I legit just buy Japanese PSA 9's from all eras for what feels like robbing a bank with nobody there. Popular Pokémon that just got over-looked because something more shiny dominated that box. So many diamonds in the rough that are both potential investments & fun to collect the best of both worlds. I win regardless.
I recently bought a few raw cards from a Japanese seller for dirt cheap. I cant believe what they label as 'lightly played' the cards have the tiniest spots of whitening that you cant even see with the naked eye. Otherwise crisp and minty.
This one will age REALLY well. There are so many older cards that are almost impossible to find raw in high grades. Even packs, which have traveled to and from shows, via the postal service, etc, are less likely to have gem cards than they ever were. Having read the other comments I want to exclude anything post a certain date. There is a reason the biggest sellers have 1 copy of a certain type of card in psa 10, yet 100 each of many others.
@@jlo2o199 PSA 10 Charizards selling for 13k-17k! I honestly love the look/appeal. Especially with the original pokemon sprites on the back of each card! (:
2017 was my favorite year to buy pokemon, I was buying psa 9 cards for less than $20 basically grading fee and raw card cost but didn't need to do any of the wait of hassle like you mentioned I just got the cards I wanted in the exact condition I wanted
So true about cracking slabs. I cracked so many 7s and 8s for my unlimited base master set and it’s safer than buying raw and just hoping the condition meets my standards for a binder. It usually doesn’t with vintage raw.
I just came across you but I like you! I’ve been cracking graded cards for binders for over a year😂 I did get lucky tho and bought a pikachu munch (scream) for like 450 and it graded a 9. Biggest dub this year :)
if you buy a raw card, pay 10-20% tax, then make sure card is in the condition you expect, then ship if to PSA pay shipping and insurance, plus average $15-$25 grading fees, hope you the cards arrive safe and you get the grade you want, then if you sell it back on the market, pay another 13% in sales tax, report any earnings to IRS. margins are so LOW. Ive been just picking up grade copies of cards I want because prices havent moved or dipped (PSA 9 Aquapolis ttar holo, wotc holos in various psa 9, etc)
I went all in on grading.. Now I still have 4000 graded cards, (PSA & CGC) and I have no idea what to do with them. I've tried Whatnot, FB market, Ebay, In person vendor tables, IG, and i'm just exhausted.. what do I do?
Just bought a corocoro mew psa 9 got it the other day it looks amazing first slab I’ve bought in awhile and it got me looking at prices on eBay again and I realized the same thing he is saying based on how prices used to be for some stuff right now is a great time for buying graded cards
I've never cared much for slabs, for cards or even coins. I find going through my collection in a binder/coinbook to be so much more enjoyable than dealing with slabs. And since I don't buy perfect grades anyway I don't feel bad about cracking those suckers open.
It's true! I finished my NM-M 1st Edition Gym Challenge set last week! I already had 16 holos raw and bought the last 4 on Ebay in graded condition to crack open for my binder. 9 Nidoking, 9 Raichu, 9 Sabrina and an 8.5 Ditto! All 4 were OBO too! Bought them close to actual raw value. It is so much easier buying a confirmed graded card than a raw unconfirmed graded card where a lot of sellers say NM but when u get the card has all dents, whitening, corner bent, pics taken in deliberate angles to hide scratches. You kno are not NM if you were to get it graded, you get a low grade of 6 - 8. Buying a graded card is cheaper and a lot of times price is close to actual raw value. But you get scummy sellers that want double or triple for an unconfirmed raw copy is just insane! Graded is the way to go for someone like me cracking high grades for low price. The confidence I have knowing I own a NM-M 1st Ed. Gym Challenge set is an accomplishment.
I've been slowly collecting sets 1-10 in Japanese for my binder. I found with buying from Japanese sellers they will always work with you. sure it will take time to ship. But if something happens they'll send a replacement but its regular mail.
