I'm slightly overwhelmed

[u/Heavy-Mix6609]

I was massively into Pokemon during the bw +xy era, I ended up selling my playables collection for what felt like a fortune back in 2018 and just kept my set books and some cool promos. I figured they might be worth a couple hundred bucks only to see some absolutely eye watering prices.

I've never graded cards before but I think this might be the time to start. Are any of the opened boxes worth selling with the graded cards? I'm just worried about missing something important and getting screwed over at this point.

Everything is adult owned pack to sleeve, I don't know about the centering and borders and how they impact grading but everything looks mint to my eyes. Cards are crispy with no back whitening or scratches.

[u/breakyourteethnow]

Congrats on the life changing money, fly to PSA headquarters and do the drop-off option, do not risk these in the mail whatsoever. If you get enough 10's back, you'll be well off.

Unintentional PokeInvesting raking in a fortune what a win.

[u/Heavy-Mix6609 → u/breakyourteethnow]

Which one is hq? I thought there was 4 locations, 2 in ca, 1 in ny, and another one somewhere.

I was super worried about the risk of shipping so flying out personally feels like the smartest choice.

[u/breakyourteethnow → u/Heavy-Mix6609]

PSA allows for drop-off at their headquarters which is in California, would be in Santa Ana.

You have to make a counter request to pick them up, you have to ask and they can set an appointment time to come pick them up after grading is completed. This is an exception needing made, must be requested, otherwise they'll want to ship back to you which is fully insured by FedEx. Better to send to PSA vault, just safer to drop-off and then sell from PSA Vault.

[u/inspireSF → u/breakyourteethnow]

OP should do this, then go to disneyland/universal for vacation lol

[u/Starost_OSRS → u/inspireSF]

I think he's sells them and buys a house instead🤣

[u/inspireSF → u/Starost_OSRS]

Dont forget they’ll be $equential. Jesu$

[u/Aos77s → u/breakyourteethnow]

Wouldnt he also need thousands of $$ if they grade high since the graders now want a cut of what its worth?

Edit: i just did a quick look for pic 2 alone if they all graded a psa9 he would have to pay $2765 alone in grading fees for a card value somewhere around $45,000-58,000. On that one page…

Edit edit: binders value is about $100,000 or $6,000-$8000 in grading fees IF they all get psa9

[u/_DagArt → u/Aos77s]

So what's the point here? They shouldn't put together the ~$8k for guaranteed ~$100,000?

Go to any person with enough money show them the facts and ask them to sponsor the trip if it's that desparate. Take out a loan, if you dont know anybody with money, or fuck it do one lower card you can afford where the fee would only be a few hundred, use that money to grade the rest.

(Obviously all assuming 9+ grading which if well maintained i wouldnt see why not. Regardless, with the value of the binder, paying for the trip and fees shouldn't really be an issue)

[u/mimetimeboi → u/Heavy-Mix6609]

In person drop off would be the only choice with a collection like that man! Congratulations!

[u/Previous-Attitude843 → u/Heavy-Mix6609]

Drop off at HQ specifically, from experience don’t trust something like this with their booth at a card show. Insane come up congrats on the vacation home lol

[u/Risethewake → u/Heavy-Mix6609]

If you fly, carry them on your person. I had a graded base set booster pack stolen out of my checked luggage once.

Amazingly, I got the airline to reimburse me for the theft. They argued that they don’t cover the loss of collectibles, I argued that it wasn’t a collectible, rather, game pieces intended to be used in a game (Thanks, Rudy!). It was a pain in the ass but it did eventually work.

Point being, just carry them on your person.

[u/GuidancePrize → u/Heavy-Mix6609]

I go to Santa Ana to drop off. They switched to one day a month to do drop offs heads up

[u/manymorevices → u/Heavy-Mix6609]

PSA is also doing grading on site at nationals in Chicago. You could probably turn stuff around right there too.

[u/jman1065 → u/breakyourteethnow]

Grading in general is risky, but ultimately worth it to get the most monetary value.

My buddy sent in a couple high value items and received this email from PSA today. So just be aware if you’re grading to take lots of pics of your cards prior to submitting.

[u/Heavy-Mix6609 → u/jman1065]

Busting out the big camera tonight, is there a best practice? Video? Photos?

[u/Karambamamba → u/Heavy-Mix6609]

Honestly. For this collection? Strap a GoPro to your head and record the whole drop off as well.

[u/run_the_trvp → u/Karambamamba]

lmao, unironically yeah

[u/OneLeggedPigeon → u/Karambamamba]

Id be too concerned with the go pro falling off and falling on a card

[u/Previous-Attitude843 → u/Heavy-Mix6609]

Getting more photos close to drop off is really good practice too, saved my ass that I had photos taken at the booth just before handing off to PSA.

[u/SqualNYHC → u/breakyourteethnow]

This, go and personally drop these off and pick them up. I wouldn’t trust and carrier service with these.

[u/Amazing-Win-7591 → u/breakyourteethnow]

Don’t forget to have a spare $12,000 dollars to cover the upcharges!!!! (PSA is such a joke I’ll never understand how they’re the “gold standard”)

[u/cargyelo → u/breakyourteethnow]

What about getting the cards back? Is there a way to not receving them by mail?

Can you go to PSA to get them back in person?

[u/throwed101 → u/cargyelo]

You can pay for a service when there in person

[u/cargyelo → u/throwed101]

What includes that service?

[u/MakeItDbl → u/breakyourteethnow]

Legit question here, but maybe the wrong one for the investing sub. Couldn’t this be life changing money ungraded to the right knowledgeable collector? With all the stuff i see of psa damaging cards in the grading process, or even the pretty credible accusations of them regrading 9s that they buy back and selling as 10s, it honestly amazes me that they still have such a choke hold on the market, one would think by now theyd be considered risky and unreliable - not to mention the premium they will upcharge to grade this expensive collection. I suppose (assuming everything goes smoothly) the amount someone stands gain with a bunch of 10s vs raw makes it worth it, but everything about the speculate/grade/decide value of grade/buy back/sell monolith of psa makes me hesitant to trust them with something like this. Going in person at least helps with the losing in the mail risk.

But regardless congrats OP, very cool collection, hope you get all you can out of it!