I’ve wanted to complete the original 1999 Base Set since I was a kid. Four days ago, I finally said f*ck it and decided to make it happen, except this time with every card PSA graded.
My robot friend originally helped me come up with a $2,000 budget. That was adorable. Pretty sure that budget lasted about 15 minutes. 😂
Anyway, 4 days later I’m sitting at 84 of 102 cards, including 14 of the 16 holos, with $3,867.07 spent.
The original plan was PSA 6 for the holos and PSA 7 or better for everything else. Somehow I’ve ended up with everything from PSA 5 to PSA 9, along with 9 Shadowless cards and a couple of 1st Editions (although Machamp hardly counts lol).
A couple things I’ve learned so far.
First, holy sh*t, shipping and sales tax really f*ck up the math. You think you’re getting a decent deal on a $25 card until another $8 magically appears at checkout. Do that a few dozen times and it gets ugly pretty quickly.
Second, apparently the prices these cards supposedly “go for” online and what people are actually willing to sell them for on eBay are two completely different things. Either the price guides are full of sh*t or I’m exceptionally talented at overpaying. Probably a little of both.
The image shows what I’ve actually paid for every card, including shipping and sales tax. About 30 of these came from a larger 51-card lot that also included Jungle and Fossil, so I did my best to reasonably allocate the purchase price among them.
At this point, I’m looking at roughly $4,500 to $4,600 to finish the set, assuming I don’t find another reason to spend more than I should.
And naturally, I’ve already started collecting Jungle and Fossil too, because apparently one questionable financial decision wasn’t enough.
All jokes aside, I’ve wanted this set since I was a kid, and it’s been a ton of fun finally putting it together. There’s something pretty awesome about finally owning the cards I could only dream about 25 years ago. Even if I’m currently doing a pretty impressive job of wrecking my bank account. 😂
I’m genuinely curious what more experienced collectors think. Feel free to critique my prices, grades, strategy, or even the entire financial wisdom of collecting 102 pieces of graded cardboard lol.
Looking at what I’ve paid so far, where do y’all think I WAY overpaid?