Ok so i’ve been saving up for months to buy some of the more iconic cards. I go on ebay and now everything is worth double since the last time I checked. I mean I can understand if the card goes up a 100 or 2 but most of the WOTC cards I wanted have gone up to insane prices. Charizard sold for $9,000 in the beginning of the year but all a sudden people are willing to pay double that only 6 months later?? Yeah sure base set charizard is iconic but there’s over 100 PSA 10s and not that uncommon on ebay . Another thing I noticed is that price jumps always happen when PWCC posts an auction. Yet when a regular seller tries to sell the same card for a price that’s significantly less than what the PWCC auction went for it sits for a while. So what’s going on here? Could these prices go down for things like the Neo series, Gold Stars or the 1st original sets or is it all uphill from here?
No one can tell you. Past performance is never a guarantee of future performance
Bad luck you started saving right when the rise began.
I believe the unlimited versions of the WOTC sets could be next to climb in value. That’s why I’m not selling any;)
I’m still getting offers in the 18k range for base 1st Ed Charizards so those are holding solid. Yes, there’s over 100 but there’s 1000s of serious collectors, even from the sports world, who want one. The old supply and demand.
They’re not gonna go back down, more people are getting into the hobby since all the kids who grew up with base set are now adults with disposable income. Tons of sports guys have crossed over into Pokemon since the modern sports cards hardly hold any value. Even all the Magic guys who talked trashed about them are now getting into Pokemon.
You’re right , I underestimate how many serious collectors are around. I guess I just didn’t think there that many ppl willing to throw over 10k on a card. Really makes me wonder how much the booster box is worth now.
10k for an exclusive 1st edition “rookie” card is really not that much considering certain baseball cards frequently sell for $300,000+. Looking at the larger collectibles marketplace helps to put the future value of the hobby into perspective.
I love Pokemon, but it is in a boom right now. I don’t think people should treat it like it’s impossible for some things to slide a little bit down. I don’t think the 1st ed charizad is ever going down, but I do think it might be having residual effects on other cards pricing that may not be sustainable
I think it’s unlikely for prices to drop substantially unless a ton of people leave the hobby or unless PSA has some sort of scandal or problem with legitimacy/accuracy going forward. If cards with dents start coming back as 10s (like a lot) or they authenticate a fake Illustrator (or something similarly massive) things could go down, but for right now everything that’s really collectible is established. The cards are out of print and are the highly collectible ones are fleshed out and encased largely right now. It all depends on either people leaving and selling their stuff all at once as PSA has proven to be very reliable.
Right now even PSA reliability cannot bring the Pokemon card prices as a whole down anymore. At least that’s what I think now, since PSA has revealed their new case you can be quite sure that anything in the old case will hold their value if PSA makes a mistake now in the future. Of course it’s different if there were mistakes in the past or if an employee starts a shady business.
It will still take a hit I think, but you’re right. The labels can be used to discern time periods but there will be skeptics of it as a whole as well.
Pokemon cards, especially Wotc, will not go down.
Pokemon is a phenomenon in the sense it has everything going for it. The cards are wildly popular, the videogames are wildly popular, the anime is wildly popular. On top of having 3 main sources of income it is a worldwide hobby. I have traded Pokemon cards with people on 5 continents! How insane is that?
Add in the fact that the fans and collectors of this are relatively young and you have a recipe for this continuing to grow for the next century easily. I can’t believe people are selling 1st edition Zards with a 9 or 10 grade. That card is going to be worth a million dollars one day.
I agree with most of what you typed but I still think that it can potentially go down. Think about this, right now Pokemon is extremely popular but will it be this popular in the next coming decades? Look at baseball, a game that’s over 200 years old, yet still a world wide phenomenon. With many traveling across the world just to see their favorite player. Many still aspiring to be great players and receiving worldwide support in schools and colleges. Baseball is something that will live on forever so of course the cards will continue to increase in value.
Now look at Pokemon, can you see the same for it too? Will ppl still continue to watch Ash’s adventure, will ppl still be as hyped as we are see new pkmn and games? Will they even still be making new pkmn and games? While no1 can predict what will happen it still tells us that nothing is certain. If they ever stop making games, cards and new pkmn then the franchise will start to become more and more irrelevant as the generations pass. This could cap the value of the cards or decrease the value.
Pokemon will always be a piece of history so the cards will never be worthless. But for it be on the same level as sports cards and comics having memorabilia worth millions, I feel like it would have to be an everlasting franchise.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing that people think that the market is weakening. The market fluctuates constantly, and a little doubt keeps people from buying into the hobby and creating an artificial market. The fact that there IS doubt, and people are still buying is what proves that the market is still healthy.
From your lips to Gods ears 
Great thread:)
I think the clincher to this discussion can be condensed to only four words: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
TMNT was popular starting in 1984 but it was nowhere near as popular, at any point, than Pokemon. Yet it has endured for 35 years including a popular feature movie again just last year.
And Pokemon has the advantage of being a serious worldwide phenomenon. Just look at how many countries are represented here, on our humble site.
Pokemon has absolutely EVERYTHING going for it.
Why will it survive?
"The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. Pokemon will endure. The one constant through all the years has been Pokemon. Time has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But Pokemon has marked the time. This hobby, this game: it’s a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh…Pokemon will endure guys. Pokemon will most certainly endure.”
-Field of Dreams (edited:)
The increasing prices are an example of supply and demand. Supply is low, demand is high. Prices on key cards should increase unless supply increases (rumored warehouse of old stock, or news stories bring old cards out storage) or demand decreases (collectors tire, or bubble bursts).
NOTE: I said key cards. I have seen prices paid on some high volume cards that have made me say WTF. As said earlier
“Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”
i would say the opposite if psa had a big scandal and went out of business say all psa cards will be worth so much more as none more will 100 percent be able to be graded
I find it annoying when a item sold for $20 then few days someone would post similar item for $40. I would pay a bit more, but not double the price.
I was looking at pokemon_revolutions eBay store and he listed a shadowless Karp for like 200 bucks when a couple weeks ago it was on eBay for buy it not under 40 for weeks. The price increase is crazy right now.
Annoyed at what or who exactly?