**My Top 10 Pokémon Cards**

As I sit here reflecting on my vast collection of Pokémon cards, I am reminded of the countless memories and experiences that each one brings back. From the thrill of pulling rare cards to the nostalgia of reuniting with old favorites, every card in my collection has a story to tell.

**Blastoise and I Were Bros**

I start by looking at my first card, which is actually not a card I pulled myself but rather one that was already part of my collection. My Blastoise and I were buddies, we crushed it together - the trainers, the games, the whole experience was an unforgettable ride for me. The condition of this card may be a bit questionable, with only minor scuffs on the top right and left corners and a tiny speck of white on the bottom. While it's not perfect, I think it has the potential to get a PSA 8 or maybe even a 7, which would make me very happy.

**Japanese Charizard: A Rare Treasure**

Next up is my Japanese Charizard from the original base set. This card is special because it's one of the oldest Charizard cards in my collection - apart from the one I lost (which brings back memories of its own). Unfortunately, this card has some flaws, with a nasty wrinkle crease in the holographic part and a tiny scratch just outside the frame. The backside is also tattered, which suggests that it's been played with before. Given these imperfections, I think it might get a PSA 5.

**25th Anniversary Charizard: A Sentimental Gift**

I then take out my 25th anniversary Charizard card, which holds a special place in my heart because it was given to me by my girlfriend as an investment. We bought two cards together (I convinced her that one was a great deal!), and I think this card would be a wonderful gift for her - especially if its value were to appreciate over time. The condition of this card is not ideal, with significant surface damage and scratches throughout the holographic area. I'm hoping it might get a PSA 3 or maybe even a 1, just because it's so special.

**The Nitto Baby: A Shadowless Masterpiece**

Last but certainly not least is my Nitto baby - the first edition shadowless holographic card that I own. This card is arguably the coolest in my entire collection due to its rarity and historical significance. Unfortunately, it has some surface damage that suggests it's been exposed to the elements for quite some time. The scratches on the foil are tiny but telltale signs of wear and tear. Despite this, I'm not expecting fantastic results from grading - but I do hope to see it in a PSA case just because it's such an incredible card.

**Why These Cards Matter**

Each of these cards holds a unique place in my heart, reminding me of specific moments or people that made them special. Whether it was the thrill of pulling rare cards with friends, the joy of reuniting with old favorites, or the sentimental value of gifts from loved ones, every card has a story to tell and a memory to evoke.

