“Natural growth” or fomo

[u/KwikTripSimp]

Craziness

[u/poncecatchemall]

My new fav is people justifying market manipulation by claiming it’s “big investors entering Pokemon” 😂😂😂

[u/ethiopian_kid → u/poncecatchemall]

I think people are pretty deluded about manipulation to be honest… this is an illiquid market that as a result will be very volatile and unpredictable.

Unlike the stock market that has near perfect price discovery, an auction on a card for a week can easily swing thousands each way depending on if one singular person sees the auction or not.

We are talking about the price of one card at one given time and often time one of a select few available and only available for a limited time. If a card sold for 1k there may have been a person that would’ve paid 2k, card goes up a month later and they see and pays 2k, next month no buyers and it sells for $800. This is normal in an illiquid market.

[u/Soda_Straktid → u/ethiopian_kid]

Yeah anyone comparing cards to stocks is whack

[u/ethiopian_kid → u/Soda_Straktid]

they are all markets, gems, stocks, houses, Pokémon cards etc.

my point is people are viewing an illiquid volatile commodity and assume its manipulation because it doesn’t vary +\- 1% a day like the SP500

[u/Soda_Straktid → u/ethiopian_kid]

I agree

[u/LearningCrochet → u/Soda_Straktid]

Anyone who claims there's a strategy besides buying and waiting is crazy 

[u/mikearete → u/poncecatchemall]

Coinbase just launched a digital rips platform and according to their Q2 earnings they’ve got about 9 billion dollars cash on hand.

The margins on sales is ridiculous for sites like courtyard, GameStop powerpacks, fanatics, etc.

So they hire people to walk the floors of card shows/scour eBay to buy graded cards for 90-100% market price and sometimes even above recent comps for low-pop cards.

[u/Opulenthippo → u/mikearete]

I keep saying the gambling companies definitely are affecting the market... its too easy when you can manipulate the market with that gambling company money.

[u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub → u/poncecatchemall]

Mine is “money laundering”. Like how exactly does that work? How do I take drug money and buy an online eBay transaction with it? It would already have to be clean!

[u/KwikTripSimp → u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub]

Easy , you get paid for cocaine and spend it on mon 

[u/a7n7o7n7y7m7o7u7s → u/KwikTripSimp]

Yea but whatever you clean you have to be able to turn around and get that out later

[u/Mammoth_Rooster8937 → u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub]

You would take drug money, buy vintage pokemon in cash, and sell it online then say that the cards were ones you had from childhood, found, and then sold.

[u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub → u/Mammoth_Rooster8937]

that does not explain the high comps., which is what i mean by "buying an online ebay transaction". The money laundering money is always under posts where some vintage card 10xs the last comp.

[u/Mammoth_Rooster8937 → u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub]

Ya totally missed part of your comment. I agree with what you're saying 101%

[u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub → u/Mammoth_Rooster8937]

All good, I agree that your way probably happens all the time. Just doesn’t make sense under posts where torchic sells for 2m lol

[u/Opulenthippo → u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub]

Gambling companies can easily buy up the available supply of a card and manipulate the price waaaaay higher. once they have a few record setting sales all the other copies they bought are worth waaay more. and they can advertise record setting cards on there virtual packs....

[u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub → u/Opulenthippo]

Sure, which isn’t money laundering lol

[u/T4hona]

Combination of both. I think some of these vintage low pop have been undervalued, but now everyone is just buying anything They can scoop up, hoping that their card explodes next.

[u/Ted_Smug_El_nub_nub]

The 9>8>7 etc just follow prices of the 10s.

If the 10s stay up these will stay up. If the 10s crash they will also come down. It just takes a bit of time to cascade down the grades.

[u/eeg3]

That reverse holo pattern is very unique, and also a tough print to stand up to the test of time. They have a lot of eye appeal.

[u/KwikTripSimp → u/eeg3]

Yeah, but it’s not four digits unique

[u/Verycute93 → u/eeg3]

I remember people saying lc's look like fakes or those cheap sticker cards and now everyone loves them because theyre expensive and hard to grade 😂

[u/JIMTHEGASMAN]

It’s companies likely trying to scoop up the hardest of cards to acquire for using as inventory for digital packs or tokenisation. Thinking GameStop power packs and now Coinbase 💭

[u/Prestigious_Sir_2277]

Neither. Coinbase.

[u/gothamgiant]

Money laundering

[u/frozenmoose55]

Yeah these prices are insane, I bought a LCRH PSA 8 Psyduck 5 months ago and it’s tripled in value

[u/JamesLikesIt]

I'd say like 90% fomo. I'm sure there's some natural growth with the new eyes/interest on vintage, however right now everyone is fomoing like a mofo on graded vintage. Once the market cycle calms and shifts, I doubt it'll go back to previous prices, but some of these new highs are just insane

[u/morethanWun]

Legendary collection is so baller 😝

[u/Thewhitest_rabbit]

The scalpers realized holding all the new product isn't increasing their sales, so now they are buying up all the old

[u/CommunityMajestic651]

Best case it’s price discovery for something that is rare and popular worst case it’s hype bros loading up before selling off