th-cam.com/users/live0oQ5pOJdo-M?feature=share Did a livestream a couple days going over the latest info. Just skip the beginning until it starts. Thanks for watching and commenting!
151 is a subset with no booster boxes in English. Historically, Japanese exclusive cards do very very well over time. I think you have this very wrong but time will tell.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Like I mentioned in the video, it's a great set, no doubt about it. I agree that this is a solid set long term. Wouldn't buy any boxes at these prices since there are better ways to spend your money. But that's a different topic altogether. My point was that many people think Master Balls specifically will do something that I believe they won't, and I presented reasons for why that might be the case. I see people buying PSA 10s of Master Balls thinking it's a good investment when those prices will almost certainly come down, etc. There is very little information out there in terms of telling people about potential risks/downsides. That's what I tried to do. The common sentiment is, "Master Balls are great; they will make you rich." The reasons I presented in this video offer a different perspective for people to consider before purchasing. People forget that there are always pros AND cons. When no one online talks about the cons, you know something is off.
@kleinle522 You’re right that “Japanese exclusive cards do very very well over time.” But that’s based on the past where JP exclusives weren’t being bought en masse by people outside of Japan. Even during the 2020/2021 boom folk weren’t buying entire cases of Japanese sets outside of maybe Eevee Heroes. Japanese 151 will never be worthless, but it’s highly likely that the cards from that set (including Master Ball holos) stay stagnant for years to come.
@@Dark_ibex I do think the price of PSA 10's, even after it hits that ceiling due to oversupply, will have residual appreciation that will follow the price of the raw cards as they go up. And given these masterballs are exclusives of a specialty set from japan, I think raw will retain and accrue value overtime. At that point, any gains from PSA 10's will just be correlated with gains the raw accrues. If I were to "invest" in these, I would do so with the intention to gain the grading premium of a 10 associated with the increasing price of the raw card, NOT the grading premium "race to the bottom" margin that someone gets from selling due to first to market/low pop/scarcity plays.
Great video, I started off disagreeing with you but by the end of your video I would have to agree. I think sealed Japanese 151 boxes will do well over time but the master balls really don’t have that much going for them other than the unique reverse holo pattern.
Master balls are going up in value... Like Gyarados Mewtwo Pikachu Gengar... And I think the value of 151 is that they have the original Pokemon which is amazing it will never go out of style... This set brought me back to Pokemon cards amazing set and original... Can't go wrong with that... And the fact that American 151 didn't have master balls was a turn off.. I haven't bought one set in English everything that I have from 151 is Japanese.... Fire 🔥🔥🔥
Honestly I think the reverse pokeballs are neat enough. Has been a bit of a struggle though finding my favorites with low/less obvious print lines for sure. Masterballs are neat but not enough to justify the price for me personally.
Yup, the regular reverses look great too! But yeah, print lines are a bummer. PSA is so weird too when it comes to print lines. For some sets/card types they don't care but when it's a reverse holo, automatic 9. They should pick a side. Either be ok with print lines or not...
I bought 4 boxes, 1 had very good pulls and was completely correct with the master ball and so on. 2 others had no masterball and then the last one had 3. Has anyone also had such errors?
Hmmm, you probably had some resealed boxes. Those pull rates are definitely not normal. Scammers will open a box to find the heavy packs and then reseal the box with other dud/light packs. Master Balls just being reverse holos probably means that they are not really weighable, hence why you ended up with a box that had 3. Other scammers will open packs until they hit the Master Ball, after they've already removed all the heavy packs. Probably why you had 2 boxes with no Master Balls. How were the other pull rates in those boxes? Did you pull an SR or higher per box? How many ARs per box? I'm pretty sure you got resealed boxes. If the other pull rates were off too then it is 100% (to me it already is, given the weird Master Ball pull rates). I'd try and get my money back if I were you if it isn't too late already. Sucks that this happened but hopefully you maybe now know what to look out for when buying boxes. Stay away from secondary market places...
For the price I have bought masterball holos (1-4000yen currently), on the long run I think they will be worth this price and I would guess at least 3-5x multiplication even with possible reprint and the Christmas set. With no English whatsoever and the fact that only 1 masterball can be pulled per booster box (which will stay around 170-200 $ on the long run) some of them will be extremely expensive, I would say even 3-500$ range if not more. For me, all cards go straight to BGS and PSA and I'll put them on display for myself personally. Another addition to this thought line, English sets are kind of overprinted at the moment (for example Paldea Evolved), but Japanese sets even with made-to-order options allowing only 1 box to be bought from PCJ, we will see an upward trend and returning to Japanese cards, however I would guess that prices being so high, the market would be considerably smaller (not counting if you sell a masterball psa 10 for example Nidoking, I would guess that card will go at least 300$ in 3 years, but a lot of cards are my favorites, for example Scyther, Kabutops [underrated], Gloom, Articuno, Pidgeot, etc. Anyhow great content.
Thanks so much for watching! I really appreciate you taking the time to write this comment. I think some of the negatives I brought up definitely hold up. As I mentioned in the video, while the print-to-order was technically 1 box per person, there were plenty of ways to get around that. So many people got a hold of more than 1. There is even someone in the comments here who managed to do it. 151 is for sure printed like crazy. All it takes for the value of these to stagnate or even drop is a dip in interest. That may seem hard to imagine right now, but is almost guaranteed to happen. Will people talk as much about master balls in a few years? Highly doubt it. The PSA 10 pops will also be fairly high. For example, the Pikachu already has close to 900 PSA 10s, about 200 more since I recorded this video. Cards can certainly stay expensive even if there are several thousand PSA 10s, however, future growth is really hard. Are these good cards? Yes. Are there a lot of them out there that will become PSA 10s? Yes. The Charizard example shows what a growing PSA 10 population combined with a decrease in interest can cause. I think the master balls will always remain attractive to collectors, but I believe that if there is any growth at all, it won't be as much as a lot of people think. Yes, they are hard to pull, and yes, Japanese sets are still being printed less than English sets (but also less interest in Japanese cards than English cards), but we are seeing record-breaking print numbers. Soooo many of these out there. Ultimately, I hope I am wrong since I wouldn't mind my master balls gaining value haha.
