A couple people were sharing their past purchases in Discord the other day, and I thought it would be super fun to look at what people bought over the last year or two in a central place.
The last thread was from 2017 and if you haven’t seen it, I recommend taking a look: www.elitefourum.com/t/in-the-good-old-days-i-paid/17802/1
Post items you got for crazy prices compared to today’s market! - fourthstartcg
Sold a mint (probably PSA 8-9) First Edition Base Set Charizard for $150! I got The whole Base Set with that ‘Zard in it for around $200, and the guy threw in three extra cards of my choosing: First Edition Glurak, First Edition Dark Charizard, and Base 2 Charizard. Bought many more cards off him for great prices (he had every set Base to Gym 2).
I restarted collecting in late 2017, back then you could buy german 1st edition base set packs for under 30$, sealed boxes for 1200-1400$, they were so cheap that people didn’t even bother to weigh them, they were just happy to get rid of them lol
also last year there was an italian shop that sold italian Aquapolis packs for 18€ each, I bought dozens of them to open them all, most fun I ever had in this hobby
PSA 10 Scroll 
$1200 for a complete 1st Edition Base set. Two of the holos graded PSA8 (Mewtwo and Raichu), one PSA10 (Zapdos), the rest were all PSA9 (including the big three). That was a fun time to be alive!
Edit: this was around 2012 (in case any were wondering). Most PSA9’s were about $100 a piece, Charizard about $400 . . . I sold the Zapdos for $300. I was only collecting PSA9’s at the time.
I’m gonna avoid this thread to save myself the emotional trauma. Y’all have fun. T.T
edit: Please stop liking my post - it’s having the opposite effect of constantly reminding me about this thread…
I paid $180 for a 1st ed PSA 10 Mistys Golduck in early/mid 2018.
Same lol.
Don’t even need to go to before 2015, I can just look at the past 4 years.
10 dollar base set charizards psa 8-9 quality in japan in 2017 lmaoo. 100 dollar mint mew ex play promo in 2018 also in japan. Went last summer and everything doubled in price at least. It’s crazy. I wish I could afford to spend more than 1k on my trips each year, but I’m only a college student with a bit of internship and TA money who got lucky my parents like to visit japan and taiwan to visit relatives every year and take me with them.
What hurts the most is that in 2016 I blew all my money on the pokemon centers and didn’t have enough for many cards aferwards… but I wasn’t as into the cards.
Some memorable prices I saw in person in japan but had to pass up cuz of lack of funds:
2016: uni karp 2k at nakano broadway mandarake
Crystal Charizard 1st ed akihabara mandarake $250
2017: fan club eevee 300 at some store I forgot in Osaka
2018: trophy kahn 9.8k at suruga-ya akihabara
Gold Star Vaporeon and Jolteon 220 for set of 2 play promo- Big Magic Osaka Den Den town
2019: fan club eevee 700 at suruga-ya akihabara
fan club magikarp psa 7-8 quality - yellow submarine akihabara 900
Charizard Lottery Promo, like freaking gem mint 200 at Cherumo, akihabara. I found this one after I had blown thru the rest of my entire budget on vending and vs series commons XD.
And hey, I’m confident in 2030 we’ll be posting 2020 prices triggering people (and also myself) who can’t afford them anymore.
I bought my first base set booster box in January of this year - MINTY - for $3600. Lol
Haha, I took a bunch of pictures of prices and inventory at all the tcg shops I visited in Japan earlier this year. Maybe one day once prices go up a lot more it will be fun to go back and see what I missed.
Love that you marked where you saw what!
x2 Ex Team Rocket Returns Booster boxes and x1 Ex Holon Phantoms box, all mint for 6k in 2017
In 2017 I passed on a Neo Revelation 1st Edition Sealed Box for $1800. Not a buy but I just didn’t have the extra money to dump on it at the time. But I have soooo many of these stories… oh godd…
I think these were pretty good, both from the same seller in 2017
The victory ring Pika works out at about $830 and the victory orb Mew $920. Obviously this is with todays conversion rate.
Another card I can think of was a raw master scroll I picked up off YJ. Was only $700 and it graded a 10. Its somewhere in my collection thread.
Ooh I enjoy these…
Graded PSA 10…
Graded PSA 3…but come on, it’s $20…
This one’s just from a few months ago!
I bought 50-60 Unseen force blister packs for under $10 each like 6 years ago. Imagine if I kept some of them sealed!
$3.29 for 1st edition packs from the local Wizards of the Coast store. Oh yea this was back in 1999-2002 
Me too my grandmother use to buy me a pack or two a week during the 1st edition print runs. I also had amazing luck on almost always getting a Holo. I never bought the booster boxes. But ya the local Anex store had them for $3.50 or whatever going rate was originally :-). I pulled Charizard in one of my first packs. Too bad I don’t have my old collection to add with my new collection
Got a PSA 7 or 8 1st edition Charizard for like $250 back in 2010. 2013 ish bought 5 sealed Base unlimited Booster Packs for about $60. PSA 10 base Charizard for $500 in early 2017.
Ones that come to mind
I have no purchases in that time frame, so I have to reference all the way back to base set. I bought booster packs right off the hook for $3ish a pack at toys r us. We had tournaments on weekend and they limited everyone to 3 pack purchased. We bonded together in a group to buy and open 20-30 packs EVERY WEEKEND.
The amount of money that was lost in that year is insane I’m sure. I did make a few hundred on my cards on ebay in high school though… twice. lol