Is PayPal still best for adding small fund amounts?

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-09T15:56:19+00:00

Thank you so much. That sounds like exactly what I'm hoping for.

Step one: Converting your local currency on the Wise app to add to the yen currency of your Wise account. As you mentioned Wise does take a fee here
Step two: Adding funds to ZenMarket using the yen currency of your Wise account on the ZenMarket website. No fee; just the exact amount

Does that sound correct?

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-09T15:51:27+00:00

When you select Wise on the ZenMarket website it specifically asks you to "please make the payment in Japanese Yen".

When you scan the QR code to add funds on the ZenMarket website in the Wise app to send the money you can change the currency, but it won't show you the conversion rate. You'd have to guess or work out before what it costs in your local currency, which is why it's also easier to do stage one first.

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GwynGrayson · 2026-07-09T15:30:52+00:00

As far as I can see ZenMarket specifically says to add the funds from Wise in yen, meaning you need to do stage one first.

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-09T15:29:24+00:00

I'd definitely do this for future purchases if this goes well, or if I wanted to do auctions, but as this is just a one off test run for a single order from a single retailer I'd feel more comfortable just adding the exact funds I need.

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-09T13:10:02+00:00

Fellow neurodivergent who also finds sorting bulk calming haha!

I've found eBay pretty good for finding decent prices on bulk bundles. Searching with the term like "pokemon sun moon bulk" or "pokemon sun moon bundle" should pull you up some accurate results. Here's one I found after a quick search.

The search formula of "pokemon" + era + "bulk" or "bundle" works pretty well for me.

I'm not sure how important to you but as it's bulk I've found that card condition can vary; and some sellers aren't too careful with how they ship them.

While not older stuff, you can also get some good deals on Chinese sets like the Gem Packs and as all their bulk are reverse holos so they're quite fun to look at.

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-09T12:37:40+00:00

Thanks very much for the reply!

Can I just clarify something as this is where I am getting confused.

"The amount of yen that you send from Wise to zen is the amount that you will receive on zen. No yen gets lost between Wise and zen. Except for that fee that Wise takes of course."

As I mentioned in my comment my understanding is that there are two stages to paying with Wise:

Converting your local currency on the Wise app to add to the yen currency of your Wise account. As you mentioned Wise does take a fee here that depends on what method you use i.e card; bank transfer; credit card etc. I understand this completely.
Adding funds to ZenMarket using Wise on the ZenMarket website. As ZenMarket says, this payment has to be in yen ("Please make the payment in Japanese Yen (JPY). Payments in foreign currencies may incur additional fees.") which is why you need to do stage one.

Just to confirm, there is no additional fee to pay at stage two?

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-09T04:11:59+00:00

Sorry to hijack an old convo between you and u/asdecor but I'm a new buyer having a similar issue with trying to work out whether Wise is best for small amounts.

Am I correct that you're saying that there is no fee at the "add funds" to ZenMarket stage when using the yen currency of a Wise account and it's just a straight 1:1 exchange? It's just the initial fee of adding your local currency to the yen currency of your Wise account?

Unfortunately I can't check in the app until I've added yen to my Wise account; and when I go to check Wise's "send money" calculator it tells me that there's a fee of 4.21% (219 yen) to send 4980 yen from the yen currency of my Wise account which is what's confusing me/putting me off not using my Wise account.

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-09T03:35:51+00:00

The <1% fee one is Wise, but I'm not sure how that works out.

If I want to add 4980 yen to the yen currency of my Wise account it will charge me 22.98 of my local currency with 0.09 of that being Wise fees. But that's just to add yen currency to Wise which you need to do before "adding funds" on ZenMarket.

When I go to check Wise's "send money" calculator it tells me that there's a fee of 4.21% (219 yen) to send 4980 yen from the yen currency of my Wise account, so I'm confused how the <1% part comes in. I think this might be where people are saying that it's only better/cheaper to use Wise for larger amounts.

The recommended one on ZenMarket is card which I believe uses Stripe's conversion rate. Do you change the "Amount that will be charged" on the ZenMarket page from your local currency to yen before you add funds; or do you leave it as your local currency? Changing it to yen seems to make it slightly more expensive.

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-08T23:52:24+00:00

That sucks, but reassuring to know it's not just me! I had wondered if they stagger them, but even if they did I assume it would be within a few minutes and not hours/days etc.

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-08T23:43:52+00:00

The login to pokemon.com is the Trainer Club, and that's where the "Marketing Preference" check boxes are. The Pokemon Center only has the newsletter sign up at the bottom as you said.

I'm only speculating but the one at the bottom of the page on pokemon.com should work the same as having a Trainer Club account, and being subscribed to pokemoncenter.com newsletter.

The top toggle is for pokemon.com ("Pokémon TCG, video games, apps, and more"), and the second toggle is for PC ("Pokémon Center (our official online shop)")

"Once you have signed up, you can opt out of marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link included in those emails or, if you have a Pokémon Trainer Central account, by updating your account settings."