@@Dark_ibexwhile this is true in the long run it could go a lot higher , when the new generation of kids that grew up with these sets are older surely the value will go up?
If they care about master balls, then sure, maybe. Not a single person in the world knows whether that will happen or not. The problem with these modern print numbers is that any decrease in demand will massively impact the price. It's not like there are only 10 of these out there that might hit the market. Hypothetically speaking, hundreds could hit eBay on the same day. Something like that, combined with less demand, would crash the price. I'm exaggerating here, of course, but it is very risky to compare modern set cards to anything older than S&S when print numbers were way smaller, fewer cards were kept in good condition, and fewer cards were graded. There is a reason why some older cards are expensive; it's because they are hard to come by. These modern cards, while hard to pull, are not scarce/hard to come by. They will probably always be readily available. They need insane demand to remain valuable. Right now, that demand is there. But no one knows what demand will look like in the future. It's just too much risk for me to justify spending hundreds on a single PSA 10 on these. A rapidly growing PSA 10 population requires an increase in demand for cards to remain or gain any value. Generally speaking, demand is highest when the set is new. Look at VSTAR Universe, a little older set now, printed like crazy, graded into the ground, and dirt-cheap PSA 10s. Anyone who bought VSTAR Universe PSA 10s up until recently lost money. I don't expect anything as extreme to happen to Master Balls, but the growth that people expect might simply never happen. Just me speculating...
I want to say masterballs are only in japanese,chinese or korean sets and thats very crazy. For me that is the best idea of pokemon the last 10, 15 years. Look 1 card in one display and you can have it twice or three times in 10 displays and then 153 cards of them😂😂😂for many people its to heavy to collect these cards. Look in ebay or sth else when you live in europe, really bad to collect these cards when you have 50+. The displays are so expensive now and not the best pull rate und then you open a display and have a masterball that you actually have my man😂😂😂😂the nostalgy of pokemon since 1996 with the first game and the story of masterball is so great, i think in many years these cards and these displays are one of the best ever. You have in red or blue one masterball to go and catch mewto and that was so crazy from the beginning. Too hold all masterballs in japanese i think its the best idea of pokemon and its hard for many people with not tons of money to have it all you know. I love it so much. Its crazy. They made the quality of masterballs because its the best card in the display box my man😂its a special card. And they look so so so nice. One of the best ideas ever
The masterballs are way more limited than we believe. A few thousand of a card is extremely low. I wouldn’t doubt we are dwindling the supply. Maybe that’s why prices rose over 25% the last few weeks. I was getting masterballs for under 10$ now almost none under 12.50 and watching bids go higher than buy it now
Thanks for watching and commenting! No doubt they are hard to obtain. Right now, everything is just extreme speculation. On my part, too, of course. The biggest issue is that no one can predict future demand. Are there enough master balls to satisfy the current demand? No, prices are still very high. How much will people still care about them in a few years? That's the tough question. I believe prices right now remain high as there are so many people speculating that these will be more expensive in the future. None of these people have the answer. It feels like a bit of an echo chamber. Person A says these will be expensive. Person B buys it because of what Person A said. As a result, the price is confirmed as sold in the market, and Person A says, "see, I told you". I think that is what's currently happening. The real test will come once we get new and exciting sets, new amazing chase cards, etc., cards that people might want more. Can master ball demand keep up with the growing PSA 10 population when that happens? There are enough 'red flags' for me to caution people to not overspend on these. I think people buying PSA 10s. right now are not thinking clearly. The Pikachu master ball PSA 10 population has doubled since I recorded this video! Now at 1,200 and growing.
@@Dark_ibex I’m with you on this I have been telling people that these cards are way too overvalued. And also the CZ pikachu is way too undervalued for now.
Can company still print 2x more? Are they claiming the limitation of their stock like some sport card set are? (some are without being serial numbered, but lot of them are being serial number... which is nice... except the same company, like Upper Deck, print 20-30-40 different sets of card per years... you do a player collection, if your player is a star, that might mean couple hundred of different cards to collect each years, with some 1/1, 1/5, 1/10 variation, aka you won't be able to get them all... some part of it are cool, and it is fine to get an ultra rare 1/1 variation, problem is when there are dozen of 1/1 variations each year of each player... it gets less special... but that is the business nowadays...). It must have been special to be a in a time where people were collecting sport cards, simply to collect sports card and nothing much more (it was probably still a business decision mind you, they did lot of money selling those at corner store, etc. -- but today is another game).
I don't take financial advice from people on youtube. I collect what I like and you can speculate all you want but this is the first of its kind in terms of holo reverses. anything first will be valuable.
Unless it's printed into the ground and prices are primarily driven by hype. Again, just pointing out potential reasons why spending hundreds on these in PSA 10 might not work out the way people hope. Collecting something for the fun of it is also different than investigating, which is what I think a lot of people are doing with these. I could very well be wrong, but people not bothering to even consider potential risks/downsides are making uninformed decisions. That was the whole point of this video, to provide people with information they probably haven't heard before. Cheers for watching and commenting! Definitely collect what you like, that's the way to do it.
I bought a random box of cards with hundred of cards. Lots of football, Disney 100 Japanese cards, weiss schwarz Star Wars cards, and bunch of 151 Japanese Pokemon cards and like 30 pristine master balls cards..
Have you been seeing the speculation on Japanese twitter that the monster ball reverse holos are going to be going up in price as well? This was a really good video btw. Lots of great info.
I have not, and I wouldn't be surprised at all lol. We'll see, maybe I was completely wrong on the master balls. I think people underestimate how much this stuff is printed these days. Enough reasons out there to be careful imo.