**Facing Fears**

As I prepare to send these precious cards off for grading, I must admit that it's not an easy task. The thought of parting with each one is bittersweet - on the one hand, I'm excited to see how they'll be graded and what their values will become; on the other hand, I know that sending them away means saying goodbye to a piece of my childhood. But ultimately, it's a risk worth taking, knowing that these cards are part of something greater than just a collection - they're a connection to memories, people, and experiences that I'll always treasure.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is my Pokémon card collection that I started over 20 years ago when I was just 11 years old while the other boys at school were playing sports and chasing girls I was opening booster packs and training to become a Pokemon Master because my dad never beat me but today is a very big day for me because for the very first time I'm going to send a small part of my collection to be professionally graded that means they'll be going to a Grading Company like PSA where each card will be carefully examined and given a grade on a scale of 1 to 10 based on their physical condition which will heavily determine their monetary value okay enough of the scripted voice cuz I this is real I'm very scared there's an inherent Risk by sending my cards in I could get lost or stolen in the mail somebody at PSA could tamper with them so I'm using this video as sort of an insurance policy in the event they you know they get lost or they get sent back to me in a condition that wasn't the same as when I sent them in then I had this documentation I have video proof video evidence that I can use in the court of law hopefully it doesn't come to that the point is that I'm excited but I'm equally terrified and a little embarrassed to be an adult with this problem like I'm 36 years old and this is all I have to show for myself these are my only children this is the closest my mom will ever get to having grandkids she's going to have to tell her friends that one of her grandson's names is Kangaskhan sad sad before we continue this video is brought to you in part by CD ke offer.com so I have three desktop PCS that I regularly bounce between and all of them are running activated copies of Windows from keys that I got on cdkey offer.com I've used many key sites in the past but CD key offer is the only one I've never had an issue with I've never had a bad key I've never had to call customer service I've never had to email customer support and I've never had to activate Windows over a phone which is super fun right now you can get a Windows 10 Pro OEM key for around 22 bucks but wait add it to your cart use the 25% discount code bw20 at checkout and the price drops to just $16.93 bu grab thar's Hammer what a savings to use your new key just go to your purchased orders from the dropdown menu to view and copy the key once you get there and then paste that key into the Windows activation page voila you've got an activated OS that's also eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 11 alternatively you can skip the upgrade and buy Windows 11 Pro directly using the same code bw20 to snag the OS for around 23 bucks activate the key using the aformentioned steps and get the full Windows Experience easily and affordably thanks again to cdkey offer.com now back to the main video so like I said I started collecting Pokemon cards when I was a young lad it was right after the the games had come out for Game Boy red blue and yellow version those Pokemon games were the first to come to the US and and I was obsessed so once the cards came out obviously uh I was obsessed with that too and I collected them for a couple years I think it was just a couple of years and then it stopped completely I can't remember exactly why but I think it's because I got pantsed in middle school you know it's like when that happens you have to you know I was like I have to Rebrand and so I I came to school the next day like all I do is play Tony Hawk bro Pikachu's gay and then fast forward to 2020 uh that's when I got back into it and I hate to say it but it was when because that's when Logan Paul bought that first edition shadowless Charizard for like 150 Grand which if you don't know that's like the Holy Grail of Pokémon cards cards that Charizard and uh and it got me thinking like where's my old collection you know my cards are probably worth something these days and so I made a vlog on this I searched my parents storage unit and actually found my old collection I found every single card except for the Charizard and it wasn't a first edition shadowless like you know the one he bought but it was still you know potentially worth thousands upon thousands of dollars depending on the condition but the reason why that was the only card missing is because I kept it separate from the pack in a acrylic case it was so highly sought after even back then that I was like this is this one's special and ironically that's the reason why um I I couldn't find it why it got lost from the others and I've since searched high and low in my parents house and in their attic and stuff till this day it has yet to be found so it would be nice it'd be a it's kind of like one of my goals I guess as a Pokemon Card Collector is to eventually get that Charizard whether it's that specific one that'd be awesome um or or just another one that I buy afterm Market would be would be pretty sweet now I'm going to give you a close-up look at all these cards in just a moment but while I'm doing it I'm going to be taking mental notes as to which ones are good candidates for grading and I'm going to be very selective with that because grading is not cheap I don't know what the prices are with other grading companies like Becket and cgc but for PSA it's about 25 no I think it's like $25 a card um and that's if I if I'm okay with like the potentially three Monon turnaround two to three month turnaround before I get my card sent back to me um could expedite that for a much higher cost but I'm sticking to uh I'm just going to wait it out and it's going to be about $25 a card so I've limited myself to choosing just 10 cards from this entire collection that I'll be sending into PSA and the way I'm going to determine which cards to to send is a couple different ways one is the Rarity or the potential value of the card so a card that's you know $11,000 uh is probably going to have a higher chance of getting sent in than one that's 25 um but then the other the other factor that I'm looking at is condition so if I have a cool card I'm like yeah this would be cool to get graded but it's beat up and it's probably going to get a low grade then it's not as worthwhile in my eyes to spend $25 on grading a card that's going to return a low grade and it's interesting because if you don't know anything about Pokemon cards or how grading works then you don't realize