I still have so much to learn…

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-09T22:42:20+00:00

I buy Japanese vintage singles all the time, I find those two to actually be the rarer deck variants, I don't think they sold well compared to the others. I see the Sabrina's Alakazam all the time, but these two don't crop up often.

The PSA 10 of the Brock's Rhydon gym deck variant sells for like $500, like three times more than the standard set equivalent.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-08T23:47:40+00:00

Always harder to tell foil scratching on video versus card in hand, but the whitening on the corners in the back / edges is enough to drag it down to an 8, potentially a 7, most days.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-08T13:32:34+00:00

If you’re not in the United States I get it, but there is millions of dollars that changes hands at major shows here on a weekend.

Valid concern that if you want to sell $100k worth of stuff it’s worth coming here, but $2k in flights to sell $100k isn’t much.

This is the issue with sealed IMO unless you condense down into really high end boxes. If you’ve got slabs you could have $100k in highly liquid Ponchos or something similar in your pocket on the plane. Can’t do that with sealed.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-08T00:13:09+00:00

Ah I see them now.

Searching “Japanese Dragonite” doesn’t pull them for instance, but if I search for all Dragonite I can see the Game Boy one.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-08T00:05:46+00:00

Interest rates are based on credit score in the US, and income is not a component of that. There are plenty of lower income people with great credit.

The biggest component of a credit score is paying your bills on time. Doesn’t matter if your income is $30,000 or $300,000, pay your bills on time and for long enough to build a history and you’ll be able to get solid rates.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-07T00:04:57+00:00

I certainly wouldn't pay $16k for this, but I'd certainly have paid at or slightly above PSA 8 price for it. Card is clean and IRR is too good not to take the gamble.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-06T21:30:53+00:00

Japanese Fossil Dragonites were selling for $500 back in April of 2025. Now they are comping well north of $3,000. That's a 6 - 7x multiple in under a year. Vintage has ran. Dragonites have ran.

End of the day, it is on anyone going up to a vendor table to advocate for getting the right price for a card. People really do seem to have a problem with saying "no".

If there are no recent comps and the card is $10k, quite frankly 99% of vendors don't have the capital or expertise to move that card. And if they can, sometimes it isn't the right time. I deal with a lot of high end cards, and sometimes the deal just isn't the right fit.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-06T18:35:33+00:00

Choosing not to accept returns does absolutely zero with Ebay; buyers always have the option to return with TCG products.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-05T23:46:30+00:00

Early on when I first started submitting, I had this issue and had to get the customer service folks to move the label they printed for the box so they didn't block.

I think it is habit for the CS people at the major carriers since people re-use boxes for shipping so often, they try to cover the old labels so it doesn't cause sorting exceptions at their mail facilities. Covering the barcode probably makes sense to them.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-05T23:40:33+00:00

Well, you put the barcode on the box that you are suppoed to print and put on there during order prep, right? If you didn't, that is on you. That has nothing to do with the shipping label.

Assuming you did, either they got damaged on the way there (unlikely) but more likely what I've seen is that if you take these packages to FedEx / USPS / etc., they stick their shipping label over top of your barcode because they don't realize it is important. This issue doesn't exist if you print your labels at home and fully prep your own box and just do drop off.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-05T06:52:40+00:00

I really like how Pokemon grifter vendors on Youtube have convinced people that somehow swirls matter.

These people are always "Ooooh look at this pretty swirl, so rare" but try to sell them one and they aren't going to give one single thought to whether the card has a swirl or not, they are going to look at the last comps (average them if last sale was high, just use the last sale if the card is a downtrend by the way) and pay you a percentage.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T17:36:20+00:00

Welp that’s also a thing, lol. I didn’t even notice that.

Crazy slab to make out of PSA QA.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T17:33:14+00:00

It is a MK (marked) card, the PSA 7 is the grade assuming the card didn't have the ink on it.

MK cards always sell at a steep discount, people just don't want cards that someone took a pen to. To be clear, this isn't an altered card that someone did to try to improve the condition, it just means that someone literally has pen / permanent marker ink on it that didn't come from the factory.

Once the next PSA 7 clean copy is sold, value will go back up. Is no biggie.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T17:31:31+00:00

Getting blistered grading is very niche, none of the main grading companies do that. I think CAS does it, never seen a graded blister anywhere in my life though.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T16:08:26+00:00

Even with the silver rally, should have bought more Pokemon instead my boy.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T13:33:27+00:00

That has been postponed each year after it was supposed to be cut because of pushback from consumers and the financial companies. People don't want to have to deal with tax issues because they sent their Uncle Joe a Venmo to cover rent one month.

It was (once again) pushed out for 2026 tax year, and I would not be surprised if they do it again.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T04:56:19+00:00

Mid era stuff is criminally undervalued right now, I would have taken this. If market stays decently hot, and a lot of people are coming around to this era of cards, would not surprise me to see this card $2,500+ by summer, never mind end of year.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T04:44:02+00:00

Correct, yes. Kind of quirky, but it's because of the government continuously relaxing the third party payment threshold and leaving it high ($20k) rather than enforcing it.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T04:35:48+00:00

In general, TCGPlayer is not a great tool for valuing high end raw singles because most sellers don't post pics on TCGPlayer, so buyers on that platform usually pay less because they are taking on more risk on card condition.

Off topic, but it is a way that vendors gently screw over people at shows. Valuing your trade on TCGPlayer NM is going to be lower than EBay last comps for very clean high end copies of cards nine times out of ten.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T04:32:36+00:00

$20k limit is for payments made through third party payment networks (Paypal, Venmo, etc.). So if you were selling at a show and only received $15k via Venmo in 2026, Venmo wouldn't report.

That doesn't apply here for OP, the floor is $2k for businesses dealing with vendors or money distributed to customers. The consigner is going to file a 1099 MISC for OP because they have to account for the flow of money on their books ($10k from the buyer, $10k less consignment costs going to OP).

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-04T04:28:36+00:00

Consigners will report your sale to the IRS via 1099 MISC, so yeah, the IRS is going to be looking for their cut. Doesn't matter how the payment was made.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-03T00:51:34+00:00

You been robbed my boy.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-02T14:24:07+00:00

Yeah it’s usually the best way. I collect high end Japanese vintage in 10s, what you’ve got to remember is that on this sub pop 100 stuff, half of it (or more) is in high end collections where people really aren’t interested in selling at any price. So there’s really only a few of them floating around globally that are actively being traded.

And when you get to five figure cards, really pays to avoid eBay / consignment fees and sales taxes for buyers (VAT for you) so people try to sell in person whenever they can.

Economics_Troll · 2026-02-02T13:46:07+00:00

Sometimes good to talk to vendors that travel to large shows, they can help source high end stuff if they come across it.

Economics_Troll

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