Price is what you pay, value is what you get. What do you value a ~PSA 7 raw copy of trainer deck machamp & blastoise? These sell so infrequently it’s hard to guage what the market values them at, so I was curious what others value them at.
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I think for these cards the value ultimately boils down to what you like (I know, so generic but bear with me).
Personally, I really enjoy the Trainer Deck A and B cards (and the Machamp and Blastoise in particular) so a PSA 7 copy would be a great buy on a tighter budget, especially considering the premium jumps up a decent amount for 9s and definitely for 10s (with the recent exception of the Blastoise that sold a few weeks back on Fanatics)). That said, they are fairly niche and usually require some education on the early days of Pokemon to appreciate; they’re also quite rare and unique so even in a lower grade (or raw) their overall population is pretty low, which will elevate the price. I could easily see them both fetching in the low thousands, but because they are so infrequently sold it’s a more a game of how much you’re willing to pay (and how long you’re willing to wait) as well as how much a seller is willing to let them go for.
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I recently bought a PSA 9 Blastoise for $2,501. It was an absolute steal in my opinion. As Camron mentioned, the price is going to depend on what someone is willing to sell it for because they are so hard to come by.
Here are some sales data from TCGFish, though they aren’t updated with the most recent 2024 sales. Hope this helps!
Blastoise
Machamp
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That is solid in my humble opinion. Great buy for you!
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Yeah the fact that they are so niche definetely hurts them… Awesome pickup on the PSA 9 Blastoise for $2.5k! I am considering buying a raw machamp that looks like a likely PSA 7 raw for $1.8k but that am not sure that is a good price atm
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This copy sold for $990 and looks like a PSA 6-7 to me. I think $1,800 would be a bit high if bought raw, but your other options on eBay are listed much higher.
What about saving a little more and contacting the seller of this PSA 8? They might be willing to negotiate.
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It’s a double edged sword; the “niche-ness” does create a smaller pool of interest at individual snapshots in time, but it can also generate opportunity within that pool over a longer period, especially with the right buyer or if some Pokefluencer all of the sudden falls in love with Trainer Deck cards. These cards do have great fundamentals which is on your side.
For me personally, I don’t think I would pay $1.8k for a PSA 7 mainly because I know I can get a PSA 8 or 9 at a slightly higher price (which I am willing to pay and have the budget for, but I’m not willing to pay the PSA 10 premium). As difficult as it is, it may just be a card you have to wait for the right one to become available at a price you like.
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I messaged the seller and never heard back haha
What did you say? Sometimes the approach matters.
“Whats the lowest price you’ll take???”
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So grateful this is not a part of Japanese culture. I sold non-TCG stuff on craigslist a couple of times and the amount of this I received is obnoxious, compounded with the fact that it is the worst way to start a negotiation.
I’m putting together a machop/machoke/machamp collection and this is the grail card of that collection. I would love to add this to my collection, are you open to offers? @Dyl
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Japanese people (culture) first just apologize for making a comment on the listed advertisement, then state their actual business. I found this quite endearing and sort of a nice tool to disarm sellers who, I am sure get bombarded with requests constantly. Even if the seller is not interested in your offer, I have observed they are more open to negotiate, just because the requester was polite. I also find this approach useful in my work emails when sending requests to others. Quite funny how you can apply certain aspects of Mercari comments in real life.
Cheers!
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I would actually try to reach out to people over Instagram as this seems to be a much more collector to collector type purchase.
Maybe Jeremy Padawer knows anyone with lower grades as he was looking for a 10 for a while.
I think 12-1300 feels more than fair for an ungraded copy since you may not know when it will be released.
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Agree with this. $1200-1300
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