MrClutch

Dang, I really miss going to MGC with all the NA folks. I hope it still holds that magical feeling for everyone who goes.

I'm selling a few things from my collection. PM me and we can work out a deal. US Only. N64 Gold Controller Toys'R'Us Console with box - $700 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and tears but it displays nicely. Zelda Twilight Princess HD w/Amiibo Wii-U New in box - $200 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and creases but it displays nicely. Mario Party 7 Gamecube Console Bundle Complete in box - $325 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and tears but it displays nicely. The Gamecube console is a little dirty as well. Mario Party 6 Complete with Outer Box and Mic - $275 The outer box is in very good condition. Gameboy Advance Fuchsia Pink w/Box - $120 The box is in good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dents and creases. The console works but the back battery plate has a broken snap so it doesn't close. There are a few scratches on the screen but nothing terrible. Gameboy Color Berry w/Box - $190 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and creases but it displays nicely. The system works but the back battery plate seems to be a replacement and is a little off color. Nintendo DS Electric Blue Animal Crossing Wild World - $250 The box is in very good condition. The DS console is also in great shape with no scratches on the screen. I tested it and it works great. There is no Animal Crossing game included in this bundle. Gameboy Basic Set w/box - $250 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and tears but it displays nicely. There is a sticker on the back and a tear along the bottom back. The console turns on but the screen has some lines through it. Gameboy Pocket Ice Blue Zelda Box and inserts - $450 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and creases but it displays nicely. No game console or Zelda game is included. Gameboy Pocket Ice Blue Complete w/box - $400 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and tears but it displays nicely. The console works and has a few light scratches on the screen. Nothing terrible. Overall in great shape. Gameboy Pocket Black w/box - $300 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and tears but it displays nicely. There are stickers on the back from the store it was purchased from. The console works great and is in near mint condition. No scratches or wear. Looks like it was never played. Gameboy Pocket Gold w/box - $300 The box is in pretty good condition. There are signs of wear and a few dings and tears but it displays nicely. There are stickers on the back from the store it was purchased from. The console works great and is in near mint condition. No scratches on the screen. Gameboy Pocket Silver w/plastic box - $200 Console works and there's only a few light scratches on the screen.

I can't watch anything Vegas Dave puts out. He invested over $2 million into Derek Carr rookie cards and is STILL holding on to them. I feel like he sold his Trout and messed up on Derek Carr so now he wants the market to tank. I think the market will continue to grow but it very well could burst in a few years time. Just like anything. The one thing I'm scared of is the fact that all of these grading card companies have over a million cards backed up in their system waiting to be graded. Think about the effect those cards would have on the market if they were all released in the next year. I think they're doing a good job of trickling them out so we don't really see the market being flooded. That's just because they can't keep up. If they do catch up, or grading becomes automated, the market could take a huge hit when millions of cards start going to market at once. The population count of a Zion PSA 10 could go from 500 to 4,000 in a matter of weeks. Trading cards can appeal to a larger audience than a lot of other collectibles. There could be trading cards of anything. For example. I bought one of my kids a $20 Fortnite Mega Box of cards at Target or Walmart for Christmas a few months ago. I also bought 3 more for me to put in my stash. Those boxes are worth almost $200 on eBay now. I probably passed up on 20 or more of those during the holidays. You know how many times I kick myself for not taking out a 2nd mortgage on my house and buying cards with it? I literally spent $60 at Walmart 2 months ago on Fortnite trading cards that were sitting on the shelf along with a dozen others and now they're worth almost $600. I was just guessing they'd be popular and it wasn't much of a gamble but damn do I wish I'd have bought all of them now. Think of how many topics have been started about the bubble in the video game collecting hobby. Did a bubble ever burst? I don't think so. When you have a market that attracts the younger generations, it'll continue to thrive. That's what video games and cards both have.

If any group of people can relate to or understand what's going on with the card market, it's this group here at VGS. This card boom started in 2018. Cards were starting to pick up a little bit of steam. Then Gary Vaynerchuk (huge social media following) started tweeting out about investing in cards. The market skyrocketed. Luka Doncic and Trae Young were having insane rookie years which had everyone chasing their cards, Then Zion Williamson comes out and has LeBron James type of hype coming out of college. Everyone is chasing Zion now. PSA grading starts booming. Everyone is chasing PSA 10 Gem Mint cards. The pandemic hits and everyone is stuck home with nowhere to spend their money. ESPN releases "The Last Dance" and everyone who grew up in the 80's and 90's starts getting nostalgic for cards again. The vintage market skyrockets. Now, every era of basketball cards are at all time highs. Can't find basketball cards anywhere so people jump over to Football cards. Same thing happens. Tom Brady cards start flying up and everyone is speculating on the next big thing. Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, even Sam Darnold cards are now going insane. People now go over to Baseball, same thing happens. Soccer, same thing. WWF Wrestling cards, UFC Cards, Marvel cards, etc. It's happening to all of them now. Logan Paul makes a YouTube video of an insanely priced Pokemon card. Guess what happens? That market explodes. Still hasn't even cooled off and continues to go up. Now we have large investment groups pooling together millions of dollars and buying up LeBron PSA 10 rookies, Tom Brady rookies, Mike Trout rookies, Jordan rookies, etc. These legends keep going up daily because there isn't enough of them and they're a sure-fire investment. The market had a few dips but it was just going back to reality like a healthy market does. It picks up and goes down every once in a while but it looks like these sure-fire bets like Jordan and LeBron are just getting started. Look at the LeBron James PSA 10 Topps Chrome rookie: Population (2,071) 1 year ago: $3,500 6 months ago: $15,000 1 month ago: $22,000 Today: $40,000 This card isn't some rare holy grail either. It's not like a Stadium Events or NWC. There's over 2,000 PSA 10s available. You have always been able to buy one whenever you want on eBay. You could have bought one a year ago easily. Let's look back at this post in a month and laugh when this card, that you can go buy here for $45,000 OBO on ebay, is worth over $60,000. Or in a year when it's worth over $100,000. There's tons of money flowing into this hobby now and I think it can grow even more.