understandably how much impact the physical condition of a card has on its value for example let's take this polywhirl here I guess excuse me ditto don't mean to touch you there ain't no potty like a ditto party um so this is uh potentially has has some grade potential because it's a first edition shadowless which you know I'm not going to get too deep into that but it's a really early print one of the very first prints in the US uh to ever be released and so you might go oh that could be valuable and if it got a PSA 10 it probably would be it probably would be worth something um considerable but then you take a closer look at it there's a little bit of surface damage maybe just a little bit on the edges but then on the back side it's is really revealing cuz you can see that there's some white some of that blue paint has been chipped away slightly on the edges and just that little bit even though it's not terrible that is going to drop down the grade potentially significantly and therefore affecting its value significantly so if I were to suspect that this is going to get a PSA 5 out of 10 then it's probably not worth it for me me personally uh to to get it graded to pay the $25 to have someone examine it up close with a magnifying glass and all that crap and go eh it's same wor um that's a nutshell very high level explanation of sort of how how that works and the last reason is well it's less of a reason in more like bonus qualifiers but if the card has really nice artwork that I absolutely love it gets a point of consideration for that and also if it has some element of sentimental value for whatever reason which a few of them do then uh that that's also a point let's go ahead and take a look at uh these cards I'll give you a closer look and also I'm curious those of you who are familiar with this world which of these cards you would have person chosen to be graded cuz I'm sure they're going to be a little different than mine but let's go ahead and check them out starting with some of my old school vintage cards the ones that I've had for many many years there something very special about a collection that's decades old I don't know if it's just the Nostalgia of simpler times and and and childhood but I really love these cards probably above everything else in my collection so I've got the base collection here this is the very first set to ever released in the US and I've got every card in it again except for the Charizard this is an impostor he's a placeholder he actually from the Evolutions XY set that was released in 2016 nowhere near as valuable as the original Charizard but I had to take a photo for the thumbnail and it just look really sad with an empty space there so uh clickbait and then we have the jungle set here jungle set was the second set ever released I've got some first editions here as well like the the Flareon which is really cool and then we have the fossil set which uh I think I think I like this one a little bit more than Jungle just when I was a kid I was like there was some edginess to it you got you more of the ghost Pokémon like Gengar and Haunter some really cool artwork here in this particular set a few first editions as well that kabo tops we see you and I did say that I've never graded any cards for my Personal Collection which is true but I do own some graded cards that I purchased either on eBay you know aftermarket or some of them were gifts as well and these are no surprise some of my most valuable cards because they're all PSA 10s they're already pretty rare SL you know uh valuable cards to begin with but the PSA 10 just puts that official stamp on it that this is a completely gem mint card it's more or less in perfect condition I really like this Moon on that has been popping off I think I bought it for around 4 or 500 bucks and it's now going for around 1,300 I think I saw it hit 1,500 at one point it's just absolutely wild and then we have that Lugia Classic this is probably my most valuable card in my collection actually the Charizard GX PSA 10 it's just a very highly sought after and it was an extremely hard pull rate you know there was very low probability of pulling this card and so this one's probably Worth close to $3,000 which is about what I paid for it I think it's actually gone down maybe 100 bucks or so that's the other thing too about this this whole thing guys is that like some people grade their cards because they're investing in Pokémon cards which I fully support you know like get your bag and all that that's not for me I just I just like to collect them I like looking at them for me grading creates a sense of completion once a card has been slapped slabbed referring to the plastic case that an authenticator places the card in and seals it once it's been graded and that also helps protect and preserve the condition of the card as long as you keep it in there but not going to lie it's also a pretty cool Flex to be like look at this piece of cardboard it's worth more than your house you anyway back to uh the rest of the cards here oh yeah that gutina you got to got to give some screen time to that gutina V baby good God it's a nice card and then these are these are not really super special these are just kind of like full arts just you know they're all Hollows and stuff but um nothing too valuable here this is very poorly organized by the way some people are very good with organization I like instead of organizing them by sets I organize them like herey these are my waifus these are gold cards it has zero meaning whatsoever these are also vintage these are OG japanese cards but I only have a few Hollow none of them are here these are all the commons and uncommons most of them in just whatever condition but still kind of cool these are all my Charizards not all of them are super valuable like this one's probably like a dollar card at best but I just like keeping all the Charizards together Charizard's cool he's the goat but there are some Heavy Hitters in here like uh that ex right there I mean even the the V-Max absolutely there's some really cool cards in here one I think probably one of the coolest ones that I might actually have already decided I'm probably going to get graded is this Japanese char Charizard from the original base set that was released in Japan so this is a like a 21-year-old car this is actually probably older than uh all the other vintage cards that I have because the cards released in Japan first so I probably will get this graded it's super cool it's potentially worth a lot of money but it also does have a crappy Wrinkle in the middle of the foil it's hard to see on camera but it definitely has a crease you can see it right there it's a crease right above his neck like right above his back sort of that's going to dock it quite a bit but I don't care it's still such a cool card and then these are high grade potential I would say just because they're either rare or I like the