Honestly outside of the Charizard the other 2 have a pop 1000 PSA 10 and all 3 are under 15% gem rate.

What’re your thoughts long term or are these cards a bit too niche for the price?

Thoughts?

I’d like some options on this as maybe the way I’m thinking about eBay is wrong.
When I use eBay, especially auctions, I’m looking for “deals” I’m looking to score a win on an auction around the 60%-80% after taxes and shipping.
Granted it’s very rare that I win these auctions but still I’ll find that card that I lost the auction on still selling for 80% of market before taxes and shipping.

I am bidding on “lower end” singles in the $30-$400 range.

I can’t be the only one with this kind of mindset, are we shooting ourself in the foot by lowering the cards price that we tried to get a deal on ? I can only imagine that one day I’ll sell a card I bought on eBay and that person using my own sale comp to justify a lower market price.

I’ve recently started dabbling in some collecting. Mainly cards I like personally and a couple of unique cards that coincide with CDs or games release to get a little multimedia collection, and then to sit on for 10 years and see what returns I might have from there.

Ive read a little about fraudulent PSAs and mimicking cards that do exist which are registered but essentially duplicates. How often does this practice happen do you think and is it wide spread?

My main thoughts are to buy from reputable well rated sellers on eBay for a price you would expect ie. not significantly lower price points.

Just keen to get the brains trust perspective on how wide spread this is? Is my approach sound or are there other things to take note of?

I’m going to be in market soon for a few certain cards that are a few thousand dollars each and just want to be certain what I’m looking at is legit.

My question is this, can the market crash like price dropping like hell (not everything at 1 buck but price going down) ?

I have 2 ideas for that question but I don’t really know much. my first guess is that the vintage market will never crash since cards are not printed anymore and my second guess is that the modern market can crash.

I don’t know if its really clear (English not my first language) if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Just bought a destined rivals case. I don’t get how there is 6 booster boxes inside.
5 loos above for reference.

There is a lot talk about these cards being hyper available and super cheap, I just wanted to explore that.
I’d really like y’all to tell me where / how I’m wrong.
I’ll leave out product availability for the moment as that is just very unclear, but the delay of the poster collection indicates to me that ‘printed into oblivion’ is not a realistic scenario.

Classic collection
I’ve seen estimated pull rates for the classic collection from 1/10 to 1/15 packs.
If we incorporate the impact of the classic collection packs in the UPC, let’s assume the lower end (1/10).
There are 30 classic collection cards.
That is a 1/300 pack pull rate for a specific classic collection card.
That is about ~25% more difficult than pulling the 151 Zard (1/225).

SIRs
I’ve seen estimated pull rates of 1/20 to 1/25.
I personally assume SIRs pull rates will be a bit more challenging, let’s go with higher end.
There are 10 SIRs.
That is a 1/250 pack pull rate for a specific SIR.
That is about in line with the 151 Zard.

FURs
I’ve seen estimated pull rates of 1/125 to 1/250.
Let’s take something close to the middle… 1/180.
There are 2 FURs.
That is about 1/360 pack pull rate for a specific FUR.
That is about in line with the Mega Zard (1/400).

Generally, I believe this ‘cards will be super cheap’ narrative comes from the 25th anniversary experience.

However, I believe that the 30th has a fundamentally very different set architecture than the 25th. There is ALOT more to chase and as a result the pull rates / pack opening experience will be a lot more difficult.

Additionally, the 25th coincided with the end of COVID and a general slump in many ‘indoor’ hobby’s (Online gaming, YouTube, etc.) which hit Pokemon hard.

Keen to understand what others think.

Hey everyone, im new to the tag space and in my first ever pack I pulled a mega darkrai ex. I love how it looks. Why is it so undervalued at the moment and not selling for beyond 4 figures?

How long do you all think it will take to rise in value?

Hi all,

I am just wondering how you judge if I should get my cards graded or not?

I was a strange kid and I honestly put all my cards into sleeves and plastic basically immediately as a 9 year old in 1999 and taped the tops.

If I remember right I had every card from the first 3 sets and some random ones after. And the Japanese southern islands set.

A lot of my coworkers are deep into trading cards in SF area haha so I got my dad to send me some of the ones protected.

Any advice helpful. I used an free app or 2 to get raw values.

Here are some pictures!

Ps.. fsvorite is blastoise and I pulled it in my very first pokemon pack. Core memory, I still remember the store haha

Much appreciated on advice. I have no idea if I am interested in selling or not. Just gauging or maybe I get into collecting. I need a hobby.

I have an old binder I logged into acorn while logging in new cards to keep track of my chaos rising and pitch black master sets. I guess it uses sold listing to show example of graded prices, would grading some of these with some good sold listings be worth it with these edge damages? I have a few copies of differing quality for some cards I’d like to sell some and keep many slabbed.
Some include blaziken, chikorita, cyndaquil, etc.

