I wanted to start a thread where people can post deals that they missed out on, because I was close to making some amazing trades in the past, and would be interested to hear about other experiences with this.
Just to make it clear, it shouldn’t be about purchasing an item at the past market value, that has skyrocketed since (such as an Ex Team Rocket Returns booster box in 2004 for $90 or whatever they went for then.)
To start things off, at Worlds 2011, Justin Sanchez (US National Champion) offered me Rayquaza, Mew, and Charizard Gold stars nm/m for a triumphant booster box, and mom (I thought she went back to the hotel room LOL) told me I couldn’t trade the box, I had to sell it.
I know I have mentioned this before here but that 2015 2nd place Pikachu Trophy that was on eBay a few months ago still has me sour lol. I was walking around campus and saved it on my app so I could purchase it when I left my class. Walk out of the class, trophy is gone. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I still have no idea who bought it although I do hope it was a serious collector and not someone trying to flip it.
PSA 9 1st edition Charizard. I was watching prices for a long time. Low end went for $1000. High end $1400. Then they jumped to $2000 practically overnight. This was the end of 2015/beginning of 2016. I’m still salty.
well i had the opportunity to buy these 1st edition base set PSA 10 cards:
Lass
Dratini
Charmeleon
Item Finder
The last non holo cards i’m looking for, i have a chance to buy em many months ago, but at that time i didn’t have the funds to buy em all and also i was a bit OCD about collecting the cards in the old style PSA slabs as all my other cards were like that lol
What a expensive mistake that has turned out to be and now many months later, i’m still looking for em
The moments im still salty about both have to do with Gyarados. The first was way back when the Snap Promo was for sale on ebay, right before i even thought about collecting again. I was let into the loop by the previous owner about its sale and relisting, recently, and to let me know about its possible resale and whereabouts, but thats for another day lol. The second was seeing the Red Gyarados medal from the Gyarados Battle 2015 tournament on yj when i just started collecting Gyarados memorabilia, and not jumping on it when i had the chance. Havent even seen a picture of it pop up since
Mine was pretty recent, it just happened last week. I am currently looking for a Charizard EX Full Art PSA 10 for a reasonable price and the ones listed are between $115-$125 on eBay. There was a listing for one at $90 and I bookmarked it as I was going to bed (biggest mistake). Should have bought it at that moment as it was sold a few hours later when I woke up
Since you didn’t have the funds you really shouldn’t be so hard on yourself because you had no choice. Now if that same day you bought a pair of high end tennis shoes then, well…it’d be fair to want to jump out the window;)
1st edition neo revelation boxes. I was toying with them at the price of 500 USD about 5 years ago. Was going to snap up a few but decided not too, oh now so sad.
That is true. I use to see it as a mistake as i didn’t have the funds, i couldn’t do anything but I’ve learnt that this happens very often in the world of collecting so i now remain calm and focused, save up and then be ready when that card pops up
October/November of '15 I made a big purchase that @garyis2000 middlemanned for me. The seller also had a full PSA 10 1st edition non holo Base set (minus one card) that he wanted $4k for. I offered $3.4k and the guy was adamant he’d get his ask for it. I passed thinking it was a bit too high. Mind you, Dragonair was flirting with $100 at the time along with many other cards. Now all the sellers want 11-14k for full non holo sets. Ouch.
I feel like I’ve been pretty lucky and grabbed all my opportunities well. If I could go back to 2014/5 I’d probably pick up Neo 1st Ed boxes right away (not for profit, but to get before they spiked) and I’d pick up a Neo 1 Japanese box since they were plentiful and cheap. They dried up overnight on UK ebay.
I never knew much about older sets, but I remember around 2011 that there were Japanese Neo 2 booster boxes on ebay for $90 and it sold super quickly, I would have bought 1 to open up, but that still would have been nice.
Not really a big regret/missed opportunity, but one thing that comes to mind is not looking for the Art Academy Pikachus the moment I heard about their existence… Only later on mid/end 2016 I went searching for them and was willing to pay more for cards compared to when I just started. Most of the sellers of the Art Academy Pikachus that I spoke either don’t want to sell anymore, or were asking pretty high prices compared to at the start. I think some people who got them early bought copies for just 100-150 USD, while I paid 300 USD, 320 USD and 400 GBP (at the time ~540 USD) for the three I currently got. And still 9 more to find. I hope I got all of them before the next event with Pikachus, but I guess those chances are pretty slim considering Pikachu’s popularity…
I still remember when trophy kangaskhan’s were selling for £250 in 2001. Promosen comes to mind. Regret not buying a copy back then! Also 1st edition base set charizards were selling for £50 back then. Should have grabbed a few. Remember Smason108 selling a shadowless base set booster box around £30. Didnt buy it because i was collecting japanese promo cards back then. Also remember when i went to a pokemon fair, their was a stall selling japanese booster packs for £1 each. This also included the Neo 4 set. The seller had several boxes and no one was actually buying them. I only brought 1 pack back then. Look how times have changed!!
Can’t think of any specific deal that would’ve been too bitter to lose but generally I feel I should’ve bought more gen 1-3 booster boxes when they were somewhat cheap during 2013-2015.
I missed out on a psa gem mint gold border meowth about a month ago. Seller was asking for $159 if i remember correctly. Thought it was a little too pricey so i never pulled the trigger. It got bought up (altough not at the asking price) and i’ve been kicking myself over not even making an offer.
There’s another one for sale now but it’s an older style case which i’m not a big fan of.
when i look at the back of a card and see no whitening or silvering on edges and borders and can not note any scratches on the card. if i don’t attempt to at least make an offer, it can usually lead to a feeling of a missed opportunity, being as its so hard to find a listing that looks like that regardless of what card it may be. (at an acceptable price of course).