I only grade card that has special meaning to me ( for example Great ball league Tatsugiri i got for getting into top 32 regional in my country ) or something i really like, even if the market value is not expensive, i grade it regardless just because its' special for me The rest should be good raw, no matter what, if the same slabbed cards rise in value, so will the raw, still a win2.. and cards in binders are a beauty to look at, imagine owning 300 slabs, you can't even bring it to a show 😂😂
He's not lying I started my journey collecting base-fossil and it has been hard finding mint copies for my binder that I resorted to cracking 8s 😱 because the price difference is only 5 to 10 bucks most of the time
Slab graded cards can be a hit or miss, and may affect the value depending on the demand in the market. I have a psa 9 radiant zard that i kept after grading from the company and the other one in the binder for posterity, the thing is, its up to the consumer whether they follow the trend or not.
Because raw cards have the potential of a 10 when *most* graded cards will remain the same grade they’ve already received. Quite simple. Also, graded companies that have less clout and accountability like CGC will continue to decrease in value, making raw cards worth more.
@@FrisianLunatic Spot on! Just filter "PSA Pokemon return" on UA-cam for the past month, or past year for that matter, and find a "vintage" that was primarily 9's and 10's and you have found something more rare than Moonbreon. 95% of all PSA returns are ultra modern Wal Mart returns, which of course are 80%ish 10's. But older cards, the window of mint in the wild is getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
I grade alot of cards to sell to streamers and customers who like anything say japanese, or tag team. I never understood the idea of anything below a 7 are worth less then Raw. Like you mentioned the chance of finding a raw in good condition unless someone prices it as a PSA 10 value because they know it'll hit a certain grade which is weird aswell , I guess short gains over possible loss with grading. IMO if you're a raw collector the cost effectiveness for a card graded in less than a 7 almost always ends up being less than the Raw. Which would maybe get a grade of 4. It's strange that slabs don't command a certain value across the board for the inherent cost and time of grading a card 😅 I can see both sides of the coin though because I have buyers who don't care the grade and then buyers who will only buy it in a 9 or 10 regardless of what card it is. Which to me doesn't seem like much of a collecting strategy. More of a scalping mentality I suppose.
I am selling some raw NM+ Gold Stars and a good portion of LC Reverses, and I was somewhat surprised as well. Raw prices for some of the higher end stuff has been trending upward. I think most people will play a premium and roll the dice on some really clean raws in the hopes of a 10. All of the raws that are on ebay right now are absolutely trashed in comparison to what I am selling.
As someone who owns some childhood Gold Star cards from EX Deoxys to Dragon Frontiers, I understand that totally. It's even more surprising to me how expensive even heavily played or damaged cards are. I totally get how some of the vintage 'rares' and 'ultra rares' are valued. Just makes me wish I had more drive to get more cards from these eras.
@@thisisabackupemail2264 Agreed. I actually sold a damaged Crystal Nidoking for $225 and felt like I left a decent amount on the table. No creases or anything, just a bad indent and what appeared like some very slight water damage. I made a sale post in some FB groups selling some good sealed product. I posted two pic for attention photos of Gold Stars and LC reverses, and everybody and their mama just wanted the raws.
Raw premium prices are trying to sell “potential”. A 7 is a 7.. but raw is a gamble and buyers imaginations tend to be optimistic lol. But yeah let the whales grind to grade, and pass those savings onto honest collectors! Lucky for me, i only collect very specific cards (Mistys) and i try to keep rolling the collection up to highest possible grade, which is now 10s only. Im also too lazy to grade except on very special occasions, so i do pay premiums for 10s of cards i need, BUT niche collecting with so little cards/spending left, im happy to pay the convenience tax 😂❤
It's because of Omega Mystery Boxes flooding the market with hundreds of thousands of junk slabs just grade every single card they get, the owner is a super shady guy. Rattle has a bunch of videos about it.