artwork A Lot these are all my shadow list cards these are common and uncommon Shadow list cards from the base set there some of the very first prints available and there's some really cool ones in here these are basically fossils actually even even more fossil are the the very small collection of first edition shadowless cards that I have that are even again pre-release before those common and uncommon and you can see that I have 10 of them exactly which explains why I also have this nid King first edition shadowless it's the only first edition Shadow list card that I have from the base set that's a hollow and obviously you can tell it came from that pack because those are the only other cards that I owned that are also first edition shadowless so they're all classmates they all came they're all Cut From the Same Cloth which is pretty cool oh and you know what speaking of being cut from the same cloth one thing that I completely forgot to mention when going over the physical condition of these cards is centering centering plays a role in the condition of a card or rather not the condition so much but the grade so what I mean by that is God dang it let me get a card where I can actually see the back of it going back to poly World Poliwag sorry so the way that Pokemon cards are actually made is that they all get printed on these large sheets and then those sheets get cut into the individual cards that you get as a as a retail customer and a lot of the time those machines do not cut perfectly so what you'll end up seeing is one border is thicker than the other this one actually has pretty decent centering it's kind of hard to see on camera this is an example of a well centered card if everything else about the card was perfect it could potentially get a 10 grade but if the centering is really poor like one border is very thin and the other is really fat it could potentially dock the grade which is a really interesting part about grading because it's the one area where you have no control over it you have no control over how the machine cuts that card but it does carry a lot of weight in how a card is graded and that is my collection in a nutshell which means I now have to make 10 very hard decisions as to which ones I'll be sending off to PSA for grading and I'm realizing this is a fairly involved process cuz I have to look over every card consider which ones I want to grade which is probably going to be at least a quarter of them and then from there check and exam the condition myself of each one if it's even worth sending in and then look up the uh the value the current value of what they're going for on sites like TCG player and what they're selling for an eBay it's going to take me hours to really distill my entire collection down to the 10 chosen ones so give me a sec I will be not really right back but I'll for you for you I'll be right back okay I've got them they're all right here the Big 10 oh boy oh boy this was not easy by any stretch but here we are I've got them in my hands and we're going to go through them one by one I want to show you guys the ones that I feel have the potential to get a PSA 10 the ones that I feel are in perfect enough condition to actually pull a 10 so obviously those are going to be for the most part the more modern cards and then we'll go from there but this is the first one in the Big 10 the Leafeon Vmax from evolving skies I absolutely love this card uh this would be a great one to pair and sort of complement the Umbreon the mbon that I already have in a PSA 10 uh because it's from the same evolving sky set I love that set I I went ham and bought a lot of cards from that set I pulled this and at the time I pulled it I didn't realize that it was actually worth something I think it's probably going for $3 $400 now in a PSA 10 so if I can score that that's uh that's that's cool and then the centering is just bang on it's totally perfect I have no concern that it's going to get docked for the Sentry it's it's pretty spot-on and the next one we have is also from evolving Skies the Rayquaza Vmax so this was my ultimate number one Chase Card Chase Card meaning this is the card that I really wanted to pull the most out of this entire set so I went ham and bought like $1,500 worth of booster packs from evolving skies and after opening every single one I did not get the Rayquaza Vmax he never showed up the pull rates for this were pretty difficult but uh out of the blue my friend just gave this card to me he knew that I was chasing it and he was just like oh I've got one of those you can have mine and I was like what oh my jeez do you want me to like do you want to trade and he's like no no it's fine um so yeah shout out to my friend for this amazing amazing gift um but the artwork on it just you know just as it is is amazing I love it it's uh it shines really nice in the Sun and when there's good lighting and then the centering is also bang on no issues here perfect condition pretty much so uh yeah this is this is going to be a really nice card to grade and then next up we have Magikarp Magikarp from pdia evolved this is a a Full Art card is this a secret rare no it is it is a secret rare um now when I pulled this card I had no idea that it was worth anything I just thought oh looks like really cool artwork but apparently it's going for a good 4 or 500 bucks I think for p on you know PSA 10s so uh and this is definitely like I said candidate for PSA 10 really good centering maybe a little thick of a border on the bottom but it's it's really not too bad and I love the fact that it's you know it's such a highly sought-after card and it's so valuable yet it's Magikarp which is the most useless Pokemon in the game like he could he couldn't even attack enemies his only move was Splash um which did zero damage he just flailed around and now now he's he's got he's an expert splasher so he's really good at being useless and then we have Lily uh Lily from sun and moon this is from the sun and moon base set uh again I just love the artwork on all of these this was also a Sentimental card because I was at a local trade show with my girlfriend and she kind of ran off by herself and uh and bought this card for me behind my back I thought that was really nice so so uh yeah I I think this could get a 10 the centering looks pretty good actually the centering on this one's very good and uh no scuffs or anything this is just possibly a gem mint card and uh yeah we'll see we'll see how that one turns out and then another waifu which is misti's favor I got this at that same uh that same local trade show and I just purchased it there I thought it was a cool looking card Misty's an OG of course and it's really shot up in value since the time I purchased it I think I bought it for maybe I can't remember if it was like $60 to $100 $60 to $100 but a PSA 10 is now going for I think three 300 something like that but um yeah lovely card and then our