8 months later what is your take on master balls?. I think the PSA 10 population of pikachu is now around 4500 … and I’m sure a ton of people are collecting these ungraded … going for master sets etc. I hope you are wrong but I think you hit the nail on the head with this video. A lot of these commenters are just in denial because they probably bought when they were the most expensive and were in denial. FYI I just started buying these hoping the market is at the bottom. I’m getting a lot of PSA 10s around $30-$35 and I’m willing to pay more for cards I like , for example Eeveelutions for between $60-70, mew two at $90 etc. Not trying to make money, no intentions on selling, but it would be nice to have cards that at least retain their value. Im willing to pay market price for the cards I like and if I come across a good deal on a master ball that I don’t have a ton of interest in I’ll still buy just because I like these cards so much.
Prices are much more attractive than they used to be, and some, especially the less popular ones, seem to be near a price bottom in PSA 10 in Japan. That said, I'd still wait for the PSA populations to catch up. Much of this massive reprint hasn't hit PSA yet.
Do you think prices will go up eventually … even years down the road ? … or do you think they’ll hover around these current prices? I’m pretty new at this and trying to figure out what is considered a high population count for modern, popular cards. For example, the charmander AR has a PSA population of about 5700 but there are way less cards of any given Master Ball than that charmander. Since the charmander is pretty popular do you think we could expect a population count between 20 & 30k ? As of today, pricecharting has the charmander priced around $37 … so will even cards like that take a huge price hit when more become graded? Is any given master ball more desirable than that charmander ? or is there just no good answer and we will have to see what happens? Then I also consider that there are all of the English versions of the same charmander, but if you want a master ball card there is only one option (not really counting Korean and Chinese here) … so between English and Japanese there are WAY more charmanders then any given master ball… as always , I guess it’s all just going to come down to demand … I started buying the master balls thinking 5k population wasn’t bad for a modern card , especially when there is no English version. The fact that there is no English version kind of cuts the population of the card in half to me, if that makes sense. IDK AND NOW IM CONFUSED. Like I said, I’m not looking to make money, but it’d be nice if my cards retained their value over the years.
@@NicholasSorace I think you answered your own question. Nobody can predict the future, it's anyone's best guess. One thing that is certain is that the PSA 10 pop can only go up, it can never go down.
@@NicholasSorace 5000 pop count of card graded in PSA 10... that means there are way more than 5000 cards printed. It cost a lot to get your card graded, the hassle, etc. Look at sports card (or any one). Old card, people were not necessary taking care, OR not taking care like now. So... condition = make it rare. Now someone pull it out of a box, sleeve it, if not triple sleeve it! Put it right in a plastic to get graded, etc. We have pack that cost 500-1000$ new product with 3-4 cards, with jersey in it, autograph, etc. There is 1/1, 1/10, 1/25, etc. of a lot of players (take the best players in any sports with high demand). It depends what you expect. I am a collector, I have been caught in the money bandwagon, including in the 1990s boom, with Beckett magazine sold everywhere, etc. I have also went away from it (at some point I collected video games a lot, and yes, that bloomed too). Went back to card collecting at some point (collector deep down I guess). And my feeling in the end... a lot of things has value because people USED them. They have memories with them. There are other reason... but a reason I liked to collect video games was that video games was part of my past memories, then it became a cool item to get (I was collecting mainly brand new NES games). You liked Contra, then it was uber cool to find a brand new Contra copy from a mom and pop store that stored it away in their basement because NES was not selling anymore (I have a few stories like that, including find on weird internet website for obscure title... good luck finding this now on net, but there are still stuff laying around). Erm... my feeling in the end: Collect for the fun, not the value. Enjoy Pokemon art. Enjoy the game (lot of people collecting TCG without playing, including me with my young son, but I need to make it a task to learn it at least to see if the game is cool!) And if you enjoy the road, then items might get valuable. (And I say this and don't worry I am a sick collector who collected a lot of things, but I have enjoyed a lot more collecting stuff when price was more fuzzy, or less obscure stuff... some of the stuff I prefer are not the one that have necessary the biggest value in the market, but they have a high value for me, and if I hold the items, they are my collection, that worth a lot more than 10$, 100$, 1000$, 100000$, but if you come to me with million, for me, I might begin to think to sell some... but if I was Logan Paul, your 1-2-5M$+ might not meant much to me compared to my best Pikachu! :P -- Because I simply won't do much with that much more money...)
@@Dark_ibex You are right, but since I like to debate (internet and life :P) -- they can technically go down... if someone burn them, trash them, etc. -- but yeah with that specific example, chance are a crazy collector won't buy 5000 of them and burn 4900 just to make their remaining 100 copies more valuable... then there will be 5000 other copies that get graded after the story get out! ;-) So there is demand... and there is offering... and while demand is HIGH now... demand can't be high for 3 gazillion cards over time. As there will be more offering AND demand in 1 year. NOW... if we learn tomorrow that one specific Masterball Holo variation is short print, that would be interesting. Even if it is "Lickytung" that is not Pikachu... it might become the collector item masterball cards... and chance are there are no example of this here. As I answered to Nicholas... there are a couple of such stories in video games collecting. Copies that got destroyed, copies of game that were very short printed and did not have success, but then collector knew it... then you find it in brand new condition, sealed (imagine a box of card that is sealed, unopened, that hold more value than the card it holds... and it happen in Pokemon world... but for... OLD STUFF because people were not keeping that -- now I see ton of people buying boxes with the idea to resale in mind... they won't make a 100000% profit, sorry!).
So the masterball holos were $10 to buy the cheapest ones back in June of 2023 but now they are all $25 on eBay. They keep going up and the booster boxes haven't stopped rising in price. You assessment is accurate but not for this set. It will stay worth way more then English and the data shows this set is a long term big money set.
Thanks for watching and commenting! I revisited Master Balls in a livestream recently and dove deep into the data. th-cam.com/users/live0oQ5pOJdo-M?feature=share Feel free to check it out if you are curious. Just skip the intro until it starts. Lots of good discussions with chat as well. Edit: I plan to revisit them again in a future stream or video.
