Graded cards are largely just a big fkn scam in the first place. Cards that are valuable are valuable, ones that are some perfect 10 but are shit and nobody wants them are... you guessed it, still shit lol but hey if some fucking idiot will pay $100 for some crappy rare psa 10 then idk what to tell ya. Markets and people are dumb AF
I actually just think theyre nicer in a way. Warm worn cards that have been played and enjoyed have more character than the steril cards that have barely had oxygen on them
My favorite part about hp, non-english, inked, signed, altered, or otherwise non-standard expensive cards is the immediate recognition that it's not a proxy from opponents.
I honestly don’t hate the idea of ‘slabbing’ cards, but the actual ‘grading’ is silly to me. It’s so arbitrary. Send the same card in four times, you’ll get at least two different grades I’m sure.
It's literally a "meta" to send a high value Pokemon card in several times that came back a 9 or whatever, to try and get a grade up. Seems to work often enough too lol. It smells of BS.
Professionally graded cards / comics is something else that blew up during the pandemic. I've been around it for a long time, and it used to be that you had to have a 9.8 or perfect 10 for anything considered to be "modern age" to have any significant increase in value, and of course the older / scarcer the item was, the price got exponentially higher with the grade. Now, though, it's just dumb. Just like something else that exploded during the pandemic, artist proofs. They used to be given away or sold for a couple bucks, now they're $50+ investments.
Or folks who will sell fake cards in graded slabs, only to send the legit card to be graded again so they can get another graded slab to sell another fake card.
RedLetterMedia has a great video about how nonsense graded collectibles are, in their video about getting a crappy but rare(ish) VHS tape graded. I wonder if Gamestop benefits from these as an asset, somehow, maybe when they finally go bankrupt they can point to these cards and get some value.
I mean, Gamestop aren't buying the cards though right? They are selling them for you. So they get $17 when you send it for grading, then presumably a portion of the eventual sale price. They won't in all likelyhood sell any of those cards, but thats no issue because they haven't paid for them and they already got the $17 from you when you send it off to get graded. Its basically a scam marketing scheme for Gamestop and PSA.
@@GamerFlair From what it says on their website, they are indeed buying them from people outright. It says they'll give a maximum of 1500 dollars in cash or store credit per card
Each percentage markup mentioned in this video have a superfluous 100% in them. A 2x multiplier is a 100% markup, not a 200% markup A 1999.83x multiplier is a markup of 199883% not a 199983% markup
I think there is an unintentional comedic value to getting bad cards graded. For example YuGiOh has an old very bad card they added support for recently called Hungry Burger that is an evil hamburger trying to eat you. When they added the new support they also rereleased hungry burger in secret rare, which is there highest rarity with the same terrible old art and the terrible secret rare holographic foil on top of it. Last time I checked that printing was like $30-50 for what is otherwise a 1 cent common. I think it could be really fun to crack out your psa 10 1 cent commander provided you didn’t spend much on it. But otherwise I think this stuff is a scam.
As a former GameStop employee who had to deal with this. Correct, this sucked and I never wanted to do it. Also I will say this, the trade value we give is really bad now, before it used to be 10% less than market/eBay. But now it is half or even worse than the market price. It also doesn't make sense on what GameStop sells the cards for, I bought a hockey card for 64 but eBay I can find the same grade for 150. All of this doesn't make sense
@hennerzz3460 Oh I know. Before I worked at GameStop I helped my old teacher with his business of sport cards events. I learned so much about the PSA submission and grades of that so when I saw GameStop start doing it I knew so much more than anyone else (including the higher ups it seemed like) That is why I checked on the card I bought and saw I'm just getting it for so cheap.
Sounds like a classic street con. Have an accomplice walk up and offer buy s.thing to establish perceived value, then use that perceived value to sell it to the mark or use it as "collateral" for some emergency funds or the like
This reminds me of when I used to work at the corporate headquarters in customer service. I was playing Magic at the time. They decided to start selling MTG product, so I was stoked (until I found out that my meager discount didn't apply towards MTG product). But then, I noticed that, they were only selling them on the website at the time, and they sold everything at random - even the precons. I tried to tell the appropriate people that "No one who plays Magic is going to want to get a random precon; they buy precons typically because they want a specific one". No one listened and about two months later, they stopped selling them because of low sales. GameStop is filled with a bunch of clowns in suits.
The most I've personally ever paid for a magic card product was the time that I had to pre-order the dinosaur pre-con from lost caverns of ixalan at GameStop, because of course they sold out locally at every other store.
I think you’re on point here. Charizard is worth money cause it’s Charizard, it doesn’t matter if it’s good. Magic cards are worth money if they’re good cards. UB could possibly create a similar effect but I doubt it.
I've graded a couple Gen Con stamped cards for Dragon Ball Super. These are hard to come by versions of the cards and I did it more to preserve them, mementos of the older times, there are cheaper prints to access, but those weren't exclusive prints to a convention.
I’ve started grading some magic cards. So far I’ve graded a gilded foil and confetti foil with Becketts and I think it’s a fun idea but I fully understand my cards aren’t randomly worth £1,000 more, maybe like an extra £50 on top? For me it’s more for a collection. What I don’t understand is random ass commons and bulk rares being graded, surely you want your special foils and super rare pieces to be graded and not your evolving wilds that’s been printed 20million times
You're already falling for it by thinking it's now worth 50 more. It's not, stop getting it graded with the intent to make money fast. You're just leaning into what this video is laughing at, like.. hello???
