I recently got into pokemon collecting on August 14th 2020. My goal is to collect master sets of the four main sets each year. A master set to me is the tcg checklist on the pokemon website along with the secret rares. I go a step further and add the prerelease promos along with the staff promos if applicable. I was wondering if master set collecting has always been this expensive or is it just the hype? Below will be the sets I have aquired this year. I am done until the next set battle styles releases. I was wondering if these numbers stood out to you. I feel like I may have overpaid but I’m not too sure. Some sets I got much cheaper back in August. Like the evolutions master set has sold for around $500 or more. I certainly did not pay that price. What advice do you master set collectors who have been at it a while have to say to a young collector embarking on his own master set collecting journey?
xy evolution set: $309.21 (excluding staff promos)
darkness ablaze set: $737.26
Jungle set: $266.79
vivid voltage set: $43.68 (excluding staff promos)
team rocket set: $931.20 (unlimited rocket set, two first edition holos, 1 psa authenticated signed holo dark blastoise)
Welcome to another fellow master set collector . I use Bulbapedia for my lists, not sure what the difference with TCG checklist is.
Unfortunately as you’ve seen most things got much more expensive this year which makes collecting harder.
The only price that seems high to me in that list is Team Rocket, but the WOTC sets have arguably seen some of the biggest price rises this year.
My advice (which I wish I followed myself) would be to go after the most expensive cards in the set first. I don’t know what your strategy is for building the set, but for new sets I usually buy a booster box or 2, ETB (if has a promo), then all blister packs with the promos. That will give you the majority of the standard set. Then I buy the reverse set on eBay and then buy the rest of the set singles off eBay.
For non-modern, it’s usually not a great deal of difference price wise to buy the whole set or buy them as singles. This part really depends on your budget, if you can buy the set when it comes up for sale, buy it. If that’s not possible, enjoy building gradually .
Whatever you choose, make sure you create a collection thread here to show off your collection and we can see your progress! Good luck .
check to see if a card is expensive because it’s playable. usually those cards will dip in price after it rotates out of the format. if it’s expensive because of charizard or waifu, your wallet will never have a good time.
I recommend taking your time and setting realistic, achievable goals. I would decide on a budget and then pick sets that work with it. Also, grab the cards that are most likely to increase first so you can take your time on the cheaper ones.
If you’re in the US this might not apply, but I know that I paid so much money in shipping costs for singles being sent to me in Canada. You should try to buy multiple cards you need from sellers whenever possible to save on shipping.
Thanks for the advice! I am new to this but Darkness Ablaze was my first set I collected. I bought two booster boxes and bought the rest as singles and I felt the price was pretty high. My personal budget I set aside is $2400 a year for pokemon collecting. So far I think this will be enough for the four main sets a year especially if staff promos are removed. For Vivid Voltage I took a different approach and bought a case of booster boxes, a case of build and battle boxes (which came with an additional booster box). The set was so hot that with all my duplicates I sold I made around $1,000 so that is how I managed to get Vivid Voltage near completion for so cheap. Made all my money back and some profit. I am not sure if this is the best strategy for the following sets going forward as I feel it relies on hype to be able to sell your duplicates quickly. In the end after opening roughly 9 booster boxes worth of cards I still had to shell out $180 for the Pikachu Vmax secret rare.
That makes sense. Darkness ablaze was my first set I collected and I was wondering why Crobat V full art was the price it was. I guess it was a solid card in the actual TCG game. I guess I will just have to follow some youtubers that discuss the meta so I know why some cards are priced the way they are.
I feel my goal is realistic and within my reach (financially speaking) but there is definitely a lot to learn when it comes to doing it efficiently. That sucks that the shipping costs are higher for Canada. I am in the US and already hate paying all those shipping costs lol. As for taking my time, that is something I will have to realize and adjust to. It just feels like you want to buy everything when you first start collecting but I can see it being financially draining very quickly.
Do some research on the various sets, read some educational articles on e4, make sure you don’t let FOMO get the best of you, know what you are buying and don’t spend more than you can afford.
Master set has different meaning to different people. Some might include all promos and variations of the cards in addition to the cards you mentioned, making it even more challenging.
I would check out David Persin’s YouTube channel. He collects master sets and his videos are educational.
Are you going for every set past and present, or just sets going forward with the occasional older set? If You’re going for every set past and present, I would say start off with a smaller goal and very slowly work your way up to that. There are some cards like gold star rayquaza that will set you back tens of thousands of dollars if you want decent quality. Also think about what a master set will mean to you long-term. When I got back into collecting in 2010 after a 4 year break, I decided I wanted one of every card and every possible rev-holo in a set as well. After the initial hype of getting back into collecting wore off, I realized I didn’t care that much about the rev-holos. Now I don’t even care about completing every set. My collection now mainly consists of the cards that bring me the most joy in line with my budget. Also, as others have said, definitely set a budget for yourself. It’s easy to get distracted when collecting. I wouldn’t be surprised if some collectors on this site have collections valued in the millions.
Start with the most expensive and hardest cards to get for your goal. They’re the most likely to go up later and be harder to obtain.
Lots of people start with the easy cards, never finish for whatever reason, and then they’re stuck only with items that they cannot easily resell to fund their new priorities.
Keep your hobbies in perspective based on the amount of joy they actually bring to you. I do love my collection, but if I had to choose between pokemon cards and my motorcycle for the rest of my life, the answer is motorcycle and it is not even close.
. I use Bulbapedia for my lists, not sure what the difference with TCG checklist is.