You really don’t understand the Japanese market well it seems. Interesting video but there are so many reverse holos in Japanese sets, cards that are way more common than these masterball reverse holos that are oriented into the dirt and so expensive (reverse holo cards that were never released in English). Their Psa 10 pops are high also. I own many of them and I’ve been buying them up for years and so far the trend has stayed true. Cards that high population doesn’t automatically mean they won’t continue to grow or hold their value in the long run. The masterball reverse holos are reverse holos that are one per box, they are extremely popular, they feature the original 151 Pokémon, they aren’t available in English, heck the English reverse holos look like garbage. While don’t think every masterball reverse holos will perform the same long term. There is no really whatsoever to think that years from now these will not be sought after. It doesn’t matter of the Psa pop for each card is 20000 in a gem mint 10. The set (Japanese) has everything going for it, it’s a rare case where they pretty did everything right as with evolving skies. The masterball holos are a very strong point of the set that has been received very well.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a comment. But I have to ask, did you actually listen to what I said or just ignore parts? Like, I don't know how many times I acknowledged their hard pull rate and popularity being Gen 1. How many times did I say they are great cards? ^^ You also seemed to have ignored my example with the 25th Anniversary Charizard. The PSA 10 price of that card crashed so freaking hard in Japan. It is a great example of what a high PSA 10 population can do to a card. It doesn't mean it will happen to every card, but it is a real risk. A risk that people just seem to ignore, hence why I brought it up in the video. One issue with a growing PSA 10 population is that demand for PSA 10s doesn't just need to stay the same; it actually needs to increase to keep up with a growing pop. Will demand for master balls be higher in the future than it is right now when we are at a record high in terms of Pokemon popularity? That is a question anyone thinking about buying them needs to ask themselves. A question that no one has an answer to, but one that is often ignored by less informed people. To your point about reverse holos in general. Yes, there are plenty of high-value Japanese reverse holos; of course, I am aware of that. The problem is that those are from a time when print numbers were way smaller, cards weren't immediately sleeved and graded, and are thus much harder to find mint these days. Do you see anyone going crazy over 25th Anniversary, VMAX Climax, or VSTAR Universe reverse holos? They all have an exclusive Japanese reverse holo pattern but don't carry anywhere near the premium of XY and earlier reverse holos. Why? Because they are readily available in mint condition. If you are talking about cards that are entirely exclusive Japanese, not just the reverse holo pattern but the art in general, well, that is an entirely different conversation. But the same logic applies to an extent if they are a little older. It is a very dangerous mindset to see modern set cards and promos as akin to anything XY and older. It was just a different time in the hobby. I was there at the time, in Japan, collecting Japanese cards. I've witnessed the change in the mindset of people and the way cards are printed and released firsthand. I saw what chase cards cost on release, etc. Lastly, to your first point. While I would never claim to be an expert in the Japanese market (never did), I'd argue that I have a better understanding than someone who doesn't even consider the potential downsides/risks. This isn't directed at you; more of a general statement. Thanks again for commenting! I love engaging in these discussions. Just because we have different views does not mean we can't have a fruitful conversation. Ultimately, as I've mentioned in replies to other comments, I hope I am wrong. Obviously, I wouldn't mind these doing well since I own a few.
I hope so since I have a few of these! haha I just think people massively underestimate just how many of these are out there. Can demand keep up with a growing PSA population? Maybe. It's happened for other cards before. However, it is not the norm, and some of the best modern cards have stagnated or dropped in price as demand has vaned and pops increased. Demand for Pokemon cards is higher than ever. That's great. On the other hand, there have never been more cards printed, immediately sleeved, safely stored, and graded. There are massive unknowns out there, and it is simply risky to put a lot of money into master balls. A few for a collection? Of course! Buying PSA 10s right now in hopes they increase drastically in value? Probably not a good idea. Another 'red flag' for me is that a lot of people talking about how these are safe bets and easy 5-10x gains in just a few years are people who are new to the hobby. They don't have the experience of even just sword and shield sets. The point of this video was to offer some opinions on potential risks that are hardly ever talked about but certainly matter. Just information for people to consider before buying. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! Really appreciate it!
lol, you clearly didn't listen to what I said. Just right over your head, swoosh. How many times did I praise the set for being good? And what did I say when I discussed them as being "just reverse holos"? Go back, listen again, type what I said in the video as a reply so I know you actually listened and then tell me if you still think I am hating on this set. Or are you just another person in these comments that is salty that me cautioning people about master balls back in September 23 turned out to be a pretty good call?
@@shaynejmacky Yes, it was a good call because everyone who had bought PSA 10s at that point and for the following 6 months lost money on their PSA 10 purchase. Even if they go back up in value, people could have gotten them for much cheaper by just waiting. If that isn't a good call then I don't know what is. Also, you didn't do what I asked. I still think you didn't really listen to what I said when I discussed them as "just being reverse holos" or somehow still think that I was hating on this set. You didn't get the point of the video at all.
Do you have any data to back up your claims? Jc
th-cam.com/users/live0oQ5pOJdo-M?feature=share
Did a livestream a couple days going over the latest info. Just skip the beginning until it starts. Thanks for watching and commenting!
151 is a subset with no booster boxes in English. Historically, Japanese exclusive cards do very very well over time. I think you have this very wrong but time will tell.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Like I mentioned in the video, it's a great set, no doubt about it. I agree that this is a solid set long term. Wouldn't buy any boxes at these prices since there are better ways to spend your money. But that's a different topic altogether.
My point was that many people think Master Balls specifically will do something that I believe they won't, and I presented reasons for why that might be the case. I see people buying PSA 10s of Master Balls thinking it's a good investment when those prices will almost certainly come down, etc. There is very little information out there in terms of telling people about potential risks/downsides. That's what I tried to do. The common sentiment is, "Master Balls are great; they will make you rich." The reasons I presented in this video offer a different perspective for people to consider before purchasing. People forget that there are always pros AND cons. When no one online talks about the cons, you know something is off.
