Ok so I stepped back into collecting but behind the ball

General
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Yesterday I was able to obtain 2 boxes of 25th Anniversary cards.
I know from initial research I have at least 1 card in the pull that will pay for my investment into the 2 boxes as well as a small profit.
my question;
what do I, for all intents and purposes a new collector, need to be aware of in properly judging the value and rarity of my cards?
Also I am interested in buying booster boxes once or twice a month and I am interested in solid reputable places where I can purchase from. I especially want to get authentic Japanese boxes as well.
any help/assistance would be greatly appreciated.

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Well, you’re buying and opening the most recent set that’s still in print. Nothing is going to be rare. Just look at most recent sold listings on ebay to get current market values, that’s going to apply to everything ever

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Hey, welcome to Efour

Value = condition 98%
2% = odd stuff, by that I mean error cuts are worth loads to some people. To me, they’re worth nothing as I have no interest. If you can find a buyer, then that’ll demand a premium, but finding a buyer is tricky.

The 2% is fairly easy to learn, swirls / error etc etc.

Condition is where it gets hard, less so for modern. If you’re selling raw, then it’s as simple as open it carefully, stick it in a sleeve, be careful with it. Label it ‘pack fresh’. Lots of photos. Condition is front and back, with plenty of attention to the corners in your photography.

Get up to scratch with grading standards, lots of guides on what psa 10 vs psa 9 looks like etc.

But I would describe appraisal as a battle. It’s you betting on your appraisal skills to spot something that the other guy hasn’t. Before you give your indication of what you would pay or sell at. As a newcomer, you’ll likely get burned, there will be slight scratches that you don’t notice that the seller did, but don’t be disheartened. If you’re interested in learning, then you’ll get there. But that 98% doesn’t come quickly. For modern I’d say the centering is one of the things you want to look at, but also not all pack fresh cards are guaranteed 10’s, print quality for modern is notoriously worse than it should be.

Pokemon price, linked on this site gives an estimate at what graded cards sell at, but you’ll never reach those prices with raw for obvious reasons. Grading at the moment is an absolute nightmare. But there is a lot more to the collecting than grading.

There are Japanese middlemen, I think some on here, but I don’t know who they are as haven’t used them. But would help to know where you are from.

Really depends what you want to get out of it, investment is an interesting word. There is definitely money to be made, but it’s a cut-throat world. My advise, would be concentrate on collecting first, and if your business acumen subsidises it then fantastic, but it’s unlikely to beat your 9-5 job as an hours per dollar ratio.

Welcome again, and look forward to seeing a collection thread soon :blush:

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You shouldn’t talk about breaking boxes as an “investment”.
If your goal is to open two boxes for profit then you’re not investing, you’re gambling. You will almost always lose. The people who make money opening packs do it on a scale many degrees of magnitude higher than two boxes. That way, the really good pulls offset the bad boxes and you average out somewhere above zero. It also requires the optimization of all the boring stuff like coins, figures, bulk etc.

There’s two types of value obtained when opening packs:

  • the monetary value of the cards
  • the emotional value of the experience
    An issue a lot of new collectors have is being able to separate these out. Buying a small number of modern packs to open (at likely well above the price other people can get straight from the distributor) should not be seen as a way to “invest” or make profit. Can you?, sure but the odds are stacked against you. Pack opening should mostly derive value from the experience and if the experience itself is not really important to you, you’re just going to find the whole thing frustrating.

So I think it’s just a matter of figuring out your priorities. Collecting, investing and gambling may overlap in this hobby but the underlying goal or “need” that is being satisfied is very different for all three. It’s just a matter of figuring out what you do for money vs. what you do for fun.

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for the boxes to be an “investment” you shouldn’t open them and hold onto them for a long time. be careful though, if the only reason you’re getting back into pokemon is for investing and not for the love of the hobby, then your time will be short lived. Not saying you’re not but if that’s the only or main reason you’re buying cardboard then i would reconsider your investments. Other than that, welcome back to the hobby!

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Ok, I knew that condition was important but didn’t realize it was that great of a percentage in the overall value. but will ensure to implement practices which maintains the condition of the cards.

I have learned of the swirls, I have a few but didn’t see any real interest in them when I’d uploaded them to ebay so I’ll probably have to do as you’ve said and find a niche buyer.

