Hello everyone,
I just wanted to pick all of your brains about what would be the most cost effective way to collect a 1st Ed. Team Rocket set in PSA 10. Right now booster boxes are sitting at about $700 to $900 price. Would it be better to buy all of the cards individual or pick up two booster boxes and get cards graded myself?
Thank You
Buy the cards individually, the only 2 expensive PSA holos are the Charizard and the Blastoise. More or less all the other holos you are going to get for sub-150 dollars quite easily. The Team Rocket set also doesn’t grade very well so buying a few boxes and opening them up with the hope you’ll get most of your 10s is a very low return gamble which will leave you disheartened.
Don’t forget Dark Magneton, most likely more expensive than Dark Charizard because low population.
Very true, the only other mention to make is Dragonite which is going to be more than the others.
So aside from those 4 is a pretty cheap holo set to complete in PSA 10 actually.
Would this go for the non holos as well. I have none of those right now. My thought process was to get a box that way I can get the majority of the non holos in 10 and then pick up whichever holos I need off of ebay.
I haven’t got any experience grading the non-holos but a look on eBay shows that quite a few of them are graded and for sale right now. Especially the Charizard.
If you goal is to get the non-holo set as well then opening 1 box might not be such a bad idea, but you also have to realise that you could open a box and get only 4 or 5 PSA 10s across the whole box, that means your whole box was a waste. It’s a big risk that could pay off really well in the long run or make you waste several hundred dollars before you even get started.
That is very true. Hopefully someone with some experience grading the non holos will way, for now I guess ill just keep my eye on ebay prices.
@melcher is your go to guy when it comes to collecting this set + setting prices on different graded cards.
I’ve been collecting the holofoil set the last 5 months,
Just a few off now, most notably Dark Raichu & Charizard, (if you have these feel free to message) 
This set it all about the Magneton, it has a low pop and is notoriously hard to grade, buying a booster box, one does not guarantee you any of the more desired holofoils, two does not guarantee they will mostly be PSA 10s!
However on the Non- Holo side, it would be a harsh grader not to give you 80-90% PSA 10s from booster fresh cards from Team Rocket,
So you gotta just weigh that up, the good thing with other Team Rocket holofoil 10s is they are quite high in pop in comparison to other WOTC sets and not usually too hard to pick up at decent prices,
IF you want a quick start and willing to take on some risk monetarily then I would advise going for a booster box, otherwise you can buy out collections and just pick out the best cards, this way is definitely more long winded but probably better value, and then on certain cards you struggle with just pick up already graded either through purchases or trading (how I got the Dark Mag),
Anyways your in the best place! 
Good luck
Good luck on this! Love the Team Rocket set 
I completed mine not long ago. Not PSA but at least 1st ed
If you’re going for the full set (common uncommon ect) I would recommend a box. You’ll get mostly all the common uncommon and a good chunk of gradeable rares you need out of that box. Now the holos. My box I had about 6 holos come back 10 from the box (50%) this set isnot that terribly hard to grade except a few holos. The most valuable Holo (imo) is the dark magneton. It took me 2 years to find one and I actually ended up pulling and grading it myself. I asked on the forums for over a year and eBay never had one pop up. Maybe I was looking in the wrong spots I’m not sure. I have the one listed on eBay for $950 I feel it’s worth close to that due to rarity. Other high price cards to note Charizard, blast, riachu they all run in the 100-250 range depending on they day. Dragonite gets up there as well, the rest go for around 40-100 depending on the card. My biggest trouble completing this set (besides the magneton) was actually the trainers and non holo rares. Me and another guy both had the same issues, I’m not sure why the trainers were so hard to get they just were haha. So me personally, if you’re going for the whole set, get a box. If you’re going for just the holos might be safer to just buy those.