@kleinle522 You’re right that “Japanese exclusive cards do very very well over time.”
But that’s based on the past where JP exclusives weren’t being bought en masse by people outside of Japan. Even during the 2020/2021 boom folk weren’t buying entire cases of Japanese sets outside of maybe Eevee Heroes.
Japanese 151 will never be worthless, but it’s highly likely that the cards from that set (including Master Ball holos) stay stagnant for years to come.
@@Dark_ibex I do think the price of PSA 10's, even after it hits that ceiling due to oversupply, will have residual appreciation that will follow the price of the raw cards as they go up. And given these masterballs are exclusives of a specialty set from japan, I think raw will retain and accrue value overtime. At that point, any gains from PSA 10's will just be correlated with gains the raw accrues. If I were to "invest" in these, I would do so with the intention to gain the grading premium of a 10 associated with the increasing price of the raw card, NOT the grading premium "race to the bottom" margin that someone gets from selling due to first to market/low pop/scarcity plays.
PSA 10 pop of master ball pikachu is now around 4500
we will see! i have a couple master balls in my collection, they are pretty sweet
Where do you find and buy your masterball cards?
Great informative video, many thanks! 👍
Thanks for checking it out!
Great video info. I pulled a cheap Masterball from 10 packs and feel lucky. No way I’m paying a premium for other Masterball cards .
Thanks for watching and commenting! Congrats on the pull too! :)
A week ago pikachu was selling in the 500s today its 600s from what i have been seeing.
Great video, I started off disagreeing with you but by the end of your video I would have to agree. I think sealed Japanese 151 boxes will do well over time but the master balls really don’t have that much going for them other than the unique reverse holo pattern.
Master balls are going up in value... Like Gyarados Mewtwo Pikachu Gengar...
And I think the value of 151 is that they have the original Pokemon which is amazing it will never go out of style... This set brought me back to Pokemon cards amazing set and original... Can't go wrong with that... And the fact that American 151 didn't have master balls was a turn off.. I haven't bought one set in English everything that I have from 151 is Japanese.... Fire 🔥🔥🔥
And I know you did this video like a month ago... Pikachu master ball right now is above $350 raw card and PSA 10 over $650 $700 amazing 🤯👏🏽
Good video on master balls brother.. thank you for taking your time to do this video 🙏🏽
Honestly I think the reverse pokeballs are neat enough. Has been a bit of a struggle though finding my favorites with low/less obvious print lines for sure. Masterballs are neat but not enough to justify the price for me personally.
Yup, the regular reverses look great too! But yeah, print lines are a bummer. PSA is so weird too when it comes to print lines. For some sets/card types they don't care but when it's a reverse holo, automatic 9. They should pick a side. Either be ok with print lines or not...
I bought 4 boxes, 1 had very good pulls and was completely correct with the master ball and so on. 2 others had no masterball and then the last one had 3. Has anyone also had such errors?
Hmmm, you probably had some resealed boxes. Those pull rates are definitely not normal. Scammers will open a box to find the heavy packs and then reseal the box with other dud/light packs. Master Balls just being reverse holos probably means that they are not really weighable, hence why you ended up with a box that had 3. Other scammers will open packs until they hit the Master Ball, after they've already removed all the heavy packs. Probably why you had 2 boxes with no Master Balls.
How were the other pull rates in those boxes? Did you pull an SR or higher per box? How many ARs per box?
I'm pretty sure you got resealed boxes. If the other pull rates were off too then it is 100% (to me it already is, given the weird Master Ball pull rates). I'd try and get my money back if I were you if it isn't too late already. Sucks that this happened but hopefully you maybe now know what to look out for when buying boxes. Stay away from secondary market places...
For the price I have bought masterball holos (1-4000yen currently), on the long run I think they will be worth this price and I would guess at least 3-5x multiplication even with possible reprint and the Christmas set. With no English whatsoever and the fact that only 1 masterball can be pulled per booster box (which will stay around 170-200 $ on the long run) some of them will be extremely expensive, I would say even 3-500$ range if not more. For me, all cards go straight to BGS and PSA and I'll put them on display for myself personally. Another addition to this thought line, English sets are kind of overprinted at the moment (for example Paldea Evolved), but Japanese sets even with made-to-order options allowing only 1 box to be bought from PCJ, we will see an upward trend and returning to Japanese cards, however I would guess that prices being so high, the market would be considerably smaller (not counting if you sell a masterball psa 10 for example Nidoking, I would guess that card will go at least 300$ in 3 years, but a lot of cards are my favorites, for example Scyther, Kabutops [underrated], Gloom, Articuno, Pidgeot, etc. Anyhow great content.
Thanks so much for watching! I really appreciate you taking the time to write this comment. I think some of the negatives I brought up definitely hold up. As I mentioned in the video, while the print-to-order was technically 1 box per person, there were plenty of ways to get around that. So many people got a hold of more than 1. There is even someone in the comments here who managed to do it. 151 is for sure printed like crazy. All it takes for the value of these to stagnate or even drop is a dip in interest. That may seem hard to imagine right now, but is almost guaranteed to happen. Will people talk as much about master balls in a few years? Highly doubt it. The PSA 10 pops will also be fairly high. For example, the Pikachu already has close to 900 PSA 10s, about 200 more since I recorded this video. Cards can certainly stay expensive even if there are several thousand PSA 10s, however, future growth is really hard. Are these good cards? Yes. Are there a lot of them out there that will become PSA 10s? Yes. The Charizard example shows what a growing PSA 10 population combined with a decrease in interest can cause. I think the master balls will always remain attractive to collectors, but I believe that if there is any growth at all, it won't be as much as a lot of people think. Yes, they are hard to pull, and yes, Japanese sets are still being printed less than English sets (but also less interest in Japanese cards than English cards), but we are seeing record-breaking print numbers. Soooo many of these out there.