@ with the intent of making money fast? Where in my comments did I say I was going to sell them? As stated “for me it’s more for a collection”. The £50 extra was a guesstimate I have no idea how much or even if it’s added value it’s not why I’m grading them, I’m doing it for a nice slab collection I can showcase next to my Commander decks
my friend, they are worth less now. that's because after grading you cannot play with them. and yes, you are falling for it. you do not need to grade cards to put them in a case or toploader for display. do not waste your money.
@@m1gr3nA first off I was never going to play with these cards, they’d live in a trade binder and probably never see the light of day again so in this way they can be nicely displayed. If they grade anything lower than a 9 then I’ll just crack the slab open and retrieve the card. Second, and more importantly, do not in anyway shape think you can tell me what to do with my money
None of these grading companies have more objective criteria for grading than your average trader on cardmarket. I would honestly trust the guy at the counter of my local lgs to correctly grade a card way more because they're actually held accountable if they get it wrong.
I know for Game in the Uk they're dying off as they've been bought over by the forbes group which owns Sports direct and they have no idea what they're dooing with them. Eurogamer has a good article on it. Likewise grading always feels like it appeals to people who only see they're hobbies as ways to make money. By putting more percived value onto it. Which is why it's seems so popular in something like Pokemon which from the outside emphasis the collecting part far more than the game part. In comparsion to the likes of Magic, Digimon, Yugioh, flesh and blood star wars etc. Lovely vid by the way.
Someone who wanted to break into a gamestop in some random American city and steal all these graded cards, then try to flip them, wouldn't even be able to sell them for more than a few cents. That's insane.
Slabbing makes sense when something is *truly* rare. 93/94, Power 9, or serialized new stuff (I guess). No one is saying draft chaff should be graded... Especially Rudy.
Rudy is a bit weird but when they are under control, Rudy does say measured and logical things about TCGs. I’m just unsure how Rudy makes money and sits on so much product (like real estate is free or something)
Bro he sells directly and makes profit. He also worked in finance buying and selling stocks and shit. So uh. Hes exactly who should have money and is doing exactly what he was trained to do with money, but with cards, which are actually more like individual stocks lol
@@KyleTremblayTitularKtrey When you say direct, like buying from a distributor and selling to patreons isnt that direct. Rudy doesnt have a brick and mortar storefront but still is a store in every way. Rudy is NOT WotC selling direct to customers nor Rudy doesn’t have a printing press to make cards on demand (that we know of). Further Rudy has stated the current sets being sold at a Rudy-Special is a loss or not part of the profit (ie not 20%+ profit). Maybe when Rudy sits on product long enough; when that product is out of print and people still want an older set, this is where Rudy realises profit. But you need enough storage to hold ((3 ±1) *4)+N pallets (or half pallets) worth and to tie up that capital for 2 to 4 years seems risky. (Surely Rudy has a side job and Alpha Investments company isn’t even half or quart of Rudy’s worth. Maybe even just consider as play money)
While it’d be very difficult to trust them during the PSA process as a middleman; I can see the appeal of having a simpler working system for the customer. But I also agree that some of the graded cards you’ve shown here are absolutely insane! I can get behind grading cards like an Alpha or Beta Power 9 card or 1st edition Pokémon cards like Charizard. But seeing cards that are only a few years old, just based on alternate printing seems a bit ridiculous to me. The only “fair” room I can see on getting a PSA on a newer card would be the “xxx/500” MtG cards. That’s about it.
I actually was gifted a GameStop gift card and had no idea what to spend it on so I looked at their graded cards and got a PSA 9 Rick, Steadfast Leader for $38, which is cheaper than even an ungraded one. Was surprised as most of their stuff is way overpriced but there are some good finds
MTG card quality is so poor that an actual certified 10 is probably worth that to the market. Supply is low. If you're buying it for a deck, sure get the 4 dollar one.
A friend of mine worked at gamestop for a long time. He would have to run the entire store by himself most days for barely above minimum wage. He was responsible for so many things throughout the shift, he probably doesnt have time to make sure they are treated properly. \
I grade low end Pokemon cards for my collection and for my business. As far as my personal collection goes, I collect cards based on the art. Whether it’s hard to pull or a guaranteed promo, I enjoy the idea of making my personal copy non-fungible. Unlike NFTs a trading card is a physical object and it’s nice to protect it semi-permanently and get professional validation of the card’s condition and quality. Also graded cards just look good imo. The size of the slab makes a perfect frame and the plastic is sturdier than a card saver or toploader.
A big moment for me was realizing that Rudy's mysterious and vague way of speaking about things is not because he's a genius speaking in winks to the smart investor non-timmys, but rather, he's just not actually saying that much
I pulled a Japanese art Japanese language Doubling Season *foil* don't know if it even comes in non-foil. When I opened it I didn't know what the card was I hadn't studied the special Art cards because I never pull them... until now. No one seems to want it and stores around me only want the Japanese art English version of the card. I am just thinking is Grading this card and holding on to it worth it or not?
I'll give you my perspective as a collector: i would hold on to it, it's a fantastic piece to have in a collection. Mind you, i do not sell any cards in my collection, i prefer to trade with my friends and folks at the LGS i play at to complete my collections.