And ok, I will stop taking pictures with my camera and use a scanner. I’d seen on Ebay some sellers were selling with only cam photos so I figured it was sufficient but your explanation of getting the finer details on raw cards makes sense. (and for my own knowledge, Raw = cards not graded?).

Is there anyway to ensure I get 10’s? or it’s just due to the methods in which they manufacture the cards that the likelihood for 10’s are rare?

And I thought about getting cards graded in the past when I was younger but the price for grading scared me away (my parents would’ve never paid for that) and plus I was scared of the mail messing my cards up. but thank you for the insight on grading. Guess I’ll stick to raw cards until I can sell enough to afford grading.

I am from Washington, D.C.

and I say investment because some of the cards I’d purchased as a kid was with allowance/chore money have (from online assessments) generate a nice return from my purchase price. so that’s why I’d labeled it an investment but lol no I know it wouldn’t supplement a 9-to-5 I was just looking at this as both a hobby but potential to make some money too with card pulls that’s valuable. but I’m not betting the house on it lol.

I sincerely appreciate your response.

Sorry it took me some time to respond, I didn’t want to skim over your post and wanted to ensure I was reading and understanding you.

I’ll definitely look around on here to see if I can find some legit sellers of boxes for both NA and JP versions.

and as far as a collection thread I’ll do one up, I have to scan my cards first but once I get them all scanned in and give my best assessment to add to the post I’ll definitely post them up.

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Understood and thank you for that insight, I’ll keep it in the forefront of my mind.
Do you have any other insight to my other points/questions raised brother?

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Thank you for your insight and I understand your point.
Do you have any insight or answers to my other questions/points raised in my OP?

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@johnathandhill, I would recommend going through some smpratte videos on youtube. Not trying to boost Scott’s ego, but they are much more information-driven rather than entertainment. Sacari, Jake from Pokenomics, and PokeNav have some good ones too.

If looking to make money, you will hear many different POVs from all the collectors on here. My personal recommendation would be to look up modern cards, cards from around 3-4 years ago, and vintage WOTC era (roughly 1999-2003ish). Look up cards/characters you like, and look at prices throughout. Always remember, investing is risky, and the only way to lower your risk is to educate yourself.

@pentagon, no hate on your information, but 98% of the cost is not the condition, and 2% is not due to cards having swirls/errors. There are a ton of variables and they all adjust dependent on the markets you’re into.

Welcome back though! Hopefully that didn’t come off like a buzz kill, haha :wink:

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Cool beans! Will do (on the youtube suggestions)
And I agree 100% on your “educate yourself” point, main reason why I figured asking the questions here would benefit me the most.

I appreciate the information. Thank you very much!

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Absolutely, please forgive the hyperbole, appreciate it can be unhelpful if taken literally.

There are an awful lot of variables, I merely wished to illustrate, A. the importance of condition and B. the depth of many of the other factors, there is so much to know, it’s tricky to say, THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

100% agree with @pkmnflyingmaster on qualifying the term investment

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don’t use modern for investments. Vintage is better but right now unless you have trophy cards most cards are down

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On average, you will never profit from opening modern sealed product. Sure you might buy 2 packs and pull the latest Charizard, but the odds of that are extremely not in your favor.

If you don’t believe me, watch a few of Derium’s videos on youtube. He opens 1000+ packs for most sets when they come out and calculates the value of all cards he opens. I haven’t watched any of his videos opening the latest few sets, but I don’t believe he has ever come out ahead.

Buy packs to open for the enjoyment, don’t go in expecting to profit. :blush:

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I did pull a Charizard(now that you mention it) but I understand your point.
and no, it’s not that I don’t believe you it’s just I was asking specific questions and it seems some of you all have disregarded those questions due to me viewing this as an investment.
lol if I knew it would return this level of snobbish type responses I might’ve not put investment in my OP
but lol thank you for the video and reply.

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The first 2 responses were the only answers you needed. These “snobbish responses” are advice from people who have been in the hobby a long time and want to help you. There are subreddits and discord servers for modern investments but won’t give u the answers you got here. We’re just warning you about getting into the hobby and trying to give advice that I think we all needed to hear when we got into it.

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Got you.

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Thank you for your response.

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Lol now you’re turning this into an argument thread.
I hear you brother,
Thank you

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Just poking some fun
were all positive vibes here