Ultimately, I hope I am wrong since I wouldn't mind my master balls gaining value haha.
@@Dark_ibexwhile this is true in the long run it could go a lot higher , when the new generation of kids that grew up with these sets are older surely the value will go up?
If they care about master balls, then sure, maybe. Not a single person in the world knows whether that will happen or not.
The problem with these modern print numbers is that any decrease in demand will massively impact the price. It's not like there are only 10 of these out there that might hit the market. Hypothetically speaking, hundreds could hit eBay on the same day. Something like that, combined with less demand, would crash the price. I'm exaggerating here, of course, but it is very risky to compare modern set cards to anything older than S&S when print numbers were way smaller, fewer cards were kept in good condition, and fewer cards were graded. There is a reason why some older cards are expensive; it's because they are hard to come by. These modern cards, while hard to pull, are not scarce/hard to come by. They will probably always be readily available. They need insane demand to remain valuable. Right now, that demand is there. But no one knows what demand will look like in the future. It's just too much risk for me to justify spending hundreds on a single PSA 10 on these. A rapidly growing PSA 10 population requires an increase in demand for cards to remain or gain any value. Generally speaking, demand is highest when the set is new. Look at VSTAR Universe, a little older set now, printed like crazy, graded into the ground, and dirt-cheap PSA 10s. Anyone who bought VSTAR Universe PSA 10s up until recently lost money. I don't expect anything as extreme to happen to Master Balls, but the growth that people expect might simply never happen. Just me speculating...
I want to say masterballs are only in japanese,chinese or korean sets and thats very crazy. For me that is the best idea of pokemon the last 10, 15 years. Look 1 card in one display and you can have it twice or three times in 10 displays and then 153 cards of them😂😂😂for many people its to heavy to collect these cards. Look in ebay or sth else when you live in europe, really bad to collect these cards when you have 50+. The displays are so expensive now and not the best pull rate und then you open a display and have a masterball that you actually have my man😂😂😂😂the nostalgy of pokemon since 1996 with the first game and the story of masterball is so great, i think in many years these cards and these displays are one of the best ever. You have in red or blue one masterball to go and catch mewto and that was so crazy from the beginning. Too hold all masterballs in japanese i think its the best idea of pokemon and its hard for many people with not tons of money to have it all you know. I love it so much. Its crazy. They made the quality of masterballs because its the best card in the display box my man😂its a special card. And they look so so so nice. One of the best ideas ever
The masterballs are way more limited than we believe. A few thousand of a card is extremely low. I wouldn’t doubt we are dwindling the supply. Maybe that’s why prices rose over 25% the last few weeks. I was getting masterballs for under 10$ now almost none under 12.50 and watching bids go higher than buy it now
Thanks for watching and commenting!
No doubt they are hard to obtain. Right now, everything is just extreme speculation. On my part, too, of course. The biggest issue is that no one can predict future demand. Are there enough master balls to satisfy the current demand? No, prices are still very high. How much will people still care about them in a few years? That's the tough question. I believe prices right now remain high as there are so many people speculating that these will be more expensive in the future. None of these people have the answer. It feels like a bit of an echo chamber. Person A says these will be expensive. Person B buys it because of what Person A said. As a result, the price is confirmed as sold in the market, and Person A says, "see, I told you". I think that is what's currently happening. The real test will come once we get new and exciting sets, new amazing chase cards, etc., cards that people might want more. Can master ball demand keep up with the growing PSA 10 population when that happens? There are enough 'red flags' for me to caution people to not overspend on these. I think people buying PSA 10s. right now are not thinking clearly. The Pikachu master ball PSA 10 population has doubled since I recorded this video! Now at 1,200 and growing.
@@Dark_ibex I’m with you on this I have been telling people that these cards are way too overvalued. And also the CZ pikachu is way too undervalued for now.
Can company still print 2x more? Are they claiming the limitation of their stock like some sport card set are? (some are without being serial numbered, but lot of them are being serial number... which is nice... except the same company, like Upper Deck, print 20-30-40 different sets of card per years... you do a player collection, if your player is a star, that might mean couple hundred of different cards to collect each years, with some 1/1, 1/5, 1/10 variation, aka you won't be able to get them all... some part of it are cool, and it is fine to get an ultra rare 1/1 variation, problem is when there are dozen of 1/1 variations each year of each player... it gets less special... but that is the business nowadays...).
It must have been special to be a in a time where people were collecting sport cards, simply to collect sports card and nothing much more (it was probably still a business decision mind you, they did lot of money selling those at corner store, etc. -- but today is another game).
Yep i got 5 made to order boxes using friends.
See haha! In hindsight, I should have probably done it too but when none of your friends are into Pokemon Cards it's a bit weird haha
I don't take financial advice from people on youtube. I collect what I like and you can speculate all you want but this is the first of its kind in terms of holo reverses. anything first will be valuable.
Unless it's printed into the ground and prices are primarily driven by hype. Again, just pointing out potential reasons why spending hundreds on these in PSA 10 might not work out the way people hope. Collecting something for the fun of it is also different than investigating, which is what I think a lot of people are doing with these. I could very well be wrong, but people not bothering to even consider potential risks/downsides are making uninformed decisions. That was the whole point of this video, to provide people with information they probably haven't heard before. Cheers for watching and commenting! Definitely collect what you like, that's the way to do it.
the hits are not easy to pull at all in 151 english
I bought a random box of cards with hundred of cards. Lots of football, Disney 100 Japanese cards, weiss schwarz Star Wars cards, and bunch of 151 Japanese Pokemon cards and like 30 pristine master balls cards..
where?
Have you been seeing the speculation on Japanese twitter that the monster ball reverse holos are going to be going up in price as well?
This was a really good video btw. Lots of great info.
