I’ve just recently gotten back into collecting Pokémon cards after 17 years or so. There’s like a million new cards now. lol
I’ve been scoring good deals on a few items that fly under the radar, but to stay on topic I’ve noticed the huge growth when it comes to both shadowless and 1st edition base. Do you guys think unlimited has good potential on the mid/long term or there’s just so much supply?
I find current pricing for PSA 9 very low especially on the higher end cards. $150 Charizards don’t make much sense to me. Actually, I even find most non charirzard base cards to be undervalued. Sub $1000 for PSA 9 1st edition Blastoise and Venusaur?
Base unlimited was printed to oblivion. With that said, we’ve been seeing some nice increases in price for the PSA 10s. It remains to be seen if the 9s and lower grades will start picking up, but it’ll be slow if they do.
Very true. My pockets aren’t deep enough for the high end Gem Mint stuff. Guess I’ll stick to shadowless and 1st edition for the most part when it comes to 8s and 9s unless I find a few steals. Thanks
Edit: 2714 PSA 9 unlimited Zards. Now I get it. I should have checked first. I see huge potential for shadowless though.
Now with the boom in Base 1st and shadowless you better believe base Unl is a great investment.
You mentioned 2700 Unl Zards. That’s nothing. Just one guys video of my Pawn Stars got 10 million views. Every one was interested in Charizard’s. I’ve sold 35 base PSA 9 Charizard’s in the last two days…50 in the last week. I’ve sold 7 or 8 PSA 9 Unl holo sets this week.
After my listed ones are gone I’m socking away all the rest till next year.
Nobody can be 100% positive about anything but based on what’s happening now ALL Base Set cards are gold.
I’m far from a market expert, but just following my logic here. Keep in mind, I’ll gladly be proven wrong or explained why my reasoning is wrong, but…
Isn’t it generally true that the more demand there is, the higher the prices go? Since all the Base Set cards are not printed anymore the only increase in supply you’ll see is if more people are looking through their dusty basements for cards and selling them. With the release of Pokémon GO, Pokémon became as popular as it has ever been. Which led to a lot of people also becoming interested in the TCG. However, the popularity is starting to fade again. I know the prize has consistently been going up for years, but that aligns perfectly with the popularity of Pokémon, especially factoring in the fact that Base Set cards won’t suddenly increase in supply, but rather decrease (if some of them get destroyed, somehow).
Now, by this logic, I’m really doubting Pokémon will ever be as popular again as it was when GO launched. It was a global phenomenon and is unlikely to become as big as it has been ever again. The launch was so incredibly big and mainstream that even now, over a year later, we’re still seeing the effects of it.
That said, from now on, or at the very least in the near future, wouldn’t it be sensible to expect a decrease in popularity again and thus also the demand and with it the price dropping for cards?
Like I said, I’m very far from a market expert, I’ve no experience in it, never done proper market research or dealt with the stock market or anything of the sort. This is just me thinking about it logically.
Despite all this, I see a lot of very knowledgeable people on here being veeery certain that the price will continue to rise. How are you so sure and what are you basing it on? I’m very curious to learn about the why’s and how’s.
From the point of a collector, if you want a WotC Charizard, it will never be cheaper than it is right now. Pull the trigger.
As an “investment”… for the price of 2 PSA 9 Unl Zards you can buy 1 Ethereum coin. If you have $300 to drop buy that instead.
I think that you’re better off buying lower grade (7-8) 1st and Shadowless Zards over the PSA 9 base unl if you REALLY have to invest in Pokemon.
Base Unl Zard is in a strange position. The 10 has exploded and I think the 9 will rise gradually as well BUT base unlimited is everywhere, the fact that there’s 2300+ 9s out there and even more mint raw cards will be found over time can easily hold the price of the 9 down for 1-3 years. People like Gary with dozens of them could easily disrupt the card’s price.
It’s also strange because it’s the only base zard to actually be cheaper from this time last year.
It’s Base set Charizard. It will rise gradually no matter what, even if the growth is slow.