I think grading cards is good if it's a *very* expensive card i.e. Masterpiece Sol Ring. Getting cards graded helps signify that they are legit, which makes them more sellable. Any buyer who is looking to buy a $1,000 card is probably going to want to buy something graded so they know exactly what they are getting. This is especially true for cards that are known to have counterfeits in circulation.
Good point! (is there anything stopping someone from faking a grading though? getting a load of those plastic cases and making some PSA 9.5 stickers and whacking them on ebay?)
Yeah, they have all sorts of UV watermarks and stuff to avoid faking. As for only buying an expensive card if its graded - but what if you are buying it to play with it.
@@PleasantKenobi Mm yeah i figured they'd have such measures - wondering if your average card buyer knows to look for that kind of stuff - there MUST be some falsely graded cards on the bay. ( also - hi PK - love you videos :) )
@@hennerzz3460 Doesn't ebay require sellers to send expensive cards through their own intermediary to determine authenticity before shipping it to a buyer now?
Gamestops grading service is a really good deal for people who dont wanna go through psa hassle. Also employees dont handle your card. You aren't even supposed to give it to us until its in a penny sleeve and top loader. Now the prices on our traded graded cards is fucking atrocious.
It’s not just GameStop. PSA gem 10s are very rare to come by. That’s why on EBay the premium for 10s are usually 10x the normal price. So $110 for a $4 card isn’t as outrageous as you think.
This is true for older cards that have stood the test of time in perfect condition. Some card cracked out of a booster 5 minutes ago doesnt carry the same prestige.
@@joshsmith894100% wrong. Crocalor IR from palada evolved a pretty new set is perfect example. It’s a card with a raw price of 6$ and if graded a 10 is worth 100$ yet it’s graded a 9 only worth 11$ and not worth the price to grade.
The thing that makes this so crazy is that Magic players would generally rather play with their cards than have them in a slab. There is obviously a huge collectability with some really expensive cards, but the vast majority are more valuable as play pieces. I think GameStop just doesn't seem to get this. I don't see real fans really buying into this. Pun totally intended.
I really appreciate your efforts! I have a quick question: My OKX wallet holds some USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). How can I transfer them to Binance?
The target demographic is probably people who have been buying Gamestop stock. Gamestop made like 4 billion dollars off selling new shares in the company to these fools who think it’ll make them rich, maybe they’ll buy overpriced Pokemon cards to speculate on too!
Bubbles are fun to watch, I'm sure this one won't pop. In sincerity, these are falsely inflated by people buying their own cards. They're waiting for a sucker to actually buy them. This happened with coins and Nintendo games over the past 5 years.
I work at EB Games in Australia and we’re owned by GameStop. I’m the only Magic player at work and while magic has been getting more popular the average worker definitely does not and will not care about the singles. A lot of people barely check if a game is scratched. I’m glad we haven’t started selling singles over here yet, I love directing people to my lgs, a place that actually cares about magic and the community
There are two things: If done correctly (not all grading companies do so, obviously) it captures the current state of the card and keeps it intact inside the slab. However, there is a main difference: truly rare items like 30+ year old cards are (or even sports cards much older) can then become the collector items instead of play pieces. Similar for rare promo cards (like the 1/1 ring) - it keeps them save(r). The other thing is mass product like these cent cards, graded and slabbed and then offered at 1000x their normal price. That is a dumb catch for fools who have no deal in the card world, sorry. Anyone who buys such crap is a tragic figure- although I fear it's mostly parents buying that crap for their kids because they know their kids play that game. And game stop just robs them of their good money. I'm not saying it's criminal but a ripoff for sure.
Uh 100% prices are made up by “analytics” there’s no real market for graded bulk rares. Pokémon is different they grade everything I’m also 100% sure some dudes taking in like 15-20 cards to some GameStop all the same bulk rare, then getting them all graded and scamming GameStop for a few hundred dollars a go. Not sure how long this will keep going
I collect a lot of cards. I have, and ONLY would grade sports cards, specifically autgraphs, relic cards (pieces of uniform or bats, balls, etc), and serialized cards. This is to keep the card in the condition it is in forever, as a collectable. I would never grade a TCG card, because that negates the purpose of the card's existence. If you gave me a black lotus, I would put it in a clamshell and frame it on my wall. But I would leave it in a condition that I could still take it out and play with it or sell it if someone ELSE wanted to play with it. I have a lot of TCG cards stored like this, but I have never, and may never, grade a TCG card. The only exception would be a card a loved one gave me that I want to keep forever. If I could find the pokemon and yugioh cards my grandad gave me as a child before he passed... I'd get those graded.
not just gamestop also tcgplayer also which in turn comes over to the UK on certain websites thinking $1 is £1…..erm no stop being greedy and lower the prices so can people can ether play the cards or add them to their collection
I'm gonna be sending some pokemon cards in for grading soon. They're definitely not coming back a 10, but i just want to protect what ive had somce i was a kid is all
Grading modern cards for MTG just isn't viable, MTG isn't as collectable as Pokemon and does not have the same market. Pokemon is 15 years into grading culture and the cards not only hold value at grades but go up constantly, even modern cards from within the last couple years. I would never bother grading MTG cards unless they are reserve list, and even then the market is almost non existent compared to Pokemon. Just not worth the time.
