How To Start Collecting Rare High-end Pokemon Cards 

Hey Jake! 2 years ago I couldn’t afford any “high end” cards. One of your videos suggested collecting tag team cards and said they have the best art for how much they cost. I got all the tag team Alts and promos for a few hundred dollars based on your suggestion and now they’re worth thousands!

Biggest mistake of my collecting career was not picking up all the scream promos. Such beautiful artworks

Thanks for the tips Jake, looking forward to continue to grow my pokemon collection!

You’re definitely my favorite pokemon creator. Amazing work over the years

Thanks, Jake!! I love admiring your collection and hope that one day we get a deeper look into your entire collection! I'm sure it's more than just your recording studio, haha!

Thanks for the share Jake, love seeing your collection 🙌😁✌️🎉!

Thanks Jake I really appreciate these videos alot of hoarding goes on in the hobby and collectors don't usually share worth while ways to increase the value of their collection

I absolutely adore the PokeKyun set and am so grateful to have been able to open a booster box of it back when it was cheap (I got it for somewhere between $40-60 on Amazon). Just from one booster box I nearly completed the set, and over the years I collected the last 3-4 cards I needed. The most money I spent was $125 to get the full art Sylveon which I broke down and bought almost 2 years ago. Sometimes I wish I had bought an extra booster box so I’d have a sealed one for my collection now, but I was in high school with limited funds so I never bought anything with the intention of keeping it sealed. I’m so glad to have the full set, and I still have a few duplicates that I’ve considered grading, although they’re the more common cards

Such great information. Thank you!

I have only started collecting pokemon cards since the end of last year. So still new to the whole thing. But your videos have been very helpful and enjoyable as well to learnt the ropes. look for certain things. For me its not about flipping the items or making a profit. It's about the collection aspect of it, and i am enjoying it very much. (if only i kept my base set and fossil when i was a kid :D ) Keep up the great work on the content Jake!

Great video man! Very insightful!

loved the live stream yesterday jake !

just now hearing about PokeKyun collection because of you! reminds me of Shiny Collection because that set was also made to appeal that same demo. I've been slowly collecting that, but might also jump in on the pokekyun cards. Thanks for the video

Really golden suggestions, thanks!

Amazing video as always.. I love you calm natured videos :)

Nice video jake. I definitely liked the live stream too. Hope you can keep doing them.

Congrats Jake on the awesome collection

Great video! Thank you!

Very nice and smart video thx!

Very wise words. Thanks Jake

less than $50 on the tag team is absolutely insane 🎉🎉🎉 cheers bro

Those are some great cards right there and love the booster box

Great video. Thank you 🙏

I would LOVE to see a speculative video from you Jake, see what you think will spike in a few years

Great video once again ;), could you also make a video on how to start collecting sealed Pokémon products?

Fully agree with you, great video

Glad I listened to you and bought mario pikachu and luigi pikachu, both psa10 for under $200 back in 2017.. I also listened to you and bought a booster box of tag team gx for $90 in 2021.. ❤

That is an expensive background

Some gems that seem far to cheap for their rarity are the Japanese battle road promo cards. Given out to tournament winners and participants only, the market has remained stable on them but could explode in the future if people become more interested in the more exclusive prize cards. Would love you to do a video on them at some point to.

I had the chance to get the Mario/Luigi Pikachu last year.....just TOO much at the time. Such an amazing set of cards.

Jake i really love your content and learning alot. Where is the best online community for “alpha” and investing tips on pokemon cards?

I was unemployed for nearly a year. I also started collecting again around four months before I quit my last job. I wanted to buy so much stuff and wasn't able to. Not gonna lie, I hate myself for that nowadays. But hey, atleast now I know you gotta hustle to get what you want. I love you and your content, Jake!❤

Ah Jake that’s such a nice collection, must just stare at them all the time!

❤ so glad I got the scream promos I wanted years ago

Hey Jake, great video, do you think Pikachu 073/071 will increase in price?

i love this video, this is the kind of video I was looking for, no wonder you are my favorite pokemon youtuber, value/investment has a high factor on my Pokemon TCG collecting.

How to start collecting pokemon cards : dont worry about the value and just collect what you want. if its just a collection why are you worried about the value.

TEAM UP SET!

Heres a video idea: when is the best time to buy singles? Clearly not around set release. Do we wait for the set to go off the shelves, or is that too late? Are there patterns in the data?

you have a great eye for what is coming up. but that also take research and have a sense of how the market moves, how people think and of course economy. I myself have most of those and a few others that i bought because I liked them not because i thought they were going to go up in value but because I know they are classics meaning they will stand the test of time. iconic characters and super cool graphics and great art. So, I do see how you do it and have become successful in the pokemon sector.

