Best place to buy cards?

General
1

Hi

Not really into TCG, but Pokemon was my childhood and I just want one card for a nostalgia display case I have.
Just looking for a first edition base set alakazam. I would want PSA 9 or 10.

Is Ebay the best place to look? I don’t really want to get scammed and have a fake on my shelf without me knowing for years.
If it is PSA graded, wouldn’t it be much harder to be a fake?

I see sales like this;

www.ebay.com.au/itm/PSA-9-FIRST-EDITION-Base-Set-Alakazam-1-0102-MINT/292465538332?hash=item44184df51c:g:uV8AAOSwhj9aixmm

But I don’t know on ways of telling fakes from real cards.

Tips?
edit: sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, I got to this forum via reddit

edit2: the card I linked doesn’t seem to be shadowless; so that’s out for me.

www.ebay.com.au/itm/263475315630?_trksid=p2047675.m570.l5999&_trkparms=gh1g%3DI263475315630.N36.S1.R1.TR1
Maybe this one

2

Welcome!
Ebay is the best place as you will be covered by their buyer protections.
If the card is authenticated by PSA you can be sure it is real. If it wasn’t they’d have to pay you for their mistake.
All 1st Edition Base Set cards have the Shadowless card template which is why only the cards without a 1st Edition stamp are called Shadowless. It would be redundant to call a 1st Edition Base Set card Shadowless.
You can search sold listings on Ebay to see what the card has sold for recently. PSA 10’s can go for thousands of dollars where as a PSA 9 is currently hundreds.
Both links you posted are legit.
Best of luck.

3

Welcome! In addition to what Tem4Elf said, you can post a buy thread on the “buy/trade” section under “collecting”. Just state how much you’d be willing to pay and someone may reach out. There are a ton of reputable sellers on E4

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4

There is alot of great sellers here on e4 and around the world.

Some specialise in different things from others. There is many blogs about identifying fake cards. Rockcarolina and tcg authority have good guides on their EBay’s.

Basic things to look for when seeing fakes:

  1. Low feedback or bad feedback sellers
  2. Sellers asking for direct bank transfers or friends and family (fnf) payments whom you don’t know.
  3. Be careful of Craigslist or Gumtree in aus as there is no protection.
    4.discolouration of cards
  4. The text and print and ink used
  5. The feel and aesthetic of a card, if you possess fakes, you will feel they are more flimsy usually. And contain 2 layers rather than 3 internal layers to the tcg. If you tear a real pokemon card you will see either a blue or black layer, most fakes won’t have this.
  6. Be careful of dodgy descriptions
  7. There is also cards with cutback edges occasionally, reinked cards and alot of other crap that goes on.

Best thing ultimately to buy from a high feedback reputable seller

Who has been around a while, has a good background; and pay for goods and services via paypal, so that in any instance you’ll be fully insured.

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5

So as long as a card has the first edition marking, it’s shadowless?

6

Just as long as you’re referring to the Base Set 1 - English.

Anything from the English 1st Ed. Base Set is 1st Ed. and Shadowless.

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