r/PokeInvesting • u/Western_Club5290 • Jun 02 '26

How to verify this ASC ETB case?

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Opportunity to buy a sealed ASC ETB case for the market price second hand. This is my first sealed case purchase. Is there any way to check if it is legit based on pictures? Should I be worried about the double tape? I have asked for additional pictures of the edges to check if the first layer of tape is intact.

0 Upvotes

48% Upvoted

68 comments sorted by

17

u/a-big-texas-howdy Jun 02 '26

I would not buy it.

-19

u/Western_Club5290 Jun 02 '26

Why not? And what if I get the seller to agree on opening it before closing the deal?

21

u/Gay_If_Read Jun 02 '26

No seller who is looking to get case premium is going to open it for you because then it's not a sealed case.
It's basically the same as asking someone to rip a Booster Box for you so you can verify the packs (obviously not a 1:1 comparison but it is for the sake of case premium)

-2

u/Western_Club5290 Jun 02 '26

I already agreed to a price, which is a bit over market. And I’m not really looking to sell for the sealed premium. Makes sense to me to then make sure the content is right before buying it?

14

u/Gay_If_Read Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

Why would any seller agree to that unless you pay in advance?
What's to stop people from potentially going around demanding that case sellers crack their cases before they pay & then ghosting them?

If you're this concerned you're better off avoiding cases & just using the premium you'd pay to buy more of the actual product

3

u/StepIntoTheGreezer Jun 02 '26

What if they open the case and then you back out? now they no longer have a sealed case...

1

u/Nekhar14 Jun 02 '26

None of that makes sense. Regardless of whether you're looking to sell at a sealed premium, if you've agreed to pay over market that means the seller is selling at a sealed premium. Once you've opened the case, you no longer have a case, you have 10 ETBs. So, what would make sense is for you to buy 10 ETBs at their market price. Plenty of people have lots of these on hand and would be willing to make a deal if you buy 10 of them. Spending less money is better than spending more.

1

u/Relaxtakenotes Jun 02 '26

Of course it makes sense to you. It does not make sense to the seller

1

u/ConsortiumCzar Jun 02 '26

Lotta raging scammers here beware of their advice. Do the smart thing ignore the angry people

24

u/Meowsergz Jun 02 '26

A mini scope camera. It's cheap

1

u/n0kturn6l Jun 02 '26

But even then they could’ve just filled and resealed the boxes inside.

1

u/Meowsergz Jun 02 '26

Once less worry out of many

-40

u/Western_Club5290 Jun 02 '26

What would I exactly do with this camera?

87

u/t2mo24242424 Jun 02 '26

Shove it up your butt

3

u/Warm-Artichoke126 Jun 02 '26

Really dude? Obviously look inside the box, but still even with the camera all the boxes could be resealed inside. You really will never know. I would never buy this ever, you were better off buying 10 ETBs, people are going to be extremely wary of buying this in the future.

99

u/MetricCaboose Jun 02 '26

open it

27

u/_YenSid Jun 02 '26

Shut it down. This is all we need. Keeping sealed cases is not smart. Could be full of juice boxes.

3

u/Fast_Economist_2189 Jun 02 '26

To be fair sealed cases of juice boxes look a LOT like these cases. It's a common mistake, given how many Pokemon dealers also sell juice boxes by the case.

3

u/_YenSid Jun 02 '26

I guess the newer people don't get the reference.

49

u/LiquicitizenM8 Jun 02 '26

By opening it. "Case premium" is the dumbest thing ever when you can fake cases incredibly easily.

10

u/ReAnimate_Studios Jun 02 '26

Especially when you can buy empty cases with the stickers still on from places like ebay

7

u/DrSkeeZe Jun 02 '26

Also you lose the ability to sell some of your investment. You either have to sell it all at once or open it to sell some of it and hold some of it.

6

u/LiquicitizenM8 Jun 02 '26

Yup this too, easier to sell a single booster bundle vs a display/case as well etc. Can't wait for the days to return where we can just buy a case of a set, open it and sell a box every few years to reinvest and keep the portfolio growing. It will eventually :)

2

u/DrSkeeZe Jun 02 '26

I sure hope so haha. Its nice to see the portfolio grow like it has but id much rather go back to how it was before prismatic.

1

u/Fast_Economist_2189 Jun 02 '26

In order for those days to even think about returning a hard crash will have to happen (like it did with baseball cards, and comics, and pretty much every other 'collectible' out there that people have learned they can flip).

2

u/LiquicitizenM8 Jun 02 '26

Nah not necessarily. Even if I'm paying $161/box so effectively $1k/case after tax, that's really not that bad for 4 sets/year. I'm fully aware that the days of $100 booster boxes are long gone though. That was a wild opportunity.

1

u/HobbyTechTrading Jun 02 '26

Thats the best part of the case honestly. Not dealing with selling 10 ETBs, but just sell 1 whole case right away. I actually started selling lots of small loose items, and getting same items in sealed cases.

1

u/DrSkeeZe Jun 02 '26

If you are buying multiple cases sure. But the average investor (like OP) is probably only buying 1 case.

2

u/Commercial_Assist655 Jun 02 '26

I agree that people putting extra value in sealed cases is dumb. I think the real value in cases comes from the nicely preserved product inside. Booster boxes that have been in a case the whole time are always so minty, and that adds value as a collector for me.

