Earlier this year i started getting into card collecting and i wanted to start off with a bang. I bought myself a sealed box of 2002 Legendary Collection from ebay to cross off my bucket list of things i wanna buy. I figured since it’s the 20th anniversary of pokemon, i might as well celebrate with buying ALL THE THINGS. I’ve heard so much and i’ve studied up on all the history of card collecting and grading, and i plan on opening this box and getting my foils and reverse foils graded.
Living in Australia might make it a little tricky with shipping and all, but i’ve reached a bit of a hitch. At a certain point in the PSA guide it says you have to declare the value of your cards. I don’t know how to judge the value of legendary collection cards, but i do know that if you consider them PSA 10 worthy then they’re quite expensive. My goal is to send 12 holos and 36 reverse foils in to get graded, and although i’ve emailed PSA over a week ago about looking for price guides, they still haven’t responded.
So after looking through youtube videos i found my way here, and i hope maybe someone out there is an expert on this set.
Looking forward to opening the box when i graduate from university this year! Will post pics when they’re all sleeved up
Value them based on their raw value and not on their ‘potential’ value if they grade well. Look at listings on eBay for raw NM listings and make a judgement based on those. With relatively low value cards like Legendary Collection you can probably fudge the values a bit to keep them under a 100 threshold if the service you are using states that the card can’t be over 100 value.
The value of the package that PSA declare when they return it to you is the cost of the grading and not the value you state of the cards. The stated value is more for instances where PSA admit fault on card damage and they pay you the value of the card.
Also just a heads up, LC grades very poorly and just because cards come straight from a pack doesn’t mean they are going to be Gem Mint. If you are set on opening the box then make sure you realise that it is actually quite likely out of the ~48 cards you send you may only get 1-2 10s.
Thanks for that! So always low-ball the estimated value to keep costs cheap. Sounds like a plan! Shouldn’t be too hard. Now just to get some more resources to help me inspect them better.
I’ve heard some people buy scales to weigh packs and strong lights to observe card quality. Would these tools be found in simple hardware stores or are they specific to card collectors and must be bought online?
You’ll be much happier when you keep the box sealed and keep searching for nm/mint singles instead. Just this forum alone has many threads about Legendary Collection ( and Neo ) card quality, I highly suggest searching them for additional info.
Yeah i’m perfectly fine with opening them. I’ve always wanted to open an entire box of cards, and i think legendary collection looks the coolest with its fireworks reverse foil design. It’s not my primary goal to re-sell these or anything, i just want to grade them for kicks, but mostly to keep them preserved so i can have them on display at home
But i figure if i’m going to get them graded might as well do it right. It would be a nice bonus if i pull a pop 0 psa 10 foil (currently only alakazam foil and approx 13 different reverse foils).
Weighing packs is scumbag behaviour, don’t let yourself fall into the trap of justifying it to yourself because it has repercussions that linger long after you sell them. You seem like you are not averse to educating yourself so if you are absolutely set on opening then look at other graded Legendary Collection cards and match them to your own.
Oh the weighing thing is just out of curiosity. I still plan to open all of them, but i’ve always wanted to try and see if it works so i can better present them on the day of opening. Gonna make a big presentation of them with all my friends around. If i can control the reveal it will be a lot more hype! Never intended to re-sell any of them tbh. I reckon i should be fine with observing the card quality. I have bought a few cards PSA graded so i have some reference to go by.
That’s alright then, personally I think it’d be more fun to keep it randomized so you don’t know when a good pack is coming. Also make sure you have the appropriate peripherals when you do the open, sleeves, card savers, and tabs.
Seems like your set on opening the box, but from personal experience I would say don’t do it! I opened my unlimited base set booster box a couple of years ago and while I loved the nostalgia now I realised the box has almost tripled in value since and I could have brought the full set of base set cards in mint condition for much less money. If you fancy opening some packs I would buy a few loose ones, but keep the box sealed! Just my opinion!
See i was thinking about this, perhaps using the box as an investment piece. But what are the odds that the value will increase at the same rate? Only 3 years ago it was selling for around 200 USD. I bought it for about 2500 USD. I thought it’d be funny if it reached 10K, then i’d totally sell it. But the only thing worth 10K is base set 1st edition box sealed. Even then, it probably won’t go any higher anyway. I think the value of cards has peaked, and that’s why i wanna preserve it as emotional value through my mass opening on my graduation.
But i could be wrong! Pokemon cards might have the potential to reach baseball card status! Who knows! A lot can change in a decade. But the value i mostly want to get from this is short term, rather than long term. To each their own i guess!
thanks for the heads up. you think you’ll still be active on this forum within the next 6 months? gonna ask you for value after i opened them up after graduation.
I paid $500for a box years ago and opened it. While u regret it from a purely financial standpoint (I’m a broke college student) I enjoy the fact that I was so lucky to have opened such a rare box. Whatever you do enjoy it.
Oh hi gem! You’ve replied to me a bunch of times in your comments on your videos
So idunno what the image limit is per post, but here are my pulls from the one pack. Not impressive in the slightest, but it was a pretty exciting experience!
I see what you guys mean now when you say it’s not worth opening. Not only that, but i heard rumors some other aussies are selling their sealed LC boxes for more than double the price of mine! I’ve been hoping it would get to this point, down here at least. But for the moment i’m gonna take it easy and scope out the market until i make any big decisions.
