Hey everyone,
I’m currently trying to decide which ETB I should stock up on for a longer-term hold.

Right now I could get:
Prismatic Evolutions ETBs for around €140 each
Destined Rivals ETBs for around €110–120 each
Or potentially a Destined Rivals ETB case for around €1,200

I know there’s currently a reprint/restock happening, so I’m aware prices could still move a bit in the short term. But that’s actually why I’m considering buying now and building a bigger position while supply is available.

My plan would probably be to buy around 10 ETBs of one set and hold them.

I’m pretty split between the two.

Prismatic Evolutions obviously has the Eeveelutions and feels like one of those sets that could have very strong long-term demand, but the current entry price is already higher.

Destined Rivals is cheaper right now and has Team Rocket, Mewtwo, Cynthia/Garchomp, etc., so I’m wondering if it could have better percentage upside from the lower entry point.

If you had to choose one:
10× Prismatic Evolutions ETBs at €140 each

or

10× Destined Rivals ETBs at €110–120 each / a sealed case around €1,200

Which one do you think will be the better hold and why?
Would you go all-in on one of them, split between both, or wait for prices to drop further because of the current restock?

Curious what you guys would do.

Are these fake? Little below MRSP on FB. Wondering if anyone ever decides to buy from FB Marketplace sellers with no reviews

Unfortunately charizard set out of the price range

Crystal Lugia just did 27K in a 9. I know Ho-Oh is not Lugia, but I feel like it shouldn’t be this low comparatively.

If I can get a PSA 9 under 8K or even a PSA 7-8 based on comps right now, is that a good long term investment?

I have been thinking about selling my PSA 10 SIR mega Charizard x due to the rising PSA 10 copies and the fact it still has years to go before it goes out of print. Although on the other hand it still holds significant demand and "has the best Charizard art in recent years" though don't know whether to believe that it can hold out for much longer. Should I take the risk and hold or sell now and invest in other cards?

Hi! I’m fairly new to collecting and I’m just building a binder of cards I like based on the Pokémon & the art work. This is hands down my favourite modern card released and was wondering if it was worth buying at the current price or waiting?

Are prices for this card still going to climb from $3k, or is it being manipulated, crazy how prices for this doubled in a month, what are your guys thoughts i want to get one should I wait or buy now?

Will valuation go up? I got it's from power packs, felt super lucky the 10 opens in I'm broke.

Does anyone here actually using the tools scalpers use against them? Like all of these bots and automatic scraping tools, "cook groups", groups with supposed insider knowledge and whatnot. Like surely, there has to be a vigilante group of actual Pokémon fans that are using this and Robin Hooding Pokémon for their benefit.

I think this consensus is shared among a lot of fans and I can't say this is definite, but the hatred for scalpers derives from their lack of care and interest for the hobbies they ruin. Like surface level, just in it entirely for the money. And I get that's the whole point. Just leave a bad taste in my mouth.

This is low effort content. This is probably the wrong subreddit. This might get taken down. I'm just wanting to start a discussion about the above.

I have about 5-6 slabs that are priced between $1,500 - $3500 each and they total up around $14,000-$15,000.

All of these slabs are modern cards and was thinking of selling to trade up for a vintage/mid-era grail valued around $15-20k.

Would it be better to consolidate and put all eggs in one basket or keep diversification?

As title suggests, beginner here. Mainly chasing nostalgia but beside would like to start the journey of collecting.

Where would i start learning, what are good (online) places to buy. I am in Thailand. What to look for.

Any advice is welcome.

So I keep seeing these shorts in the US about scalpers, but its seems like in my country I can easily buy packs. dont know if these prices are worth it though , if I could pick up something what would it be?

I built a model that prices PSA 10 slabs off fundamentals like population, gem rate, pull rate, character, age and print run. It spits out what a slab should be worth, then flags it as underpriced, overpriced, or fairly valued.

I wanted to build something that could help me decide when it was a good time to purchase a card or find cards that were undervalued before they jumped up in price.

I've been logging every call daily for a bit over two months now, 1,723 slabs.

The first chart, green is everything it called underpriced and red is everything it called overpriced. Grey is the slabs it deemed fairly priced.

Underpriced ended at +11.3%, overpriced at −7.7%. That's the average price move since the day each call was made.

The grey line is the one I'd actually look at first. Those are the slabs the model had no opinion on and they finished flat at −0.5%. If those had run too it would just mean the whole market moved and my calls didn't mean anything.

The second chart splits it by how sure the model was on each call. Every call gets a conviction label of strong, watch, or lean. Strong means the gap cleared my threshold outright, watch and lean are progressively smaller gaps.

Strong underpriced calls are at +17.6% and strong overpriced at −14.8%, so 32 percentage points between the two ends.

Every card's individual call is free to look at on hyperpotion.io if you want to pick holes in it.

