We usually like to talk about all the successes like snagging that underpriced card or that set before it became popular. But what about the failures? Let’s keep it to successful purchases as a buyer, not missed auctions or missed opportunities.
What card/set (pictures please)?
Why do you consider it a mistake?
What did you learn from it?
I’ll go first:
Bought this Ken Sugimori signed Dark Charizard in 2015 for $33.
It’s an obvious fake. I didn’t research signatures at all before purchasing. I just assumed nobody would mark up a card as awesome as this.
Even though it’s a fake, I’ve kept it as a reminder to always research before purchasing.
Off the top of my head, buying a Fossil non-holo Dragonite thinking it was holo. It was a BGS 9.5 priced as if it were a holo, it was late at night, and I just clicked BIN. I didn’t want anything to do with it so I sold it almost right away, obviously for much less than I paid. Luckily this was a while ago it wasn’t too costly a mistake.
I bought the wrong card, and I was browsing eBay late at night.
I distegarded basically every rule I’ve ever set myself with this one a year or two ago:
Local seller here had an auction listing with only one picture for a collection of sealed boosters, he only accepted bankwire of course. I like to take risks from time to time so I bought him out - to find out that all boosters are resealed. Had to get the police and lawyer involved but got my money back and the guy was sued (he had to work 60 hours for a local animal shelter) Never disregarded my rules ever again
Despite being a relatively smart buyer, I did buy into the hype and purchase a first edition red cheeks base pika for double what they go for now. Still plan on holding it though.
Haha, I guess this is mostly a german issue. Bought several cards of those bankwire-only listings and even some on ebay kleinanzeigen. Luckily it always worked out so far, but as the hobby grows I am getting more and more hesitant to trust people.
I recently bought an expedition Pikachu thinking it was Japanese E series 1 unlimited. I thought I had found the deal of a lifetime…I realize how immensely silly of a mistake this is. I think I wanted it so bad to be Japanese unlimited, the english appeared in japanese. Also I was caught up in only looking for the lack of the 1st edition sign. Happy mistake though
not realizing that if you want a high end card, just pay the asking price and to not be concerned with short term flucuations as i will just have to pay a ton more for it down the line (missed the opportunity to own so many cards through being to paranoid to pull the trigger) this time round im buying in the retrace with confidence!!!
Waiting to pick up all the rare Pichu cards before going after the 1st Edition Pichu from Neo Genesis in PSA 10.
24 months ago it wasn’t even in the top 10 most valuable Pichu cards, yet its value has gone up so rapidly it’s at the top of the list and outperforming the closest Pichu in value by almost double.
I’m hoping the WotC rush dies down soon - until then I’m very stubbornly refusing to even entertain the idea of spending 5 figures on the card, especially when the same amount can get me multiple copies of the much rarer Pichu cards, which is what I’ve been focussing on instead.
Edit: Oh yeah, and I’m the owner of this PSA 7 National Championships Blastoise: www.pwccmarketplace.com/items/1991128. I won it after thinking I was bidding on a Pichu they had listed instead. Yep.
There are quite a lot of rare (and un-hyped) Japanese promo cards which are currently selling for quite a bit less now than they were 1 year ago. I picked myself up a Chosen Entry Prize Illusion’s Zorua earlier this month for just under $900, and 2 of those had sold for over $2.5k around this time last year - I was heavily considering going after those back then as well and likely would have if it wasn’t for a larger deal I was working on at the time.
There are a lot more people talking about price increases than price decreases, so it’s very easy to assume everything is always going up and up, but in reality the majority of cards haven’t really changed all that much in value. Also: don’t ever spend more than you can afford to.
Last year in October I realized that I had unintentionally acquired a near complete PSA 9 1st Ed Base holo set through buying numerous collections throughout the year. I was only missing Chansey, Clefairy, Alakazam & Mewtwo. I already made profit off the collections I got these cards from so I figured I’d complete the set. Unfortunately this was around the time prices skyrocketed for Base Set across the board. It was nearly impossible to find PSA 9 holos at a reasonable price. I ended up paying $5850 for Mewtwo, $4600 for Clefairy & $4k for Alakazam. I bought into the hype hooked lined and sinkered. They seemed like good deals at the time, especially Mewtwo which had offers of $6k+ & had sales at $7k.
I was even offering $6k+ for Chansey just to get the set done & was turned down by every seller. Then the flood came out of nowhere, I eventually got the Chansey for $2k & my set was complete. I wish I was more patient that money could’ve served me better but oh well.
I sold my e-series and ex Era reverse holo un/commons to Troll and Toad at Nationals 2011 for ten cents each in order to buy Yanmega Primes I didn’t even use in my deck.
I started with all the commons/uncommons when building sets, should have done holo first.
Also bought a Evolutions booster box last March for like $90 to open packs in quarantine. Thought about getting a couple extra to stash and was like “nahh, Evolutions will never go up in value”
