What was your biggest mistake as a buyer?

[jaredschallenge]

It was my first psa slab purchase. It was a HUGE loss. I didn’t know the card was non holo when I impulse bought it on the spot when I saw it come across ebay. Here’s the card:

I spent 9 dollars… lol

[Gotta_trade_em_all]

I didn’t buy the sealed base set booster box from that one random guy at frank and son’s for $1K.

[chrispy]

@shadowless

I distegarded basically every rule I’ve ever set myself with this one a year or two ago:

Local seller here had an auction listing with only one picture for a collection of sealed boosters, he only accepted bankwire of course. I like to take risks from time to time so I bought him out - to find out that all boosters are resealed. Had to get the police and lawyer involved but got my money back and the guy was sued (he had to work 60 hours for a local animal shelter) Never disregarded my rules ever again

He tried to scam someone out of thousands of dollars and only had to do 60 hours of animal shelter volunteer work???

[shadowless]

@chrispy

@shadowless

I distegarded basically every rule I’ve ever set myself with this one a year or two ago:

Local seller here had an auction listing with only one picture for a collection of sealed boosters, he only accepted bankwire of course. I like to take risks from time to time so I bought him out - to find out that all boosters are resealed. Had to get the police and lawyer involved but got my money back and the guy was sued (he had to work 60 hours for a local animal shelter) Never disregarded my rules ever again

He tried to scam someone out of thousands of dollars and only had to do 60 hours of animal shelter volunteer work???

He scammed me for about 2000€ - I would have never sued that guy if he just transfered my money back, but he didn’t.
He wasn’t sued before, otherwise the penalty would’ve been harsher.
I’m very happy with the outcome though as the other alternative would’ve been a financial penalty that goes directly to the state. Here in Germany the punishment for smaller crimes is most of the times rather light, it’s much worse for him that he gets „marked“ as certain companies (municipal for example) will not hire a person that was sued before.

[chopstix23]

@lolzicost

Last year in October I realized that I had unintentionally acquired a near complete PSA 9 1st Ed Base holo set through buying numerous collections throughout the year. I was only missing Chansey, Clefairy, Alakazam & Mewtwo. I already made profit off the collections I got these cards from so I figured I’d complete the set. Unfortunately this was around the time prices skyrocketed for Base Set across the board. It was nearly impossible to find PSA 9 holos at a reasonable price. I ended up paying $5850 for Mewtwo, $4600 for Clefairy & $4k for Alakazam. I bought into the hype hooked lined and sinkered. They seemed like good deals at the time, especially Mewtwo which had offers of $6k+ & had sales at $7k.

I was even offering $6k+ for Chansey just to get the set done & was turned down by every seller. Then the flood came out of nowhere, I eventually got the Chansey for $2k & my set was complete. I wish I was more patient that money could’ve served me better but oh well.

Are you me? I did that with poliwrath Raichu and hitmonchan.

Probably overpaid by about 3k

[yz2428]

@shadowless

I distegarded basically every rule I’ve ever set myself with this one a year or two ago:

Local seller here had an auction listing with only one picture for a collection of sealed boosters, he only accepted bankwire of course. I like to take risks from time to time so I bought him out - to find out that all boosters are resealed. Had to get the police and lawyer involved but got my money back and the guy was sued (he had to work 60 hours for a local animal shelter) Never disregarded my rules ever again

Would love to have your attorney’s contact for my future legal suits.

[yz2428]

@celestialdragon

Not buying 2 of everything. It pains me to think I may have to sell off cards in the future.

this is something i struggle with. there are some cards that i know i would love to hold but may go up immensely in value. i’ve tried to buy duplicates when i can. i just think it would be so hard to sell something so sentimental but its value is so high that it’s silly not to. very hard decision. recently, i’ve overcome this problem by holding onto lower graded versions of the card for my permanent collection so in case i have to get rid of the nicer one, i can do it at the appropriate time. also, knowing that you can’t own everything and being ok with it is part of the process of maturing as a collector.

[oldtimepoke]

Fake 1st edition…

Gave in and got fooled by a good price on base set 1st edition about 5 years ago. Was a great fake. Recently wanted to sell it given the premium and need to buy a house. With all the stories about fakes and the recent fiasco with dumb money I was uncomfortable. Luckily decided to sell but not collect money until it was opened in front of me and the buyer… imagine how crushed I was when I saw the resealed packs with energy cards… just glad that no money changed hands. Of course, I lost my money from the purchase and learned an expensive lesson. If a deal is too good then usually it is.

[yz2428]

@chopstix23

@lolzicost

Last year in October I realized that I had unintentionally acquired a near complete PSA 9 1st Ed Base holo set through buying numerous collections throughout the year. I was only missing Chansey, Clefairy, Alakazam & Mewtwo. I already made profit off the collections I got these cards from so I figured I’d complete the set. Unfortunately this was around the time prices skyrocketed for Base Set across the board. It was nearly impossible to find PSA 9 holos at a reasonable price. I ended up paying $5850 for Mewtwo, $4600 for Clefairy & $4k for Alakazam. I bought into the hype hooked lined and sinkered. They seemed like good deals at the time, especially Mewtwo which had offers of $6k+ & had sales at $7k.

I was even offering $6k+ for Chansey just to get the set done & was turned down by every seller. Then the flood came out of nowhere, I eventually got the Chansey for $2k & my set was complete. I wish I was more patient that money could’ve served me better but oh well.

Are you me? I did that with poliwrath Raichu and hitmonchan.

Probably overpaid by about 3k

I probably overpaid on a few things recently on the shadowless holo binder set i tried to complete. i had bought a bunch of the cards in psa 8 (i would crack these) in the past for cheap, but paid hundreds each in 2021 for the remainder cards to complete my 16-card set. although prices had settled, i still bought it before further price settling. but that’s the nature of the hobby. there is not perfect time to buy and it’s very hard to time the market exactly. right now, i am also interested in the MTG market, but a lot of the vintage sets (alpha, beta, arabian, etc) have gone up a lot. each time this happens, it’s a hard decision to make as to make the jump now or wait a bit longer. one thing is for sure, the prices will settle, but that price floor may be even higher than now…

[yz2428]

@oldtimepoke

Fake 1st edition…

Gave in and got fooled by a good price on base set 1st edition about 5 years ago. Was a great fake. Recently wanted to sell it given the premium and need to buy a house. With all the stories about fakes and the recent fiasco with dumb money I was uncomfortable. Luckily decided to sell but not collect money until it was opened in front of me and the buyer… imagine how crushed I was when I saw the resealed packs with energy cards… just glad that no money changed hands. Of course, I lost my money from the purchase and learned an expensive lesson. If a deal is too good then usually it is.

i am very sorry.

which 1st edition set was it?

[oldtimepoke]

Base set

[oldtimepoke]

Sad cuz I had bought so many sealed boxes- almost every set up to evolutions. Was so proud of the complete set Luckily that was the only box I bought from that seller.