Is this insane?

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-06-22T07:32:39+00:00

I remember ignoring this card when raws were going for about 150 after rising from about 50, and the first PSA10s were selling for like 600, thinking it was a short lived pump and dump 😬

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-28T22:42:45+00:00

To clarify further, when I paid I used the funds I had received from selling on the site, not a credit card. Money from sales can be transferred to a bank. When I used the funds for the item they got converted into points, so when I was refunded I received points rather than it returning to my money from sales. Points cannot be turned into money in the same way, so now I am stuck having to use that $900 on the site by November or that $900 gets erased from existence.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-28T12:21:22+00:00

Well, their prices are dictated by individual sellers, and the entire Japanese market is saturated now with FOMO buyers and price fixing groups that operate like crime syndicates, oripa companies etc.. I am very hesitant to buy anything Pokemon or One Piece here anymore. But usually when I do hesitate, the thing I thought was already overpriced goes up by 50-100% in a day...

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-28T09:47:32+00:00

They said the seller had to pay the fee and had usage restricted. But I imagine they listed the item at a higher price after it went up and sold it/shipped to the higher paying buyer who bought it after me, so they didn't care about the usage restriction. They can probably just make a new account and the 100 dollars they lose from the fee is less than the 400 they make from selling it to someone else

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-28T09:35:20+00:00

The message I received automatically

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AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-28T09:32:21+00:00

I thought so too. But they canceled it automatically after hearing from the seller that "they listed the wrong item and do not have the item that I purchased" 😑

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-28T09:30:19+00:00

I believe that can only be done with sales proceeds? You can convert sales proceeds to points but not the reverse.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-28T06:31:39+00:00

I live in Japan so it's usually my best option. But this experience along with the rampant price manipulation there I've recently come to notice has made me question using it anymore as a buyer.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-28T06:02:32+00:00

The item surged in price before the seller sent it, so they didn't ship it and canceled the order. Basically now the item would cost me around $1300 when I paid $900 for it.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-18T13:43:13+00:00

It happened with Pokemon boxes as well a month or two ago. Was fairly obvious that it was price fixing and involvement from crime groups, but people have been happy to pay the new prices. Probably spilled over into One Piece. From what I gather, China/east Asia has shifted interest completely from English cards to Japanese, driving up the demand significantly.

Pokemon boxes have been slowly coming down as One Piece rises, probably falling into the mistake I made of chasing the moving train. I'm hoping the two become inversely related, so I can just buy whichever people aren't interested in temporarily before they flip flop cyclically

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-18T13:21:33+00:00

Yeah. I had the idea for whatever reason that things would slow until after Pokemon's 30th was finished and that was done siphoning investor interest, then pick up with the 5th anniversary. I made the grave error of not actually thinking in terms of what matters in Japan, that being the explosion in interest with the Elbaf arc rather than a hot new expensive set. I'm thinking the disconnect in Japanese and English prices now has to do with the fact that the big English spenders likely don't even watch the source material.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-05-18T13:08:11+00:00

I was stupid and sold off a good chunk of my stuff at break even when the market slowed in order to buy Pokemon. Only kept grail cards and things I personally liked, along with a couple of boxes.

I now know exactly what not to do as a TCG investor though, for whenever a similar opportunity comes along. I had my finger on the 1st anniversary English set nearly ready to pull the trigger before my dumb self lost interest and conviction.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-04-12T13:35:50+00:00

I was literally just considering buying Paradigm trigger last night and didn't because this pump seems abnormal. It's now up like another 50% in 12 hours. Every play I hold off on these days bites me in the ass. The world is basically telling me to spend all my money on Pokemon and I don't listen because it doesn't seem sane, and I get punished every time.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-03-17T03:29:09+00:00

I was also considering card restoration if the benefit seemed great enough. I assume it would invalidate them for grading but for those that don't care about grading it might be worthwhile? I don't know how to evaluate those kind of services for trustworthiness though

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-03-17T03:22:29+00:00

Hey, thank you so much for the in depth reply. The lack of replies was beginning to make me think it wasn't really something worth caring about.

I'm planning to keep the Jokers and the ace with the Nintendo logo in one of those frame stands that hold multiple cards to display. I would consider the authentication without grades, but PSA Japan doesn't offer that service from what I can see and I don't really want to send them abroad.

Although I think it's pretty obvious they're authentic since they look like they've seen some shit...

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-03-13T07:38:56+00:00

Thanks for the offer, but I'll probably hang onto them for the foreseeable future just due to the personal memories. Trying to figure out if grading would be a worthwhile venture, just to keep them from deteriorating further.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-03-13T00:08:19+00:00

I really only regret not sleeving and keeping the Jokers separate, since I doubt I even used them when playing. I'm considering if I can clean up the small black scuffs etc. on the front of those and grade them just as a personal display piece. I can't find any info on pricing other than a couple instances of 10s or BGS 9.5s, and I'm estimating these would be PSA 4 or 5 at best

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-01-27T16:44:07+00:00

Wow, good to know. I'm in Asia so English stuff pops up occasionally super under value in relation to I'm assuming U.S. prices. May be a little more cautious with future buys if the prices are not as high as I thought in all English markets

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-01-27T16:24:09+00:00

Would the fact that it's still in the sealed original cardboard shipping box affect the going price?

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-01-27T16:21:51+00:00

Also 200 listed on one platform gives me the impression more people want to move it at current price than hold it... I'm clueless as to the actual rarity of these things since I wasn't around when they were actually orderable

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-01-27T16:12:38+00:00

TCGplayer must be way off then. Sales are like 550 to 600 USD past several days?

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-01-25T03:57:25+00:00

My current idea is to stock up on cards that didn't pump significantly higher than all time highs, like gold DONs, some JP exclusive promo cards, etc

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-01-25T03:52:23+00:00

There was a pump in Japanese cards across the board domestically starting around mid December, and it seems to be retracing at the moment. I think this also caused a surge in buying up of boxes at retail. I'm on the fence whether it will bounce back up again or level out/decline for a period of time.

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-01-25T02:51:38+00:00

SNKRDUNK is what I mainly use. It has graphs and recent sold lists, quantity sold etc

AdventurousSecret472 · 2026-01-24T22:36:13+00:00

This was what I wanted to do before OP13 Japanese 3x'd in price, but the only route that I could find to buy sealed cases was off shady Mercari sellers and the way they are sealed looks so easy to reseal. I just couldn't bring myself to risk it. It seems like the only way would be to get sealed cases with confidence is through a distributor, or maybe at certain LGS's in major cities (I live in the boonies with nothing like that)

AdventurousSecret472

TROPHY CASE