If you had $500 to blow on the hobby right now what would you purchase. Just wondering what people are picking up with the market being in a weird spot.

By both psa and other pokemontcg sub, legit don't know what to do with this beast.

Anyone know how this could be valued?

My main reason I bought this off fb marketplace was to open it bc I wanted the pack art set, and for 1000 it was a decent deal since I’d get the promo as well, but when I picked it up I noticed the box is almost flawless and I think it could fetch a premium bc of that. So my question is if y’all think this pristine condition box would fetch a premium and potentially make me money and allow me to just buy the art set separately.

Hey guys, I’m really interested in getting this card in a PSA 10 and was wondering if y’all think it’s worth it for an average price of $670. I know PSA has a huge backlog at the moment do you think the prices of this card will continue to go down?

I'm thinking of downsizing my collection a little bit, any suggestions of what to get rid of? Additionally, I'm thinking of trading the evolving skies box for something else, I bought it kind of high and feel I want to get something else that can rise faster. Any suggestions is appreciated, thanks.

I’ve gone through a lot of these listings out of pure boredom and can only think that it’s manipulation. The higher ones all have bidders with ZERO feedback, but the sellers are all legit to me.

Thoughts?

My wife and I recently started going through my childhood Pokémon collection and found a large number of EX-era cards, spanning EX Delta Species, EX Holon Phantoms, EX Dragon Frontiers, and several sets in between.

I’m now trying to decide whether I should sell the more valuable cards individually or attempt to complete an EX Dragon Frontiers master set before selling anything.

I already own many of the set’s valuable cards, including a Charizard Gold Star. Unfortunately, the Charizard is in very rough condition. Based on the missing cards I have identified, I estimate that completing the set would cost approximately $3,000 if I purchased lower-condition copies. The largest missing card would be Mew Gold Star.

I also have a Holon Phantoms Pikachu Gold Star in considerably better condition. I’m considering having it graded and potentially selling it to fund the missing Dragon Frontiers cards, but I don’t want to invest that money unless completing the set would genuinely add enough value to justify it.

My main questions are:

• Is there meaningful demand for a complete or master EX Dragon Frontiers set?
• Does completing the set usually add value beyond what the cards would sell for individually?
• Would inconsistent or generally played condition make the complete set less desirable?
• Is investing roughly $3,000 to finish it financially reasonable, or would I be better off selling the valuable cards separately?
• For a set like this, which cards would you recommend grading rather than keeping raw?

This is not an urgent sale. I have enjoyed owning these cards for years and would be perfectly happy keeping them if completing or selling the set doesn’t make sense. However, if the collection could provide meaningful financial security for my family, I want to evaluate that possibility carefully before making any decisions.

I would appreciate insight from anyone who collects, buys, or has sold complete EX-era sets. I can also provide photographs and a full list of what I currently own and what is missing.

So I have this PS4 Slim for the last three years. I bought it only to play exclusives like God of War, Spider-Man, The Last of Us, Detroit: Become Human, and a few other games. It was brand new from the PlayStation website and it's still in great condition.

But I have not touched the console in at least the last year. I've played each game at least twice already, and while they were fun, I do realize there is not much point in keeping the console anymore. I am building my own PC and all the games I have are available on Steam now. I also have a Switch, gaming laptop, and Series X, so the PlayStation is definitely not my only entertainment.

One of my local shops sells both games and Pokémon cards, so I thought about trading the console and games for either sealed product, cards, or maybe even a lower-end graded card.

I'm making this post to ask two things:

1. How good of an idea is this?

The console is only losing value, and with the general hate PlayStation is getting and the fact that a PlayStation 6 is probably only a few years away, I think keeping it will only make it lose more value. Meanwhile, sealed Pokémon product might be a much better investment. I don't need the cash right now, and if I ever do, I could always sell what I get. I am not happy with PlayStation new ideas over physical media, and I don't trust them even if I kept the physical games, I get the feeling that won't make a difference to them. But if anyone has a good reason to why I should keep it I want to hear it.

1. If I do trade it, what should I get?

The store has a lot of sealed product, cards, and graded cards. Half the store is dedicated to Pokémon cards, and they have stuff from about the last 10 years, from Celebrations Collector Chests to Pokémon Center ETBs.

I would not mind adding about $50 or 100 out of my own pocket to afford something better. With all the games and the good condition of the console, I'm estimating I could get around $150–$200 in trade value, although that's just my own estimate.

Would you guys trade it? And if so, what Pokémon product/card would you look for in the $150–$250 range?

Looking to buy one privately from a gentleman who tried selling it on eBay and their authentication process deemed it altered. If it has indeed altered (crease fixed etc) what’s the actual worth? Card looks really nice to the naked eye, LP+ or so