I’ve been utilizing the new PokémonPrice.com website (which is amazing!) and have noticed that the prices for a lot of base set cards have been trending down for the last 6-8 months, peaking around late 2017.
I am collector, not currently planning on reselling. But it is always nice to see your cards go up in value ! 
Just curious as to if everyone here thinks the prices have bottomed out or if they are going to go down further?
For base set (1st edition specifically), there’s a fairly consistent supply at the moment especially coming through PWCC. There was a strong bull market in 2017 and I think that brought a lot of copies out of the woodwork, people selling into the hype and locking in profits along with some new copies being graded. A lot of these cards that sell aren’t resurfacing again, they’re probably going into long term collectors hands (I know a bunch of PWCC PSA 10 1st edition base has gone to E4 members that don’t plan on selling).
All this current availability is eroding a lot of the all time highs that these cards hit in 2017, but I believe it’s only temporary. Supply will eventually dry up again, people will not be able to find the cards they want as easily and prices will start to adjust upwards.
If you look at a lot of blue chip stocks price charts over a period of years you’ll see plenty of valleys along with the peaks, with (in most cases) positive growth over that time. This market is no different, prices cannot consistently go up forever, they will go down but for sets like 1st edition base they will probably rebound.
I don’t know if prices have bottomed out, you would have to look at each card individually and check availability on eBay, last sold prices and trends to come to decent conclusion. That said, overall now is probably a good time to buy, I think a lot of these prices will be a dream in a few years.
Edit: Also, glad you like the website and are finding it useful
Yeah, already seen this coming many months ago with english. I think base will pickup again down the line, but atm is a tough time. A little oversaturated.
Japanese is doing good, base and no rarity. Raw no rarity has gone down, but psa no rarity has gone up. It’s very hard to find the no rarity mint.
Alot of Pokemon items are always constantly changing, so you have to keep a good eye on things, and when to sell.
Maybe after people get their tax returns we will see some bigger prices.
As a collector, it is also very nice to buy cards at a low price, then I can buy more with the money saved.
I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about prices trending downward lately. How quick we are to forget that prices (in general) spiked in 2017. It seems pretty natural that we would see prices take a decline after such a strong spike. Current prices haven’t even come close to pre-2017 prices and there’s a long way to go before they do.
I guess my point is that PRICE FLUCTUATION IS NORMAL.
Keep in mind that prices of sealed product I do not think have gone down. Base set packs aren’t back to 35 per pack, right? I feel this indicates the market is still strong and will rebound. Simple supply and demand.
Exactly. Base packs are up to $60 pretty consistent. Legendary, skybridge and neo destiny 1st editions are all around $200.
Base boxes were ~$1300 this time last year. $2.2-2.5k in December and now they’re inching close to $3k sales.
No rarity is less than half of what it was earning 3-4 years ago. The last PSA 10 chansey sold under 1k. People were paying 2-4K per PSA 10 holo in 2015. I remember calling it a bubble as the market was comprised of mostly flippers, and here we are now, par for the course.
There is definitely more activity with Japanese in general, especially promos, both old and new.
All the unlimited stuff I want keeps going up. Dont even want to look at the 1st/shadowless cards I still need…
Which cards specifically? Holos? Nonholos? PSA 10? 9? 8? I think these are very different markets and would require different explanations. Generally, I’d agree with what’s been said though. There’s a lot of availability and the demand can’t keep up to maintain the prices. If there’s not a buyer ready when the higher-end cards end at auction, you’re going to end up seeing cards go for hundreds or thousands of dollars less than they have been selling for. Someone who threw in a low bid thinking they weren’t going to win will end up happy.
I haven’t looked at everything, but it looks like base set, jungle, and fossil first editions have been trending down. PSA 10s specifically, but also 9s.
Edit: talking about the holos
I don’t necessarily think you can deduce a strong correlation without a detailed analysis, but it is interesting that the pokemon market generally reflects other major markets over the last year as well. I only provided a couple examples of pokemon prices, but we know there are many other similar examples.
1st edition Venusaur PSA 10:
1st edition Gyarados:
Bitcoin
If we’re talking about general patterns I can only offer a general explanation. I don’t think it’s unexpected to see prices fall right after PSA was swamped with the most submissions they have ever seen. That’s definitely a big factor worthy of consideration; availability changes and prices follow. Look at cards with more limited releases and I bet you’ll see their prices are unaffected or trending up.
prices for lower grades like PSA 7-8 1st edition base/shadowless holos are really stable though!
Majority of cards have increased in price or stabilized. Mainly the overly saturated cards have decreased in value, which are a minority.
There is more activity in the market today. Keep in mind a main reason why the prices were so high was availability. Some of the cards had 1-2 copies at most, now some have 7-10 available. This naturally drives down the price.
Meanwhile, sealed product, trophies, or anything actually rare continues to climb. In an active market, availability is the answer.
I asked some of the guys here around December for investment ideas for 20 or 30k that was “burning a hole in my pocket. Without descent bitcoin or ethereum was recommended. I settled on the majority who said ethereum but after doing some of my own research I felt it was best to wait and see. After seeing it dropped from I think 1000-1200 down to 400 now it’s a good thing I waited. From now on I’ll stick to my crystal ball when I need financial advice lol.