I am seeing such a weird phenomenon where people are literally grading every single possible modern hit and I noticed a lot of people on social media (not e4) has a grade everything mentality. Why do people grade secret rare trainers and random stuff or random bulk ex in attempt to sell it. I understand for species collectors and pc, but people who literally grade filler cards at an attempt to make money and I don’t understand why haven’t they picked up that there isn’t a demand for these “junk slabs”?
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Been going on since 2020
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Pokemon needs to mature. It’s happening RN and the signs are there
However lots of people are gonna lose money in the process. You can see it in all the clever ways to dump crap; junk slabs, mystery boxes, absurd box breaks, shill bidding, fake advertising etc etc.
I personally don’t think it can last forever. But it can last a while. I think since prices have dropped it’s actually gotten worse as the people scramble to dump product
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As long as WhatNot and mystery box sellers continue to buy these junk slabs, they will not stop. And if PSA 9s sell for the raw price but PSA 10s have a healthy margin, most graders will be incentivized to continue grading this way (assuming that the PSA 10/9 ratio is favorable).
I see a huge market for these junk slabs, which is young kids and teens. Most young consumers of Pokemon don’t have the money to buy graded cards, but mystery boxes and junk slabs offer them a way to engage in that side of the hobby.
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There is an artificial ‘floor price’ right now because of WhatNot mystery slab boxes & other such products. If you can grade a modern EX, hit a 9 but still sell it for a profit as a ‘mystery slab’, unfortunately people will take advantage of that.
How long it’ll last, who knows?
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It is just like modern sports cards. With all the newest sets, sellers/flippers chasing the “Pristine” or PSA 10 premium. But 6 months later, they drop off a cliff.
This video shows a lot of modern 2023 PSA 10 “common-ish” sports cards selling for cheaper than it was to even grade the card:
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people suck at pre grading + slabs still sell even if they are mid range grades and junky pokemon
the answer is simple. people dont know what to grade and think everything has investment potential. zero intellectual decision making. then you have people who dont know enough telling others to grade pointless things.
example: i saw a guy streaming modern pack breaks in 2020 telling all his viewers to grade the regular holo hits. seriously.
There just seems to be a demand/desire to have everything slabbed now since 2020. I think people just have a psychological attachment to having their favourite card(s) in a plastic slab with a 10 score on it if possible. Personally this doesn’t do much for me for the majority of modern cards, but there are some I’ve bought in 10s when the price is only a bit more than a NM copy which can happen from time to time.
I think for a lot of cards it’s generally a waste, but I can understand the appeal if it’s the right buyer lined up with it all.
This is all people need to watch to see what is coming to MODERN Pokémon card prices. 4 million PSA and 1 million Cgc graded Pokémon cards in the last year is such an absurd and outrageous number and there is only one direction for modern slabs and that is downward. Pokémon is not immune to what has happened in history to every other collectible. (This does not apply to vintage)
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Just a thought I had reading through the thread, but does anyone think that these absurd numbers of modern cards being graded might actually lead to a wide base of graded set collectors?
If practically every card under the sun is going to be available graded in the coming years, then surely a niche is going to develop for people to make use of the abundant (and cheap) supply?
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It has been extended more than i anticipated tbh, i thought 2020-21 would be the end of it but here we are basically 2024 and things are just starting to slow down.
A 4 year run of this hyperbolic hype is no joke.
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The Old Maid cards are getting hit hard. 
Here are some other screen grabs of the lowest price “Pokemon PSA 10” completed sales.
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What a lolworthy lineup of cards.
Old Maid cards are like Topps but 1,000,000x worse. Only hacks trying to pull fast ones were shilling it.
Most of the rest are bulk cards that should never have been graded. Reverse holos? VSTAR Universe V/VSTARs? Regular Vs?
I’m not sure which demo is more stupid, the graders or the buyers.
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Pokemon go conkeldurr V cgc slab takes the cake for me
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Literally every post on every Pokemon TCG subreddit, one of the top comments is “Get it graded!”
Pulled a Moonbreon? “Get it graded!”
Pulled a common Caterpie in 151? “Get it graded!”
Found a damaged base set Water Energy in your 3rd cousin twice removed’s closet after stuffing yourself full of turkey on Thanksgiving? “Get it graded!”
It’s complete nonsense, and this bubble will burst eventually. There will always be a market for slabbed in-demand or scarce cards, vintage or modern. But the junk slabs market is going to have a glorious collapse one of these days.
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Everyone on the internat pushes graded cards as some godsend value increase nowadays and recommended everytime by like 95% of poketubers lol.
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I can see the argument for the seller as they’re losing money by selling less than grading costs but the buyer could be buying for a graded collection goal and saved money.
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I don’t do this for Pokemon, but I do grade 1-2 dollar cards from Yugioh and obscure TCGs (e.g. Force of Will, Flesh and Blood, Cardfight Vanguard, Z/X) for personal collection.
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Are there really anymore relevant Poketubers?
They all sing from the same hymn sheet. Honestly, in hindsight, they all sit on the scummy range.
The only ones you can trust are those who started before the boom.
The rest have more in common with crypto shills.
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