Pokemon Investments ARE NOT LIQUID ANYMORE...

[00:00:00]Folks, welcome back to Nostalgianomics.

[00:00:04]Do you have whiplash yet from the public perception shifts in the market? Right?

[00:00:08]First, 30th anniversary was getting pre-released, the queues were super long, hours long, and everyone was hyped. And then, Pitch-Black Chaos Rising Perfect Order started to drop, so everyone was calling a market crash.

[00:00:22]But then, the Sam's Club lines were wrapped around the building at all the Sam's Club for the Ascended Heroes drop, so now the bull market's back on, and everyone's like, "Can't figure out which way we're going."

[00:00:33]And it's why it's so dangerous to get wrapped up in social media and what the public perception is by all the people who are chronically online having to make something out of every little move.

[00:00:44]And so, what I hear a lot about in summer, especially, is the liquidity of items is low.

[00:00:51]And we also hear how you can't dump these items and get what they're worth, Alex. I don't care what the TCG Player price says. You can't just get that amount for them. So, we're going to put that to the test. I'm going to show you some sales data that's happening right now in the middle of summer, and we're going to see how liquid your investments are. If you literally just wanted to throw them at auction, get out for whatever someone's willing to pay, and get a nice overall view of how strong or weak the market really is. Before we get into all that good stuff, I do want to shout out today's video sponsor. It is Steve at tacticaltrading.us.

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[00:01:32]Everything ships from the US. If you put an order in, it usually ships out the same day, if not next day. Um, and you know you're getting official Chinese products. Um, you usually get your product early, uh, because they'll get they'll get their uh, shipments in early than a lot of others will. Also, if you want to go to their site, go to wholesale registration. You can actually sign up as a business. If you can uh, if you upload your reseller permit, you can actually get tax exempt through them, so you won't be paying that sales tax. So, that way when you go to sell to the end customer, uh, you can actually make more margin on it. So, make sure make sure to go sign up, guys. Check out their full catalog. It's truly the best place you can go for Chinese product. If you want to reach out to Steve directly, you can check him out on Instagram as Tactical Trading on Instagram, and he can help you out there. The link will be in the description in the comment section below.

[00:02:16]All right, guys. Let's start out with Paldea Evolved.

[00:02:20]Paldea Evolved. Here's the last three auctions.

[00:02:23]Last three auctions. We've got a sealed case here.

[00:02:26]We've got an opened case here, and we have another sealed case here, all ending in the last 2 days.

[00:02:31]Okay, so with shipping anywhere from 2900 up to almost $3100 average. We'll average it out right here around $3000 a case. Even an open case is getting that.

[00:02:43]TCG price. I'm not I'm not going to I'm not going to cherry-pick. I know this is one seller that listed it down at 2650.

[00:02:50]But, look at everyone else.

[00:02:52]The market price, guys, is 2950.

[00:02:56]Meaning, if you want instant liquidity, you can throw it at auction and get instant liquidity at full market price.

[00:03:02]By the way, all of these are Pristine Auctions, meaning you're only paying 5% fees. You can liquidate Paldea Evolved right now by the case and get 95% of full market value in the middle of summer.

[00:03:19]That doesn't scream a bear market. That doesn't scream a hobby that is not strong.

[00:03:26]That doesn't scream illiquidity to me.

[00:03:29]Destiny Rivals.

[00:03:31]Last auction at Destiny Rivals right here. 3276 plus 40 shipping, over $3300.

[00:03:39]Destiny Rivals full market price, 3299.

[00:03:45]Full market price, throwing it at a 7-day auction.

[00:03:50]Again, sold by Pristine Auctions. Send it to them, sell it for you. Only going to charge you 5%.

[00:03:56]95% payout at full market price.

[00:04:01]Infinite liquidity in the summer, apparently.

[00:04:03]Let's look at a lackluster set. I know those were those were hard because they're they're, you know, sets that are in demand, everyone loves them. How about Shrouded Fable? Surely Shrouded Fable's getting crushed in the summer, right?

[00:04:14]$1,250 plus 40 shipping. DC Sports, another consignment service offering What is it? 4 or 5% fees for anything over a thousand?

[00:04:23]So, 1290 with shipping.

[00:04:27]$1,300 market price. So, I know people what they do to try to, you know, prove we're slowing down, they'll go show the sales data and be like, "Alex, no one's bought that since June 25th."

[00:04:39]No one here, but this auction just ended July 14th.

[00:04:44]In the middle of summer, just throwing it at auction. Getting $50 away from full market price and only paying 4 or 5% fees.

[00:04:54]Is that not liquidity?

[00:04:56]Seems Seems liquid to me.

[00:04:58]Journey Together?

[00:05:00]$1,625 case plus 40 shipping.

[00:05:06]1594 plus 24 shipping.

[00:05:09]It's selling for over market price on an auction on eBay ending July 20th, two days ago from filming this video.

[00:05:18]Tell me again how you just can't liquidate your Pokémon when you want to.

[00:05:23]Phantazmal Flames?

[00:05:26]Last auction ended yet last night.

[00:05:28]$2,600 plus 20 shipping.

[00:05:31]2589 plus 25 shipping.

[00:05:35]Over market price.

