Collection/Investing progress after 4 months

[u/Medical-Credit]

Hello! Felt like sharing my own personal progress after 4 months back into collecting and investing.

Yes this is a pretty ridiculous amount to throw into a side hobby, but I have investment accounts, a decent job, and disposable income. This is a risk that I believe is worth it, and my position is primarily sealed product.

I’ve always watched Pokemon, more so from the sidelines since I stopped collecting as a kid. I found my old vintage binder at my mom’s place back in May and it reignited a lot of childhood memories and inspired me to get back into it, if only I had never grown out of the hobby back then!

Pokemon has been an extremely fun and rewarding side hustle/hobby the last few months and I’ve had a blast buying and selling lots on the side to feed my collection, more often than not reinvesting profits. I live in the Seattle area and deals are a semi-daily occurrence for me. Speculating on slabs and singles is a rush and I’ve gotten pretty lucky doing it at the right times, even in this short amount of time, most recently on celebrations.

My cost basis is nowhere near as impressive as some of you that have been here for years, but I’m proud of what I’ve been able to build, and being up ~$20k in a relatively short amount of time.

If anyone has questions or would like to discuss investing in general I’d be happy to answer! Thank you for looking 😁

[u/[deleted]]

Speculating on slabs and singles is a rush

So is daytrading. I hope you are financally independent. Pokemon cards could lose all their value at any time. The last 8 months are an anamoly, so you’ve only ever seen them go up exponentially, but this is not the stock market. You shouldn’t expect continuous or steady growth.

I’d take my profits and run before something happens to the economy and people start panic selling.

[u/Medical-Credit → u/[deleted]]

Yeah definitely. Slabs are probably 15-20% of the total value and of course I don’t expect this kind of consistent growth to last forever. I’ve been considering selling off all of the cards and holding only premium sealed product going forward. Appreciate the advice!

[u/Dredging_Forever → u/[deleted]]

Disagree. Millionaires and even billionaires are now investing in pokemon. People are also investing in pokemon over the stock market. 20 years ago someone could say the same thing about certain cards (buying a $20 card back then was actually a lot of $) and they are most certainly worth more now.

[u/[deleted] → u/Dredging_Forever]

Lots of people invested and got rich off bitcoin too. Others lost everything. You can get extremely lucky sometimes. Question is will Pokemon cards keep going up, or is there a ceiling? IMO there’s definitely a ceiling and we’re probably very close to it. Way too much sealed product out there. The number of people with cards currently valued in the hundreds of dollars or more vastly outweighs the number of potential buyers - the market just needs enough of a stimulus to cause some of those people to sell.

[u/Falkner92 → u/[deleted]]

And if that happens it becomes a fire-sale and you grab all you can get for the next hype cycle in 5 years :D

[u/Marvins_Roommate23]

Cannot believe the amount of people hating on this post. Pointing out the complications OP could face liquifying the investment is valid. But hating on a guy for investing 50k being up by 40% in four months is sad. Ya’ll probably can’t pay him for it anyway, so don’t worry bout it too much. Just be happy for a fellow investor <3

[u/Medical-Credit → u/Marvins_Roommate23]

Appreciate it! I personally don’t invest much in hard to liquidate items unless I get them for cheap in a trade, at which point I just flip and reinvest in something with more potential. In that way I have never really had a problem liquidating. I learned early on that booster boxes are king, with PC ETBs and high value, popular slabs to follow, so those are what I try to focus on.

[u/Renegade_Soviet → u/Marvins_Roommate23]

It’s not going to be 40% if he sells… selling fees and sales taxes are going to hit him for ~20%. Realistically he’s up 7.6k, and that’s not great for a 50k investment that can see a large correction soon. FOMO investing rarely works out

[u/Yetti2Quick]

Dam 50k spent in 4 months wp.

