Masaki Gengar …
I’ve heard testimonials of people that got Masaki Gengar for less than $200 USD before 2020 … Currently card is above those prices being the most expensive card of the Masaki cards …
Masaki Gengar is an amazing card tbh …
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What boom?
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I love that you guys are just like “I want it. I can afford it, fuck it, Buy” on big ticket items.
Great attitude in this market and i’m sure it will pay off long term.
Im just here buying $5 AR singles. Even still, the cost really adds up after a while.
You’re all absolute chads and I salute you!
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Boom or no boom, I am still waiting for a certain Pikachu card to appear for sale in the EU. Been waiting for years now.
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Care to share? Or is it a secret?
At this point, I am pretty much willing to pay whatever BIN they ask once it pops up. I just don’t want to pay more than I have to though. So if, by any chance, a greedy seller sees this, they would for sure list it for ten billion dollars just because they can. But once I have it, I will share the hell outta it! =)
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I bought a Masaki Gengar in 2020 for $169 PSA9 (posted on @pokemonargentinatcg instagram last post)
I also bought 3 raw ones for $90 each, 2 graded PSA6 (envelope dent) and the last one got a 9.
OT id love to get this one.
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This is exactly my point, and it seems like a lot of people agree with you! As I noted in the later part of the post:
As you note, you’re fine with paying higher prices as long as those higher prices are “secure” or “stable” in some way. To me, this reads as “I’m fine paying a high price as long as the risk of losing money is low.” I don’t blame people for this mentality because many cards now are large financial decisions and it’s impossible to ignore the financial implications of card collecting. However, when this mentality makes you sit out on all purchases during a volatile period, you’re likely going to end up with fewer cards costing much more at the end. It might be good for your peace of mind, but objectively you’re worse off. As Scott said, the “I’ll just buy once things stabilize/go down” view might end up being the real bubble.
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I got a great deal on a NM copy a couple years back in hindsight, quite a pay off the past while. PSA 7-8 seems to be selling $2K+ now, can’t imagine $6K but who knows where it’ll end up. Same seller I bought from has them on for $6K now. But yeah, amazing card I wanted for a while at the time:
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this is part of my favorite card mt rushmore, such a special card
Ive been sitting at 26/27 gold stars for months now, waiting for the final one to cool down
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They’re fairly benign, but I like these for having many, many copies.
I’ll likely sell the copies I have of the birds, and then buy back if the price is low enough.
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I’ve been tempted to sell myself, but I just can’t. This was a random buy at $80 and it is minty. My first true, “OMG this is a nice card,” card…
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Can EX Dragon Latias/Latios ex please go back to prices that aren’t utterly insane? Even within the past year, I was able to buy them easily for $150-$175 in PSA 9 via auction.
For the past few months, they’ve been selling for like 2.5x that. Now I never win them anymore 
.
It’s funny, too, because it’s specifically the EX Dragon ones. The Dragon Frontiers Latias/Latios also went up, but “only” by like 1.5x.
My theory: I think that a lot of new people don’t realize that the exs from the first three sets are literally like 2x as common because TPCi screwed up the pull rates. Further evidence of this contention is that EX Dragon Dragonite ex is now worth 2x the price of the Dragon Frontiers one (historically was the other way around).
Clear to me that there’s a lot of uninformed speculation rn. I love these cards more than life itself, but the prices on Latias/Latios/Dragonite ex from EX Dragon are just very overheated.
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Ok, I’ll bite. Where is this data from?
You say these things as statements of fact.
Hopefully it is not from advocacy research or PR polling.
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It’s not fact, just my own observations. I have been in TCGs/CCGs at every stage of my life from early childhood to adulthood, and this is what I saw around me and online. Things might look different in another country, culture, or context.
As you alluded to, some polls suggest that 16 months is the average amount of time someone spends in a new hobby. I think that’s an underestimate for compelling hobbies that have an emotional/nostalgic attachment and maybe those that require a higher level of buy-in in terms of cash and time (e.g., TCG/CCG). But as you can imagine, there is very little academic research on TCG/CCG collectors.
If you are interested in learning more, you can read academic literature on New Year’s Resolution failure and goal/hobby disengagement. But as you might expect, findings will be specific to the goal/hobby, age group, and culture that is examined.
Just out of curiosity, @pfm and @lyleberr are you able to estimate the average time that an e4 member or Redditor are engaged in their respective forums? I would be curious to see any engagement statistics that could be mined from forums.
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hopefully as this market stabilizes, my income will allow me to afford a card I’ve been holding out for for a while, but only once my other financial goals are hit. We shall see.
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One of my purchases, March 2019.
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“Hoping to pick up” doesn’t mean I will. I will never be able to buy the Luigi-Pikachu. So I make my own versions. (No “proxys” of course!)
Fortunately that amount of detail is not available to me.
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