I love the clowning on Rudy-that dude has completely lost the plot. His whole zero prep and editing thing has become unbearable as he’s become completely detached from the actual game (state of play).
They are counting those as inventory value......it is a way of cheating accounts. If some idiot buys some then they win. It is also a way to sell their grading service. See? Send us your cards! It is f.worth it! FoMo again 😂
Remember when people called you gay for playing magic 😂😂 now i feel like those same people are just now finding out about the new game like its new and grading shit XD
@themoops4006 #1, no, I don't buy alcohol anymore. #2, I don't buy cigarettes anymore. #3, I don't buy marijuana anymore. #4, it's a god damned video game, dummy. I went right across the street to Walmart and bought the same Fikking game, NEW, for $10 less. You know what they didn't do? Ask for my ID. I buy R rated movies: no ID. I go online to buy M rated games: no ID 🤯 But sure, the Intellectual Invalid is gonna tell me what's what. Nice try, dummy.
@themoops4006 Intellectual Invalid doesn't know about buying Online. And no, I don't buy weed, booze or cigarettes anymore. I drank your bodyweight on the nightly and smoked twice that daily.
I am a small youtuber and i open packs of magic. I have accumulated a fair amount of higher end cards. To this day i have never graded one and no plans to.
What? It's the grading of random dog shit and the out of nowhere prices for that randomly graded dogshit that's surprising. No entrenched Magic player has never encountered the concept of graded cards. A PSA 10 Alpha Black Lotus is one of the most expensive collectibles you can even get your hands on in the hobby space not just Magic.
@kylegonewild yeah, welcome to grading. The market for graded items isn't based on supply and demand like everything else. It's based on what a person is willing to pay
@PleasantKenobi just because of your surprise on the prices of the graded cards. It's a very niche market that isn't based on anything other than subjective value. So, in layman's terms, it's worth whatever someone buys it for. Kind of like amateur art pieces.
People think graded cards are worth a small fortune. I've had to break it to my brother who is all about pokemon cards that it's a waste of money
I hope he hasn't gone too all in...
A polished turd in a glass case is still a turd.
Graded cards are largely just a big fkn scam in the first place. Cards that are valuable are valuable, ones that are some perfect 10 but are shit and nobody wants them are... you guessed it, still shit lol but hey if some fucking idiot will pay $100 for some crappy rare psa 10 then idk what to tell ya.
Markets and people are dumb AF
It's not a waste in Pokemon mate.
Only shows your stupidity. Pepole make millions in graded card market
Meanwhile, I'm over here looking for the most beat-up and heavy played versions of staples just to save some money. 😂
Heavily played duals, sign me up.
I actually just think theyre nicer in a way. Warm worn cards that have been played and enjoyed have more character than the steril cards that have barely had oxygen on them
Anything that fits in a sleeve works for me
I'm with you dude. Idgaf, I'll play my Nemesis white border version and you'll like it 😂
My favorite part about hp, non-english, inked, signed, altered, or otherwise non-standard expensive cards is the immediate recognition that it's not a proxy from opponents.
I honestly don’t hate the idea of ‘slabbing’ cards, but the actual ‘grading’ is silly to me. It’s so arbitrary. Send the same card in four times, you’ll get at least two different grades I’m sure.
It's literally a "meta" to send a high value Pokemon card in several times that came back a 9 or whatever, to try and get a grade up. Seems to work often enough too lol. It smells of BS.
Even worse when people pay exorbitant amounts for the express grading it's a grader's cash cow for Timmys 😂
Professionally graded cards / comics is something else that blew up during the pandemic. I've been around it for a long time, and it used to be that you had to have a 9.8 or perfect 10 for anything considered to be "modern age" to have any significant increase in value, and of course the older / scarcer the item was, the price got exponentially higher with the grade.
Now, though, it's just dumb. Just like something else that exploded during the pandemic, artist proofs. They used to be given away or sold for a couple bucks, now they're $50+ investments.
We didnt even touch on "reslabbers". Folks who will crack slabs and attempt to have them regraded in hopes theyll be graded higher, and worth more.
Or folks who will sell fake cards in graded slabs, only to send the legit card to be graded again so they can get another graded slab to sell another fake card.
that’s honestly just showing how inaccurate this entire thing is, no fault of the person submitting them again
@@ACuteAura moral of the story is grading is a scam. Period.
Posting graded cards at a dramatically inflated value is a marketing grift to amplify the perceived value of grading as a service when they offer it.
RedLetterMedia has a great video about how nonsense graded collectibles are, in their video about getting a crappy but rare(ish) VHS tape graded. I wonder if Gamestop benefits from these as an asset, somehow, maybe when they finally go bankrupt they can point to these cards and get some value.
Iiiiiiinteresting
I mean, Gamestop aren't buying the cards though right? They are selling them for you. So they get $17 when you send it for grading, then presumably a portion of the eventual sale price.
They won't in all likelyhood sell any of those cards, but thats no issue because they haven't paid for them and they already got the $17 from you when you send it off to get graded.
Its basically a scam marketing scheme for Gamestop and PSA.
they even sent a fake tape in to get graded but unfortunately the company didn't take the bait
@@GamerFlair From what it says on their website, they are indeed buying them from people outright. It says they'll give a maximum of 1500 dollars in cash or store credit per card
Each percentage markup mentioned in this video have a superfluous 100% in them.
