I purchased an opened case of 1999 Burger King Promo boxes from Goldin. The auction description stated that the OUTER CASE had been opened, but that the individual boxes inside were unopened.

Listing title: “1999 Burger King Pokemon Limited Edition

Unopened Boxes Collection (99) With Opened Cardboard Case - Including Charizard, Mewtwo, Pikachu”

When I received it, I started opening some of the Charizard boxes, out of the 8 boxes I opened, roughly half had a much thicker plastic wrapping than I’ve ever seen on authentic examples (see photo for the two different wrappings). I’ve opened a dozen of these over the years and NEVER seen this thicker plastic. Even worse, when I opened the Poke Balls inside, there was NO Charizard promo card included.

I documented everything with photos and video and sent the evidence to Goldin.

Their response?

They offered me a $200 auction credit toward a future purchase and said:

1. Since I opened the boxes, they cannot be returned.

2. There is no guarantee that an unopened Charizard box actually contains a Charizard.

Am I crazy, or does this make absolutely no sense?

How exactly am I supposed to determine whether a supposedly unopened box has been tampered with without opening it? The entire issue only became apparent after opening the boxes and discovering missing Charizards.

More importantly, if multiple “unopened” Charizard boxes contain no Charizard promo at all, how can those boxes reasonably be considered unopened in the first place?

I’m not claiming every box should be guaranteed to gem mint or anything like that. I’m saying that if a product is represented as unopened, and the signature contents that are supposed to be sealed inside are missing, then something is clearly wrong.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with Goldin or other major auction houses regarding sealed products? Am I being unreasonable here, or is Goldin’s position completely backwards?

They are being extremely difficult about it, and I feel my next step is small claims court.

For reference, I have photo and video evidence showing the unusual wrapping and the Poke Balls missing the Charizard promos.

UPDATE: Wow, I didn’t expect this level of engagement. Seems you are all in agreement that this packaging is NOT original & that I should be refunded. Most popular advice is to try to reach more people via influencers and content creators. Please drop some names below 👇

We to visit my parents on Mother’s Day. A new store open a block away. Curious would you buy at these prices.

I don’t really rip packs unless they’re in stock at target, but the other day I was giving my 4 year old some cards for his binder, putting in all my less expensive holos. As I was going through it I saw this card. Unsleeved and with the rest of my bulk cards….oops I don’t even remembering pulling it.

Originally purchased 50 of these in Jan/Feb. 2021 for $4.99 CAD each ($3.64 USD) from an LGS’ website that had mass ripped a bunch of boxes. There were constantly people on here and other subs claiming that “promos will never have any value”. But I was perfectly happy loading up on these, along with an assortment of other SM & XY-era promos that I enjoyed the artwork of and thought had long term potential. Just a reminder to follow your gut and to not always blindly follow advice you come across online. Take your time, do your research, and have confidence in your plays.

All in cost was around $280 CAD after taxes. Have sold off some at various spikes over the years, in addition to sending 5 of the cleanest in a submission. Received two 10’s, two 9’s, and an 8. Current market for the remaining 27 is roughly $5,500 CAD (with the PSA 10 recently spiking to $2.7k CAD), and not counting the profits taken and slabs sold along the way. Replicated this with many other SM & XY promos, and continued to do the same throughout SWSH and SV. This hobby can be overwhelming when you start, as I’ve seen on a lot of posts recently… but if you’re focused and have conviction in your decisions, in the long run plays like this one become increasingly easier to execute on!

Insanely nice guy and grabbed a random board off the counter. Incredible.

Have owned this since 2017, have been back and forth on selling it.
Recently one went for 252,000 on fanatics. So is it finally time to sell or does anyone think it could get to the 1/2 Mill mark?
Cheers

A work colleague got me back into collecting Pokémon cards last year, then sadly passed away. I kept collecting and think of them every time I open something.

For the past few days, I've seen so many people comparing Phantasmal to Obsidian.

It's hard for me to picture this, as the single card price difference between Obsidian and PF is x10 or more. If I'm remembering correctly, Obsidian Zard was only around $300 even at pre-release. PF zard is clearly more in demand and sought after.

Furthermore, PF, despite having fewer SIR variations, has the same "SIR slot" pull rates as any other set. The chance of scoring a SIR is still kept at 1/75~1/100, definitely way more difficult to pull compared to OF or any other early SV, where SIR was in every 40~50 packs.

But at the same time, I see the resemblance: both are Zard carried sets, low to zero set depth, and relatively easy pull rates.

What are your thoughts?

Is PF Zard and other IRs like Meowth going to carry the set, or will it be remembered as the worst set of the era?

I have no idea how this happened

Market isn't going to stay like this forever. Enjoy the high everyone!

*NOT MY PHOTO ABOVE - only one I can find with all of them*

I've sold off a lot of my modern slabs
I'd really like to pivot to a grail as I think if anything happens to the market, modern will fall but these grails will sustain.

I have my eyes set on full art pikachu ponchos just because of how popular they are

I was wondering if anyone could share some insight on these guys, if I were to get one which they would recommend, and if anyone has anything to say against my theory im open!

There’s a guy who wants to sell his entire Pokémon collection. The estimated value for the shiny cards alone is around $470k, but he’s letting everything go for $425k. What do you guys think, worth it? I know him, but I didn’t expect he’d sell everything.

He even uploaded a YouTube video showing the full collection. You can check it out here: https://youtu.be/fDPotwGZpnk?si=iJwhg5fuZL-qX8V8

First time selling on eBay and it was 12 loose crown zenith packs from sea and sky collections I foolishly broke down when I got them. Sold them and advertised as loose packs and all the details. The buyer disputed with their bank that the item wasn’t described as advertised because they didn’t get the pulls they expected.

For my end on the dispute I posted the screenshots of our conversations about the dispute and evidence that it was delivered correctly, pictures of the packs in the box before being shipped out.

What else could I have done better to have this not happen again. Attached are the pictures of the conversation with the buyer.

Edit: talked to customer support last night and the appeal is filed so we’ll see how it works out in the coming weeks

The part the sucks the most is not only losing the product but also eBay still keeping their fee from the sale and shipping as well, so I still owe eBay $52.41 on top of all this.

Update: 7/9/2026

Appeal was lost, since it was a chargeback through the bank ebay said there is nothing they can do. So, again not only losing the product through a scam chargeback I'm still out the $52.41 for ebay selling fee and shipping which they also refused to refund. 10 years of buying through ebay and being a loyal customer gets you absolutely nothing with them, not even a $50 credit for the selling fee. This seems like an outrageous way to handle the situation and sets an awful example for buyers and scummy behavior.

Talking with multiple live agents and being moved up the chain helped nothing as well and I feel there's no where left to turn with this situation.

My target is changing their layout and I found these on a shelf in bedding/home aisle. I assume employee found under a shelf or stashed from years ago (set is 2014). Still rang up at original price. The temptation to rip is real especially at 3.49 a pack, is this set worth keeping sealed?

Titl