I plan to start a Pokémon tcg collection. Do u think collecting a complete set of the new 151 series is the way to go? Plan to get the poster collection, binder bundle, booster bundle, UPC bundle, Snorlax ETB and the 2 EX bundle. What do you think.

patience is key for a lot of these. A lot of people will think that a new product is worth double/triple the market rrp just because it sold out quick or is Charizard etc. Once the hype of the set dies down a lot of people tend to send to fund the next latest set (as you said 2 years is a good bench mark for this).

thanks for the tip, I just used buyee to pick up 3 of the yu nagaba eevee packs

appreciate the tips! how does that apply to psa 10's? those seem to find heir footing sooner and begin to increase sooner than raw cards.

I picked up a eevee hero gym box. 1 year and a half ago for $375 now that box is at 2k

hey jake I love your videos :)

Jake, which sword and shield set do you think has the potential to rise in value over the years?

I completely agree with you! if you want to collect and not overspend you have to have patience. You can not fall into FOMO, you can not chase after the next best thing trending at the moment, instead look back into stuff that was popular but interest has died down and is now at an affordable price.

Thanks Jakey Boy!!!

The tricky part I find now is that items are crazy prices out of the gate. Unique items are sold out immediately and on the secondary market be prepared to drop 3x prices. That makes pretty risky entry. You could wait for a lower price, but the price also could go much higher. Now it's hard to distinguish what is pump fomo and what is real value. I took a good break from all sets as simply could not get what I wanted for a reasonable market price. Just picked up my first vstar universe boxes at $60. Probably to keep sealed and possibly pick up gold cards raw as I really like those.

Question: Do you think Sealed or Singles Cards has the highest chance to blow up in value?

Hey Jake how do you feel about that new full art Pikachu Yokohama deck promo card that just came out? It’s already like $350 idk if it’s worth it

inspirational

great video!

Great Video I buy a lot of world championship stuff and tons of pikachu promos from Japan

So if 2-3 years is when a card starts to climb typically, does it make the most sense as a buyer to look at sets from 1.5 years ago or so as the optimal time to buy? (Before the projected spike but nearing that threshold)

The only reason i picked up the latios latias card was because of jake. I had never seen that card until i saw one of his videos. Bought it for 150 of tcg player 2 years ago i believe and graded it and came back a psa10. One of my best cards ive got

Very professional 👌

What you think about the girantina and arcaeus from crown zenith?

I was watching him make the bread analogy (“baking” “rising”) while eating a piece of bread. Crazy world

These high end cards did you buy them raw and then grade them yourself or did you buy them already graded to a PSA 10?

buy low sell high. i always buy low unless its some new crazy set (like pokemon 151) and i just want to get my hands on some boxes to open while its fresh. i like your 2 year rule i think that is a simple way of telling people don't sell too early. lillie cards are a good example of a card i would have sold way to early and not held onto now where it has gone up 1000-2000%

Back in 2016 I got a single copy each of the three main japanese 20th anniversary battle festa promos (mew, pikachu, and the pikachi+starters full art) for $20 each. Got them graded as PSA 10. They now go for around $10K-$15K each. If only I had known and gotten more T__T I definitely regret not buying the scream cards, too... sigh

Hi do I access the offer to get the yunagaba eeveelutions promo as Im looking to order some 151 boxes would love to get some on those promos as well

Love the content and theories shared here. Thanks for standing out among the poke tubers. My challenge though is that the market seems to have changed from your referencing. Perhaps collecting in 2020/2021 and looking back 2 yrs for depressed value made sense. Now if you look back, we are staring at Chilling Reign and Evo Skies. Time to buy those sealed and singles? They at their low point? The new pandemic market players, myself included, seem to have changed the patterns. Look at what is happening with Japanese cards or other things being noted as unusual. Thoughts?

I waited too long and missed moonbreon at 150$ and alot of the other chase cards from all of the s.s sets. So now I watch the market and after the hype of the set dies down il usually get cards 2-3 months after the set releases for about 20% of what the card was going for during the peak of the hype.

Do you buy slabs or raw and grade?

High value cards are so annoyingly because I either want them and can’t justify the price, or I have them, but I would never sell them anyways so I’ll never see the money

Good Job! Please also talk about something like how to play pokemon card, I feel youtubers and collectors are focus too much on their market value, even sometimes the art is bad looking, like rainbow color, or some pure gold card, and metal card.

What do you recommend we pick up now? Would love start investing using your strategy and guidance :)

Pop 1000 is the new rare 🎉🎉

I got a team up booster box in 2019 and one on 2020. They shot up in price.

Hi, I used collect Pokemon cards WAAAYYYY back in primary school for fun (2007-2011 ish). Now im interested in picking up new releases from Japan but i live in the UK. Can i still gain access to new releases at there time of release? Some have said I'd need a reshipper, is this true?