A 2x multiplier is a 100% markup, not a 200% markup
A 1999.83x multiplier is a markup of 199883% not a 199983% markup
All but the first. My bad.
@@PleasantKenobi Oh, i miss the fact that the first one was correct, my bad too.
My lactose intolerant self will have a glass of milk in your honor.
@@egar-k3hbro just said ‘oh ur right my bad, ill kill myself (in a video game) in my disgrace to you 😂
I think there is an unintentional comedic value to getting bad cards graded. For example YuGiOh has an old very bad card they added support for recently called Hungry Burger that is an evil hamburger trying to eat you. When they added the new support they also rereleased hungry burger in secret rare, which is there highest rarity with the same terrible old art and the terrible secret rare holographic foil on top of it. Last time I checked that printing was like $30-50 for what is otherwise a 1 cent common. I think it could be really fun to crack out your psa 10 1 cent commander provided you didn’t spend much on it. But otherwise I think this stuff is a scam.
As a former GameStop employee who had to deal with this. Correct, this sucked and I never wanted to do it. Also I will say this, the trade value we give is really bad now, before it used to be 10% less than market/eBay. But now it is half or even worse than the market price. It also doesn't make sense on what GameStop sells the cards for, I bought a hockey card for 64 but eBay I can find the same grade for 150. All of this doesn't make sense
ebay sold items are legitimately used as a price guide (by myself included!) - i wonder how much that is gamed and manipulated sometimes
@hennerzz3460 Oh I know. Before I worked at GameStop I helped my old teacher with his business of sport cards events. I learned so much about the PSA submission and grades of that so when I saw GameStop start doing it I knew so much more than anyone else (including the higher ups it seemed like) That is why I checked on the card I bought and saw I'm just getting it for so cheap.
U don’t have to lie
@@reikomcdouble3017 what am I lying about here? The hockey card?
@@yugiohjedi442 I would say about everything considering if one part is a lie it’s all a lie.
This really fits in with Gamestop's status as a meme stock. It's like they are just slowly adopting every possible scam.
Sounds like a classic street con. Have an accomplice walk up and offer buy s.thing to establish perceived value, then use that perceived value to sell it to the mark or use it as "collateral" for some emergency funds or the like
This reminds me of when I used to work at the corporate headquarters in customer service. I was playing Magic at the time. They decided to start selling MTG product, so I was stoked (until I found out that my meager discount didn't apply towards MTG product). But then, I noticed that, they were only selling them on the website at the time, and they sold everything at random - even the precons. I tried to tell the appropriate people that "No one who plays Magic is going to want to get a random precon; they buy precons typically because they want a specific one". No one listened and about two months later, they stopped selling them because of low sales.
GameStop is filled with a bunch of clowns in suits.
The most I've personally ever paid for a magic card product was the time that I had to pre-order the dinosaur pre-con from lost caverns of ixalan at GameStop,
because of course they sold out locally at every other store.
SURELY they made sure of the demand before creating a supply engine. god I HATE marketing
I think you’re on point here. Charizard is worth money cause it’s Charizard, it doesn’t matter if it’s good. Magic cards are worth money if they’re good cards. UB could possibly create a similar effect but I doubt it.
UB cards with art from famous/beloved artists tend to be most prized.
I've graded a couple Gen Con stamped cards for Dragon Ball Super. These are hard to come by versions of the cards and I did it more to preserve them, mementos of the older times, there are cheaper prints to access, but those weren't exclusive prints to a convention.
I recently sent in that Liliana Vess signed baseball card to get graded cause it seems like a pretty unique card.
Man look at all these deals!!!
Thanks for letting me know about these great deals!
No problem 👍
I’ve started grading some magic cards. So far I’ve graded a gilded foil and confetti foil with Becketts and I think it’s a fun idea but I fully understand my cards aren’t randomly worth £1,000 more, maybe like an extra £50 on top? For me it’s more for a collection.
What I don’t understand is random ass commons and bulk rares being graded, surely you want your special foils and super rare pieces to be graded and not your evolving wilds that’s been printed 20million times
You're already falling for it by thinking it's now worth 50 more. It's not, stop getting it graded with the intent to make money fast. You're just leaning into what this video is laughing at, like.. hello???
@@spikysmoothnessthey said it was more for collection purpose. They also specify the desire to grade actually respectable rare prints.
@ with the intent of making money fast? Where in my comments did I say I was going to sell them? As stated “for me it’s more for a collection”. The £50 extra was a guesstimate I have no idea how much or even if it’s added value it’s not why I’m grading them, I’m doing it for a nice slab collection I can showcase next to my Commander decks
my friend, they are worth less now. that's because after grading you cannot play with them.
and yes, you are falling for it. you do not need to grade cards to put them in a case or toploader for display. do not waste your money.
@@m1gr3nA first off I was never going to play with these cards, they’d live in a trade binder and probably never see the light of day again so in this way they can be nicely displayed. If they grade anything lower than a 9 then I’ll just crack the slab open and retrieve the card.
Second, and more importantly, do not in anyway shape think you can tell me what to do with my money
None of these grading companies have more objective criteria for grading than your average trader on cardmarket.
I would honestly trust the guy at the counter of my local lgs to correctly grade a card way more because they're actually held accountable if they get it wrong.
