Collectible Cards - What once was nerdy is still nerdy but possibly worth something now

[Ralph Cifaretto]

I wrote a bit of a meandering OP within the quote below, but basically this thread is for anyone who wants to discuss physical, collectible cards. Awesome pulls, great sells, you name it. Anything that's printed on 2"x 4" cardstock and you want to brag or lament, I'd love to hear it.

Many years ago, when malls were more of a thing and online shopping only existed as a glimmer in Jeff Bezos's eye, I remember my dad bribing me to behave while my mom shopped at adjacent department stores by buying me a cheap pack of sports cards from the mall hobby shop. I was only around eight years old at the time, but opening the pack and recognizing the athletes featured on the cards as the same guys I'd occasionally see on TV or on sports vidya rosters was absolutely magical.

I collected and sorted the cards and put them in binders and then stopped really giving a shit, so my parents likely sold them in a garage sale. A few years later, Pokemon cards happened. And again, I collected, sorted, became apathetic and rinse, repeat.

Much to the dismay of the Beanie Babies currently in my attic, those cards are actually selling for a decent amount of money online these days. Certainly the vast, vast, vast majority of them are hardly worth the cardstock they're printed on, but this thread isn't for the shitty cards (although they're certainly welcome).

I got back into cards about two years ago, NBA in particular. It felt like a bit of a waste of money, but I had money to waste, so fuck it. Then I drew a Kobe Bryant autograph redemption card.

For background, a redemption card isn't the actual card, but a scratch-off you can redeem online and have the actual card mailed to you several months later by the manufacturer, in this case, Panini. They tell you the player and other details on the scratch-off, so the only real guesswork is when you'll actually get the card, assuming the player lives long enough to sign the card.

Unfortunately Kobe didn't live long enough to keep the promises made by Panini.

In lieu of an actual Kobe autograph, Panini was kind enough to send me some ultra rare pack of exclusive cards only made available to those who redeemed Kobe autographs around the time of his death. After a period of mourning, I sold that unopened pack for fucking $1700 on ebay. I'm currently sitting on a Zion Williamson autographed rookie redemption that I hope to sell for $1200 or so, but Panini just sent these ones out this weekend and I got mine today, so the market is pretty murky right now.

Anyway, any other Kiwis fuck around with this shit? Not just sports cards, but Magic, Yugioh, Pokemon, you name it.

 

[Kujo Jotaro]

PSA are a bunch of faggots, and need to ship me back all 10's or I'll be filing a lawsuit

 

[Ralph Cifaretto]

PSA are a bunch of faggots, and need to ship me back all 10's or I'll be filing a lawsuit

Dude I checked PSA today and the way I was reading their pricing, they charge fucking $300 to grade ANY card now. Somebody please correct me.

 

[Kujo Jotaro]

Dude I checked PSA today and the way I was reading their pricing, they charge fucking $300 to grade ANY card now. Somebody please correct me.

Here's an educational video about the PSA situation, but the TLDR is bassically that they shut down their normal grading service because they have a massive backlog of cards to grade. They're charging $300 a card because they're only accepting the high tier rarity or anyone willing to grade a common for $300, basically just trying to keep people from submitting. I submitted some cards back in the beginning of December and they've been stuck at the ID stage since January. Btw this dude is like the go to guy for pokemon card info if anyone cares.

 

[Stoneheart]

No Rudy go away, we dont want your Magic pump and dump here!

 

[Haywire]

Collectibles have been absolute Terry-Davis levels of crazy in the last year. I've been playing / hoarding MTG for ~20 years and it's reminiscent of when a financial bubble occurred. Prices have jumped 5-20x historic value for older cards, even useless ones, as long as they're nostalgic. Assuming since Americans were locked up in their houses and given handout checks, people were bored and picked up hobbies. PSA and other grading companies are struggling, cardboard card collection boxes have gone from $3/complementary for large buys to $20 and out of stock for months.

I'm still trying to figure out if the bubble is collectibles, market memory trying to adjust with a huge influx of buyers & struggles selling, or if the bubble is the US dollar. Honestly anyone's guess. The only absolute truth I can confidently share is WotC are all a bunch of cucks, and I hope Chaz/Chop/etc mostly peaceful protests their offices. The MTG community is mostly weirdos and freaks too, but there's smaller cliques that are fun.

 

[Jeff Boomhauer]

My dad has become obsessed with selling his old cards on Mercari and Ebay. He calls and asks me if I've seen packs of a certain type of baseball card set every weekend.

I collected Pokemon cards a million years ago, until I realized that I didn't care for the game and only wanted the cool art, which is easily found online now.

 

[Ralph Cifaretto]

Collectibles have been absolute Terry-Davis levels of crazy in the last year. I've been playing / hoarding MTG for ~20 years and it's reminiscent of when a financial bubble occurred. Prices have jumped 5-20x historic value for older cards, even useless ones, as long as they're nostalgic. Assuming since Americans were locked up in their houses and given handout checks, people were bored and picked up hobbies. PSA and other grading companies are struggling, cardboard card collection boxes have gone from $3/complementary for large buys to $20 and out of stock for months.

I'm still trying to figure out if the bubble is collectibles, market memory trying to adjust with a huge influx of buyers & struggles selling, or if the bubble is the US dollar. Honestly anyone's guess. The only absolute truth I can confidently share is WotC are all a bunch of cucks, and I hope Chaz/Chop/etc mostly peaceful protests their offices. The MTG community is mostly weirdos and freaks too, but there's smaller cliques that are fun.

It's fucking crazy man. $20 NBA retail boxes you used to easily be able to grab at your local Wal-Mart or Target are selling for $80+ on Ebay and card-specific sites.