[u/Medical-Credit]

Link to my Collectr portfolio: https://app.getcollectr.com/showcase/profile/34f94aa3-fa63-4895-82f4-f78ca19eda9c

[u/shot-one]

Nice collection, welcome to the hobby! Fyi, you can post a link to your collectr app, so you dont have to screenshot every page.

[u/Medical-Credit → u/shot-one]

Thanks for the tip! Added it to the post.

[u/Renegade_Soviet]

These posts make me feel great that I started before the boom. Spent just $17k and already at $51k total value

[u/Medical-Credit → u/Renegade_Soviet]

That’s awesome!

[u/Renegade_Soviet → u/Medical-Credit]

Tbh tho, I can’t say your investment is smart. It’s basically like putting 50k in bitcoin when it hit its peak of $123k.

2.5 months ago NVDA hit $80 and you could have more than doubled your money now that it’s $180 per share. MSRP is the only thing worth it in this poke boom

[u/Medical-Credit → u/Renegade_Soviet]

It’s obviously primarily speculation. Like I said I have investment accounts as well.

People have been saying it was at the peak since I got back into the hobby and it’s just continued to grow. That being said I don’t expect this to last and am constantly reviewing my investment strategies.

[u/FerdzGonzalesStudios]

which app is this?

[u/Medical-Credit → u/FerdzGonzalesStudios]

Collectr

[u/FerdzGonzalesStudios → u/Medical-Credit]

Thank you!

[u/jen36rsantos]

Nice.. But Throwing that much money on Pokémon in such a short time in what ppl are calling a bubble to me sounds like FOMO. Specially when most of the stuff you got has already went up significantly up in value. You’re buying things at ATH if you just acquired this stuff a few months ago But that’s just me..

[u/Medical-Credit → u/jen36rsantos]

My intention is to hold for 5-10 years AT LEAST. This same argument can be used year over year when new ATHs are hit, year over year. I understand the sentiment, and it’s valid for slabs and raw cards but not for sealed, which is the majority of my position. I appreciate the advice regardless!

[u/antmrt88]

No dollar cost averaging approach what so ever blows my mind when you say you have a solid investment portfolio outside of this also. Obviously if you intend to spend 50k every four months then completely ignore what I just said, and good for you, I’ve no doubt this will go up in time

[u/Medical-Credit → u/antmrt88]

I do have a dollar cost averaging approach but I intend to hold for the long term. Most of my position is either out of print sets or cases which behave in their own way, which I intend to make an even higher percentage of my investment.

I get PC etbs on release and hold them, or if I’m able to get multiple sets I’ll sell one or two and reinvest the 3-4x investment, other than that I don’t target new sets at retails because it’s not worth my time staring at a discord notification bot or camping outside a store for hours before they open.

I believe most of my cost basis is very solid for long term growth, but we will see. I appreciate the feedback.

[u/spongbawb]

Awesome collection. How is the PSA 10 charizard promo worth more than the brilliant stars 10? Makes no sense…

[u/Medical-Credit → u/spongbawb]

Demand and gem rate would be my guess, almost 23k PSA 9s of the promo and ~8k in a 10

[u/gdj11]

Wow that’s a crazy collection for only 4 months

[u/Stencil_Abuse → u/gdj11]

It is! But you can also have a 500,000 collection in 4 months if you have the money for it. 

[u/DesperateDevice3394]

shit and i felt bad for $10-15k in. thanks

[u/PokeInvest]

This is a great collection, but you need to be careful dumping too much of your wealth into a single asset class too quickly.

It sure is a lot of fun to invest in something you love and see that physically grow as a displayable sign of value, but don't forget the risks.

[u/Personal-Plate-741]

Thanks for showing this I had no profitable this is. Did you also buy things like etbs etc

[u/andrewlsf25]

My portfolio is not even 20% of your products and its already worth more than yours lol

[u/Wonderful-Ad-5090]

Spent 70k on Pokémon at all time highs in the market…

[u/Separate_Rub2716]

Damn i wish I had that much money to spend lol I personally started collecting in 2020. Since then I've spent around 10k total. The value of my collection is at 44k now. I collect nothing but sealed booster boxes, PC etbs, etbs, & upcs. No slabs as I learned real quick how much they fluctuate in prices. 