I know for Game in the Uk they're dying off as they've been bought over by the forbes group which owns Sports direct and they have no idea what they're dooing with them. Eurogamer has a good article on it. Likewise grading always feels like it appeals to people who only see they're hobbies as ways to make money. By putting more percived value onto it. Which is why it's seems so popular in something like Pokemon which from the outside emphasis the collecting part far more than the game part. In comparsion to the likes of Magic, Digimon, Yugioh, flesh and blood star wars etc. Lovely vid by the way.
I think they will figure out when their sales are near zero, the market is rejecting this. Let them learn.
Imagine the prices of graded versions of MTG 30th anniversary!
Man Game in sports direct is a real life analogy of my video gaming character arc
Jeez you unlocked a memory of a Game Station here in New Zealand.
Someone who wanted to break into a gamestop in some random American city and steal all these graded cards, then try to flip them, wouldn't even be able to sell them for more than a few cents. That's insane.
At EB trade in value is roughly 25%-40% of what we sell it for, depending on what game it is
Looking at the way the company conducted business this dosen't suprise me unfortunately.
Slabbing makes sense when something is *truly* rare. 93/94, Power 9, or serialized new stuff (I guess). No one is saying draft chaff should be graded... Especially Rudy.
I hate GameStop as a company, and now I'm seriously considering dumping all my old garbage cards on them to watch them try and fail to sell them 🤣
Rudy is a bit weird but when they are under control, Rudy does say measured and logical things about TCGs. I’m just unsure how Rudy makes money and sits on so much product (like real estate is free or something)
If you are talking about Alpha Investments, Rudy has a lot of wealth so he can afford to buy product and sell it/wait for it to increase in value.
Bro he sells directly and makes profit. He also worked in finance buying and selling stocks and shit. So uh. Hes exactly who should have money and is doing exactly what he was trained to do with money, but with cards, which are actually more like individual stocks lol
Rudy was a stockbroker for years, he's Wall St guy with a passion for Mtg.
@@KyleTremblayTitularKtrey
When you say direct, like buying from a distributor and selling to patreons isnt that direct. Rudy doesnt have a brick and mortar storefront but still is a store in every way. Rudy is NOT WotC selling direct to customers nor Rudy doesn’t have a printing press to make cards on demand (that we know of).
Further Rudy has stated the current sets being sold at a Rudy-Special is a loss or not part of the profit (ie not 20%+ profit). Maybe when Rudy sits on product long enough; when that product is out of print and people still want an older set, this is where Rudy realises profit.
But you need enough storage to hold ((3 ±1) *4)+N pallets (or half pallets) worth and to tie up that capital for 2 to 4 years seems risky. (Surely Rudy has a side job and Alpha Investments company isn’t even half or quart of Rudy’s worth. Maybe even just consider as play money)
While it’d be very difficult to trust them during the PSA process as a middleman; I can see the appeal of having a simpler working system for the customer. But I also agree that some of the graded cards you’ve shown here are absolutely insane! I can get behind grading cards like an Alpha or Beta Power 9 card or 1st edition Pokémon cards like Charizard. But seeing cards that are only a few years old, just based on alternate printing seems a bit ridiculous to me. The only “fair” room I can see on getting a PSA on a newer card would be the “xxx/500” MtG cards. That’s about it.
1:35 expert level arm waving
I actually was gifted a GameStop gift card and had no idea what to spend it on so I looked at their graded cards and got a PSA 9 Rick, Steadfast Leader for $38, which is cheaper than even an ungraded one. Was surprised as most of their stuff is way overpriced but there are some good finds
Decided to get back into paper recently and when I Googled around for nearby a LGS, they showed Gamestops and I had to laugh.
So are they buying graded cards back at anywhere near the ballpark they sell it for?
MTG card quality is so poor that an actual certified 10 is probably worth that to the market. Supply is low.
If you're buying it for a deck, sure get the 4 dollar one.
You might be buying into a grift here...
A friend of mine worked at gamestop for a long time. He would have to run the entire store by himself most days for barely above minimum wage. He was responsible for so many things throughout the shift, he probably doesnt have time to make sure they are treated properly. \
Gamestop can't sell these cards at this price btw, no way.
I think that's obvious, but I didn't clearly state that, so I get the need to say that. I agree.
@@PleasantKenobi There are strange, strange people out there doing so, though. Don't ask me what kind of crack they're smoking.
Does that matter if they are buying at even half that. They lis money but do you the seller care?
I grade low end Pokemon cards for my collection and for my business. As far as my personal collection goes, I collect cards based on the art.
Whether it’s hard to pull or a guaranteed promo, I enjoy the idea of making my personal copy non-fungible. Unlike NFTs a trading card is a physical object and it’s nice to protect it semi-permanently and get professional validation of the card’s condition and quality.
Also graded cards just look good imo. The size of the slab makes a perfect frame and the plastic is sturdier than a card saver or toploader.
I got a graded yugioh card as a present once when I was like 9.
I spent so much time trying to open it and get the card out 😅.
A big moment for me was realizing that Rudy's mysterious and vague way of speaking about things is not because he's a genius speaking in winks to the smart investor non-timmys, but rather, he's just not actually saying that much
Yeah. Full of hot air and bullshit.