Yeah, what a bunch of nerdy virgins! They should do something more manlier, like talk about video games on a video game collector forum. I've run into a line once and when I saw it, I was like "nope." I collect and buy the damn things but there's no way I'm waiting in a line for hours to save a few bucks. I have nothing against it though. These people are trying to make some extra cash and the card market is easy money right now. Some people work at a retail store and make minimum wage. They can wait in a line at a store for an hour and make an extra $100. More power to them.

I also have a hard time keeping anything sealed. Ripping packs is too much fun. Especially if you got them for the retail price.

Yeah Chronicles singles aren't worth a ton. That's the thing about buying sealed wax. At the prices they command, you almost certainly aren't going to get your money back out of the cards that you pull from the box. Keep the box sealed and watch them go up. I like ripping packs and submitting to PSA. Getting back that order from PSA makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

If you bought 2019-20 Illusions or Chronicles at the retail price, you’re good. A $20 blaster box of either one will sell for $50+ on eBay. Retail card flipping is easy money if you have a source or if you know the restock schedule. I don’t have a source and it’s not worth my time to camp out, so when I want to rip some packs, I’m always overpaying on eBay.

Cards are huge and it’s not just a weird bubble. Like most of us, I collected when I was young in the “junk wax era” and then fizzled out in the mid 90’s. I jumped back into it in late 2018. Just buying a few boxes of basketball cards here and there. Still haven’t poured tons of money into it but my card collection is now worth more than any video game collection I’ve ever owned. I had a 96 Topps Kobe rookie in a binder from when I was younger. Sent it in to PSA and it only got a an 8, but it’s worth $500 today. Go to Target or Walmart and check out the card section. If you see any Basketball or Football cards there, buy them. $20 retail boxes don’t even hit the shelves anymore. There are 20 dudes waiting at 8am at every Target/Walmart for the card rep to stock the weekly supply. They buy every single box and immediately flip them on eBay for 3x the price they paid. This has been going on for over a year now, with no end in sight. It’s happening to Baseball, Soccer, and Pokémon cards now too. Cards are doubling in price weekly and continuing to break record high sales. It’s nuts and it only keeps getting crazier. I remember seeing 2018-2019 Basketball cards sitting at Target and only buying a few $20 boxes. Those boxes sell for over $150-$400 a piece now. Do yourself a favor and go check out your old card collection and look up any of the big rookies. You’ll be surprised.

I used to go there a few times a month. There was a Shinders (cards and comics) and a Funcoland in the same strip mall by Northtown in Blaine. It was heaven. I used to grab a few copies of their printed price sheets and bring those home. I’d spend time going through the whole thing and I’d circle all the really cheap games. Like anything under $1 for any system I had. I’d plan it all out and have the right amount of money to get them all. I’d bring the sheet in with all the games circled and ask the employee if they had it, 1 at a time. Probably like 30+ games. I swear, they rarely even had 1 of the games in stock. I’d end up getting 1 cheap game and then a regular priced one instead of the 30 that I planned. I also remember doing a backdoor deal with an employee there. I wanted to buy a Saturn Net Link to get online and he had one at home for sale. We met up at an Adventures in Video parking lot and made the deal. We were too poor to have a computer at home so that was the first time I went online. It was so cool and I started learning how to code HTML on my Saturn. That actually kick started my career. I miss the feeling of anticipation that you’d get when you walk in to a Funcoland, Toys R Us, or any Video Rental store. You had no idea what could be in there. Apart from the triple A titles, you really didn’t have a way of knowing what games were coming out. I feel like a lot of 80’s and 90’s kids chase that feeling but it’s almost impossible to get now.

It’s always fun to dig up old dirt! I can’t remember why Tanooki got banned either. I’m also trying to figure out who “Gloves” was on NA. I sort of feel like an old dad with jean shorts and white tube socks trying to hang out with all you cool kids who are playing Fortnite and watching Fuller House.

I don't know if this has already been discussed but it would be great if every post had an alternating background so you can quickly tell where one person's post ends and a new one starts. I also feel like the posts could be thinned up a bit. They seem really spaced out and could be a lot tighter vertically. I like the cleanliness of the layout but it feels like it's really airy in some spots. Whatever mastermind is in charge of the Hyper Text Markup Language might need to simply modify some Cascading Style Sheets. If you make these changes I'll post more. We all know how much my opinion and insight is valued so do whatever it takes to make this happen. This thread might one day be looked upon as the turning point in the history of Video Game Sage. We all saw what happened over at the other site once I stopped participating and opening people's eyes to the wonders of the world. Let's not make that mistake again. Thanks!

I'm finally here. Sorry to keep you all waiting!