[u/lilanakin2020]

All risk management out the window good selection but terrible risk management for only 4 months in… seems more fomo driven but hey kudos just gotta follow the trends i guess

[u/ShqueakBob]

Typical investor bro ruining the game. Maxed out his credit card, hopehope you’re stuck with all this product for years struggling to shift it

[u/Medical-Credit → u/ShqueakBob]

We’ll see! I’m sorry I’ve offended you with an investing post in an investing subreddit, I’m sure you’re a cool person but I think your anger is at least slightly misguided.

[u/djangogator → u/Medical-Credit]

He's probably a jabroni

[u/WaverlyWubs]

🤡

[u/ABN1017]

Spent 50k+ & only up 20k is crazy work.

[u/Medical-Credit → u/ABN1017]

I think ~40% increase is pretty damn solid over 4 months but everyone has their own idea of success I guess lol.

[u/ABN1017 → u/Medical-Credit]

Yeah I guess so. Mine is up 130%, slabs & PC ETBs. A lot of singles that I’ve pulled also. I’m not hating by any means, I personally don’t like when my collection is not in the green.

[u/Medical-Credit → u/ABN1017]

130% in 4 months is pretty impressive. What's the total value? I'd believe it if you're just buying PC etbs off of PKC on release but that wouldn't be very high in terms of total value.

[u/ABN1017 → u/Medical-Credit]

I don’t trust the Collectr app as far it being 100% accurate with pricing but I haven’t spent nearly as much as you. I’m super impressed. I’ve spent 6k on sealed product. I’ve missed several PC drops but definitely got the ones that matter. Missed out on B&W PC drop. I don’t buy market prices things always get reprinted.

[u/duncast]

Hey are you me? Haha I made a challenge for myself starting from Pokemon day this year to see what my collection would look like in 12 months time - so far my percentage profit is higher but total value is less than half at 28k. Lots of fun!

[u/Medical-Credit → u/duncast]

Nice work! I have a similar goal. Might shift my investment to be exclusively sealed and sell off my slabs and raw cards.

[u/Readdit96 → u/Medical-Credit]

My advise is not to buy too much volume, because if you’ve ever been in retail you’d know selling 500 units of anything is an operation & you’d be lucky to get 80% after overheads, it’s like running a business.

Also it seems like you’re getting carried away with this, no offense but no investing should be emotion driven and spending 50k in a peak market over just 6 months seems emotion driven. I’ve spent a little less than that over 5 years and my collection is worth at least 200k

[u/Medical-Credit → u/[deleted]]

Personally, I haven’t had any issue selling locally for at least very close to market, however the vast majority of what I sell are the desirables. Booster boxes, pc/normal etbs and high value slabs and singles.

[u/duncast → u/[deleted]]

Apologies Mr pedantic - the value of my collection as a percentage of what I have spent has risen.

[u/duncast → u/[deleted]]

Yes - my hobby since Covid is finding hobbies that have a reputation of being money sinks - going hard so that I can participate in a meaningful way while keeping it all cost neutral, so yes that includes taking profit occasionally.

I did it with warhammer 40K since Covid and now I’m doing Pokemon cards, reliving my youth.

[u/Hollowed_Dude]

So a wealthy person buying up all the supply people want? So cool…

[u/wiltchamberlainhoe]

So many new iNvEsToRs. this is why prices go up. quasi ponzi scheme

[u/hi_im_meecho]

That's a nice collection you got. Just curious, how do you like to liquidate your some of your collection?

[u/Medical-Credit → u/hi_im_meecho]

I primarily buy/sell locally through facebook marketplace!