I pulled a Japanese art Japanese language Doubling Season *foil* don't know if it even comes in non-foil. When I opened it I didn't know what the card was I hadn't studied the special Art cards because I never pull them... until now. No one seems to want it and stores around me only want the Japanese art English version of the card. I am just thinking is Grading this card and holding on to it worth it or not?
I'll give you my perspective as a collector: i would hold on to it, it's a fantastic piece to have in a collection. Mind you, i do not sell any cards in my collection, i prefer to trade with my friends and folks at the LGS i play at to complete my collections.
I think grading cards is good if it's a *very* expensive card i.e. Masterpiece Sol Ring. Getting cards graded helps signify that they are legit, which makes them more sellable. Any buyer who is looking to buy a $1,000 card is probably going to want to buy something graded so they know exactly what they are getting. This is especially true for cards that are known to have counterfeits in circulation.
Good point! (is there anything stopping someone from faking a grading though? getting a load of those plastic cases and making some PSA 9.5 stickers and whacking them on ebay?)
Yeah, they have all sorts of UV watermarks and stuff to avoid faking.
As for only buying an expensive card if its graded - but what if you are buying it to play with it.
@@PleasantKenobi Mm yeah i figured they'd have such measures - wondering if your average card buyer knows to look for that kind of stuff - there MUST be some falsely graded cards on the bay. ( also - hi PK - love you videos :) )
@@hennerzz3460 Doesn't ebay require sellers to send expensive cards through their own intermediary to determine authenticity before shipping it to a buyer now?
When your identity is built around a point of consumption
Grading is such a Scam. No wonder Gamestop is in on this now
Gamestops grading service is a really good deal for people who dont wanna go through psa hassle. Also employees dont handle your card. You aren't even supposed to give it to us until its in a penny sleeve and top loader. Now the prices on our traded graded cards is fucking atrocious.
I personally treat a war room graded psa 10 as worth 4 dollars. Grading only reduces value by exposing imperfections.
It’s not just GameStop. PSA gem 10s are very rare to come by. That’s why on EBay the premium for 10s are usually 10x the normal price. So $110 for a $4 card isn’t as outrageous as you think.
This is true for older cards that have stood the test of time in perfect condition. Some card cracked out of a booster 5 minutes ago doesnt carry the same prestige.
If they are so rare, how didnthey get 8 copies of the same card at gem 10?
I think you are drinking the koolaid on this one.
@@PleasantKenobi8 out of how many?
@@joshsmith894100% wrong. Crocalor IR from palada evolved a pretty new set is perfect example. It’s a card with a raw price of 6$ and if graded a 10 is worth 100$ yet it’s graded a 9 only worth 11$ and not worth the price to grade.
@@PleasantKenobior you are just to ignorant you can’t admit when u r wrong because u know nothing about what u r talking about
The thing that makes this so crazy is that Magic players would generally rather play with their cards than have them in a slab. There is obviously a huge collectability with some really expensive cards, but the vast majority are more valuable as play pieces. I think GameStop just doesn't seem to get this. I don't see real fans really buying into this. Pun totally intended.
I'm gonna alter my Helpful Hunters to looks like my kitties and then go get them graded just for the lols
I might grade my volcanic island someday. Have never played with it since opening at a GP chaos draft (I won a revised pack).
Play it in Canadian Highlander.
I really appreciate your efforts! I have a quick question: My OKX wallet holds some USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). How can I transfer them to Binance?
By inserting your sphincter into the ether.
Grading cards is fun and cool if its old rare mint and valuable stuff. Or nice autographs
So what I got from this, is I can take all the bulk after making play sets, give it to them, and activate infinite money glitch? Thanks Gamestop!
It's just more exploitation, another greater fools games, the only people buying a $4 card for over 100 are people who don't know better.
The target demographic is probably people who have been buying Gamestop stock. Gamestop made like 4 billion dollars off selling new shares in the company to these fools who think it’ll make them rich, maybe they’ll buy overpriced Pokemon cards to speculate on too!
Bubbles are fun to watch, I'm sure this one won't pop.
In sincerity, these are falsely inflated by people buying their own cards. They're waiting for a sucker to actually buy them. This happened with coins and Nintendo games over the past 5 years.
I have been playing tcgs for years and I have only ever graded one card
I work at EB Games in Australia and we’re owned by GameStop. I’m the only Magic player at work and while magic has been getting more popular the average worker definitely does not and will not care about the singles. A lot of people barely check if a game is scratched. I’m glad we haven’t started selling singles over here yet, I love directing people to my lgs, a place that actually cares about magic and the community
Gamestop knows that there's a sucker born every minute, just look at their stock.
Specifically only certain graded cards matter
They're only worth that much if somebody actually buys it.
I know.
The sad thing is... people are dumb enough to buy these
There are two things: If done correctly (not all grading companies do so, obviously) it captures the current state of the card and keeps it intact inside the slab. However, there is a main difference: truly rare items like 30+ year old cards are (or even sports cards much older) can then become the collector items instead of play pieces. Similar for rare promo cards (like the 1/1 ring) - it keeps them save(r).
The other thing is mass product like these cent cards, graded and slabbed and then offered at 1000x their normal price. That is a dumb catch for fools who have no deal in the card world, sorry. Anyone who buys such crap is a tragic figure- although I fear it's mostly parents buying that crap for their kids because they know their kids play that game. And game stop just robs them of their good money. I'm not saying it's criminal but a ripoff for sure.
