So I don’t know exactly how to organize this, but I’ll do the best I can. Here are things to note:
I have been thinking of obtaining an older WOTC booster box in the (hopefully) near future. As of right now I am collecting all WOTC sets in 9/10, unlimited. Things may change as far as my aspirations, but right now this is what I can handle financially.
My questions are:
If I was ever to look at collecting master sets as opposed to just the holos like I am now, would I be best buying an unlimited booster box for the set(s) I’m after or should I just go after loose singles and pre-graded cards and build the master set brick by brick? I know time is an additional thing to factor in here as well as money obviously so things get a little complicated.
Would it even be worth it to obtain an unlimited master set? Is that something that is considered valuable or desired? I know obviously 1st ed, PSA 10’s in everything is the pinnacle, but if I was to even go after a master set am I wasting my time looking to make an unlimited graded set? I would like to never part with my collection but I view it equally as an investment and I’d hate to dump money into 9/10 WOTC master sets only to have them fail to increase in value.
Lots of questions and it’s a bit scattered so I apologize. As of right now I’m very content with working towards all the WOTC unlimited 9/10 holo sets but master sets have always been something I thought were cool. I guess I just didn’t know if I’d be wasting time going after an unlimited master set, thus having to rebuy holo’s and begin to find/grade the non holos in 1st ed. Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated as always and thanks for reading!
The questions are a bit subjective (i may be not looking at it correctly) but it really comes down to your collecting preference and the financial feasibility at the time of purchase.
From a finances aspect you won’t gain anything by opening the boxes than you could by doing some savvy shopping around for the completed or partial non holo mint sets on ebay. Especially with the unlimited boxes the loose cards don’t even come close equaling the value of sealed boxes. Even with the pack fresh holos all graded at 9 the market is still stronger for the sealed product additionally when considering investment opportunities.
Whether a master set is worth it is dependent too on price. The good thing is they’re a solid investment if you can find them in good condition and for a good price. Especially WOTC sets are very stable and liquid, so overall a great choice for someone operating on a budget who can’t afford to get graded 9s/10s. Or If you’re familiar with PSA’s grading scale you can stockpile mass ungraded mint sets to be graded later similar to what I did.
In summary I’ve found unlimited booster boxes to be better as supplementary to completed sets. It’s better overall for the finances and enjoyment
I appreciate the feedback! It was a bit scattered and I don’t know how well I got it all across because it was a a complex question with too many variables possibly. From what I understand though it seems like for now at least, the sum of the parts (singles both graded and non graded) and going that route is cheaper than the whole (as in a booster box) especially if my intentions are to tear off the seal and dive in the second I get it. The financial side of Pokémon and collecting in general is probably the part I struggle with most as a new collector, but I suppose that’s where experience comes in. Anyway, much appreciated!
just kidding, Unlimited edition WOTC sets are still valuable and should slowly increase in value over the years, not as much as 1st edition of course but still rise. These are all out of print so if there is a demand over the next several years or decades the supply will be less and less.
Also don’t buy boxes to open unless you plan on grading the cards, even then that can be a big risk if the cards turn out to be all 9s or less. Complete sets or loose singles on eBay is the way to go. Just don’t go out and buy every card from the set all at once, shop around and check for conditions and check sellers feedback.
Agreed with most of what’s been stated here. Couples questions to clarify what you are asking. What do you consider to be a WotC Master Set? Are you collecting WotC Base through Skyridge?
I think a lot of this comes down to what you enjoy the most. You can pick up nice sets of Base, Jungle, Fossil and Rocket for super cheap quite often. Once you venture into Gym, Neo and eSeries they get a bit tougher to find cheap as a complete set. The most time friendly and most likely economical method is to find the market price for each set and try to score them for a BIN for like 25% less than market price (just remember, condition is huge and can easily double the price and value of a set). I prefer to buy large lots and piece together sets and trade/ sell off the singles. Once I get to 90% or more set completion I’ll finish it off by buying singles.
Booster boxes, as jkanly said can be used to supplement but don’t expect to build a set out of a single box.
Master as in all cards of the set, holo + non holo. Right now my goals are all WOTC holo’s from base to sky ridge in PSA 9/10 unlimited. I was just curious IF I decided to widen my scope and eventually go for all non holos if my best route would to continue to buy singles (both graded and ungraded) like I’m doing now or if I’d be better off buying a booster box to get all those commons, uncommons, and rares taken care of that way. If I was to go for the non holos those would be graded as well just like how I’m grading my holo WOTC stuff currently. Then I guess the side note/worry of mine was if unlimited non holos would even be worth anything if I was to try and get master sets. If people came back and said “non holos in 1st ed or bust” then I’d be stuck with 9/10 holo unlimiteds looking for “worthless” unlimited non holos or having to start over and get 1st ed holos to match the 1st ed non holos I’d be forced to go after. Hopefully that makes sense because I’m riding the struggle bus a bit this evening!
Thank you! I was hoping to hear my unlimited cards would still have some value, obviously less than 1st ed but as long as they don’t depreciate or completely remain the same price wise I’d be a happy man. I don’t plan on getting rid of my sets but I’d still like to know if I was ever in a major pinch I could off load some of my collection at or above what I bought it for assuming I do my homework and am smart with acquisitions.
Greatly appreciate the help though! I think I’m on the right track from what I’m gathering as far as how I’m acquiring things. I made a huge spreadsheet of all the sets and have been kinda just going after whatever is the best deal and crossing off cards as I go. So far the few singles I’ve purchased from a seller I am starting to build a relationship have all come back MINT 9 so I’m happy. I need to figure out how to get a good collection post going so I can show off/document for myself the progression of this little collection I have growing rapidly. Thanks again!
See everyone has a different definition of a Master set so wasn’t sure. For sets early WotC sets I would consider a Master Set to be both 1st Edition and Unlimited printing of all cards in the set (along with promos that featured the set symbol and excluding un-obtanium cards). For sets like the eSeries or Legendary Collection it’d be all regular and reverse holos.
I think your best bet if you are only looking to acquire the non-holo cards from sets like those is to find someone who is breaking booster boxes (to grade) and buy a set of non-holos off them. It’d save you a lot of money in the long run. I’ve done it a few times and had great success in getting non-holo sets for incredible prices.
Sounds pretty ambitious to be grading all C/U/R cards from all the WotC sets. Would keep PSA busy for a while though!
To your point on unlimited being worthwhile to grade I am not sure it would be for non-holos (holos I think will always have a market in PSA graded condition). I think the market now and in the future for PSA non 1st edition C/U/R WotC cards is pretty small (but I’m no expert). One of the things I take into consideration with collecting and the costs of grading is it’s basically the same price to grade any card. If you take a $200 NM Base set and grade all the cards at $6 per card it’ll cost you $612+. This makes your $200 base set cost $812+. Now take a NM Base 1st edition set and grade it. It costs the same $612+ but the set value was originally much higher (we’ll say $3,000 for this example). So your set now cost $3,612+. On the Base side PSA costs portion of the set was 306% of the sets cost vs 20% for the Base 1st edition side. It seems to me you’d be investing more in PSA than Pokemon cards at that point.
To clarify, I’m not a big PSA collector, I have a couple stacks of cards and a bunch to send off but I’ve not been bitten by the PSA bug (yet).