Go and look at other TCGs or even NBA and Baseball. Old, popular stuff just rises over time. A raw 1st Ed. SDK Blue-Eyes White Dragon in mint condition is going to push $100 now, 2 years ago they barely sold for $40.
The main reason is kids who collected or played Pokemon during its early Years(WOTC&ex) are now STARTING to enter the workforce and have more disposable income. With more money to spend, these working adults would start to spend a little on Pokemon and once they start to love it as much as they do when they were younger, they would start to spend more, and more, and more. Of course this does not apply to ALL the 90s kids however even if 1% participated in the coming years, that will push prices up significantly. I’m a final year student and will be joining the workforce next year. There are others who haven’t started working yet. Once all the Pokemon kids grow up, the prices will be crazy. Just look at MTG
Add to that: in my lifetime which dates back to 50s baseball, I have never seen a phenomenon like Pokemon. 1999 was unprecedented in the annals of collectibles. The mid 2000s lull was just as predictable as the boon after.
Pokemon Go was an excellent, and extremely expensive marketing ploy. You must understand, they knew the game was ready for the next level. It woke up tens of millions of enthusiasts who just needed an excuse to dive in again with both feet.
Oh yes, it will continue cause the public demands it. The sets keep coming as well games et all. Just add 7-10 years onto each new release to gauge popularity. After that last set/game hits within 10 years it’ll become a solid collectible only.
I’ve mentioned before, TMNT is nearing its 40th year and they’re still making toys and movies etc. Some of their vintage toys sell in the thousands. And let me tell you, TMNT didnt even produce 1/10th the frenzy Pokemon did.
I was asked these same questions years ago. I said then, pokemon will prove to be a goldmine so don’t be shy about hanging on to your stuff. Well, just looking at today that turned out to be sage advice lol.
All indicators are positive again so ignore the naysayers. Enjoy your collections and dont worry about losing value.
I’ve always wondered why unlimited PSA 10 (except Charizard, though Blastoise and Venusaur are slowly catching up) are not selling for more. I’ve been trying to get hold off mint raw copies and they are not easy to find, but that might also be because the market is flooded with less than mint copies?
Or does the fact that the unlimited boxes are still relatively easily available play a big role here too?
And as for the Shadowless cards, do you think it makes sense to buy cards that might get a PSA 5 to PSA 8? In theory the prices should rise, but you never know to what level…
Thanks guys. I see we share common opinions. I’m one of these kids mentioned. I was 11 when base set released and I’m just getting back into buying some of these cards from my childhood and some of the newer ones as well.
I don’t believe in this Pokemon Go bubble I’m hearing from a few people. I think I’ll stick to my gut when it comes to some cards and sets I feel are severely undervalued. Worst case scenario they’ll just hold their value.
When people say things like “oh, it’s just a bubble” and can’t add anything else to the discussion they often don’t know what they’re talking about.
I had one of my economics lecturers tell me cryptocurrencies were in a bubble but had to ask me what ethereum was last week.
The sheer amount of information, foresight and data needed to establish if a bubble exists in any market is daunting. Whether it’s property, art, cryptocurrency or collectibles you have to be willing and able to think outside the box and have an incredible analytical mind to see a bubble.
Yeah I agree. There was a 7 I should have bought on ebay earlier though. It looked like a solid 8-9 but it was just crazy off center. I prefer that than a totally beat up holo or back. $227.50 but I have no idea what max bid was. I’m still gauging market on most of these cards.
1st edition is a different story. I wouldn’t be surprised to see people drop 4 figures on a PSA 1. There has to be a lot of hype since the BGS sale, and just the overall increase in prices in such a short time. That’s why I’m surprised to see some of the other holos sell for so low.
There’s another one being auctioned off at $212. I mentioned this in the BGS 10 Zard thread that a lot of the 7s and 8s were bought up around the auction ending, maybe that can be attributed to the 9 and 10 shadowless PWCC auctions doing so well.
Then again it could easily just stagnate or dip back down.