What we buy
Vintage, graded, sealed, or a shoebox of unknowns.
You do not have to know which of those you have. The point of the call is that somebody who does know looks at it with you, and tells you the number before anything moves.
Vintage, 1999 to about 2003
- Base Set, Jungle, Fossil, Team Rocket, the Gym and Neo sets.
- First edition and shadowless printings, which are a different market from the rest.
- Holos, and the odd non-holo that is worth more than the holo beside it.
Graded slabs
- PSA, CGC and BGS.
- Any grade — a low grade on the right card still has a number.
- Have the label to hand: the grading company, the grade and the certification number.
Modern chase cards
- Alternate arts, special illustration rares, hyper and secret rares.
- V, VMAX, VSTAR, GX, EX and ex printings.
- Trainer gallery and promo cards, including tournament and set-launch stamps.
Sealed, and boxes of unknowns
- Unopened packs, boxes and tins, vintage or current.
- Binders that have not been opened since school.
- Bulk — the shoebox nobody has sorted. You do not have to sort it either.
If what you have is not on this list, the call still costs nothing. The lists above are the categories people ring about most, not the limits of what gets bought, and the fastest way to find out is to describe it to someone who can tell you in a minute.
A word about condition
Played-with cards are still worth ringing about.
A card that was carried around in a pocket in 2001 is not a wasted card. Condition changes the number, and on some cards it changes it enormously, but the floor is rarely zero on anything from the early sets. The cards people apologise for on the phone are frequently the ones worth the most in the box.
They are bent, scratched, or the edges are white. Still worth a call?
Yes. Say so on the call and it is priced accordingly rather than discovered later — which is the whole point of quoting before anything is posted.
Should I get them graded first?
Grading costs money and takes time, and it only pays on a card that is genuinely close to perfect. Ring first: it takes a minute to say whether grading is worth it on what you have, and that answer costs you nothing either way.
Are they worth more if I sell them one at a time?
Sometimes, and we will say so if that is true of yours. Selling individually means listing, packing, posting and chasing each one, which is exactly the work most people are ringing us to avoid.