Ludwig pays £16,000 for 1st Edition Pokémon cards – ends up losing money
As the price of Pokémon trading cards continues to rise, YouTuber Ludwig has decided to take a piece of the action.
Early edition Pokémon trading cards can sell for a fortune nowadays and the problem is that everyone knows that, including potential scammers.
Although there have been some success stories, like NFL pro Blake Martinez retiring after selling a Pokémon card for $672,000 (£544,000), many people have not been so lucky.
In a bid to test his own luck, popular YouTuber Ludwig bought a $20,000 (£16,150) box full of rare Pokémon trading cards… but things didn’t go exactly as expected.
Posting to his TikTok, Ludwig revealed that he had purchased a first edition Pokémon fossil box, in hopes that he could turn a profit.
He intended to do that by having the cards graded, and then finding out their true worth on the market.
In fact, the YouTuber spent an extra $6,000 (£4,850) to have each of the 396 cards in the box professionally graded and returned to him – tallying up the cost to $26,000 (£21,000).
The rating grades range from PSA-1 to PSA-10, and it’s usually a rather slow process. The highest grade, PSA-10, is used to indicate a flawless card in mint condition, without any tears, folds or scratches – which are some of the most important factors considered by the examiner.
After patiently waiting for two years to get his cards graded, Ludwig admitted that his purchase unfortunately ended up costing him money.
The YouTuber revealed the cards’ worth was estimated at only $18,589 (£15,000), meaning that he was in the red by $6,911 (£5,580).
However, if Ludwig had managed to pull a super rare card, like a 1st Edition Holo Charizard, in mint condition, he could have easily made over a quarter million dollars.
Back in 2022, a copy of this card went for $420,000 (£339,000), whereas a Japanese old back Pokémon Trophy Card was priced at a whopping £1,352,814.
Although it might sound tempting to jump on auction sites and try to get your hands on rare Pokémon cards, it’s not always sunshine and rainbows.
Not long ago, YouTuber Logan Paul bragged that he had acquired a 1st Edition Base Set for the Pokémon Trading Card Game for $3,500,000 (£2.8m)… only to find out it was a fake.
Luckily, Paul was reimbursed by the collector he bought it from, but they had a lot of trouble with getting their money back from the original seller.
Here’s a closer look at a first edition Pokémon fossil box, identical to the one Ludwig got:
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