I've heard some Big Lots have MTG and sports cards, but the one time I went to the one near me, all they had was an absolute fuckload of Pokemon packs. My local Walgreens has some Pokemon and MTG packs, but within the last two months or so they moved them all behind the counter.

 

[Reshiram Battle.mp3]

As a filthy collector casual who just wants to get shiny cardboard of my favorite pokemons, not every chase to grade and flip, how long will it be until pokemon tcg cards get... affordable? Less scalped to the point a 5 year old can't get one? What's the general consensus on the deadpool of investor hype for that?

 

[Jeff Boomhauer]

As a filthy collector casual who just wants to get shiny cardboard of my favorite pokemons, not every chase to grade and flip, how long will it be until pokemon tcg cards get... affordable? Less scalped to the point a 5 year old can't get one? What's the general consensus on the deadpool of investor hype for that?

You'll probably have a looooong time to wait, my friend. I'm seeing COMMON cards that I had 20 years ago selling for more than $5. There's no reason they should be more than what a normal pack today costs.

 

[Ralph Cifaretto]

HOLLA AT YA BOY! I sold a card for $1100 online and the best part is, I did it on the down-low via text message, so ebay can take their 11% and shove it right up their fucking asses.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I'd be more interested in hearing personal stories about the clusterfuck of the trading scene, especially the huge bubble in the 90's that nearly killed Marvel.

 

[Kujo Jotaro]

As a filthy collector casual who just wants to get shiny cardboard of my favorite pokemons, not every chase to grade and flip, how long will it be until pokemon tcg cards get... affordable? Less scalped to the point a 5 year old can't get one? What's the general consensus on the deadpool of investor hype for that?

Apparently the pokemon company is building new printing locations, and rumors say they could be reprinting booster boxes all the way back to evolutions.

 

[Stoneheart]

I'd be more interested in hearing personal stories about the clusterfuck of the trading scene, especially the huge bubble in the 90's that nearly killed Marvel.

You can get all your Cardboard stories from mr floppy taco on youtube... the channel is called alphainvestments and its a reality tv like show about a homeless guy wandering a basement full of cardboxes.

 

[gigglemilk]

pokemon card prices seem to have exploded following logan paul's entry into that hobby and his videos.

 

[Crisis Acting Instructor]

I've just sold a bunch of MTG including some reserved list stuff, a guy I know who's helping me (deals a lot) seems to think these prices will be stable for a while and likely go through additional spikes at some point in the future, but not for a while. He doesn't think it's a bubble, which I thought was interesting, since at least for Pokemon and sports cards I feel like everyone thinks it is. Maybe the difference with MTG is the reserved list.. Personally I'm thinking if you've made a good ROI on your MTG stuff, especially anything that can be reprinted, it's a good idea to sell now while folks are in a frenzy, especially for commander or constructed playables.

 

[Kujo Jotaro]

pokemon card prices seem to have exploded following logan paul's entry into that hobby and his videos.

Yes they have, but really he just added an extra thrust to an already rapidly rising market

I've just sold a bunch of MTG including some reserved list stuff, a guy I know who's helping me (deals a lot) seems to think these prices will be stable for a while and likely go through additional spikes at some point in the future, but not for a while. He doesn't think it's a bubble, which I thought was interesting, since at least for Pokemon and sports cards I feel like everyone thinks it is. Maybe the difference with MTG is the reserved list.. Personally I'm thinking if you've made a good ROI on your MTG stuff, especially anything that can be reprinted, it's a good idea to sell now while folks are in a frenzy, especially for commander or constructed playables.

The reserve list is a meme, and if any market has justification to be in a bubble it's mtg almost always. Unfortunately for magic players the value of the card has almost nothing to do with nostalgia, and almost everything to do with its playability. Wizards doesn't even need to make a carbon copy of a card, a new artwork or reprint with different boarders are enough to tank a cards value. Certain cards like alpha black lotus are unlikely to take a huge hit if reprinted especially if they're graded highly, but anything outside the power nine would most likely not hold its value if wizards ever reprinted it.

Contrast this with pokemon where large portions of the consumer base have never and will never actually play the game. Reprints #1 make little sense, #2 rarely happen, and #3 when they do happen are always easily distinguishable from the orginal to even a slightly trained eye. Also another point could be made that when they do reprint it's usually in service of the orginal card. Charizard being reprinted in evolutions only resulted in the base set regardless of condition or release(first, base set 2, unlimited, and shadowless variants) going up in price.

Old magic cards will always be worth something even if they have reprints, but the threat of reprints always puts their price on edge. They're always one wizards decision away from taking a 50% price cut.

 

[TerminalTryHard]

Time to cash in my Blue Eyes White Dragon.

 

[Jeff Boomhauer]

I have a friend who's a teacher, and she has jokingly scolded me for ever being into Pokemon cards because the fad apparently hasn't gone away. The school she teaches at will get them confiscated if they're ever seen at any time other than Recess, which was exactly what happened to me twenty years ago.

 

[Alcatraz]

Please pray for me, because Toei/Shueisha announced a Dragon Ball TCG called... Dragon Ball Super Card Game. I thought "there's no way they'll announce a collectible series because we already have Dokkan Battle and Legends, two very prominent gacha"

Boy, was I wrong. It's already booming, and they're holding a card tournament sometime this month.
What really gets me is that both Dokkan and Legends both have art styles that completely rip on DBSCG's art, which is self-admitted to come into two variants of the art. anime and CGI. CGI being lower quality models posted and rotated in various ways, and Anime being.... well, it looks exactly like the anime.

Problem is, when you've got something like

out on the digital market, the lackluster art tends to put a damper on things. I could print out this particular card art from Dokkan's fan run website, slap it on a card and just have something both unique and creative in my physical art collection. I already managed to escape Dragon Ball Heroes, I will not be suckered into this, too.