My Pokemon Card Collecting/Investing Strategy 2024

⭐ If you are buying TCG (Pokemon, YuGiOh, MTG, etc.) or Sports card products, below are my affiliate links to websites I trust and constantly use ⭐
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in myself earning a commission at no extra costs to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the Amazon Associate and eBay Partner Network.
▶️ Amazon.com: amzn.to/49pmZfv
▶️ Amazon.ca: amzn.to/49nmK4p
▶️ eBay.com: ebay.us/UPijNW
▶️ eBay.ca: ebay.us/9dku6l
▶️ TCGplayer: tcgplayer.pxf....
▶️ Fanatics Collect (Previously PWCC Marketplace): pwccmarketplac...
▶️ Save 10% on Vault X Binders (USE CODE: TCGCollector): us.vaultx.com/...
▶️ Save 5% on Hobbiesville.com (USE CODE: TCGCollector) : hobbiesville.c...
✅ Thank you for watching! Please consider liking/subscribing for more Pokemon card content and giveaways!
✅ If you are new, Hi! I am TCG Collector and I enjoy collecting Pokemon cards. I would love to have you join me as I do pack openings and other Pokemon related videos!
✅ Connect with me:
Email: [e-mail]
✅ Disclaimer: The video reflects my own personal opinion. This should not be taken as financial advice (I am not a financial advisor) and should be viewed for entertainment purposes. Please base your financial decisions on your own research!
#Pokemon #Pokemoncards #PokemonTCG

[@skylerwheeler3974]

My friends and i all made a killing in the boom. We werent investors we were collectors and you know what we all had. Psa 9 cards. Selling base unlimited charizards i spent 50 bucks on for like 6k. The real money was made by collectors not "investors". A tthe end of the day its cardboard they dont produce anything. Nobody knows whats going to happen. Just have fun.

[@TCGCollector]

Thanks for sharing! That's really good to hear - I wouldn't say I'm an "investor" rather than someone that wants to make their dollar stretch in the hobby. Nice to hear that others also collect PSA 9s seeing that the majority of people only want the 10s... Congrats on your collection

[@sunnybunny50]

I think that alt arts are def being driven by hype but some of them look absolutely amazing which I can see why theyre bring up so high.

[@TCGCollector]

Yeah, agreed - Love the art but I am skeptical at how fast those prices increased.Look forward to picking those up when they come back down

[@elvistcg]

People don’t know older eras, even as early back as XY most people have never seen some of the chases, let alone older eras. Value is largely based on popularity. I have some older low pop slabs and the value is measly compared to Sword and Shield

[@TCGCollector]

Agree with you! I think a lot of people entered the hobby in recent years and the majority of content on social media and KZbin is based around SWSH so I can see why a lot of people may not be looking at the older eras. I think it could also be due to the lack of popularity that deters people away from older generations. I can't complain too much on that though as I am able to find auctions at low prices for cards that I have a deeper connection with (eg. childhood cards). Thanks for checking out the video!

[@auswolf9507]

I would be avoiding the cards going up to stupid unrealistic prices. It is not organic growth or genuine interest, the only genuine interest is in the inflated price tag attached to the card and not the card itself. Conflict of interest is very much a big problem with these youtuber pokemon "investors" or Pokemon advice "Guru" influencers. Pump and dump and buyout groups very much exist. Most of what is available on the free open market for sale is a drop in the bucket compared to what is actually out there sitting in private collections and private companies. I am talking houses, sheds, storage units and warehouses full of sealed TCG product as well as singles.

[@TCGCollector]

I agree. I believe parts of the hobby have increased in value overtime due to organic interest and limited supply but the prices right now increased way too fast for something that is mass printed. Again, I could be totally wrong but personally I have way more interest in older, more established sets. Thanks for checking out the video.

[@alwaysecin]

Well said

[@auswolf9507]

Each to there own with whatever people want to do. I just don't want newcomer collectors getting led astray or collectors who see Pokemon cards as "investments" getting left holding the bag as they say.

[@TCGCollector]

Exactly - that's one of the main purposes of this video. Not really trying to change people's minds on what they collect but maybe let the newer collectors see a different perspective.

