This question isn’t directly specific to recent spikes, but I think it’s relevant now more than ever. I’m curious to see how your strategies have changed with increasing market prices. For instance, as a binder collector, I’ve had to lower my condition standards for NM copies of cards that I could once comfortably afford but put off buying for too long. How have you adjusted your goals to satisfy both your budget and collection? Are you playing the LONG game and hoping for a decrease down the line or are you simply crossing out cards you once hoped to obtain? Curious to hear your thoughts.
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For me personally, not much has changed. I already knew when I started collecting Pikachu cards back in 2015 that for example the SNAP Photo Contest Pikachu would be a distant future dream. I simply don’t have the money to buy one, even if one would eventually pop up. I also never cared much about condition. Of course I prefer NM ungraded, but when you go after all cards in all languages, you can’t be too picky. Some cards only come up for sale once every few years, so at that point, condition and price is irrelevant when it does eventually pop up.
But I’m actually fairly happy with how my collection goals have progressed thus far since I started collecting:
- I now own almost 1400 unique Pikachu cards (I currently have the second largest Pikachu collection in the world, and used to have the largest collection for a while in 2017), and I still only need about 50 more to ‘complete’ it.
- After some incoming cards have arrived, I would also own all 135+ Seviper cards across all languages and variations, except for one pesky unlimited edition Japanese one that’s still missing and I hope to find in the near future.
- My Moltres WotC #21 artwork variations including sealed and graded is only missing three sealed variations.
- My English and Japanese exclusive Full Art Supporter collection is complete.
- My National Index including all forms and shiny Pokemon collection is complete except for gen 8, although I’m not in a hurry with this one. I actually prefer to wait until a lot more cards of gen 8 Pokémon are released so I can choose the ones I like, since right now only 1-3 cards are available per Pokémon (primarily Japanese, except for the Sword & Shield and Rebel Clash sets), and some even have zero cards.
- And my Yu-Gi-Oh rarity collection is now also as good as complete, except for one rarity used exclusively for English trophy cards of 2015+ and some misprinted rarities.
I will say though, one change in tactic was to put a pause on my Pikachu collection at the start of 2020. In 2019, little over 200 Pikachu cards were released across all languages (roughly 450 across the entire Sun & Moon era), which is absolutely insane considering ~900 were released in the 21 years prior. Because of that, I had paused my Pikachu collection from about January 2020 to last week, to save money a bit, and only focus on my FA Supporter and Yu-Gi-Oh rarity collections. And I also started selling some twisty puzzles I not really like anyway or have duplicates of.
Greetz,
Quuador
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Personally, I’m getting priced out of a lot of cards in high grades, but that’s okay. The cards that I was looking for before the increases were rocket’s snorlax and rocket’s mewtwo ex in psa 9. I was hoping to pay around $200 per each, but obviously that won’t happen anymore. As a college student, I don’t have a ton of money to spend, but I’ll find a way to buy them eventually.
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I think I have not been priced out, rather, my goals have changed with market exposure and FOMO.
I’ve only had two consistant goals over the past 2 years:
Purchase mint ungraded, or psa 9 or 10.
Purchase what I like over profitability.
I am buying cards today for twice the price that I would not have bought 2 years ago for half the price.
My overall goal now is to buy cards/packs and sell bulky items to make space.
But then I looked into Japanese Sun & Moon booster box art this week and had to buy some such as Dream League and Sky Legend…
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I’m definitely having to revise my strategy with the price increases - buying rarer cards as soon as they come up instead of negotiating the price down as much as I would usually have done in the past and also accepting that it is going to take longer to complete my goals.
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I think some people have too linear of an approach to card collecting. The way I see it is that every card that gets hyped meets price resistance as it climbs higher in value. The demand shifts as people decide they’d rather buy something else to get more bang for their buck. When that happens, the smaller pool of collectors that really want the card because they like it, or are completionists of sets, will sustain the pricepoint to keep it from retracing too much.
When I see a card I like start jumping too high, rather than paying top dollar because I missed a pricepoint that I’m comfortable with, I’ll readjust my buys to the next item that’s still low that I think will be hitting the same sort of boom. I’ll buy more of those so I can trade up or flip to buy down the road.
Example of how it would work? Sure why not. Ex Mew 7000pts is all the way to what? $500 raw nm now, $2000 if it hits a psa 10 when graded. Ok, lets pretend I never bought that card in time but I wanted it. It’s slowing down in price climb because people are re-assessing their goals. So instead of taking $500-$2,000 to grab that, I could start making a mad dash for the Mew 013/Plays. That card will start seeing price jumps now that the other one is stabilizing and the people who “missed out” are reassessing their buying goals. Lets say I missed out on the Mew Play and that card ends up meeting a similar fate to Ex Mew 7000pts. Ok lets shift to corocoromew. Eventually, buying at those lower pricepoints and just getting more of them will usually mean I can sell out or trade out for the card I want/was missing.
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Not too much has changed for me except for the longer time span during which I have to save money. My approach is to save up for the most expensive card on my list so I can get that one first, and only buy other cards if they are really cheap or if they are likely to increase very much in value over the next months so I can flip them and set aside the earned money for the chase card (you can judge me however you want but I do consider some flipping at the right time a good help to achieve collection goals). The decrease in purchases is also a good safety net, because we still don’t know if this is a bubble or not, and if it turns out to be one, I won’t have “lost” that much money.
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Not priced out of any card.
Just changed strategies as collecting has gone from popularity of the pokemon to the pop of it.
