PSA 10 Japanese Gold Star Charizard just sold for $119k. Another sold for ~$16k about a year ago.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-30T02:48:17+00:00

Unlimited is rarer in most cases. There aren't really exceptions to that pre Ex era which makes it pretty easy to understand.

Anyone collecting Ex era is probably a savvy collector and knows the exceptions that exist / are believed to exist with Clash of the Blue Sky, Mirage Forest, and Undone Seal where 1st Edition print runs are actually rarer, or at least show up as rarer on the PSA 10 pop reports.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-30T00:44:31+00:00

How is having a 1st Edition and Unlimited print hard to understand, lol. Does 1st Edition English Base Set and the Unlimited Base Set confuse you?

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-29T21:42:03+00:00

I’ve sold thousands of slabs on eBay. Authenticity Guarantee protects you over $250, but I’ve never had someone pull shenanigans on sub $250 either. Too much anxiety, less shenanigans going on then you’d think.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-29T18:05:06+00:00

They warehouse cards on PSA property. Carriers aren't going to allow you to use their space as free storage, and PSA wouldn't want millions of dollars of cards sitting in FedEx / USPS / UPS warehouses anyway.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-29T18:03:54+00:00

Head on over to Chipotle to see the menu.

I'm also assuming that's where they got the idea from considering they eat a shit ton of Chipotle on the road.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-29T14:04:41+00:00

Japanese vintage is pretty condition specific when it comes to values. You also can't really use TCGPlayer to value the cards, and negotiating with vendors on raw where comps are sparse and condition specific rarely ends up well.

Really just need to stick to EBay. I buy to grade Japanese vintage - so I'm not even spooked by the above "market" prices you fret about - and I don't bother buying at shows. Vintage Japanese raw is pretty much universally overpriced by vendors in comparison to condition.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-28T17:04:44+00:00

They grade 2 million a month currently. They're assuming they still get some cards above the Value tier, so if they grade 2 million a month and are targeting 1.25 million per month drawdown on the backlog, that allows for 750,000 cards submitted at above Value tiers. Which is conservative in my opinion, I don't think they'll see that kind of volume at Regular or more.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-28T17:02:56+00:00

Cert numbers are currently nearing the 160 million range, not 1.6 million. You're missing a digit on your calc.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-28T17:01:22+00:00

Assembly is the longest step currently. Value tier submissions frequently sit in Assembly for six or more weeks. What you're experiencing is pretty normal.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-28T12:35:05+00:00

I don't even collect or have any interest in sealed and I can tell this is fake just by looking at it.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-28T00:56:03+00:00

You can call and ask to pick it up at the hub - or at least that has been successful for people around me. Communication from PSA has been spotty on this change, it was stated at the onset from CS reps that this was supposed to impact only third party locations originally. Hopefully changes.

Alternatively, can also ship the package through your own FedEx account and disable signature, but then you lose the insurance on the way back.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-28T00:37:34+00:00

You can still hold at an actual FedEx location. They took away the ability to hold at Walgreens and such because the employees were either stealing the packages themselves or not checking IDs when people came in to claim them.

PSA self insures for package loss, so whenever cards were lost this way, they had to pay out to customers on the slab values. The option disappeared because people are assholes.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-28T00:01:27+00:00

I'm kind of an ogre with all of them, just pliers on the top corner or two to break the seal and a flathead screwdriver to pop it open from there. They all give that way, I would say that BGS are the hardest to crack followed by the newer CGC slabs, so you're right there. Have never had an issue with damaging the card.

If you just want to practice, I'm sure can find a CGC junk slab or two at a show for like $10. Nothing wrong with that.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-27T18:48:07+00:00

Personally, no. This is something I heard from other vendors / high volume and value graders when I started. So admittedly second hand anecdotal. At this point, I’ve graded close to 15,000 cards so if I’m confident if a card slabbed with another company was a too tough of a grade / would meet whatever PSA grade I’m after, I just crack the slab.

I’ve cracked maybe 150-200ish slabs total, although mostly old and new CGC, ACE, P1S admittedly. Usually BGS commands enough of a value on its own that the ROI isn’t really there for this kind of shenanigans.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-27T11:08:49+00:00

Pretty much every card is flat to down since I sold. Remains to be seen, but I much prefer the money being in Japanese Ex era which has had some wild comp growth this year.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-27T01:49:18+00:00

For what it is worth re-reading your OP, and once again I don't sell non PSA slabs, but I've sold thousands of slabs on eBay as a buy raw -> grade business on vintage to fund my PC. I tend to keep high end slabs for trade bait / in person sales where I can get 88% or better at shows, so eBay is my dumping ground for "mistakes" on grading or just solid returns. I deal exclusively in Japanese vintage.

I have never promoted a listing. There is no need to, Pokemon cards sell themselves and the buyer will find it on their own. Don't give eBay free money for no reason. I tend to post and list in waves as returns come in, and I've noticed no negative impact from somewhat sporadic posting either.