[@GamingSwe]

Have you looked at the chasers from Call of legends? SL1-SL11. Great looking cards and PSA 9 prices are decent compared to boosters/blisters

[@TCGCollector]

Sorry for the late reply but yes, that are definitely on my radar. I think they are gorgeous cards with a limited print run. Also love the silver borders. However, I'm currently just focused more on Lv.X and ex cards as those are cards I grew up with. Do you collect them?

[@beepurplepoker6839]

I applaud you for this video. There is very low intrest in vintage now a days compared to the modern market. The art work is beautiful on the ultramodern no doubt but they are simply so plentiful in the market, if people want to "invest" flip or make a quick buck it is prolly possible to do with Ultramodern. But i believe in pokemon for the long run, and the scarcity especially in gold stars to me is very underestimated. 5 -10 20 years down the line pokemon might be an after thought but if the interest is still alive at that point when the younger generation has adult money i think we can see another big pump in the vintage market

[@TCGCollector]

Thanks for your kind words and checking out the video. Agree with you! There’s a lot of attention since everyone can find them in store shelves but not sure how memorable these sets will be.

[@x828_MXNU3L]

great video, i collect the same way… everything i’ve picked has been for a fraction of “ market “ it just requires a lil bit of discipline. psa 9s are great also, i mainly collect wotc psa 10 japanese but also first edition wotc psa 9s 🖤

[@TCGCollector]

That's awesome! I love those wotc PSA 9s as well. The difference between 9 and 10 Japanese isn't as drastic as English so I would've likely done something similar to you as well. I'm currently trying to focus on my mid-era stuff. Thanks for checking out the video and appreciate the kind words :)

[@SDCISHERE]

Boom

[@TCGCollector]

Thanks bro!

[@FrisianLunatic]

Agreed 100%

[@TCGCollector]

Thanks for checking out the video! Appreciate it

[@DiceAndDigital]

Cool insight, and like you shared your insights from science too. I wonder if soon AI will be grading cards, I wouldn't be surprised if someone is trying Bing and Chat GPT to find small flaws - would be interesting to use AI at home to rate cards, and send the best off for official grading. Nice content man!

[@TCGCollector]

Thanks for checking out the video! Yeah - that would be great concept to be able to pregrade your cards. Definitely in the future, I think grading should be all computer based to take subjectivity out of the equation.

[@Theu131]

Did you follow your own advice and buy all the alt arts last year when they were all 50% of their current value ?

[@TCGCollector]

No - my advice is to buy what’s not hyped and inflated. I bought what I enjoyed (which wasn’t hyped) and I don’t regret not buying those alt arts cause there was no way anyone could’ve known for sure that they were going to jump in price

[@hugocerdeira9341]

Great video, any place for one to track the chase cards for sets? ro do you just go off bulbapedia

[@TCGCollector]

Thanks for checking out the video! Appreciate it. I’m not aware of any sites that can track it well so I just opted to make my own excel spreadsheet of the main chase cards I’m going after right now (eg. ex or DP era)

[@sunnybunny50]

what's your thoughts on TAG grading where they use AI to grade? wouldn't have bias

[@JediMasterT]

I work in AI, and I have serious doubts that any of these "AI companies" are actually using AI...and even AI has a margin of acceptable error.

[@TCGCollector]

The idea is great - I definitely think computer-based AI grading should be the future and I think the grade would hold more merit. But as the other comment said, I believe AI requires quite an extensive training dataset so it may take some more time for the technology to mature and to know what's considered the "right" grade.

[@TCGCollector]

It does require a large data set right to train the model? I work with some colleagues that use AI and it seems like it needs a lot of training before it's accurate enough.

[@JediMasterT]

@@TCGCollector very very large data sets which I am sure that exists but what would they use it for? Maybe identifying the card I can see that as a tool for the grader to help expedite the process. In terms of grading the card what is AI going to do that a simple scan and measuring can’t do? I just don’t get it personally. I think most of these companies are taking advantage of AI as a buzz word more than anything which is annoying.

