheaper now than ever before. (If you’re not familiar with card games, a staple is a card that is really good, versatile and played in most decks. As such, pretty much all players need multiple copies of these cards to play at a decent level.)

Before, when less product was opened and a greater % of the hobby was playing, staples such as Shaymin EX and Tapu Lele GX were around $50.

Now, with a huge amount of product being opened by new collectors, I picked up Crobat V (the current day equivalent of the above cards) for $2 each.

5 Likes
50

I enjoy the whole progression of the Hobby. When I started my son was just a little guy and we would go to Pokemon League play and trade with the big kids. He love collecting the cards and badges at the league. It was great fun to sit and trade with other kids, or open the new Jungle packs, hoping for that holo pull. I like others on here would scan ebay looking for Japanese cards to collect sell some duplicates to buy the next card. We left the Hobby during the “dark days”, mainly because other interest took priority. 2016/17 was the return for my son when he came asking for his old cards. That was a blast going throuhg the old cards sorting them looking through binders. It was so much fun he dove right back in, I began being active again in the last year or so.

Different: Then verses now?
So much more info now! Things were cheaper then. I knew no one else who was collecting Japanese Pokemon. There were periods of scarce stock in the early days yet it seemed a little less intense than it is now. No YouTubers

Things that remain the Same (at least for me):
It is still fun! I still do it with my son!! I still love Japanese Pokemon cards and the art keeps getting better! There is nothing more satisfying then opening a brand new booster box chasing some shiny piece of cardboard. I can afford better cards now that the boy buys his own!

2 Likes
51

Back then, collecting was much simpler: far fewer cards and handy printed guides with no-nonsense price lists (top: CheckBee Collectors Value Guide 1999; bottom: Beckett Pokémon Price Guide 2008).

1012×773 189 KB

1105×775 1.25 MB

Do not worry that the value of the Base Charizard crashed from 1999 to 2008. It has recovered since then.

6 Likes
52

I collect Gen I and Gen II cards and I started collecting in 2008. Back then I could buy anything at any time. If I looked up a card there was always something to buy and the only concern was condition. Graded cards were not a majority presence like you see now. It actually took me a couple of years to even learn what graded cards were (at the time I thought they were proofs of some kind, I didn’t pay them much attention). That’s the thing I miss the most: just being able to find what I wanted any time I wanted it. Now I have a dozen saved searches I check several times a day just hoping a suitable option comes up for a handful of cards. Things changed slow at first.

Prices definitely were gradually rising year over year, but prices were still super low. I remember paying $60 each for Fossil and Jungle sets. I paid $80 for Rocket. 1st Edition Base Set Charizard was $300. This is the time period I assembled most of my Gen I First Editions. Sealed product was also much more common and not something people opened. They were collectible as their own thing. People often had a few sealed boosters or decks as prestige pieces in their collection, but they were low value add ons. A novelty.

I first became conscious things were changing in 2016. Prior to that it was slower. You noticed prices were going up but it was never enough to stop you from buying anything you wanted. But when Pokémon Go came out I think it was the beginning of what we see today — at least as far as vintage is concerned. Pokémon Go brought a ton lapsed fans back into the hobby who were uniquely interested in early Pokémon specifically. A lot of people started collections and demand for the WotC sets really rose sharply. I sold off a bunch of tertiary stuff at this time and put the money back in to my collection to buy different things. I am really glad I did this because it enabled me to lock down certain things before it became unfeasible. But I also regret letting certain things go, especially sealed stuff, because now that stuff barely exists. It’s bittersweet but I accept it now.

This was also when graded cards really began to take off. I don’t think there is any one thing that spurred this other than the more competitive market. I liked graded cards a lot at this point because it assured me a certain condition. I bought most of my holos as PSA 8s and 9s and cracked open the slabs and put them in my binder. Graded cards were more expensive, but it was a worthwhile premium for the certainty and security it afforded a collector like me who was picky about condition.

But every year after Pokémon Go, things got more and more extreme. Chasing easy money people sent more and more of their cards in for grading. The market now revolved entirely around graded cards. A lot of ungradeable cards were removed from circulation because people just threw them out. But anything that looked good got sent to PSA. By 2018 you were already at the point where ungraded cards were predominantly trash quality and all the cards in collectible condition were graded and commanding higher and higher premiums. I made a point to finish my Gen I sets and told myself I was done forever. I finished — I was out.

But the fervor over Generation II cards was still at a simmer. I always admired the Neo sets and thought maybe I would start that collection. I researched pricing and saw the most expensive card was still within my longterm means and decided to commit. I bought the four 1st edition sets without holos with the intention to collect the holos over the next few years. This was in 2019. This was… a bad time to begin these sets.

Generation II cards were still a bit insulated from the frenzy but in March 2020 lockdown lit the fuse and changed everything almost overnight. Cards increased 3x, 4x, 5x what they were just a couple months before. I am doing my best to finish these sets still, but I am praying for a crash to bring the costs down. I am too close to finishing to quit. I am closer than ever to finishing. But financially I am the furthest away I have ever been. It sucks.

Being a vintage collector in 2021 is both elating and depressing. The is why I quoted this post of yours specifically. On one hand, it is incredible that the cards I bought for very little money pre-2016 are worth 10x or even 20x what I spent on them. That kind of good fortune is jaw dropping and I am thankful for it. But it also makes acquiring new cards very difficult and costly. I can afford maybe one card every other month and every month that goes by increases the price. It is sad that it is this difficult to finish what I started and it is a downer to consider once I finish my current sets I will likely not collect cards anymore. I’ve been priced out.

Because of the modern market being what it is I have started to branch out in to TCG-adjacent stuff which is not usually considered collectible (flip coins, league books, advertisements, etc). There is still some joy in this. But I can tell I am in the twilight of my time with the hobby. My big hope is that after a few more years prices will moderate and stabilize lower than where they are now. Maybe then I can find something new to collect.

4 Likes
53

it varies by the person thats into the cards and also how far did they get with their cards. I know I still have a few cards that I kept on delaying cause I didnt care as much and now their price on the card went from a 10-25 to almost 100 for it. lots of newer people getting back into the game or people that started opening packs again have realized how crazy the market has become. I met 2 guys that just started collecting cards again cause they saw the hype and wanted to get back into it as they were growing up.

I do see many older cards keep on rising up in prices compared to before especially for modern sets as well. some older boxes probably just shy of 3 years have increased way fast than usual. as a collector it does both good and bad, you can sell cards and then make money off to buy cards you need or be the one that goes all in and buys it for what they are going for now

54

Do you have more years of this picture?

Intresting to se that Charmeleon and TV-Reporter was high back then, both cards is not near the top now.

55

Can someone elaborate on why TV Reporter Reverse was expensive? Playability? Rarity? There’s some listings on ebay for almost nothing, and others for ludicrous prices, is there a rare misprint or something?

56

@ferny
It’s still expensive card because reverse holo version wasn’t included in first print runs of EX Dragon. Nice little blunder during production. :blush:

3 Likes
57

I do not have these guides from other years. Note that the 1998 CheckerBee guide (top image) lists the cards alphabetically (!) and not by value. Charmeleon was never among the top cards by value.

58

@chewy, I could find raw mint collections locally. That has pretty much dried up or people are asking more than graded prices.

@pokecollectoramy,do you think we will get back to those prices in 2022? I’ve been holding off buying singles in anticipation of this.

1 Like
59

Absolutely not. 2019 prices are dead forever in my opinion. Could we have a correction? Certainly

2 Likes
60

I should have been more specific, I meant modern singles when all those PSA cards come back. What was the dip like after Pokemon go?

1 Like