I’ve been noticing Flashfire boxes starting to fluctuate below the $260 mark around eBay lately, as apposed to the usual $270+ price point I’ve experienced for the past 4 months. This is excluding any auctions which may have closed slightly lower, but those are few and far between.
Would you say now is the time if ever to purchase one as an investment or do any of you project further price drops in the future? I haven’t seen prices this low since February, so I get the sense that sellers are either having a hard time moving product at that $270 mark or are just letting go the last of their stock at a discounted rate to free up some cash.
Flashfire box prices have stalled for a few months, mainly because a lot of sellers decided to all list their boxes at the same time. There isn’t a shortage of FF boxes right now, so buyers aren’t going to be in a rush to pick up a box. The boxes that are worth alot 10+ years after release are the ones that are popular AND also not easy to find because not many people stashed away boxes. I’m not sure how high they’ll go for years from now but the fact that they won’t be difficult to find doesn’t help.
I agree, and it seems a lot of sealed collectors today anticipate the value of this box to follow market trends of the more desired sets of the past. The only problem is that when everyone has that same notion, more boxes are held and preserved, thus negating that expected growth.
However, another obvious factor in the value of this box is the Charizards. As long as the box remains available in that $200-$300 range, there’s still some opportunity for profit in cracking the box and hitting the jackpot with a gem 10 secret rare Charizard, who’s current market price I believe still exceeds the value of the sealed box. That’s a bit of a hail mary, but I think it still makes the box something that some people are willing to open…
The boxes aren’t going down because of any sort of market dump. Quantity has been nearly the same. They started to dip when Evolutions included a M Charizard EX with all the same stats numbered 13/10x and a Charizard EX with the same stats numbered 12/10x. Because Flashfire is a set that garners value from the collective contents, when a couple cards take a hit the boxes take a hit. In particular, this is true of modern sets.
Right, the set will maintain some value mainly because of the Charizards, more specifically #108/106. And yeah, it definitely is a hail mary lol. Flashfire print quality is bad, probably the 2nd worst from the XY era (1st print Primal Clash is arguably the worst). That said, people will always enjoy opening sealed product, and at the current price, it isn’t a huge gamble compared to other sets. Now is a good time to buy one imo.
Except M Charizard 108 never dipped? That’s the main driving force behind the set. The other Zards might have gone down or stayed largely the same, but 108 has slowly been going up, not down. And maybe it’s not a huge market dump, but there definitely are more boxes listed than a while ago. At one point, there were only a few boxes for sale on eBay. That’s changed since the start if the year.
Another thing that came to mind, perhaps people thought Flashfire would be reprinted too? With the recent reprints/rerelease of Roaring Skies, Primal clash etc maybe people were waiting to see if FF would be reprined too.
So you’re saying its drop in value is correlated to its decrease in viability in the tcg? Or rather decrease in demand for that particular print of the card in the tcg after the introduction of the evolutions zards? That makes sense.
I don’t follow the competitive tcg very much and don’t fully consider its trends. Does this imply that there is room for further devaluation of the cards/set as the tcg progresses to newer cards and play styles?
But also the price drop I’m noting is a very recent one to my knowledge, as in this month, long after the release of Evolutions. A very subtle price drop but a decrease nonetheless. It seems they have been routinely selling for over $270 since March at the minimum, but for the first time they are now available below $260 from multiple sellers, seemingly overnight. Then again, it’s only 10 bucks and I’m probably overreacting. I just want to know if the set will ever again be readily available below the $250 mark before I go out and buy a box.
You’re right. I didn’t check prices for the fire M Zards, so my mistake for assuming something else there. It makes sense, the Evolutions M Charizard is the same as the Flashfire one, and even the Evolutions FA Mega Charizard has dipped in value recently. Too many out there I guess.
Not related to meta viability. But if there are two extremely similar, available versions of a card, they affect each other’s prices.
It’s absolutely possible it’s a natural dip. But if I had to put my money on something, I’d put it on my original statement and Patriot’s second add-on. I’ve discussed it with a group of collectors/large store owners that I chat with on Thursday nights and those are the two things that were most universally agreed upon given a hunch if different factors we looked at.
I wouldn’t stress the $10 difference. If that’s your make or break, it was a bad investment anyway.
Don’t invest in modern sets. Period. Flashfire was a rare exception and it was still only really viable as a long term investment at first. Even if it randomly went up, it’s not the best choice.
Really just an extension of my last point. Never ask if something is a good investment. Ask if it’s the best investment.
Just collect. It’s cooler. The investment angle is hyped but usually only by people who are suckers and people who have a profit they’re making from people thinking this is a good investment track.
I feel you. I don’t consider myself an investor and if I am I’m a poor one at that lol. I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t regret waiting for it to be available cheaper. Whether or not I’ll open it I’m not sure, I just want to get while I can because of how great a set it is.