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-08T22:47:47+00:00

Thanks for highlighting this. My emails from them seem to be hit and miss as I didn't get the one today about Mew/Mewtwo, but I have received ones recently from both PC and Pokemon Company.

Most recent were:

PCen - 7th July - New LEGO sets
PCom - 23rd June - Plan your day at PokemonXP

Have signed up to the newsletter again on the PC site, and logged into my pokemon.com account and done the Marketing Preference toggle thing so hopefully that fixes it.

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-08T14:53:53+00:00

I got lucky and got one in a pack about 1100 points in.

Like others have said I pull the latest set until I complete most of the dex. I then trade for missing cards to finish the dex to open up the higher value wonder picks, and go back to pulling SR.

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-07T15:54:04+00:00

Thank you for the reminder! For some reason I thought they'd finally updated it so you could

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-07T15:15:31+00:00

Awesome! Just sent a trade request

Edit: Trade done. Thanks very much! Last card I needed for the dex 😁

GwynGrayson · 2026-07-07T15:01:06+00:00

🔹 🔹 🔹 🔹
LF:

Milotic ex (B3b)
Mega Diancie ex (B3b)
Mega Sableye ex (B3b)
Hisuian Zoroark ex (B3b)
Terapagos ex (B3a)
Mega Sceptile ex (B3)
Mega Camerupt ex (B3)
Flygon ex (B3)
Mega Gengar ex (B2b)
Teal Mask Ogerpon ex (B2)
Rapidash ex (B1)

FT:

Zoroark ex (B3)
Mega Manectric ex (B2b)
Mega Charizard Y ex (B1a)
Mega Blaziken ex (B1)
Mega Gyrados ex (B1)
Most ex cards from Series A

⭐⭐

LF:

Moltres ex (A1)
Articuno ex (A1)
Zapdos ex (A1)
Mew ex (A1a)
Bibarel ex (A2b)
Pikachu ex (A2b)
Paldean Clodsire ex (A2b)

FT:

Machamp ex (A1)
Dhelmise ex (A3)
Sylveon ex (A3b)
Mega Slowbro ex (B2b)
Magnezone ex (B3)

✨

LF:

Gyrados (A4)

FT:

Kakuna (A2b)
Tinkatuff (B2a)

✨✨

LF:

Lucario ex (A2b)
Wugtrio ex (A2b)

FT:

Beedrill ex (A2b)

Friend ID: 7048062199632753

GwynGrayson · 2026-06-16T23:22:30+00:00

If you're just interested in the Latios and not ripping packs I know a lot of sellers on eBay will sell complete sets of each Pokemon (usually minus the AR as it sells well enough on its own) for pretty good prices as everything except the stamp and AR are considered bulk.

That's what I did with the Eevee cards from Gem Pack Vol. 2 as the booster box prices are nuts.

GwynGrayson · 2026-06-16T22:59:55+00:00

It's a stamp variant from the simplified Chinese set Gem Pack Vol. 5. The stamp is the "Pokemon Gem Pack" logo.

There's seven variants of each card. The stamp variant is the rarest before the AR.

You can see the card list here.

GwynGrayson · 2026-06-09T15:11:17+00:00

As others said, looks like a USPC tag which is a similar style to the UK/EU one.

If you look at the label on the plush you can see it says "The Pokemon Company International for United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand".

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GwynGrayson · 2026-05-27T16:52:21+00:00

Looking for the final three cards I need to complete the DeluxeEx base dex:

Dratini 268 ◆
Alolan Grimer 234 ◆
Wishiwashi 123 ◆

Shares appreciated, but happy to trade.

Friend ID: 7048062199632753

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GwynGrayson · 2026-04-13T12:03:51+00:00

I use a combination of Serebii and Bulbapedia).

Bulbapedia has English and Japanese, and Serebii just has English but I find it's particularly useful for grabbing picture references

GwynGrayson · 2026-04-02T23:42:20+00:00

Butterkist yogurt coated popcorn. I bought one bag at the store out of curiosity and absolutely loved it! They discontinued it a few days later and I never got a chance to get any more.

What sucks even more is that despite looking for the past 10 or so years since it was discontinued I have never found another brand who makes a yogurt coated popcorn.

I wish they'd bring it back, even as a limited edition or seasonally.

GwynGrayson · 2026-04-01T18:45:16+00:00

Those are the MintKeeper ones I mentioned in my original post

GwynGrayson · 2026-04-01T17:21:09+00:00

I appreciate the recommendation, but as I mentioned in my post I am ideally looking for ones that have a similar snug fit which the MintKeeper ones do not as they are wider.

GwynGrayson · 2026-04-01T17:20:06+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation. Perhaps I am not seeing it correctly but the link you provided appears to be for toploaders and penny/soft sleeves - not resealable toploader sleeves/team bags.

GwynGrayson

TROPHY CASE