Because people lie about their condition and call an LP or MP card near mint, and an MP or HP card light played. If people were honest about the condition of their cards, the average raw card would only be about as much as a PSA 5-6 or ao.
cant help but think its also a youtube content thing. Everyone on youtube wants to make 'psa submission videos' , so raw cards get bought up for the purpose of these, then inevitably a bunch of them get mediocre grades and then get offloaded
I've always been buying raw...in 20 years raw rare vintage cards will be extremely hard to find, and there will always be new collectors wanting to grade their own
@@uchilaandre yeah but they likely won’t change the grade that card got, and they still have to pay for whatever grade it is. That’s also why most 7-10s will become extremely scarce, which is why I aim for cards that look they would bring that grade.
Interesting. I'm doing the exact opposite. I think graded cards, particularly that sell for $250+ in a 10 are going to return to 2019 price levels (meaning a 75-80% crash for most of them from today) now that we're heading into what will be the worst recession we've ever seen. I do buy Celebrations Shining Magikarps and Gold Star Umbreon in masses as raw copies though because you have to open $700 in packs to pull each one of those and they sell for $12-$17 each. Wildly special cards. Grading them doesn't make sense right now, but it will when demand dies and costs $10 a card again. Those should probably be a good play for the long term. Anniversary WoTC reprints can't fail.
Likely not see $10 from PSA, maybe $12 as a special occasionally. Magikarp is $25 in a 9 currently, which is $12-13 for grading, $2 shipping, $10 for a card. So buying 9's at $25 is likely a better play than raw at $10.
@@theboringchannel2027 I see the logic, but I can buy 2.5 raw NM magikarps for the price of a PSA 9 or 5 NM copies for price of PSA 10. At those odds, a ton of them will end up as PSA 10s. I know because I did this for a 500 card submission in 2020 and 85% of them were PSA 10. Everyone has a different strategy but paying 2.5X raw NM value for a PSA 9 to me only makes sense on super vintage cards older than 2010 or so.
Grading cards is the biggest scam in the hobby by a long shot. Half the time grades do not match up with the card. There's always going to be the human error aspect as well.
Pokemon investers are killing Pokemon tcg. Kids aren't getting into it because they can't afford it. Only 30 somethings are chasing cards, the Pokemon collapse is happening, off load that trash. One Piece TCG and Disney Lorcana are what ive been making bank $$$ off of.
I legit just buy Japanese PSA 9's from all eras for what feels like robbing a bank with nobody there. Popular Pokémon that just got over-looked because something more shiny dominated that box. So many diamonds in the rough that are both potential investments & fun to collect the best of both worlds. I win regardless.
Same, a lot of my 9s could even regrade a 9.5 or 10 but when I get 10s there’s a greater chance I might be unhappy with the grade
Vintage eBay auctions are the best imo those cards are risky to auction off
Same but delete the comment otherwise we'll thousands by the end of the week 🤣
Yes and a psa 9 has a chance of getting a 10
I recently bought a few raw cards from a Japanese seller for dirt cheap. I cant believe what they label as 'lightly played' the cards have the tiniest spots of whitening that you cant even see with the naked eye. Otherwise crisp and minty.
FACTS, I recently made the switch to buying graded WOTC holos in PSA 7 for my binders cause it’s insane the way raw cards are getting priced.
Yeah and the amount of times I've seen sellers listing cards as NM when it could grade no higher than a 6 is higher than I can count
One of my all-time favorite thumbnails 😂
Love ur videos, found ur channel only a few months ago but I love how level-headed and experienced you are about what you talk about
He’s the goat
This one will age REALLY well. There are so many older cards that are almost impossible to find raw in high grades. Even packs, which have traveled to and from shows, via the postal service, etc, are less likely to have gem cards than they ever were.
Having read the other comments I want to exclude anything post a certain date. There is a reason the biggest sellers have 1 copy of a certain type of card in psa 10, yet 100 each of many others.
