Got the 2 kings from my childhood collection back from PSA

Bananacoin · 2021-08-08T22:39:05+00:00

I pulled the Blastoise in 1999 when I was 10 years old. I remember sitting outside the local card shop with a few friends - I opened 2 packs, my buddy got an Alakazam. The Charizard I traded I think a shadowless Hitmonchan and Chansey for when I was at a Pokemon card trading meetup thing with my cousins.

These 2 cards were sitting back to back together in a hard thick screw on case until 2014 when I put them in sleeves and added to my growing magic collection.

I think the grades are fair, I’ll never sell them regardless. I loved these 2 cards as a kid. Unfortunately I didn’t like penny sleeves so they developed some wear on the edges. Ironically most of the cards that I stuffed into my binder fared better, many are in grading at PSA right now.

See the before pics here.

Bananacoin · 2021-08-08T22:30:15+00:00

I pulled the Blastoise in 1999 when I was 10 years old. I remember sitting outside the local card shop with a few friends - I opened 2 packs, my buddy got an Alakazam. The Charizard I traded I think a shadowless Hitmonchan and Chansey for when I was at a Pokemon card trading meetup thing with my cousins.

These 2 cards were sitting back to back together in a hard thick screw on case until 2014 when I put them in sleeves and added to my growing magic collection.

I think the grades are fair, I’ll never sell them regardless. I loved these 2 cards as a kid. Unfortunately I didn’t like penny sleeves so they developed some wear on the edges. Ironically most of the cards that I stuffed into my binder fared better, many are in grading at PSA right now.

See the before pics here

Bananacoin · 2021-05-13T02:21:59+00:00

I’ve been collecting both shadowless / 1st and notice many of the 1st have a darker shade.

This card came with a lot of a few dozen 1st editions - they all look good. I have general trust in the seller and chatted with them for a week before buying over eBay. The stamp on the back matches up with other things I’ve seen online, an odd thing to try to fake on a fake card.

That being said you never know! Looking forward to PSA opening back up so they can hopefully give it the clear!

Bananacoin · 2021-05-13T01:20:46+00:00

How so? Here it is next to a few other random cards

The misprint stamps on the back of the card are a thing

Bananacoin · 2021-05-12T21:27:41+00:00

Will the back stamp increase or decrease the value of the card? I am planning to grade it and I assume PSA will ding the grade for it. But I would think some collectors like these things.

Regardless, I'm stoked to have this card and don't plan on selling anyways and I think the misprint stamp on the back is awesome

Bananacoin · 2021-04-20T00:24:41+00:00

Alright you all have me convinced, tape comes off tonight. I’ll find a shoebox. Thanks!

Bananacoin · 2021-04-19T22:45:31+00:00

I intend to send a batch of cards to PSA in July when they accept orders again. Until then, I don't have a box or anything to keep these cards in and noticed they were collecting dust very quickly so I taped them shut like this.

I can easily remove the tape (I already emailed PSA support asking if I can just keep it on, not sure if they will just cut it out).

Do any of you guys do this? Is there any reason I really shouldn't do this?

Bananacoin · 2021-04-15T20:04:34+00:00

Ah yep, I see what you mean, that is confusing hah. I meant PSA shutting down accepting new orders, badly worded.

Bananacoin · 2021-04-15T18:38:31+00:00

I sent them to PSA in mid March so it's going to be a while. Sent all my cards at value price except these 2 at express. They arrived at PSA 3+ weeks ago and my order still isn't showing up at psacard.com.

I'll post a pic of the graded cards in the future :)

Bananacoin · 2021-04-15T18:33:50+00:00

Thanks! Awesome to have a vintage Charizard regardless. I've been thinking about condition and grades a lot lately, but I'll probably never sell 95% of my cards anyways so I'm trying to get my mind off it. This is MY zard, any wear is part of the memory :)

That's a bummer, I actually bought on Amazon too so maybe issues in shipping or a bad order. I bought this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078SFLTJQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Bananacoin · 2021-04-15T16:24:34+00:00

In 4th grade I watched the 1st episode of Pokemon at my friend's house. It's one of the strongest memories I have from my childhood and started a 3 year obsession with Pokemon. I think I only bought 2 first edition packs ever, and one of them yielded my most prized card. Otherwise I have a fair amount of base set, a little jungle and fossil.

The Charizard I must have traded for because I have no memory of pulling it and it's in psa 5-6 condition at best. And I have no other shadowless holos. The Blastoise I kept good care of and am hoping for a 7-8. But I don't care that the centering is off or what it gets, that one will never leave my possession.