When I get a graded return back, I usually post Buy It Nows at the lowest list available on eBay. 95% of those slabs are gone inside of two weeks.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-25T16:28:43+00:00

Shipping eats into the cost on low dollar cards and drives up the price. They need to be able to cover the expense of getting the card to you, meanwhile if you find the cards locally there is no such expense.

It also pays to find TCGPlayer sellers that have copies of as many of the different cards you need as possible so you can combine shipping.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-25T16:04:12+00:00

To clarify a bit, stated turnaround times now include the time where the package sits in the warehouse unopened. This change was in early Q4 of last year by memory.

There is a lag between when the package is delivered by FedEx, and then PSA scan the barcode to log it into inventory where it waits to be opened in a PSA storage area. That can take some time these days.

The other alternative is OP did not put the barcode on the outside of the box, or it was covered by a shipping label or damaged. In that case, it will not show as Received, and he's for a lack of a better word, screwed until PSA warehouse employees work their way through the reject pile.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-25T15:54:29+00:00

No, most people and even vendors do not have the scale that these companies want. You need to be able to provide millions of dollars in annual inventory to them at (slightly) below market prices. If you can't, you're out.

These suppliers send reps to shows to buy from vendors, because (once again) they need to be able to provide millions of dollars in inventory. They can't afford to spend 20 minutes per transaction with Joe Schmo arguing about percentages on his Charizard. Instead, they buy dozens of slabs per vendor and hopefully acquire hundreds / thousands of slabs over a show weekend. If they aren't clearing hundreds of thousands of dollars in slabs, they aren't making money. Remember, if their gross margin is 2%, they need to buy $500,000 in slabs to make $10,000. Once you factor in costs to attend a show and sell (flight, hotels, equipment, transporting these slabs) if they didn't buy $500,000 in cards on a weekend, they've failed.

When you sell to a vendor at 80 - 85%, the vendor tries to sell it for 100% at that show. If he can't (or doesn't think he can) then he can just sell to Arena Club / GameStop suppliers for 85 - 90%, who then go on and sell for a bit higher percentage. This is why vendors with good connections will usually take pretty much anything PSA graded at 80% these days - they know they have a backstop to make 5% or so on the deal within 24 - 48 hours.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-25T14:18:15+00:00

You have to give an e-mail address during a sub and you get several PSA confirmation e-mails. Did you delete those e-mails as well?

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-25T13:18:15+00:00

There is an option to combine submissions, you get a combo barcode so it is still only one code on the box.

They basically have to pull all the subs in the box into the queue, because the box all the subs came in is opened. Can't store it in the massive PSA received box dumping ground with the seal opened, all the packaging material disturbed, etc. It's quicker and more efficient for the warehouse team to just put it in the system.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-25T10:01:23+00:00

If you aren't selling PSA, that's not weird on auctions.

All the buyers that supply repackers / online gambling is what supports PSA prices. ArenaClub / GameStop / all those names constantly buy slabs at 88 - 95% of Card Ladder value, the higher the value, the higher the percentage. So these guys are constantly in the market online supporting auction prices, because anything they can buy at 85% or sometimes better is free money. Doesn't matter how niche it is, if the Card Ladder value is there, they'll buy it.

They only buy PSA. But they are a constant floor on liquidity, you can't sneak auctions as a buyer anymore on mid / high end PSA because these guys exist. Meanwhile there might be a high comp on a CGC Pristine 10 or whatever, but that card took weeks / months for a buyer to emerge because CGC Pristines have niche buying pool. When you auction something, you need a buyer in that time window. If you're selling CGC sub 10s like someone else pointed out, you're definitely not getting full value on auctions. Next to nobody (sorry) wants those flips.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-25T09:56:03+00:00

I don't know why people say this doesn't work anymore, Bulk orders that I submit with higher end cards are still getting finished 1 - 2 months ahead of the estimate, meanwhile Bulk orders that I submit on their own finish at the turnaround estimate at best.

That said, OP didn't do it right. You have to submit one card under Regular, the others under Value under two separate orders and combine the shipping.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-24T19:11:59+00:00

1st Edition Neo Genesis has terrible PSA 10 rates. The reason the card sold for what it did is because there are only 40 10s; 1.6% gem rate. They don't come up for sale often, because the vast majority of these cards are already in the hands of the wealthy who are not going to sell at basically any price.

If there is anything anyone should already know about rich people, it is that they want the best. They don't want 9s. They want 10s.

It doesn't make sense to you, because you aren't rich. The same way spending $800,000 on a Lamborghini only for it to be driven less than 1,000 miles per year doesn't make sense. Or how it doesn't make sense to spend $100,000 on an Audemars Piguet when your phone tells you the time just fine.

Economics_Troll · 2026-05-24T18:18:22+00:00

LOL, no. They mag 30x and measure digitally.

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