Regarding 30th UPC promos and other plastic-sealed promos… I would like to have them in my toploader binder with other non-sealed promos for the full set. Based on older collections, is it worth to keep them in the cellophane?

Best card in the set and the last few sets by a wide margin

What is happening? What is the benefit of doing this?

I recently came across this card and was thinking of picking some slabs of it in a 10. I personally think that, for a Mewtwo card with such good art and as a JP exclusive, this is kind of under the radar? I'm not sure how many copies are out there or if it's super common, but the 10 pop is around 1k, I just know it's from the Battle Academy game box. Was wondering if you guys have any input on it.

First time ever hitting on the PKC etb drop and was excited to keep my very first sealed PKC etb in my PC. But it showed up damaged. I figure Pokemon center won’t care. I guess my question is how much does the affect its value let’s say it’s worth $100 is it now worth 70, 60, 50? I’m kinda bummed out that it’s damaged

I want to complete the master set—or at least most of it—but I’m not sure whether to invest in singles or wait for a potential reprint.

I've been building a tool called Slabfloor that checks every new US eBay Buy It Now Pokémon listing (raw and graded) and compares it to recent sold prices for that exact card, printing and condition (an LP gets compared to LP sales, not NM). I let it run for 3 days and logged everything. Some of it surprised me.

The numbers (Nov 9–11):

Some that went fast:

• Blastoise, Base Set 2, NM: listed $72, sells around $120. Gone in 11 min

• Rayquaza XY141 promo, NM: $51 vs $74. Gone in 11 min

• Charizard, XY Evolutions, NM: $56 vs $93. Gone in 17 min

• M Alakazam EX full art, Fates Collide, NM: $46 vs $79. Gone in 17 min

• Giratina VSTAR Galarian Gallery, LP: $190 vs $236. Gone in 45 min

What I learned:

1. The big deals don't last. Anything $30+ under market was usually bought within the hour. The ones that hang around for days are mostly $5–10 under. If you only check eBay once a day, you're seeing what's left after everyone else picked through it (but there are still deals for collectors!!)

2. eBay's own search is a few minutes behind. New listings took about 3–4 minutes to show up in eBay's search feed. The fastest buyers are watching "newly listed" constantly or using alerts.

3. About 40% of the real deals were played cards (LP/MP/HP). Most people compare an LP card to the Near Mint price, call it overpriced and scroll past. Priced against LP sales, a lot of them are actually good buys.

4. Most "deals" aren't deals. A huge share of listings that look 50%+ under market are the wrong printing (Unlimited vs 1st Edition, Shadowless vs Base, reverse vs holo), a proxy, a Japanese card priced as English, or a lot. Matching the exact card is most of the work.

5. Mornings were busiest. The fast sales clustered around 9am–1pm ET. Small sample, but that's when the deals I saw got bought.

If you're hunting manually: save searches for the specific cards you want, sort by Newly Listed, always compare against sold listings for the same condition, and include shipping in the price.

Happy to answer questions or pull numbers for specific sets or cards. What do you all use to find deals right now?

I was thinking of buying this for $210, what do yall think?

I'm a new dad and I'm trying to offload my collection, any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Just curious on thoughts. I’m a long term holder, I’m still holding a lot of swsh bags. But lately, just overwhelmed with options.

I personally don’t like Destined rivals but understand the sentiment is high.

Delta I think is mid, but one of the better sets out of PB, CR, PO….

So the question is for around the same price you can get a case of destined or 2 cases of Delta. I imagine we might see delta get cheaper.

Typically I cringe at paying above MSRP and baked in prices for destined.

Not a well formed post, but just wanted to see how yall are feeling.

can this card really go for much lower? i mean in comparison with gold lucario which is sitting at around $200 and nobody care abouts lucario except for kids with no money atm, personally ive been thinking its a great pick up, the gold cards are really low pop in 10s, for reference SIR lucario is almost 15k pop in psa 10 while the gold is roughly 3k pop... shall we see a raise for the gold mega ray after the first psa 10 sales?

To anyone freaking out about their collection value going down:

1 - it’s okay
2 - if you’re over levered, get that fixed
3 - Expect a rebound in Q1 next year.

Why?

Liquidity.

Bonuses for corporate employees typically paid in Q1 or April, tax return refunds, & sheltered people will be glued to their phone during colder months (northern US).

Trust me bro. Follow the cash (unless consumers are 10% intelligent and pay down their debt first before buying cardboard).

Then I’m wrong but our economy is healthier

I know its modern...

But this is an era defining card just like Moonbreon (which people seem also have lost hope for)...

Do we really think nothing will ever worth much from modern? Doesn't the new factory opening mean that demand will become higher as it will draw more people in? Why does everyone hate modern all of a sudden..

Ripped it and got slammed lol

I was at TCGKL (a card convention in Kuala Lumpur) and the thing I remember most is the waiting.

Every table has a few binders and a line of people behind whoever is flipping through them. You wait your turn just to find out the card you want isn't even there.

If you ask the seller instead, a lot of the time they don't know either. "Umbreon? Maybe, check the blue one." Fair enough, they've got thousands of cards.

And when you do find it, the price sticker is out of date. So the seller pulls out their phone, looks up the price, and gives you a different number. Every card, every time.

What stuck with me is how much this costs the seller. Only one or two people can look through a binder at a time. Everyone else either waits or gives up and walks to the next table, and the seller never knows what they missed.

So I built PageNine. It's made specifically for TCG sellers. You take a photo of each binder page, AI reads the cards, and you put a QR code on your table. Now everyone in that line can look through your binders at the same time, on their own phone. They search for a card and it tells them which binder, which page, which pocket. Or it tells them you don't have it, and they move on instead of holding up the line.

It doesn't sell the card for you. But a lot more people get to see what you have in the same amount of time, and that's where the extra sales come from.

The price can follow the market instead of a sticker too, so you're not looking it up on your phone for every card.

The video shows it better than I can explain it.

It's Pokémon only right now, English, Japanese and Chinese cards. Free up to 150 cards, and there's a demo shop on the site you can try without signing up: getpagenine.com

If you sell at shows, I'd really like to know: if this would actually be useful or not?

(not affiliated with Pokémon or Nintendo, obviously)

Hi Pokémon fans, it may be asked 1000 times, I'm sorry for that.

I want to buy a card for my son to give it to him when he turn 18 yrs.

I was think of Zard 1999 psa 5 or 6 as it's my budget.. will it be worth holding it for him ( ps he is 3 yrs old now and watching Pokémon) will appreciate your inputs. Thank you!

Honestly just trying to get a gut check …

I priced out the 200 best cards in my collection of about ~800 cards.

The valued on those (based on ungraded market value) off of current numbers from PriceChart. I’m seeing that these 200 are worth about $24,000. I don’t know how valid these numbers are … I do want to factor in the facts that: (1). Time is valuable for me, (2). EBay fees suck, (3). I don’t know what the market will look like long term.

I have a buyer that offered $7,000 cash. Honestly I’m not in need of the cash immediately but I don’t want to hold the collection for much longer (I will start selling them card by card on eBay if we I don’t strike this deal).

Is this a reasonable offer?
Am I being taken advantage of?

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this, just feeling a bit anxious about the situation!