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mark! You could drive yourself crazy with variations within toy I just cannot stress enough how important a toy or game can be
collecting. I just had to put that small stipulation before receiving angry when you find one in factory-sealed condition. It is the ultimate find for
collector Star Wars fanmail. a collector in the wild, which brings us to our last stop with Pokémon
cards and TCG as a whole.
How Packaging Affects: Video Games
Boba Fett is just one How Packaging Affects: Trading Card Games
example of thousands TCG stands for “Trading
that could be made of Card Game,” the acronym
how the packaging of a used to describe a type of
toy in most cases is collectible card that is also
more important than used to play a strategy game.
the toy itself. First, There is a variety of different
determine the condi- TCG out there, but for
tion of your toy and if collectors today the big three
it is factory sealed or are Magic: The Gathering,
not, then get to digging Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!.
on the packaging. What The reason I saved TCG for
can you find that makes the end is that although the
an item special, the sealed product is king, there
money is always in are a variety of cards that
the nitty-gritty details, 31-piece Pokémon Partial Base Booster Box, individually sell for tens of
rarely does it smack you sold March 27, 2021, for $13,750 thousands of dollars, and in
1999 Nintendo Pokémon Yellow CAS90 in the face. photo: Bruneau & Co. some cases hundreds of
sold on April 4, 2020, for $750 You will find the thousands of dollars. 99.9%
photo: Bruneau & Co same mentality across of the time most cards are not worth $1, but there are the rare,
all fields of pop culture; holographic, early print, 1st edition, etc. type variations that can make
you need to pay attention to the details. So, in that case, if you are a wiz your Charizard in Pokémon, Blue-Eyes White Dragon in Yu-Gi-Oh!,
with toys, you will be perfect at getting into video games. or Black Lotus in Magic worth 5 or 6 figures instead of 2 or 3. But for
When going about life I always try to look for the positive side of this exercise, I want to focus on sealed packs for Pokémon.
something. Even something as tragic as the COVID-19 pandemic – if When Pokémon was first released in 1999, packs would be
there is one thing above all that COVID did to the collectible’s market purchased individually from a store or hobby shop after the dealer
is that it dumped a big ole bucket of Miracle Grow on it, and the opens their booster box. A booster box is what a retailer would purchase
shining star of it all has been video games. containing 36 packs to then sell individually to the kids trying to catch
The market for factory-sealed video games through 2020 has them all. Today in 2021, a sealed booster box is really the cream of the
gone from 0 to 100 quicker than Drake in his 2015 hit O to 100/The crop for collectors of sealed cards. For example, last year at Bruneau &
Catch-Up. For this one we shall look at a 1999 Nintendo Pokémon: Co. Auctioneers we sold a 1999 Pokémon Base Set Shadowless booster
Yellow from Gameboy. box for $100,000. This is for a factory-sealed box within the original
If you were a product of the 1990s, odds are you owned a Gameboy cellophane shrink wrap. Take those same 36 packs within that box,
and played Pokémon. Back at the beginning of the pandemic, April even in factory sealed condition individually outside of the booster box
4th, 2020 at Bruneau & Co., we had a factory-sealed copy of Pokémon: you would have $36,000 to $50,000 worth of cards. That is roughly
Yellow up for auction estimated at $500 to $800 and it had sold for $1,000 to $1,500 per sealed pack. The fact the sealed packs were still
$750. That sounds all well and fine but fast forward to April 2021 and sealed within their original booster box insured the packs had never
the same cartridge once worth $750 now commonly sells for $5,000 to been tampered with or weighed by a collector to see if there was a
$8,000 and sometimes more depending on graded condition. I do not heavier pack potentially containing a holographic card. A piece of
know about you but a 10x growth in value is pretty substantial. I do not plastic wrap similar to what you cover leftovers with was the difference
see many mahogany dressers or Roseville vases doing that. of an additional $50,000. I would say you could not ask for a better
But the main point here is the sealed condition because what kid example of how important original packaging can be.
would buy a video game and never open it! Just like a toy, video games In closing, the reason why collectors spend the most money on
were intended to be played with, not stored. I honestly feel it is harder sealed merchandise is because it is the closest thing to recreating that
to find sealed video games compared to toys. feeling you had as a kid. Whether you opened
Toys could be left around sealed for a variety of your Boba Fett on Christmas morning in 1978
reasons; toy collectors have also existed for or remember getting a Gameboy for your
decades. But video game collecting? That is a birthday there is nothing more exciting than
relatively new term. Most people who collect that initial feeling before you open it. Having a
video games naturally do by always buying new sealed item brings you back to the day you got
games to play. I know for certain I had zero it, and to have that feeling again can be priceless
friends growing up who bought video games to to some people. I know it is for me.
look at them and never play; he would have
been an odd duck.
This brings us to the pricing comparison, Travis Landry is the Director of Pop Culture, antique
what is an open Pokemon: Yellow worth today? specialist, and auctioneer for Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers.
Well, if you were smart enough to keep the Travis oversees the procurement of merchandise and
original box with insert, instructions, and organization for toy, comic, and collectible auctions.
paperwork you have a $300 to $500 game all Travis’ daily responsibilities include overseeing the intake,
day long. If you were like me and have just your research, and cataloging of merchandise for all online
catalogued sales specializing in 19th and 20th century
cartridge housed in your zipper Gameboy decorative and fine arts. Travis is a frequent panelist and
carrying case, your game is worth about $40 to guest at comic conventions across the country having been
$60 depending on the condition of the sticker. a recurring cast member on Travel Channel’s Toy
No sticker on the cartridge you have a Hunter. Travis holds a bachelor’s degree in art history
twenty-dollar bill. That is a long dive down in from Framingham State University and can currently be
value from the $5,000 to $8,000 we were Factory-sealed Pokémon Base Shadowless Booster Box seen as an appraiser in collectibles and toys and games on
talking about on a sealed one. sold on December 12, 2020, for $100,000 PBS’ Antiques Roadshow.
photo: Bruneau & Co.
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