1996 Bandai Carddass to the MOON! 🚀
just bought a Gastly Carddass in a 8.5 for $9.50 😂
Too bad it’s a butt ugly set, and inferior to 1997 Bandai cardass
@@jlo2o199 PSA 10 Charizards selling for 13k-17k! I honestly love the look/appeal. Especially with the original pokemon sprites on the back of each card! (:
I purchased my first slab in April. I now have 70+ slabs because it's so easy to find what I need in this market.
People haven't yet fully realized that older PSA 6s are in better condition than 99% of "NM" copies on ebay and tcgplayer
2017 was my favorite year to buy pokemon, I was buying psa 9 cards for less than $20 basically grading fee and raw card cost but didn't need to do any of the wait of hassle like you mentioned I just got the cards I wanted in the exact condition I wanted
It’s crazy to see psa 9 exs for under $100, when packs are $350-400
So true about cracking slabs. I cracked so many 7s and 8s for my unlimited base master set and it’s safer than buying raw and just hoping the condition meets my standards for a binder. It usually doesn’t with vintage raw.
I just came across you but I like you! I’ve been cracking graded cards for binders for over a year😂 I did get lucky tho and bought a pikachu munch (scream) for like 450 and it graded a 9. Biggest dub this year :)
I can confirm… my dog has every package delivered to my door opened before I even get a chance
if you buy a raw card, pay 10-20% tax, then make sure card is in the condition you expect, then ship if to PSA pay shipping and insurance, plus average $15-$25 grading fees, hope you the cards arrive safe and you get the grade you want, then if you sell it back on the market, pay another 13% in sales tax, report any earnings to IRS. margins are so LOW. Ive been just picking up grade copies of cards I want because prices havent moved or dipped (PSA 9 Aquapolis ttar holo, wotc holos in various psa 9, etc)
+ 3 month turn around lmao grading is rough right now
My Lillie (Ultra Prism) PSA 9 is valued at $410, but the raw card is $510. Wtf...
Love your energy in this vid! Definitely enigmatic and concise.
I went all in on grading.. Now I still have 4000 graded cards, (PSA & CGC) and I have no idea what to do with them. I've tried Whatnot, FB market, Ebay, In person vendor tables, IG, and i'm just exhausted.. what do I do?
Use a vault and have the company sell for you at auction
"they got em in museums.." lol
Just bought a corocoro mew psa 9 got it the other day it looks amazing first slab I’ve bought in awhile and it got me looking at prices on eBay again and I realized the same thing he is saying based on how prices used to be for some stuff right now is a great time for buying graded cards
NOOO the secret is out
I've never cared much for slabs, for cards or even coins. I find going through my collection in a binder/coinbook to be so much more enjoyable than dealing with slabs. And since I don't buy perfect grades anyway I don't feel bad about cracking those suckers open.
Yup!
It's true! I finished my NM-M 1st Edition Gym Challenge set last week!
I already had 16 holos raw and bought the last 4 on Ebay in graded condition to crack open for my binder.
9 Nidoking, 9 Raichu, 9 Sabrina and an 8.5 Ditto! All 4 were OBO too! Bought them close to actual raw value.
It is so much easier buying a confirmed graded card than a raw unconfirmed graded card where a lot of sellers say NM but when u get the card has all dents, whitening, corner bent, pics taken in deliberate angles to hide scratches. You kno are not NM if you were to get it graded, you get a low grade of 6 - 8.
Buying a graded card is cheaper and a lot of times price is close to actual raw value. But you get scummy sellers that want double or triple for an unconfirmed raw copy is just insane!
Graded is the way to go for someone like me cracking high grades for low price. The confidence I have knowing I own a NM-M 1st Ed. Gym Challenge set is an accomplishment.
So the chair is worth it? easily the best chair you've sat in?
Quality thumbnail.
Where is your Weiss sets?
bgs 7-7.5 revised dual lands are where its at
I've been slowly collecting sets 1-10 in Japanese for my binder. I found with buying from Japanese sellers they will always work with you. sure it will take time to ship. But if something happens they'll send a replacement but its regular mail.