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Mostly selling and sitting on what I have for now. If I find a deal I am happy with I will go after it, but I want to see how the market pans out later this year, being patient as I can for now.
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Yes and no. If I want a card and at the time it is out of my price range I save money for it and if it goes even more out of my price range I change to lower grade or maybe japanese card.
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It’s good to see so many people willing to readjust their goals. I saw a lot of people crying about how they can’t afford the cards they want anymore when in reality the can’t afford *PSA 10* of the cards they want anymore which really isn’t that crazy of a concept considering the low pop, high demand, or a little bit of both for so many psa 10s. I don’t want to say people felt entitled to getting psa 10s for X price but there was certainly a lot of salt from a good portion of the community, which I can understand, but that’s just how collecting goes sometimes.
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Only priced out of one card (Trophy Kangaskhan) relative to my desire to spend what it’s now currently worth. I attempted to buy two around 2 & 1/2 years ago and struck out both times. It was a relatively new goal though, and I’d had plenty of opportunities in the past too. I snoozed so I lost out 
At some point I’ll get one though, I’ve no doubt.
Pokemon was bigger than MTG in their respective hayday. If people were more patient than a 1 year outlook they’d see what the hobby has in store in the future.
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I’ve been somewhat priced out of gold stars and 1st edition base. I could really get either or both but it would involve selling part of my collection which im not ok with or by saving a few weeks to a month per card which I’m also not ok with. Yet at least. Once I finish all my goals I might go back and do the whole save up for ages for one card routine. But neither was in my main collection goals. Honestly I’ve just been powering thru as fast as possible and havnt had to pay a ton extra for many cards at all. It also helps I didn’t buy all graded cards or my answer would be different. If my goals were all PSa 9s or 10s I would have quickly realized it’s not possible without dimming down my collection to the bare bones. Long story short I’m happy with where I’m at and I’m glad I didn’t set my goals higher. My goals are challenging enough as is without the high grades 
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Really pissed that gold star rayquaza is now 7200 when last week it was like 3.5k.
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The only card that escaped me was Snap Gyarados. Had a holding offer for one for $2000 USD years ago but didn’t take it at the time because I was in college and it would have meant using student loan money. I’d have to win the lottery at this point to get the card. Womp womp.
I’ve had to revise slightly to paying more the last few years for cards that I really wanted. This only really applies to Unlimited Japanese cards where the Unlimited is more rare than 1st Edition. It’s partially because of this that I’ve become more financially stable and responsible. I created rules for myself when making purchases and stick to them. As another binder collector, I go for NM to M (I’m not too concerned about the back of cards, just the front). I also apply the thought exercise of “If someone came up to me in person and offered this card to me for this amount, would I take it?” It’s helped me make some risky buys that paid off in the end.
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Yes is the short answer for me.
I feel like I’m almost a trend setter (obviously I am not - just feels like it haha) because everytime I get interested in something - it spikes in prices shortly after I start my goal to finish whatever it is and then I’m forced to sell because I can’t afford to try to complete it anymore.
Example 1: When I started collecting in 2016 - prices were reasonable and card were attainable in PSA 10 so I started finishing a couple WoTC sets and then prices really kept climbing and I had to back down and sell off to readjust goals.
Example 2: I started collecting Topps Chrome Pokemon after realizing everything else was too expensive for me and this would be a fun niche goal I really loved. Then 5-10 collectors entered the market with 3-4 months of me starting and prices tripled or even more in some cases. I stuck it out for a while but inevitably I realized it wasn’t gonna happen.
Example 3: (ongoing right now) PSA 9 1st Edition Base. Was going to collect all of these and was getting them in the 300-500 range. I’m at 7 cards and then these price spikes happen and I can no longer afford them. I’m not paying 800-1500. Just can’t afford it.
For complete transparency I’ll explain my take on how I’m able to collect financially (whether it is correct or not - it has always worked for me in the long run). I buy things I want to collect in the condition I can afford to collect them. I do not have an “income” to spend on Pokemon. Almost 99% of my working income goes straight to family and other expenses. The only money I have to work with in Pokemon comes from what I make off the game itself. If I want to keep collecting then I have to keep selling too. IT SUCKS - but its the only way to improve my collection. I have sold SO MANY things I didn’t want to but its worth it in the end with the amount I have to spend now in my ‘Pokemon Bank’ much more than 4 years ago. If I had the funds to keep everything and had a constant flow of cash to spend on Pokemon - then I would have a 500,000+ collection right now VERY easily. I had the smarts and all the right ideas - but just not the money.
But don’t let me give you the wrong idea. The struggle makes getting the expensive things 1000x more satisfying. I may have to sell them when prices spike but I always find something else in my price range to collect.
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Let me get this straight. You struck out with some wotc sets, decided to go for Topps, then said "fuck it you know what might be easier than those two first ideas? PSA9 1st edition shadowless base.
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No, fortunate enough to be still able to afford my collection goals. I already achieved a huge portion of them though, so there is absolutely no “pressure” on my collecting. Currently working on a PSA 10 Neo Discovery set, availability is sometimes more challenging then the prices.
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The timeline is very important haha. Struck out with PSA 10 wotc. Moved to Topps Chrome - not just any topps. And moved to an expensive but highly available and high population PSA 9 1st Base set haha. It was in my price range 3-4 months ago and I knew it was due for growth eventually so that’s why I chose it. Too slow haha.
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This is exactly describes where I’m at. Already finished most of my goals or main ones. And finding a few cards with low availability is something I often run into lately
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