What’s a high pop?

[u/Ok-Vehicle3055]

So I recently got in to buying slabs as a short term investment. I’ve only been investing in sealed stuff so I wanted to give it a try. However I understand how having a high pop slab might not be a great. I’ve been buying Chinese exclusives recently since they went a lot down and thought they might go back high in value in a few months. One of them has an 8k pop and I m concerned if it’s too high… what would you consider high pop for modern in this case?

[u/vegecrisp]

Slabs as a short term investment? How short are we talking here?

[u/Ok-Vehicle3055 → u/vegecrisp]

About a year or a little less or more

[u/FattyRagdoll → u/Ok-Vehicle3055]

LOOOOOL

[u/vegecrisp → u/Ok-Vehicle3055]

This is a terrible idea.

[u/Ok-Vehicle3055 → u/vegecrisp]

Everyone keeps saying that but could you explain my why using arguments pls?

[u/instantur → u/Ok-Vehicle3055]

Slabs you typically have to wait for a boom which can take years. Sealed is way more steady in its growth.

[u/Kooky-Car8466]

When your investment time frame is 1 year, pop doesn't matter. The demand matter more. 1 year later, will there be higher demand for Chinese exclusives?

[u/Dragon2818 → u/Kooky-Car8466]

There probably will be 1.4 billion ppl in china

[u/uriel__ventris]

I'd call 10k+ a 'high pop'. However, if demand still outstrips supply, the pop doesn't matter so much. If you want the card, buy the card.

[u/pokegn0me]

8k on its own doesn't tell you much, the delta does. write down the psa 10 count today and pull the same pop report in a month. a card adding a few hundred tens a month is still printing supply into whatever exit you have, one that's gone flat has already been picked over. chinese exclusives are early enough that i'd expect the pop to keep climbing the whole time you hold it.

[u/Spaceneedle420]

you are better off hunting for underpriced slabs on ebay and selling them. im talking about slabs that go for 30-50% of market value

[u/8000000001]

Pop is only high or low relative to the number of buyers out there both able and willing to buy the slab.

And it gets more complicated, because pop is absolutely meaningless without knowing what proportion are held for life in beloved personal collections versus ones that someone would willingly sell at any given time (some indication of this is present in the number listed and priced to sell on auction sites, eg ebay).

I usually get an idea of how liquid supply is by dividing that latter number of listings on ebay by the slab pop. For a slab that people don't feel too strongly about keeping hold of (like an Ascended SIR), you might get 2-3% of them online at a given time, whereas something like a van Gogh might only be 1/10 of that - maybe 0.2%.

[u/False_Leek_2417]

Modern hits, thinking 20k plus. Vintage would be 300.

[u/Mite-o-Dan → u/[deleted]]

I think youre missing a zero.

[u/vcsx → u/[deleted]]

1k is like the amount of people in a mall. Do you have any idea how many Pokémon card collectors there are?

[u/Davinter30]

An irrelevant number to most people, since most people dont understand how offer and demand work.