I only grade card that has special meaning to me ( for example Great ball league Tatsugiri i got for getting into top 32 regional in my country )
or something i really like, even if the market value is not expensive, i grade it regardless just because its' special for me
The rest should be good raw, no matter what, if the same slabbed cards rise in value, so will the raw, still a win2.. and cards in binders are a beauty to look at, imagine owning 300 slabs, you can't even bring it to a show 😂😂
How long do you think the market will hold on like this?
He's not lying I started my journey collecting base-fossil and it has been hard finding mint copies for my binder that I resorted to cracking 8s 😱 because the price difference is only 5 to 10 bucks most of the time
What if I just like cards raw
Slab graded cards can be a hit or miss, and may affect the value depending on the demand in the market. I have a psa 9 radiant zard that i kept after grading from the company and the other one in the binder for posterity, the thing is, its up to the consumer whether they follow the trend or not.
Because raw cards have the potential of a 10 when *most* graded cards will remain the same grade they’ve already received. Quite simple. Also, graded companies that have less clout and accountability like CGC will continue to decrease in value, making raw cards worth more.
Most raw cards (especially vintage english) dont have the potential of a psa 10 at all
large supply of non PSA graded cards
that can and will be cracked out to send in.
@@FrisianLunatic Spot on!
Just filter "PSA Pokemon return" on UA-cam for the past month, or past year for that matter, and find a "vintage" that was primarily 9's and 10's and you have found something more rare than Moonbreon.
95% of all PSA returns are ultra modern Wal Mart returns, which of course are 80%ish 10's. But older cards, the window of mint in the wild is getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
Totally agree
Always great information. I’m not blowing smoke but I really value your opinion thank you
Great vid, appreciate you!
I grade alot of cards to sell to streamers and customers who like anything say japanese, or tag team. I never understood the idea of anything below a 7 are worth less then Raw. Like you mentioned the chance of finding a raw in good condition unless someone prices it as a PSA 10 value because they know it'll hit a certain grade which is weird aswell , I guess short gains over possible loss with grading.
IMO if you're a raw collector the cost effectiveness for a card graded in less than a 7 almost always ends up being less than the Raw. Which would maybe get a grade of 4. It's strange that slabs don't command a certain value across the board for the inherent cost and time of grading a card 😅 I can see both sides of the coin though because I have buyers who don't care the grade and then buyers who will only buy it in a 9 or 10 regardless of what card it is. Which to me doesn't seem like much of a collecting strategy. More of a scalping mentality I suppose.
I always try to find good psa bids and try to stay around the $40 range. Youd be surprised what good cards youll find that later become fan faves
Hold!!!! I do miss the pick up vids from Japan. Always at least one scream pika or poncho pika in every vid lol
Now it seems harder to get a good deal lol
I am selling some raw NM+ Gold Stars and a good portion of LC Reverses, and I was somewhat surprised as well. Raw prices for some of the higher end stuff has been trending upward. I think most people will play a premium and roll the dice on some really clean raws in the hopes of a 10. All of the raws that are on ebay right now are absolutely trashed in comparison to what I am selling.
As someone who owns some childhood Gold Star cards from EX Deoxys to Dragon Frontiers, I understand that totally. It's even more surprising to me how expensive even heavily played or damaged cards are. I totally get how some of the vintage 'rares' and 'ultra rares' are valued. Just makes me wish I had more drive to get more cards from these eras.
@@thisisabackupemail2264 Agreed. I actually sold a damaged Crystal Nidoking for $225 and felt like I left a decent amount on the table. No creases or anything, just a bad indent and what appeared like some very slight water damage. I made a sale post in some FB groups selling some good sealed product. I posted two pic for attention photos of Gold Stars and LC reverses, and everybody and their mama just wanted the raws.
I’ve been buying low grade CGC cards for years to crack and put in binders. Please don’t tell anyone how I live.
Raw premium prices are trying to sell “potential”. A 7 is a 7.. but raw is a gamble and buyers imaginations tend to be optimistic lol. But yeah let the whales grind to grade, and pass those savings onto honest collectors!