[@jameswa4013]

Sword and Shield is Base Set 2.0. It brought everyone back into the hobby and the nostalgia for this era shouldn’t be underestimated. SWSH sealed product is the only place to put money in right now. Evolving skies is so under valued and will reach $2k in 2 years time

[@crumplehornedsnorcack]

I’d argue 151 brought more people back and will have a longer lasting impact on a wider range of people than SWSH can ever have.

[@jameswa4013]

@@crumplehornedsnorcack Covid/lockdown brought everyone back which was in the SWSH era. Some additional people got back in with 151 but most of us got back in with SWSH

[@TCGCollector]

Agree with you in that SWSH did bring a lot of people back including myself. However, I feel like there's other areas I like/enjoy more if I was to spend money in this hobby. Love the alt art cards for sure but they also printed a lot of them so I am not confident if these prices would hold... Just my personal opinion. Thanks for sharing!

[@TCGCollector]

Would add celebrations was also a great set that brought some people back too but yeah the boom in Pokemon occurred during the SWSH era so I think a large proportion of adults collecting likely started during that time.

[@JediMasterT]

At the end of the day, I think people need to pick a number that they are comfortable with for whatever card they are after. Patience is key in this hobby and I get it's hard cause FOMO is inherent in the hobby. Modern, specifically ultra modern is being pumped super hard right now and I do think the floor is going to drop out on some of these cards...that being said, even if they continue to go up, I'm with you...The number of cards that are available to you in the 800-1500 range is WILD and the fact that people are eating up ultra modern alt arts at that price makes my head spin... I think that itself may be the reason some of these cards are skyrocketing though also, people are trying to get on the train while the train is cruising and as soon as it derails the dump will be massive.

[@TCGCollector]

Exactly - totally agree with you. I think patience is important and not simply going out and buying whatever the big-named KZbinrs are buying/talking about. I much rather spend that money on cards that are overlooked and that I have a deeper connection with (eg. cards from my childhood). Love the artworks of modern cards I can't like some of the current prices... Thanks for checking out the video!

[@justinalexander4166]

Gold stars were really 1 in 72? I didn’t realize how common they were. When you look at alt arts and see some at 1-500 or higher it’s no surprise to see higher prices.

[@FrisianLunatic]

When you take the booster pack price into consideration its not 'common' to pull them

[@TCGCollector]

On face value, yeah it doesn’t seem extremely hard to pull but a very small minority of people were collecting (large majority were children) at the time let alone protecting these chases case. As a result, Pokémon printed a fraction of the cards back then as well during that low time in the hobby. I think this 1in72 number would be significantly higher if you normalize by the packs that were actually produced

[@KingLugia2022]

Definitely disagree. The alts have the pull rates in S&S of 1000 of packs. 72 for a gold stars is nothing.

[@TCGCollector]

Agree with you on the pull rate. However, the limited print run back when the hobby wasn’t popular made these packs pretty hard to find (especially today). This is also reflected in the prices of the sealed product. Also, the fact that these cards were opened mainly by kids during a time before Pokémon had any real value associated with it. I believe a lot more cards would’ve been damaged or even thrown out which is a lot less likely for modern chase cards being pulled today.

[@FrisianLunatic]

​@@TCGCollectormodern has been printed a crapload, their recent spike is pretty odd

[@dannimals_den3848]

This is an incorrect comparison. While specific Alt arts have a horrendous pull rate (I have no idea what that could be it may be as you say 1/1000) you can expect a very similar rarity pull rate of Alts and gold stars. Alt arts I am sure are something like 1/2 or 3 boxes which is the same as gold stars. Specific alt arts in terms of pull rates may be more difficult to hit but that is simply an increased gambling effect from TPC introducing more alt arts. Most GS sets only have 2-3 GS and most alt art sets have probably 5-10.

[@jameswa4013]

@@FrisianLunatic SWSH is base set 2.0. It brought everyone back into the hobby with the most beautiful artwork of any era. If you can understand why they are going up then you shouldn’t invest in Pokemon

[@FrisianLunatic]

@@jameswa4013 lmao

[@Tyler-du3yl]

These cards you have lined up are ass compared to the actual best cards in the hobby lol so your opinion is basically mute

[@TCGCollector]

Thanks for your opinion!