Hi, so I’ve spent the better part of the last few hours reading different topics on this forum and was hoping some of you might be able to help answer some other questions for me so I don’t spend the next few hours reading down different rabbit holes.
I’ve been meaning to sell off my old Pokemon cards for years now, but have just never gotten around to it. All of my cards are 1st edition base set which I opened 20+ years ago. Almost all of these cards were never played as my brother and I at the time were MtG players and Pokemon just never caught on for us. I know I have a complete set of 1st edition base as well as other assorted holos/rares/etc.
Now for the questions:
Regarding grading: It looks like I should probably get all the holo’s graded plus some other cards that appear to be worth more like some of the rares/pikachus/etc, But what I’m wondering is should everything be graded? Is the set in enough demand that grading everything would be worth it? Or just a random ebay auction to dump off the uncommons/commons would be a better use of my time/money with the grading costs?
Regarding grading prices: So from what I gather, PSA charges different amounts to grade a card based on its perceived value. How do I figure this number out? For example on eBay, Red Cheeks Pikachu grade 10 just sold for $10k, grade 9 for $2,650, and grade 8 for $1k. I’m not a professional grader and I have multiple of this card, what is the best way to declare a perceived value?
Regarding card variations: I see there are things like thick stamp vs. thin stamp, 3d stamp vs. 2d stamp etc. Are the price differences great enough between these that it is worth looking into?
Selling as a set vs. individually: I know generally sets will sell for less than if I were to sell things card by card. I’m having a hard time finding a full set that sold however so I don’t have anything to compare. Is this even worth pursuing at this point? Or will it only matter once things have been graded?
I have other questions but these are the biggest ones. Any help or advice anyone could give would be quite appreciated. Thanks!
Every single card, in the condition you’re describing, is worth grading
Looks like you’re able to find sold prices pretty well, just do your best. If you’re close, you’ll probably be good. Don’t pay for a PSA 10 estimated value because there’s no way to know a card will be a PSA 10. But if you know it has a really solid chance at a 10, you’d be safe to submit it with a declared value of a PSA 9.
At the end of the day, if PSA really wants their pound of flesh, they’ll contact you later on in the grading process and ask for more money. It is what it is.
Not a huge difference, but when you start looking at the price of these cards, it’s kind of worth the time to know 100% the ins and outs of the cards. Thick/Thin, Population of 10s compared to other cards (lower = $$$), Starter Pokemon and their evolutions are worth more, etc.
To maximize your value, you will need to get each card graded and sell individually (or find an interested party that wants multiple cards). Selling as a set will lower the overall amount that you’ll be able to realize for the cards.
You’re going to receive a lot of offers in your private messages to sell your collection for a good chunk of money. You’ll get even more if you put in the extra sweat equity to get everything graded.
That said, if you want to sell the Charizard, hit me up
As someone who has generally been keeping up with everything and am no expert this is my opinion so as always take these kinds of things with a grain of salt. Some others might think differently etc.
Question 1: You should grade everything at this point as price points are much easier to deal with when they are graded and you won’t have any issues with making sure the condition is well relayed when selling. Much easier to deal with insuring them as well and you don’t feel like you’re missing out on money. If you don’t have the funds for grading all uncommons and commons, and you don’t mind losing out on some money, you can sell them as is and do your best but you need to be aware of every aspect of condition or it will be a lot of trouble with people refunding etc.
Question 2: Declared value is based on what a card is worth graded. They use a lot of different things for getting the price such as auction prices, ebay solds etc. Using ebay sold listings for psa 9s should be enough to get a decent idea on them. To avoid surcharges I would grade at the level that covers what a psa 9 would sell at the minimum if they are in the condition you are stating. I’m not sure how they deal with prices changing at the end of grading, someone else might know more.
Question 3: You should always look into what hardcore collectors value on these things as most of the time they will pay attention to those details when buying. They are the ones who buy the cards when investors etc arent as interested in purchasing and they’ll pay more/less depending. Price differences are enough to pay attention to.
Question 4: Only matters once you have everything graded. No need to worry about something like that when you haven’t even gotten a good idea of what your cards will grade. You can always sell anything in bundles, but if they arent all close to the same grade etc itll just be better to sell them solo imo. Market will be much different by the time you get them back. Thick stamp psa 10 complete set was at about 650k I believe somewhere just as a random thought.
@hypernova, Thank you very much for the detailed response. Looks like I have some more research/card examining to do.
With estimating what grade I have on the cards for value, is there a somewhere I can go with images of what I should be looking for specifically in Pokemon cards? PSA’s description on their site explains using baseball cards and I don’t have much to go off of other then little dings on the card edges or wildly offcenter/miscut etc.
I recommend saving yourself a headache and putting all of it at psa 9 values on holos. It takes a a lot of experience to guess grades accurately and it can be very random sometimes. They’re all worth it to grade anyway.