Lucky for me, i only collect very specific cards (Mistys) and i try to keep rolling the collection up to highest possible grade, which is now 10s only. Im also too lazy to grade except on very special occasions, so i do pay premiums for 10s of cards i need, BUT niche collecting with so little cards/spending left, im happy to pay the convenience tax 😂❤
It's because of Omega Mystery Boxes flooding the market with hundreds of thousands of junk slabs just grade every single card they get, the owner is a super shady guy. Rattle has a bunch of videos about it.
Because people lie about their condition and call an LP or MP card near mint, and an MP or HP card light played. If people were honest about the condition of their cards, the average raw card would only be about as much as a PSA 5-6 or ao.
👏🏽 👏🏽 👏🏽
I always thought graded cards were kind of dumb and a scam. I can look at a card and tell what if it's nice or not
Stonks
You literally said "Chareezord" lol
You are the Raging Kitty of Pokémon God bless you Scott 🫡
cant help but think its also a youtube content thing. Everyone on youtube wants to make 'psa submission videos' , so raw cards get bought up for the purpose of these, then inevitably a bunch of them get mediocre grades and then get offloaded
I've always been buying raw...in 20 years raw rare vintage cards will be extremely hard to find, and there will always be new collectors wanting to grade their own
people can just crack graded cards to get raw cards
@@uchilaandre yeah but they likely won’t change the grade that card got, and they still have to pay for whatever grade it is. That’s also why most 7-10s will become extremely scarce, which is why I aim for cards that look they would bring that grade.
Lmao 10/10 thumbnail
People selling raw for what they “think” it will grade. That’s the issue.
Cherryzawrd
Invest only in evolving skies English set let’s gooo
Man ppl r catching on, I hope the raw cards go down not the graded 1s (the raw prices r just inflated) imo
Interesting. I'm doing the exact opposite. I think graded cards, particularly that sell for $250+ in a 10 are going to return to 2019 price levels (meaning a 75-80% crash for most of them from today) now that we're heading into what will be the worst recession we've ever seen. I do buy Celebrations Shining Magikarps and Gold Star Umbreon in masses as raw copies though because you have to open $700 in packs to pull each one of those and they sell for $12-$17 each. Wildly special cards. Grading them doesn't make sense right now, but it will when demand dies and costs $10 a card again. Those should probably be a good play for the long term. Anniversary WoTC reprints can't fail.
Likely not see $10 from PSA, maybe $12 as a special occasionally.
Magikarp is $25 in a 9 currently, which is $12-13 for grading, $2 shipping, $10
for a card. So buying 9's at $25 is likely a better play than raw at $10.
@@theboringchannel2027 I see the logic, but I can buy 2.5 raw NM magikarps for the price of a PSA 9 or 5 NM copies for price of PSA 10. At those odds, a ton of them will end up as PSA 10s. I know because I did this for a 500 card submission in 2020 and 85% of them were PSA 10. Everyone has a different strategy but paying 2.5X raw NM value for a PSA 9 to me only makes sense on super vintage cards older than 2010 or so.
Where are y'all seeing these cheap PSA cards? All I see is expensive FireRed Ex PSA cards 💀
VSTAR universe Elisa’s sparkle raw $80
PSA 6-9 $20-50 !!!
IVE BEEN SAYING THIS!!!
Only cheaper of they don't 10
junk slab era
Grading cards is the biggest scam in the hobby by a long shot. Half the time grades do not match up with the card. There's always going to be the human error aspect as well.
Bc too many people got influenced by “grading” cards bc of all you youtubers lol
who would buy raw anyway? ew.
Pokemon investers are killing Pokemon tcg. Kids aren't getting into it because they can't afford it. Only 30 somethings are chasing cards, the Pokemon collapse is happening, off load that trash. One Piece TCG and Disney Lorcana are what ive been making bank $$$ off of.