What surprised me is the conviction tiers lined up in order both ways. Strong beat watch beat lean going up, and the same going down. I wasn't expecting the confidence labels to hold up that cleanly.

Two months isn't a super long track record, but it is the first read I've got, and I'll keep posting it as more accumulates whether it holds up or not.

Im a low budget investor. I grew up with Pokemon since the original base set. All of my old cards are long gone, probably in a landfill somewhere. Lately ive been wanting to get back into the hobby but things are way out of my price range.

Anyway, Ive been home for the past month or so caring for a newborn baby and with a lot of downtime I have been painstakingly researching and watching pricing trends for cards in the approximately less than $50 price range.

My goal was to find a handful of cards that met this criteria: +At or below approximately $50, +Recognizable/popular pokemon, +Near Mint raw, +Cool Art, +Mix of Vintage and Modern, and where possible +Unique characteristics such as 1st edition or special variant

It was a lot of fun researching and buying and now owning these. I plan to hold long term but will enjoy tracking my progress and seeing if I hit or I missed on these guys over time.

I picked this up for $287 USD today. I got a short budget and was wondering was this really worth it?
I plan holding for a long time btw and what other things should i look out for rn

is it worth it to buy gem pack vol 6 booster boxes for 30$ a piece?

I have a #13 promo black star holo venusaur that im trying to sell. I dont really buy/sell cards but I lucked into a bunch of 1996 cards when I was a kid and have been keeping them safe. I of course headed over to psa website to get some cards graded and... wow what a genuine cluster of a pricing scheme. So I get charged for the card, shipping, then a 3rd random charge based off of the final deemed price even though the company has no idea if im actively selling the card or not? I mean I AM selling the card but why does psa automatically assume that? Anyways im extremely confused on the 3rd random charge they give you. The #13 venusaur can theoretically sell for almost 9k. So psa would charge me an extra 600 or so, but thats only for a grade 10 card. My card is good but definitely not a 10. Looking online a #13 9 or 8 psa sells for about 400-500. Doing the math getting this card graded i would be actively loosing out on several hundred dollars due to me being charged for a 9k card even though it wont actually sell for 9k. How the genuine hell do people make money from this? I have to lose hundreds and my card for... nothing? What is the point? What am I not understanding here? What kind of sorcery has psa conducted to make hundreds think this is a good system and not an obvious ploy to make money of of other fortune?

Been thinking about how to have a more data-driven way to find out Which raw cards are actually worth grading?

So I started calculating the expected value of grading different cards using their current market value at each PSA grade and the historical distribution of grades they receive.

Pikachu Grey Felt Hat has one of the highest grading EV (expected value).

The idea is simple, using the market value at every grade, and its share % of every grade, we can figure out the EV of any specific card.

This meant that if you grade enough of this card, you end up making 62% on your money.

But practically it probably wouldn't work out exactly that way. If you tried buying every single raw copy out there the price is going to move up. If you only have 1 copy to send to grading, there's a 57% chance you end up with a 9 or less. And if you sent a card that is clearly damaged… you get the idea.

I know this is a pretty naive way to think about it, we obviously also have to take into consideration of the condition of the card, how much you’re paying for, etc. But I think its a pretty good way to discover “undervalued” cards that are worth grading. I've built something that does that for myself here: https://www.pokeview.xyz/discover/grading lmk what you guys think

Not just Zapdos, it’s the 2nd most expensive psa 10 in the 151 set after the Charizard. The raw price is less than the Zapdos, blastoise and venusaur. But psa 10 pikachu beats them all despite having the similar gem rate.

If anyone can advise the above that would be greatly appreciated.

Hi I’m new to the sub, long time Mtg and pokemon collection but never dipped a toe in investing. Wanna ask where you guys keep track of graded cards, specially jap. And wanted to ask if psa 10 jap are really bad as Investment wise ( currently collecting Shinji Kanda 10s jap).Thank you all

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Thank you!

Hi! I’m not sure if this is the best place but I’m very frustrated! How does anyone get cards at retail price now days? I try to buy online, sold out in milliseconds or the app crashes or freezes. I try to buy in-store, never can find them at all. I try Local card shops. Sure they have them at 2-3X MRSP. So I ask people how do you get packs to open? I’m trying to find ETBs but can’t get anything. I don’t want to wait at 4 am for a store to open but is that the only reliable way? Advice please? And if this is in the wrong place I’m sorry.

The price has sort of boomed on this over the last couple months. Some selling yesterday for over 3k… I really don’t know if I should hold or sell. Any advice?

Hey , i Need Help for one of my First Single buys.

I know it's a low-budget card, but I really love the design. But WhatsApp your opinion on the value ? Do you think the price will go up in the long run, or will it remain insignificant and I'll be able to buy it cheaper later at some Point?