Looking a current and past PWCC auctions, and linking through to the high-res scans on their website it a good way to view a lot of examples in various grades.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice, it has been very helpful. I got a chance to take a look at the cards and do some additional research which led me to more questions. Go figure! Any help with these would be much appreciated.
Regarding declared value: PSA’s website has a price list, It looks to be out of date though. Is this an acceptable guide to use when declaring value? Or should I look up each card individually?
Regarding what to get graded: I found about 100-200 assorted energy as well. At PSA 9 they’re selling for about $50-$60, at 8, $20-$30, and not really seeing many sales at 7 or less. With a cost of $10 a card to get graded, should I be going through each card and pulling out only the absolute best? Or since they’re all in roughly the same shape (never played with and sitting in the closet for 20 years) sending in bulk would be fine? Or is there not really a huge market for basic energy?
PSA question: PSA has a silver, gold and platinum membership. Gold and platinum are sold out. Are these something that come back fairly regularly? Or should I not bother waiting and just go for silver?
I found some non 1st edition cards as well, but they look to be shadowless. Is this set in high demand as well? I found about 50-60 cards which are all energy/commons/uncommons. Apart from the bulbasaur/charmander/squirtle/pikachu popular cards, is there much of a market for these?
I was asked how these cards had been stored for the past 20 years so I took a couple pictures. Everything was basically stored like this but in a closet for the last 20 years.
Those cards look great!!Congrats on basically having your retirement fund laid out
It’s like finding a $20 bill in a pocket that you didn’t realize was there but a thousand times better.
I had a similar question recently because I had submitted base cards back in April-May under bulk (valued under $100). My concern was the possibility of being upcharged due to the increase in current prices. I assume it went through the system with that price guide as reference and no card was upcharged fortunately. It still doesn’t answer the question though if and when their price guide is updated, will they honor the old prices when they were submitted or will they upcharge because of the new and current price according to their guide.
I wondered the same thing about my shadowless cards. I sent them in to see how they would do after grading. Currently, they have it but I’ll testing the waters shortly after receiving them. I have no doubt it was a good move and hopefully this uptick will last a little bit more. Even if slows or slows down a bit, holding on to them would be a good investment.
I agree with the previous post that with these cards, I personally would grade everything. Even the base energies will help offset the cost of grading the entire collection.
It may be a while before they open up those memberships due to the backlog. You waited this long and don’t seem to be in a rush. If you can wait until they open up and get them graded, that would be your best course of action.
@unclemelty, I can’t answer any of your PSA questions because I’ve never dealt with them before but wanted to say how awesome of a collection you have. Congrats!
To your question regarding shadowless cards, yes those are also high in demand.
For declared value I’ve always gone on 130point.com to check what the last solds were and go off of that. I think with recent price spikes, that’s probably your best bet? But I’d check in with someone like @funmonkey54. I think they’ll be better at answering this.
There’s definitely a market but not a massive one as far as I know. If they’re in flawless condition (i.e. would pull a 10/9) then there’s not much downside to sending them in via bulk. That’s one of the areas where I guess you’d have to figure out if you want to squeeze every little bit of profit out of.
This I can’t help with. If this is your first time grading I’d suggest going through a middleman like Ludkins if that’s an option for you. There’s a lot of pros to it, namely that the process is streamlined for you and you don’t have to do as much as if you did it yourself. Unless you plan on grading more cards in the future, it makes sense to me to use a middleman as then you don’t need to pay for the membership yourself. You can reach out to @funmonkey54 if you’d like to go that route, super nice guy and can help you with anything you’d need.
Yes, shadowless is in high demand as well. I’d send in anything that’s in mint condition. The way prices are right now, there’s really no bad card to send in if they’re in mint condition WOTC wise.
Absolutely amazing collection and honestly if you’re selling that’s life changing money you’re going to get. Congratulations on that and keep us updated
I see what looks to be a 1st ed chansey holo chillin’ in the box in the back and suddenly wonder just how much more you have in there.
What a gem though; you should certainly thank your busy/lazy (whichever it may be) past self for not getting around to selling them until now and keeping everything in such great shape.
I had no idea this was even a thing. It also looks like I can have someone pre-look at the cards for me beforehand too? That sounds great! I will definitely need to take a look in to seeing how that will all work. Thanks for the info!
Thank your past self for collecting all 1st ed. If you literally compiled then filed away 20 years ago, that was quite a feat to get all those in 1st ed. Awesome
Wow, everyone daydreams about things like this but it’s so rare that it happens. Congrats, they all look great. I would get all of your shadowless cards graded as well if they are in a similar condition.
No problem! If you have any questions about them, check out/post in this thread. www.elitefourum.com/t/e4-psa-grading-service-ludkins-usa-grading/21654/1 It’s the official one on this forum and you might find answers to whatever questions you have already in it. Hope it all goes smoothly
