Dope !!!
Masaki Gengar âŠ
Iâve 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 âŠ
Masaki Gengar is an amazing card tbh âŠ
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I agree. Iâm not interested in competing with whoever is setting the market right now. Example: I was slowly collecting the Team Rocket Returns EXs in PSA 10s. If these are now permanently 3-4xd, then I simply will not finish the collection and will eventually sell mine off
I did have opportunities to buy the cards I needed to complete the set over the last 2 years, but Iâm picky and skip a lot of copies, in particular Iâve been looking for good swirl placements
Itâs not a âPulling the triggerâ issue or âTiming the marketâ issue. Most people on here are probably not trying to make a profit or save money on a 2k card. Itâs a difference in collecting goals. Sellers and investors want to see the market go up, so they will naturally talk about how everyone missed the true potential of the market.
Letâs say the market never goes back to 2024 for most cards. I will still avoid buying PSA 10s with obvious surface scratches. I will still refuse to pay 5k, 10, 15k for Crystal and Gold star PSA 9s, since I donât value damaged cardboard to that level. I will still think the people that do buy these things are not making good choices.
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What boom?
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I love that you guys are just like âI want it. I can afford it, fuck it, Buyâ on big ticket items.
Great attitude in this market and iâm sure it will pay off long term.
Im just here buying $5 AR singles. Even still, the cost really adds up after a while.
Youâre 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 donât 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, youâre fine with paying higher prices as long as those higher prices are âsecureâ or âstableâ in some way. To me, this reads as âIâm fine paying a high price as long as the risk of losing money is low.â I donât blame people for this mentality because many cards now are large financial decisions and itâs impossible to ignore the financial implications of card collecting. However, when this mentality makes you sit out on all purchases during a volatile period, youâre 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 youâre worse off. As Scott said, the âIâll just buy once things stabilize/go downâ view might end up being the real bubble.
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To me, this reads as âIâm fine paying a high price as long as the risk of losing money is low.â
This assumes everyone buying cards as looking at it as an investment. Whatâs happening is a bit different: people who were previously collecting without considering financials now are forced to think about it as an investment because of the cost required for certain desirable cards and subsets.
In other words: paying high prices limits what you can collect. Buying 10 cards 1k each vs 10 cards 3k each is a huge difference, and some cards have even gone from 2k to 8k.
However, when this mentality makes you sit out on all purchases during a volatile period, youâre 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 youâre worse off.
This feels like FOMO to me, if you sit out buying youâre not objectively worse off, yeah youâre potentially missing out on making 1-2k, but letâs be honest, most people donât want to own hundreds of thousands worth of pokemon cards.
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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, canât imagine $6K but who knows where itâll 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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Theyâre fairly benign, but I like these for having many, many copies.
Iâll likely sell the copies I have of the birds, and then buy back if the price is low enough.
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Iâve been tempted to sell myself, but I just canât. This was a random buy at $80 and it is minty. My first true, âOMG this is a nice card,â cardâŠ
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Can EX Dragon Latias/Latios ex please go back to prices that arenât 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, theyâve been selling for like 2.5x that. Now I never win them anymore 
.
Itâs funny, too, because itâs specifically the EX Dragon ones. The Dragon Frontiers Latias/Latios also went up, but âonlyâ by like 1.5x.
My theory: I think that a lot of new people donât 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 thereâs 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, Iâll 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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Itâs 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 thatâs 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 Yearâs 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 Iâve been holding out for for a while, but only once my other financial goals are hit. We shall see.
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