Uh 100% prices are made up by “analytics” there’s no real market for graded bulk rares.
Pokémon is different they grade everything
I’m also 100% sure some dudes taking in like 15-20 cards to some GameStop all the same bulk rare, then getting them all graded and scamming GameStop for a few hundred dollars a go.
Not sure how long this will keep going
I collect a lot of cards.
I have, and ONLY would grade sports cards, specifically autgraphs, relic cards (pieces of uniform or bats, balls, etc), and serialized cards. This is to keep the card in the condition it is in forever, as a collectable.
I would never grade a TCG card, because that negates the purpose of the card's existence. If you gave me a black lotus, I would put it in a clamshell and frame it on my wall. But I would leave it in a condition that I could still take it out and play with it or sell it if someone ELSE wanted to play with it. I have a lot of TCG cards stored like this, but I have never, and may never, grade a TCG card. The only exception would be a card a loved one gave me that I want to keep forever. If I could find the pokemon and yugioh cards my grandad gave me as a child before he passed... I'd get those graded.
Vince to Rudy. I get it, I get it.
not just gamestop also tcgplayer also which in turn comes over to the UK on certain websites thinking $1 is £1…..erm no stop being greedy and lower the prices so can people can ether play the cards or add them to their collection
I'm gonna be sending some pokemon cards in for grading soon. They're definitely not coming back a 10, but i just want to protect what ive had somce i was a kid is all
Happy Turkey Day, Milky Man
The difference between a raw card and a graded card broski. Did you not understand that or?
Ah, so that's why their stock is going up at the moment
Grading modern cards for MTG just isn't viable, MTG isn't as collectable as Pokemon and does not have the same market. Pokemon is 15 years into grading culture and the cards not only hold value at grades but go up constantly, even modern cards from within the last couple years.
I would never bother grading MTG cards unless they are reserve list, and even then the market is almost non existent compared to Pokemon. Just not worth the time.
me looking at my phyrexian dreadnought i bought for 50 usd because it is heavily damaged
I love the clowning on Rudy-that dude has completely lost the plot. His whole zero prep and editing thing has become unbearable as he’s become completely detached from the actual game (state of play).
Though, you could grade Ricky Martin cards. 🤔
FLESH AND BLOOD MENTIONED RAHHHHH WHAT IS A BAD TCG ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️
Comments for the algorithm throne!
Super D Duper free-market manipulation
A rare Rudy shoutout. Does anyone really understand what he means when he says Folks!
They are counting those as inventory value......it is a way of cheating accounts. If some idiot buys some then they win. It is also a way to sell their grading service. See? Send us your cards! It is f.worth it! FoMo again 😂
Remember when people called you gay for playing magic 😂😂 now i feel like those same people are just now finding out about the new game like its new and grading shit XD
Alpha investments mention! Get your floppy tacos out Timmy’s
gamestop sells magic cards?
Ah yes, we all love the dumb people tax
Bro really made a video ranting without even understanding how it works 😂
Hardly a rant now, was it?
GameStop wanted to see my ID to buy a Resident Evil game. I'm 41.
GameStop can KMA.
welcome to literally every retailer in the country do you not buy alcohol
@themoops4006 #1, no, I don't buy alcohol anymore. #2, I don't buy cigarettes anymore. #3, I don't buy marijuana anymore.
#4, it's a god damned video game, dummy. I went right across the street to Walmart and bought the same Fikking game, NEW, for $10 less. You know what they didn't do? Ask for my ID. I buy R rated movies: no ID.
I go online to buy M rated games: no ID 🤯
But sure, the Intellectual Invalid is gonna tell me what's what. Nice try, dummy.
@themoops4006 Intellectual Invalid doesn't know about buying Online.
And no, I don't buy weed, booze or cigarettes anymore. I drank your bodyweight on the nightly and smoked twice that daily.
You not understanding rudy makes the rest of your opinions that I've seen make a shitload more sense.
Can't hear you, too busy being handsome.
Yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo u follow the script perfectly lead the mtg floc jerrard
Timmy. Bag. Diamond hands. Fetching. Potatoes.
I am a small youtuber and i open packs of magic. I have accumulated a fair amount of higher end cards. To this day i have never graded one and no plans to.
GameStop is being weird and not GameStop are being weird
depends on which side of the pond you are on.
@ I think English has rules to it though
@@stevendefeo8424 Again, depending on which side of the pond you are on
Prices will drop once they realise they're being a bunch of doofuses.
First time dealing with graded cards huh?
No. Why would you think that?
What? It's the grading of random dog shit and the out of nowhere prices for that randomly graded dogshit that's surprising. No entrenched Magic player has never encountered the concept of graded cards. A PSA 10 Alpha Black Lotus is one of the most expensive collectibles you can even get your hands on in the hobby space not just Magic.
@kylegonewild yeah, welcome to grading. The market for graded items isn't based on supply and demand like everything else. It's based on what a person is willing to pay
@PleasantKenobi just because of your surprise on the prices of the graded cards. It's a very niche market that isn't based on anything other than subjective value. So, in layman's terms, it's worth whatever someone buys it for.
Kind of like amateur art pieces.
th-cam.com/video/dtkYXExZdGg/w-d-xo.html
Gamestop ripping people off 😅 im shocked 😂