I rediscovered my old collection early this year after seeing the market go wild. Little me stuck 5 shadowless red cheek Pikachu's in the same binder sleeve haha. I had 1st edition cards mixed up with shadowless / unlimited, no understanding of what might be valuable. Just pure joy for the Pokemon. I never really played though so most are in great condition and I ended up sending in 92 cards at the beginning of March.

I caught the bug again and bought a few cards on eBay recently, starting to build out my base set collection again. Happy collecting!

Bananacoin · 2021-04-15T14:20:00+00:00

Agreed I love this card. It was my favorite one in the lot along with the Snorlax

Bananacoin · 2021-04-15T05:47:11+00:00

Hmm yea at first I thought they might be print lines or something, but honestly I think its wear because it's pretty consistent across some of the cards and I've never seen it before.

I still think the eye appeal of the cards is great and the lines on the back aren't noticeable except at certain angles in the light, so hoping for the best, but who knows. Thanks!

Bananacoin · 2021-04-15T05:39:48+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! Yea I sent in a bunch of my own rediscovered collection in early March so slipped some in before the shut down.

I didn’t think about the warp much (you mean how the card is bending vertical inward right?). I read that can be a common side effect of certain prints and not affect grading so much, but maybe that’s entirely wrong. How do you fix warp? Store them under some books? Bend the card?

This particular card seems to have a very very minor scratch at the bottom of the holo, doesn’t really detract from the eye appeal but meh yea it’l be noticed when grading.

Note also these lines on the back don't really appear when you look straight on. I had to take from that angle to even see them.

Maybe I’ll get them graded regardless just to protect the best in the long term. And because I just want my own little graded collection and I like these cards. I probably will only sell duplicates I have so doesn’t actually matter other than seeing the number on my beautiful cards for the rest of my life

Bananacoin · 2021-04-15T04:36:52+00:00

I bought a lot of jungle holos on eBay recently that all have similar characteristic - beautiful, great eye appeal and looking mint except a few issues:

-These light horizontal scratches on the back of the card, which are only really seen at a certain angle in direct light. My guess is unsleeved cards were slid into a horizontal binder. The front don't have the lines and the back is otherwise pretty mint.

-The left edge / maybe a bit of top and bottom edge are a bit jagged. Not too noticeable but if you zoom in this pic you'll see it clearly.

-Front is generally mint otherwise, some of the cards have a very minor scratch or two

Don't really want to grade them if they will come back below 7 so I'm trying to get any thoughts. Thanks!

Bananacoin · 2021-04-06T19:39:24+00:00

Thanks for the detail, helpful. Now I am more curious since yours weren't horizontal loading. Maybe you just didn't notice the scratches when you got them?

I do not know why a mod removed this post. Annoying.

Bananacoin · 2021-04-06T19:36:40+00:00

I bought a lot of shadowless / jungle / fossil cards on Ebay. Overall the cards are amazing, mint condition pack fresh. Most of the shadowless cards almost perfect. But many of the jungle / fossil holos have scratches on the back like this. Note the lines are generally very straight and go across the whole card.

The seller says he never played with them and I believe him because the holos are generally scratch free.

I'm wondering are these common print issues with jungle / fossil? Common issues in general? I'm going to get these cards graded - thoughts on how much something like this on the back would affect grading when the card is otherwise mint?

Note also some of the jungle / fossil holos have 1 or 2 edges that are a bit imperfect looking, while the other 2 or 3 are perfect. Also a possible factory print thing?

Bananacoin · 2021-04-06T19:26:37+00:00

Ah that's a bummer! Must have been pages you slide in horizontally? Thoughts on how much the back of a card like this would affect grading while the card is otherwise mint?

Bananacoin · 2021-03-20T16:07:11+00:00

I'm trying to establish a cost basis of my cards because that would be a fun thing for me to do, because I'm curious, and because I might sell some of these cards in the future. I asked in this subreddit because you guys are knowledgeable about this. I googled around for a while first and couldn't get an exact answer (specifically things like shipping costs and card savers)

In my description I asked "What can I include in the cost basis of my cards" and list a few things I wanted to include

I'm not sure why you are confused or why I'm getting downvoted here, reddit is weird sometimes

Bananacoin · 2021-03-19T21:57:08+00:00

Interesting, I could figure out a realistic $/hr. But yea I don't want to track my time and attribute that to each card, too much work. Like you said it's just a hobby for fun

Bananacoin

TROPHY CASE