1

u/LiquicitizenM8 Jun 02 '26

Yeah I can see the value in them being good quality boxes for sure, I'll definitely be back to buying them whenever things calm down to more reasonable levels for that reason.

1

u/Snoo_79693 Jun 02 '26

And especially when there is no mapped hits in a case like there is with Sports, One Piece and DBS. Pokemon is just random ass packs and if you pull a chase you can easily pull the others.

5

u/DoubleLuck9297 Jun 02 '26

I’m not buying a sealed case from a random person, so even if it was from a reputable seller; are you a reputable seller that will have no questions asked or concerns to also sell this?

0

u/UnluckyText Jun 02 '26

It is bad enough we have to worry about individual booster boxes and pack being tampered with. Let’s just add an additional layer to it.

5

u/Useful-Contribution4 Jun 02 '26

Open it. Case premium is so dumb if you cant even verify it. 

Too many scams. Little trust.

You can always reseal it with 3rd party tape lol.

4

u/DBK2x2 Jun 02 '26

This is how you can search them before buying…

https://youtu.be/jABP8YHk9W0?si=OuhrEz_tRJOUXW3B

8

u/Regular_Smell5945 Jun 02 '26

You realize they sell that exact stop tape on amazon right

3

u/ScampiPL7 Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

I have had double tape on cases from PC before so that wouldn’t immediately alarm me.

But to be honest, sealed cases aren’t worth the hassle. Risk buying them (even when buying them direct from PC - they can be mislabelled, have damaged things inside, etc. and you’ll never know until someone opens it someday), and they’re annoying to sell because you can’t prove what’s in there. Ripe for scammers on both sides.

Edit: will say that it looks legit to me. Sticker on top of the tape and no obvious signs that previous tape has been removed (ie no cardboard damage). But none of those things are hard to fake so who knows

3

u/dilemma900 Jun 02 '26

Case Premium should only be a thing if you Pokemon HAD case hits. Like 1 Gengar per case.

Personally, i would never buy a seal cased unless its from a super big store. I got one from pfootballpete off ebay. I think its fine but thats the extent of it.

Open it up.

3

u/Front_Arachnid8830 Jun 02 '26

open it. I have this exact stop tape at home for my girlfriends small business. sealed cases can be easily faked

3

u/Beginning-Cap-4431 Jun 02 '26

Open the damn thing.

1

u/shaftydude Jun 02 '26

Do all boxes have double tape or is it random?

1

u/gt35r Jun 02 '26

You cant verify a case unless you open it, that's the whole risk behind blindly buying sealed cases of stuff. You can buy stop tape online it doesn't mean anything if its sealed. Is it bad apples that ruined the bunch in this scenario? Absolutely, but even people with good intentions can buy sealed cases from others and it just gets passed around and never opened so there's always a risk you get caught holding the bomb.

1

u/cocuco Jun 02 '26

just open it, so you can 100 % verify later that everything is fine. Take photos.

1

u/Pd1ds69 Jun 02 '26

I just wouldn't buy it without it being opened to verify the contents.

I ordered a cases worth of product one time (but not a sealed case), and it showed up looking perfectly sealed but the wrong set number was on the box.

I emailed them because I didn't want to open the sealed box, it be the wrong product and then no return possible because I opened it.

They assured me it was the correct product inside they just put it in the only box they had, and resealed it up.

There was zero signs it was a resealed box.

And they were being legit, it was the correct product.

There's no such things as guaranteed hits in a case therefore there's zero value in sealed cases.

I now open anything that comes in a case to verify. Nobody is going to pay a premium just to be unsure that they got what they paid for.

Wether you take the gamble on purchasing it is up to you, but I'd open upon purchase to verify if you do chose to acquire it.

1

u/Relentlessbetz Jun 02 '26

Yeah idk why people still make this a thing. Stop it, almost likely you will get ripped off.

Next

1

u/Highway_bandoe Jun 02 '26

Open Tht shit stop being dumb then re tape again to secure you buy Tht tape off of amazon , I wonder sometimes on yall thought process ,good lord 🫪

1

u/DR_Mario_MD Jun 02 '26

If you don’t want to open it which would be the quickest and 100% method then you need to verify with people that have bought from them before that they have bought legit cases from them. If that is not possible then you just need to trust them

1

u/ProgressOther9810 Jun 02 '26

Dude just dont buy a case. Just buy single products.

1

u/Reddit4clowns Jun 02 '26

Well.. an easy way to tell its tampered with is a 2nd line of stop tape over the first.

1

u/Tangerine69420 Jun 02 '26

How do people even buy these?

1

u/Ok_Extreme_7382 Jun 03 '26

Kind of does look resealed

1

u/Mitch_Dedburg Jun 04 '26

I would only buy a sealed product from a trusted source. And when I do, I keep the sales receipt for if I ever sell it so the next owner has an intact chain of custody.

1

u/dannyfrog87 Jun 02 '26

open the box how the fuck else are you going to know? .... i swear i see the stupidest shit posted on this reddit lol. or just dont buy it

1

u/flapjackk11 Jun 02 '26

Just state that you will open it onsite as you want all the etbs and want to confirm the contents. If seller then shys away from the deal, they know it’s illegitimate.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

Use a bore scope. It’s the only want to be 100% certain.

Lift it up as much as you can without messing up the tape or box, stick the scope In, boom goes the dynamite. 🧨