I believe you may have messaged me on instagram yesterday.
I recommended efour to you because this is where the most knowledgeable of collectors are, regardless of collection value. Everyone on this site knows that a 1st Edition Base Box is worth much more than $15,000. There were probably less than 10-15 official sales in the entire world last year online or privately. I know a couple of those boxes which were privately sold on the higher end for around the $70k-75k mark. Lower end you’re looking a around $50k and that’s if you can even find one or someone willing to let one go for that price. Finding a 1st edition base box is like finding a needle in the hay stack. Any sales you see online for less than $50k are fake. 100% fake or a scam. If you offer such a low amount, then people that may own a box will most likely get offended especially when you act like you know it is worth more, when actually, it isn’t. No one on this site wants to see you get scammed which is also why they are being so harsh.
Lessons here?
Don’t assume everything you see to be true.
If you are unsure then feel free to ask and do your research. (This is the main reason I recommended efour)
I hope you can take the positives from this experience and continue to learn and grow
I did a really rough estimate the other day and came out with an expected value of $644 for the holo/rare from a 1st edition base pack assuming a 1/4 chance of a PSA 10 and 3/4 PSA 9 (though something like $225 of that value comes from the PSA 10 charizard alone, so it’s kind of lottery-esque). Regardless, that comes out to an expected value of $23K for the holos/rares from a box. I’d happily drop that cash right now and open it for the thrill, opportunity cost be damned.
Just be careful who you offer that price to. There is an infamous guy on instagram who is still selling fake 1st Edition Base boxes privately. He just got another person over the holidays.
Yes! I mentioned it here because he’s privately targeting newer collectors with deep pockets. The guy who recently bought the box from him told me he sold it to him for only 20k. Bargain bin 1st ed base boxes are not a good idea!
Don’t know if this guy is on Insta, but there’s also a Belgium seller who tried to sell a fake box to me/others on a dutch marketplace. Did give all the info i had to the police, account has been a ghost ever since.
@jahbless91, Belgium is a major source for fake boxes.
@pokemonrevolution, I can’t believe that guy is still selling fakes. For this who are unaware, Chad Gordon sold fake 1st ed boxes awhile back. They are on the blacklist, but I don’t know their ig username.
@smpratte I’ve always wondered how do these guys even get fake cards? Do they literally just cut out cardboard and print pictures or it much better detailed then that? And what about the booster pack wrappers? How in the world can they fake that so well?
I was just watching this video last night and it blew my mind on the quality of fakes out there:
Cool thanks for sharing. I guess in some ways that’s not as bad since it’s at least easier to tell. Some of these other TCG’s seem to have be a lot tougher to distinguish.