I have not, and I wouldn't be surprised at all lol. We'll see, maybe I was completely wrong on the master balls. I think people underestimate how much this stuff is printed these days. Enough reasons out there to be careful imo.
@@Dark_ibex definitely with you on that
I pulled the Pikachu Master Ball Reverse Holo...sending it in for grading, should be worth $500+
Psa 10 is worth $650+
@@ellimon1842 not anymore
Yea the PSA 10 pikachu masterball cant hit 2500 with that high population count
HAHAHA... The baby clothes accounts... its funny cause its true
Hahaha ikr... So many of those accounts these days.
8 months later what is your take on master balls?. I think the PSA 10 population of pikachu is now around 4500 … and I’m sure a ton of people are collecting these ungraded … going for master sets etc.
I hope you are wrong but I think you hit the nail on the head with this video. A lot of these commenters are just in denial because they probably bought when they were the most expensive and were in denial.
FYI I just started buying these hoping the market is at the bottom. I’m getting a lot of PSA 10s around $30-$35 and I’m willing to pay more for cards I like , for example Eeveelutions for between $60-70, mew two at $90 etc.
Not trying to make money, no intentions on selling, but it would be nice to have cards that at least retain their value.
Im willing to pay market price for the cards I like and if I come across a good deal on a master ball that I don’t have a ton of interest in I’ll still buy just because I like these cards so much.
Prices are much more attractive than they used to be, and some, especially the less popular ones, seem to be near a price bottom in PSA 10 in Japan. That said, I'd still wait for the PSA populations to catch up. Much of this massive reprint hasn't hit PSA yet.
Do you think prices will go up eventually … even years down the road ? … or do you think they’ll hover around these current prices?
I’m pretty new at this and trying to figure out what is considered a high population count for modern, popular cards. For example, the charmander AR has a PSA population of about 5700 but there are way less cards of any given Master Ball than that charmander. Since the charmander is pretty popular do you think we could expect a population count between 20 & 30k ?
As of today, pricecharting has the charmander priced around $37 … so will even cards like that take a huge price hit when more become graded? Is any given master ball more desirable than that charmander ? or is there just no good answer and we will have to see what happens?
Then I also consider that there are all of the English versions of the same charmander, but if you want a master ball card there is only one option (not really counting Korean and Chinese here) … so between English and Japanese there are WAY more charmanders then any given master ball… as always , I guess it’s all just going to come down to demand …
I started buying the master balls thinking 5k population wasn’t bad for a modern card , especially when there is no English version. The fact that there is no English version kind of cuts the population of the card in half to me, if that makes sense.
IDK AND NOW IM CONFUSED. Like I said, I’m not looking to make money, but it’d be nice if my cards retained their value over the years.
@@NicholasSorace I think you answered your own question. Nobody can predict the future, it's anyone's best guess. One thing that is certain is that the PSA 10 pop can only go up, it can never go down.
@@NicholasSorace 5000 pop count of card graded in PSA 10... that means there are way more than 5000 cards printed. It cost a lot to get your card graded, the hassle, etc.
Look at sports card (or any one).
Old card, people were not necessary taking care, OR not taking care like now. So... condition = make it rare. Now someone pull it out of a box, sleeve it, if not triple sleeve it! Put it right in a plastic to get graded, etc.
We have pack that cost 500-1000$ new product with 3-4 cards, with jersey in it, autograph, etc. There is 1/1, 1/10, 1/25, etc. of a lot of players (take the best players in any sports with high demand).
It depends what you expect.
I am a collector, I have been caught in the money bandwagon, including in the 1990s boom, with Beckett magazine sold everywhere, etc. I have also went away from it (at some point I collected video games a lot, and yes, that bloomed too). Went back to card collecting at some point (collector deep down I guess).
And my feeling in the end... a lot of things has value because people USED them. They have memories with them. There are other reason... but a reason I liked to collect video games was that video games was part of my past memories, then it became a cool item to get (I was collecting mainly brand new NES games). You liked Contra, then it was uber cool to find a brand new Contra copy from a mom and pop store that stored it away in their basement because NES was not selling anymore (I have a few stories like that, including find on weird internet website for obscure title... good luck finding this now on net, but there are still stuff laying around).
Erm... my feeling in the end: Collect for the fun, not the value.
Enjoy Pokemon art.
Enjoy the game (lot of people collecting TCG without playing, including me with my young son, but I need to make it a task to learn it at least to see if the game is cool!)
And if you enjoy the road, then items might get valuable.
(And I say this and don't worry I am a sick collector who collected a lot of things, but I have enjoyed a lot more collecting stuff when price was more fuzzy, or less obscure stuff... some of the stuff I prefer are not the one that have necessary the biggest value in the market, but they have a high value for me, and if I hold the items, they are my collection, that worth a lot more than 10$, 100$, 1000$, 100000$, but if you come to me with million, for me, I might begin to think to sell some... but if I was Logan Paul, your 1-2-5M$+ might not meant much to me compared to my best Pikachu! :P -- Because I simply won't do much with that much more money...)
@@Dark_ibex You are right, but since I like to debate (internet and life :P) -- they can technically go down... if someone burn them, trash them, etc. -- but yeah with that specific example, chance are a crazy collector won't buy 5000 of them and burn 4900 just to make their remaining 100 copies more valuable... then there will be 5000 other copies that get graded after the story get out! ;-)
So there is demand... and there is offering... and while demand is HIGH now... demand can't be high for 3 gazillion cards over time. As there will be more offering AND demand in 1 year.
NOW... if we learn tomorrow that one specific Masterball Holo variation is short print, that would be interesting. Even if it is "Lickytung" that is not Pikachu... it might become the collector item masterball cards... and chance are there are no example of this here.
As I answered to Nicholas... there are a couple of such stories in video games collecting. Copies that got destroyed, copies of game that were very short printed and did not have success, but then collector knew it... then you find it in brand new condition, sealed (imagine a box of card that is sealed, unopened, that hold more value than the card it holds... and it happen in Pokemon world... but for... OLD STUFF because people were not keeping that -- now I see ton of people buying boxes with the idea to resale in mind... they won't make a 100000% profit, sorry!).