[00:05:37]Full market.

[00:05:40]Liquidated it. 7-day auction. No waiting.

[00:05:43]Let's look at slabs.

[00:05:45]Umbreon VMAX.

[00:05:47]Lowest list I can find right now. This one's from Canada. You can take that one if you want. But the lowest list outside of Canada is 4,600. The Canadian listing's just under 4,600.

[00:05:56]Last auctions 4,650, 4,550.

[00:06:04]Mega Charizard 2,000 buy it now right under that 2025 auction. Look at that. That's the best That's the best right there. 2,000 buy it now sold by PSA directly. 2025 at auction.

[00:06:18]Here's the buy it now's right now, guys.

[00:06:20]20 2050.

[00:06:22]All right.

[00:06:24]The last one I threw on here is a Mega Gengar, right? 2275 at auction. There's a 2350 buy it now right under it by PSA.

[00:06:31]If we look at the lowest list right now, you can find one right now for 2250 or best offer on the market right now.

[00:06:38]Full market price.

[00:06:42]Let's talk, guys.

[00:06:45]I know I get on here all the time and try to warn you not to get too wrapped up in social media because the public perception of this bubble that is social media where it's the same I don't know. Let's call it 10,000 to 100,000 people. It's the same 10 to 100,000 people going around and watching all of these different Pokémon market investing channels.

[00:07:06]They're in all the same Discords together, right? They're in all the same comment sections, the same Instagram post comment sections, the same TikTok comment sections. It's all the same people regurgitating the same things that they heard some of their content creator favorites say.

[00:07:23]And when public perception shifts and, you know, some brand new sets that are weak are going down in value, right?

[00:07:30]Um even I would have said we're going through an ultra-modern correction right now, right? The sets like Chaos Rising, Pitch Black, Perfect Order. I didn't say we're going through Someone said my last video, "Pick a side. Which which one are you?" I I I'm on the same side I've always been on. I said we're going through an ultra-modern correction. Scarlet Violet's not, Sword and Shield's not, they're flat. They're not doing much right now, but they're not dropping and they're still selling like I just showed you. They're selling at full market price at auction, full liquidity, whenever you want.

[00:08:01]And so don't get too wrapped up in what's happening with a little segment of the market or what this little social media space and what some people that have some followers and subscribers have to say because the market is millions and tens of millions and hundreds of millions of people wide worldwide.

[00:08:20]Right? They're the ones buying the stuff on eBay. They're the ones buying all these things at card shows and from retail stores. It's not this small little nucleus of people that are the loudest on social media and so it gets everyone freaked out and in a panic and a frenzy and worried about this or that.

[00:08:36]You know, messaging me all the time worrying about this or that. Guys, chill.

[00:08:41]I I just showed you everything is looking solid. If anything, in the middle of summer, I would expect those auctions to be ending say 10% under market price, but they're not.

[00:08:54]The fact that they're not is even a a crazier bullish point because in the summer at with low liquidity, when you need to liquidate, you would expect to get less, right? You already expect if you don't auction, it's always it's always a gamble. I I might get a little less at auction cuz it might not have the right eyes right then. The fact that you're not getting less and it's summer and you're getting sometimes over market, I think it's insane to look past kind of read into it anymore.

[00:09:19]Guys, it's no secret.

[00:09:21]Pitch black, perfect order, chaos rising. They have their goods and bads, right? Like everyone's going to love that Darkrai. There's going to be people that chase that in the future. The Greninja, right? People are going to like that line. They're going to chase that. They're going to chase some Charizards in perfect order, but these sets are not Fantasmal Flames.

[00:09:37]These sets are not Ascended Heroes, right? They're just not that. And so, expecting these sets perform like these other sets have, you're kind of dreaming. And then going to Journey Together, people are like, "Well, why isn't Journey, you know, why didn't Journey crash then?" Journey Together had a box topper. It Journey Together, by the way, did go down to $199.99 when it had its second wave.

[00:09:57]But again, it's about a box topper that was worth $20.

[00:10:01]Take that box topper out, maybe it would have hit 180 like these other boxes are, right? And so, other than that set, there hasn't been any weak sets released. Searching for Sparks is the beginning of the boom. Searching for Sparks is great, right? Prismatic, let's not get started there.

[00:10:15]Destiny Rivals, black and white, mega evolution base, best base set I've seen.

[00:10:20]Phantasmal Flames, Ascended Heroes, there haven't been any other weak sets.

[00:10:25]And so, uh that's that's my take right now, guys. Um I wouldn't read into it too much.

[00:10:30]Obviously, some of the I talked about before, some of the ultra-modern slabs corrected a bit that were way too overvalued. Um obviously, some of these weaker sets are are kind of stabilizing and finding a market price that that suits them, you know, kind of a a normalized market price that makes sense, right? Whatever whatever be $5 a pack for the weaker sets, makes sense, right? But seeing the lines at Costco, people like just fighting over Ascended Heroes, seeing the queues hours long for these 30th anniversary products, seeing GameStop sell out continuously of them, I think we're making too much of the last few sets and it's not indicative of the entire hobby, the entire market. Um so, take that for what you will. Hope you enjoyed the video and I'll be back in a new one soon. I'm out.