With cards like the moonbreon, does the 2 year rule still apply?

jakeeee what's the whistle song playing in the background throughout the video

I would love to know what you would recommend to collect now that you think would go up in price in the future?

Hey Jake! I started collecting again in 2017 or so. I really got into collecting Mega EX full arts and tag team cards, especially the alt arts. Luckily I completed the tag team collection a couple of years ago ... My question is, do you expect mega ex cards to ever blow up like the tag team cards, even if to a lesser extent? Love the content!

My rule of thumb is to buy the card you like (because you will be keeping it for years or even forever). You will never know what will go up so just buy the cards that's within your budget that made you go "wow that card looks awesome, I want to display it." I have cards that I bought raw and now it's worth 50x+ times the cost value, and I have bought graded cards that went down in value- but I have never regret any of those purchases because I like the art. I guess that is the difference between a collector and a investor.

Also how do We know which cards are the best from each released set

I always panic and want to get in on the ground floor. To me it makes sense to buy low and hold for around 10 years if youre looking for returns.

also don't forget u may miss mint card if wait 2 years so usually I buy it after 1 year instead

Tag teams

This video changed my life

You also need a lot of luck. Buying them ungraded is a bigger gamble because if they came back at 8's or 9's they would only be worth a fraction.

Of the items you’re showing I only have the Latias & Latios GX card. I’m just not into Japanese cards although I do love the artwork. I wish we have some English exclusive FA promos, but we don’t. I tried to like Japanese and I had a few premium ones at one point like the CoroCoro Mew and Masaki Vending Gengar thinking they might grow on me, but I ended up selling them because they just don’t fit in with the rest of my collection. I even predicted the Mario Pikachus, the Munch promos, the Poncho Pikachus, and the Battle Day Lillie to be very valuable. Unfortunately I just can’t force myself to like them.

the mimikyu alone is going for 10k now and the mario pika is almost there 🤣🤣

Baking in the oven for it to rise in value. Great analogy, now I'm hungry. Fantastic information for people to realize that time is the biggest indicator for value, not only supply and demand. For me, personally, I'm looking at evolution lines in Japanese and I feel a lot of people will eventually catch out to how amazing story lines for Pokémon are. The only other time they did that was the Charizard in radiant collection from generations and a few others like emboar and dragonite. The only different now is that the rarity of AR->SAR is higher than those commons/promos. It's not 2 years old+ yet but they are relatively cheap right now except for a few SARs. If Pokémon continues this trend, these will be the next in thing just like alt arts were. That's just my theory. I would only buy them in english after 2 years since supply is still high.

Great video but do you feel like this still applies with the exponentially larger graded populations of graded cards vs a few years ago? Populations of psa 10 cards are in the thousands these days, that is not the same as it was a few years ago.

Some cool items here! Somtimes two years will make you miss the boat tho in my opinion. That team up booster box would not have been 100$ if you had waited 2 years. Somtimes if you really want an item you need to get it while the gettins good. If you waited 2 years on that marnie you'd be hurtin, or celebrations UPC, ect.

Hi Jake, not sure this applies currently for Waifus ! SAR already 3x times 200usd at release. What would you recommend in this situation ?

What do you think of the Reshiram and Zekrom cards with N in the art? A lot of people really like N, and I think some of those have a ton of potential in 5 years. Are there any in particular you think are great buys right now that fit your criteria?

Wow, some truly great cards. I appreciate that you refrain from telling people to--- BUY this now !!

If you are looking to build a collection of rare high end Pokémon card collection . Is it better to just buy singles rather than going for opening packie . For example if I’m look for some of the chase card I could spend 50 pounds and get an ETB where I will end up with cards I don’t want . Or just go there and buy 5- 6 high end chase cards I want

Good video Jake. Definitely inspirational. I wanted to ask. What is your thoughts on psa 10 va psa 9 when it comes to collecting specific cards?? I noticed on one of your videos you picked up a vstar Glaceon in a 9. Was that just cus you got a super good deal and you can use it for a give away or do you also have a lot of psa 9 in your collection??

But how can I research about the best cards in each kategori?? I am new collector thank you

Great video. The question is when looking at the releases which are 2 years old. How do you know which Pokemon cards are undervalued. What im trying to ask is how do you know which cards will rise in value in the future ?

Am I the only one that likes how he say "Pokémon cards" 🤣🤣

Guys, should i buy yu nagaba pikachu psa 10 right now bc its price is down

did you get these cards raw or already in a psa 10? because I feel like one would have to buy more than one copy of a card to make sure it comes back a 10...

This the place people buy Japanese pokemon booster box 😮