So the masterball holos were $10 to buy the cheapest ones back in June of 2023 but now they are all $25 on eBay. They keep going up and the booster boxes haven't stopped rising in price. You assessment is accurate but not for this set. It will stay worth way more then English and the data shows this set is a long term big money set.
Thanks for watching and commenting! I revisited Master Balls in a livestream recently and dove deep into the data. th-cam.com/users/live0oQ5pOJdo-M?feature=share
Feel free to check it out if you are curious. Just skip the intro until it starts. Lots of good discussions with chat as well.
Edit: I plan to revisit them again in a future stream or video.
You really don’t understand the Japanese market well it seems. Interesting video but there are so many reverse holos in Japanese sets, cards that are way more common than these masterball reverse holos that are oriented into the dirt and so expensive (reverse holo cards that were never released in English). Their Psa 10 pops are high also. I own many of them and I’ve been buying them up for years and so far the trend has stayed true. Cards that high population doesn’t automatically mean they won’t continue to grow or hold their value in the long run. The masterball reverse holos are reverse holos that are one per box, they are extremely popular, they feature the original 151 Pokémon, they aren’t available in English, heck the English reverse holos look like garbage. While don’t think every masterball reverse holos will perform the same long term. There is no really whatsoever to think that years from now these will not be sought after. It doesn’t matter of the Psa pop for each card is 20000 in a gem mint 10. The set (Japanese) has everything going for it, it’s a rare case where they pretty did everything right as with evolving skies. The masterball holos are a very strong point of the set that has been received very well.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a comment. But I have to ask, did you actually listen to what I said or just ignore parts?
Like, I don't know how many times I acknowledged their hard pull rate and popularity being Gen 1. How many times did I say they are great cards? ^^
You also seemed to have ignored my example with the 25th Anniversary Charizard. The PSA 10 price of that card crashed so freaking hard in Japan. It is a great example of what a high PSA 10 population can do to a card. It doesn't mean it will happen to every card, but it is a real risk. A risk that people just seem to ignore, hence why I brought it up in the video.
One issue with a growing PSA 10 population is that demand for PSA 10s doesn't just need to stay the same; it actually needs to increase to keep up with a growing pop. Will demand for master balls be higher in the future than it is right now when we are at a record high in terms of Pokemon popularity? That is a question anyone thinking about buying them needs to ask themselves. A question that no one has an answer to, but one that is often ignored by less informed people.
To your point about reverse holos in general. Yes, there are plenty of high-value Japanese reverse holos; of course, I am aware of that. The problem is that those are from a time when print numbers were way smaller, cards weren't immediately sleeved and graded, and are thus much harder to find mint these days. Do you see anyone going crazy over 25th Anniversary, VMAX Climax, or VSTAR Universe reverse holos? They all have an exclusive Japanese reverse holo pattern but don't carry anywhere near the premium of XY and earlier reverse holos. Why? Because they are readily available in mint condition.
If you are talking about cards that are entirely exclusive Japanese, not just the reverse holo pattern but the art in general, well, that is an entirely different conversation. But the same logic applies to an extent if they are a little older. It is a very dangerous mindset to see modern set cards and promos as akin to anything XY and older. It was just a different time in the hobby. I was there at the time, in Japan, collecting Japanese cards. I've witnessed the change in the mindset of people and the way cards are printed and released firsthand. I saw what chase cards cost on release, etc.
Lastly, to your first point. While I would never claim to be an expert in the Japanese market (never did), I'd argue that I have a better understanding than someone who doesn't even consider the potential downsides/risks. This isn't directed at you; more of a general statement.
Thanks again for commenting! I love engaging in these discussions. Just because we have different views does not mean we can't have a fruitful conversation. Ultimately, as I've mentioned in replies to other comments, I hope I am wrong. Obviously, I wouldn't mind these doing well since I own a few.
I think you're going to be wrong about the value in a couple years. =)
I hope so since I have a few of these! haha
I just think people massively underestimate just how many of these are out there. Can demand keep up with a growing PSA population? Maybe. It's happened for other cards before. However, it is not the norm, and some of the best modern cards have stagnated or dropped in price as demand has vaned and pops increased. Demand for Pokemon cards is higher than ever. That's great. On the other hand, there have never been more cards printed, immediately sleeved, safely stored, and graded. There are massive unknowns out there, and it is simply risky to put a lot of money into master balls. A few for a collection? Of course! Buying PSA 10s right now in hopes they increase drastically in value? Probably not a good idea. Another 'red flag' for me is that a lot of people talking about how these are safe bets and easy 5-10x gains in just a few years are people who are new to the hobby. They don't have the experience of even just sword and shield sets.
The point of this video was to offer some opinions on potential risks that are hardly ever talked about but certainly matter. Just information for people to consider before buying.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! Really appreciate it!
Why are you on here hating on this set? They are just reverse holos? You sound very clueless
lol, you clearly didn't listen to what I said. Just right over your head, swoosh. How many times did I praise the set for being good? And what did I say when I discussed them as being "just reverse holos"? Go back, listen again, type what I said in the video as a reply so I know you actually listened and then tell me if you still think I am hating on this set. Or are you just another person in these comments that is salty that me cautioning people about master balls back in September 23 turned out to be a pretty good call?
@@Dark_ibex Good call? Wait and see my friend. Once this reprint is done 151 Japanese will skyrocket
@@shaynejmacky Yes, it was a good call because everyone who had bought PSA 10s at that point and for the following 6 months lost money on their PSA 10 purchase. Even if they go back up in value, people could have gotten them for much cheaper by just waiting. If that isn't a good call then I don't know what is. Also, you didn't do what I asked. I still think you didn't really listen to what I said when I discussed them as "just being reverse holos" or somehow still think that I was hating on this set. You didn't get the point of the video at all.