1st Ed Base set potential for lower grades

Lately, I’ve been noticing 1st Ed base set receive more attention including the psa 9 grades. Can we expect the same level of growth for lower grades such as psa 8 despite the pop for many psa 8 holos being over 200? Will the demand be enough to see these higher pop cards with lower grades to make them investable?

1 Like

We already have seen that movement. There have been at least a couple of PSA 8 1st ed Base Charizards that have sold in the $4.5-5k range just within the last few days.

3 Likes

I understand Charizard, but I’m talking about the other holos. That’s what I’m more concerned with

1 Like

When people can’t afford 10s, they will buy 9s. When they can’t afford 9s, they will buy 8s. When they can’t afford 8s…

21 Likes

Based on eBay sold listings, it seems like most PSA 8 1st edition Base holos (not the Big 3 or Machamp) are selling in the $250-300 range.

At a glance, I don’t think that’s as much movement compared to a lot of other WOTC stuff.

But there’s not really any reason to think that the PSA 8s can’t follow the same path as the PSA 8 Charizard and the PSA 9 holos.

It’s a continuous cycle - if prices keep rising on the higher grades more people get priced out and look to the lower grades.

1 Like

They all will climb. Will every grade increase the same percentage? Unlikely. Most people if they can’t afford an 8, might buy a 7 but some will just keep saving and buy the 8. In short, the lower the grade the less growth percentage they could/should see mainly due to higher supply in those grades and some buyers have a firm threshold for how low of a grade they’ll buy.

2 Likes

I definitely agree with there being a threshold. I know for me, I started buying 9’s and am not completely on board with buying 8’s for my collection. I could see it being a possibility but I’m now looking for NM/M raw copies over graded 8’s. I enjoy having them in a cardsaver I on a stand almost as much as I enjoy having a graded copy on a stand.

1 Like

I wouldn’t even necessarily say that’s true. It’s important to distinguish growth percentage from raw growth.

So if you had invested $10k into Pokemon cards last year, you would be doing much better if you had invested all of that $10k into PSA 9s than you would if you had invested all of it into PSA 10s.

But if you had simply purchased various PSA 10 sets or various PSA 9 sets last year, then you would have made more raw profit from your PSA 10 sets. (Because buying a card for $1000 and selling it for $1500 is more profitable than buying a card for $100 and selling it for $400.)

So I would say that the raw growth in value (or raw loss in value) will almost always be more the higher the grade, but you can’t necessarily say the same will hold true when it comes to % (that just depends).

7 Likes

A PSA 8 1st edition Base Mewtwo sold for $465.

www.ebay.com/itm/1999-POKEMON-MEWTWO-HOLO-1ST-EDITION-BASE-SET-CARD-10-102-PSA-8-NEAR-MINT-MINT-/293489979122?nma=true&si=7Wgyb813n2UPO%252Fb%252BRtK%252B18XM%252BmE%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

1 Like

Weird, it’s a shadowless card mislabelled as 1st edition.

3 Likes

Haha good catch, it makes me wonder if the sale is legit.

1 Like

I think base 1st edition react different then other sets (including shadowless and unlimited) on lower grades.
It has the symbol, the nostalgic, the history,…
To own a peace of the beginning is something.
Something like base japanese no rarity symbol. Lower grades have their big price. Don’t know if you can compare it to each other? (maybe there is the rarety of those cards a factor) But at a point how many base 1st edition psa cards will end up with collectors and will still circulate in 5 - 10 years.
I think every card of this set is good to own.

I started collecting Marvel comic books in the 1960s Spider man, Fantastic 4 You name it I had it except for Spiderman number1… Unfortunately in the nineties they were stolen. When my son came home from school with pokemon cards I could see how obsessed and much he enjoyed it. That reminded me of my childhood except pokemon was on a whole nother level with kids than comics with my generation… I would take my son to the game store to trade cards and we would always trade off all of our mint base unlimited hollows for Base 1st edition cards played. At that time the trading magazines had the value 3 for 1 in dollar amounts 1st.ed to unlimited. My friend John would come along and he got involved also.We started buying 1st.ed edition booster boxes online at the time they were $80 a box. 1st Edition Base booster boxes were 300 which we thought were too high haha🤪 So we bought multiple 1st.ed.Jungle, Fossil, Rocket, Heroes, Challenge and Neo Genesis booster boxes. I also collected memorabilia, Store cardboard posters were my favorite.IF original mavel comics are any indication I would say even Base 1st.ed.in lower grades will also become very collectable as private collections increase and supply reduces. That old supply, demand thing… As SM Pratt says the older the rarer the minter the better is spot on.That being said over time your 1st edition based unlimited smaller cards will increase in value for a steady return on investment. In my humble opinion. When I look at the recent prices of what my 1st.ed Neo Genesis boxes are going for tells me I was on the right path. It’s still 5 more years until most of those kids start realizing there disposable income goals. So prices should continue to rise. Get them while you can!

1 Like

Only PSA8 Zard, Saur, Stoise, Chansey will maybe go up. PSA8 is basically a “the grading failed” scenario for majority of people.

But… if you into slabs, and wanna take the risk: go big and buy them all!
If you really wanna go big; PSA10 Base Set 1st Edition Trainers are a hidden monkey stash.

I would have to completely disagree. I have many psa 8 1st edition base cards purchased back end of 2019/early 2020 and they have all gone up a fair amount, some substantially. mewtwo, alakazam, raichu to name a few. Psa 8 can still be a pack fresh card, especially with 1at edition base and definitely don’t see them as a failed grading attempt.

5 Likes

In addition to a PSA 8 1st ed Base Charizard selling for roughly 2/3rds the price of a PSA 9, PSA 8 1st ed holos have been selling for close to half of what PSA 9s have been going for across the board. They have all gone up considerably.

2 Likes

I have been keeping a tally on the PSA 8 cards and most have grown about a 100 bucks in recent days. Cards like Alakazam and Ninetales have all grown by 100 bucks and even shadowless holos have risen in 8 grades a significant amount.

1 Like

No. Psa 8 has a market in pretty much everything at this point. Each month I not only regularly sell Psa 8 cards but Psa 7 and 6 as well.

5 Likes

I think this is a mindset very specific to Pokémon. For the longest time we were used to everything being available in PSA 10. Remember when the full 1st Base 10 set would cycle through PWCC every month in 2017? Remember the four Mewtwos on the same auction block ending within 5 minutes of each other? Not to mention there was always a buy it now listing for each of these cards barring maybe Chansey and Hitmonchan for the longest time as well. Now if you search a good number of 10 holos on eBay you can’t find them for sale OR in sold listings. As time moves forward these cards are not easy to find anymore. This has long been the standard in other hobbies and it’s bound to happen with Pokémon as well. I do not believe it will be to the same extent because there was a better general understanding of collectibles and how to keep things in decent shape in the 90s vs. the 50s (and even then it’s been less time) but there is a ton of potential for lower grades especially in the most iconic set. I could see the range of acceptable grades going all the way down to 6 for this set honestly.

6 Likes

Agreed, we’ve been spoiled. Times are changing…

1 Like