thegatheringground (now exclusively wowlootsellers on eBay) used to sell these for $30 on amazon up until 2015ish. I bought and opened up so many of them during a time when packs were $20 individually yet these tins were only $30 – never anything good (i recall only metagross ex and flygon ex), but was a blast
I know there’s a thread on the Price Discussion thing saying how shitty amazon is (and it is), but my best bargain deals have been on amazon
$300 EX Sandstorm Booster Box bought in June 2017
$8 EX Dragon Frontiers Blister bought in June 2016 (opened)
$20/120/35 for 1st Ed. Shining Celebi/Charizard/Mewtwo (Charizard graded a 9, Mewtwo graded a 10) bought in Sep 2015
$20 1st Ed. Base Set Venusaur in LP condition in Feb 2015
$200 for 10 Base Set Blisters that turned out to be shadowless blister packs in July 2014 (opened)
Oddly I was just looking at these photos recently. I don’t know why I saved them… These items were all delivered. These are some more recent deals. If i remember right the GS Charizard was in NM condition, Celebi was EX/NM.
These two from 2014 were great prices even compared with the early days of Pokemon. To buy a 1st ed Charizard around the time of Y2K it cost upwards of $150-$200. I’m fairly certain I still have these two.
Otherwise noteworthy buys (excluding purchases prior to 08):
-1st ed. base sets NM-mint for $250 and another time for roughly $300. I think at the time they were selling for upwards of $1000 because I remember when Poke’mom sold hers for around that much.
-Multiple 1st ed. complete common/ uncommon sets for $35 each back in 2010
-Three mostly complete mint E-series master sets for $600
There are more I’m sure I am forgetting… The prices of those days are long gone, but it’s nice to reflect back on them sometimes
One of my favorites was getting 2 1st edition team rocket boxes for $400 and having my dad tell me I spend too much on pokemon which resulted in me telling the seller to cancel my order. That was probably around 2012-2013 before I was 18
Two Skyridge Booster Boxes - £250 (Opened one, kept one sealed)
Ex Team Rocket Returns Box - £60
Ex Unseen Forces Box - £60
Ex Dragon Frontiers Box - £65
Ex Holon Phantoms Box - £95
Ex Delta Species Box - £110
Ex Emerald Box - £110
Ex Deoxys Box - £90
Ex Legend Maker Box - £100
Ex Crystal Guardians - £100
Ex Power Keepers Box - £90
120 x POP Series 5 Packs - £70
Gym Challenge Unl Box - £100
Team Rocket - Box £80
Base Set Unl Box - £120
Neo Destiny Box - £90
Complete Japanese VS Series Set - £40
3x Japanese E-Series 1 Booster Boxes - £30 each
VS Grass Lightning Box - £80
1st Edition Base Blastoise PSA 9 - £70
Luckily I collected the most between 2008-2010 so prices were very low compared to today. Unfortunately I opened a lot of boxes (all those ex boxes…) during those years to help complete sets, good thing I kept a couple sealed.
2011 was when I bought my original psa 9 1st edition base holo set
I remember the Chansey was $36 (Bought a 2nd for 40), Charizard was $325.
The good old days =D
Back in… 2002, I thought… I bought the entire WotC promo set for €25. A new sunset Mew for €15, Shining Mew, sealed in the magazine (I still regret opening it) for €20 and way more of those bargains.
Those days have passed… Wil we be thinking the same in about 12-15 years from now with the current cards? “Back in 2018 I bought a sealed Pikachu I choose you promo for less then €2”
I haven’t been in the hobby long enough to have some absolute steals for the higher end stuff but in the last 2 years these are my most notable investments.
Best bargains would be
3 team rocket attache cases $500aud each
legendary dog gold stars psa 10 $100aud each
Secret Rare flashfire Zard psa 10 $115aud
hyper rare psa 10 charizard $350 aud
psa 9 unlimited Zard $10aud (raffle win)
psa 9 first edition Neo discovery Espeon $5aud (raffle win)
No where near the level of some on here but they are some of my best bargains.
Only ones off the top of my head that I can think off that were insane.
2009 - Lots of 20 sealed 1st edition gym and challenge lots for $33 shipped, bought all he had, can’t go wrong for $1.65 a pack, think I bought 500 or 600 packs, all unweighed (opened them all after selling my collection in 2006 for peanuts)
2016 - Set of 1st edition base boosters for $17 a piece.
2018 - Picked up a Mint 1st edition base set (charizard, blastoise and a few commons were shadowless), 1st jungle, 1st rocket & 1st fossil as well as errors & black star set for $670 on eBay. Also had some incomplete japanese sets. Almost everything graded 9-10.
In 2017 I met a relatively new friend who just started to get into the hobby who wanted me to help him get a bulk lot of cards that were in the 3k range (locally). The lot consisted of pokemon, yugioh and magic. It took a few hours for me to check the condition of all the cards and he was really thankful for my help; in fact he told me since he didn’t collect pokemon so I can just take the entirety of the pokemon collection home. The collection consisted of shinings like mewtwo, some psa graded shadowless and 1st edition cards and were well worth at least a few hundred dollars back then.
I refused and told him the true value of the cards he was about to give up. Sounds cheesy but I’d rather strengthen a new friendship and have someone get into the card collecting hobby in as positive of a way as possible than make a few hundred bucks off a clueless friend.
1st Base stuff was humorously cheap five+ years ago, but I think everyone else knows that already. Here are some other cheap items I can think of.
-In 2011-2012 I put together a mint set of every single old ex card on a $1500 budget.
-I bought my first 2004 Worlds Promo 9-Card Set + Staff copy for $50 in 2007ish. (There only been one set on the market that I’ve seen in the last several years and the English copy alone sold for $200 when it was split)
-When competitive rotation was a bigger part of the secondary market, I bought five complete sets of HGSS primes right after rotation for $1.25 per prime. All five sets were NM/M+ and included all the best cards. I’ve since graded some of them 10s.
-Before the real marketing push in 2013-on, I bought a huge collection of PSA 10 4th print base C/UC/R for apx. $18 each.