last potential PSA 10 you you might be surprised to see is a Squirtle shadowless from the base set now I looked at every single one of my shadowless and first edition shadowless cards and inspected the condition of each and this was the only one that I I thought I felt could possibly pull a 10 it is in Immaculate condition especially given the fact that it's over well over 20 years old uh the centering is good there's just maybe the tiniest tiniest Speck of white on one of these corners on the top right corner but I I can't even really see it it's it's pretty damn perfect and uh and if I can get a PSA 10 on in this um man that would be that would be awesome squirtel I mean Squirtle means a lot to me he was my uh my starter Pokemon in the original Game Boy games so uh yeah so it makes a lot of sense that I would naturally also want to grade this Blastoise also from the base set Blastoise and I were Bros we uh we crushed it we crushed all the uh the trainers together um I don't think this is going to get a PSA 10 this has a few scuffs on it a few little bits of white just a tiny bit of white on the corners the top right and left Corners have a little bit of white really not too bad and super minimal white on the bottom you can see that tiny little speck right there but overall a very clean card this could get a PSA 8 that may be a little too optimistic it just depends maybe maybe a seven I think at least a seven and eight if we're lucky but either or would would make me very happy and then of course uh I alluded to this one earlier that I was possibly going to grade this one my Japanese Charizard from the original base set and uh again this is a really nice kind of classic vintage card it's the oldest Charizard card that I own in my collection uh apart from the one that I lost and you can see there once again there's that that nasty wrinkle crease in the holographic part and it does have bit of a scratch just outside the frame right there the backside is pretty tattered you can see that it is definitely at least a moderately played card um which is isn't terrible but it's not great either so I would suspect this could be a PSA five maybe I don't know it really just depends on on who's grading it I suppose there's lots of sto stories of people sending in PSA cards getting like a uh an eight one day and then sending it back in and getting like a six and then vice versa sometimes they send it in twice they can go from an 8 to a 10 it's just kind of all over the place but um we also have a 25th anniversary Charizard that is in Japanese this is also kind of more of a Sentimental card I got this with my girlfriend in in Taiwan I think about a year ago we bought two actually I bought one from my collection she just bought one for investing because I convinced her that it was a really good deal and I think at the time I really did think it was a good deal but I don't know how uh the values fluctuated since then hopefully it does increase in value I thought it would be kind of nice to just get it um you know get it graded for her kind of give it to her as sort of a gift be like all right you know kind of protecting your investment um and hopefully it does you know increase in value for her sake uh and for my sake cuz she'll be very mad at me if it doesn't and then finally the last card in our top 10 the Nitto baby the nid king first edition shadowless this is uh arguably the coolest card in my entire collection because it's so old and it's first edition shadowless it is the only first edition shadowless holographic card that I own and because of that I just I just have to I have to case it I have to grade it um even though I'm not expecting fantastic results uh it is again I don't know if I mentioned that earlier but it does have quite a bit of like surface damage it looks like like like the equivalent of if a card like was just sunbathing for 25 years and do there was just a bit of skin damage and sun damage and you just kind of you can tell that it's you know hasn't been really taken good care of you know there's a scratch right right by the HP look at that o that's a nasty gash and then you've got little micro scratches in the foil that you can see it's really not in good shape and the back doesn't doesn't look much better you can see all of the the tattered right there all the white all the white is not looking great so this might get a PSA three but it's such a badass card I'd be happy with a PSA 1 I just think it just it deserves to be in in a PSA case in some sort of graded case it would just make just makes me happy just it would just make me happy to see it so there it is the Big 10 10 pieces of cardboard but you know when I really think about it that like each card has a story and uh I can remember for a lot of these exactly where I was and who I was with when I pulled that card and it just brings back a lot of fun memories or if they were gifts you know uh from someone special or um just you know a reminder of Good Times these there's a reason why these cards mean so much to me and uh and and why I'm so terrified of sending them out but it is now time for me to face those fears and uh and say goodbye for now athis is my Pokémon card collection that I started over 20 years ago when I was just 11 years old while the other boys at school were playing sports and chasing girls I was opening booster packs and training to become a Pokemon Master because my dad never beat me but today is a very big day for me because for the very first time I'm going to send a small part of my collection to be professionally graded that means they'll be going to a Grading Company like PSA where each card will be carefully examined and given a grade on a scale of 1 to 10 based on their physical condition which will heavily determine their monetary value okay enough of the scripted voice cuz I this is real I'm very scared there's an inherent Risk by sending my cards in I could get lost or stolen in the mail somebody at PSA could tamper with them so I'm using this video as sort of an insurance policy in the event they you know they get lost or they get sent back to me in a condition that wasn't the same as when I sent them in then I had this documentation I have video proof video evidence that I can use in the court of law hopefully it doesn't come to that the point is that I'm excited but I'm equally terrified and a little embarrassed to be an adult with this problem like I'm 36 years old and this is all I have to show for myself these are my only children this is the closest my mom will ever get to having grandkids she's going to have to tell her friends that one of her grandson's names is Kangaskhan sad sad before we continue this video is brought to you in part by CD ke offer.com so I have three desktop PCS that I regularly bounce between and all of them are running activated copies of Windows from keys that I got on cdkey offer.com I've used many key sites in the past but CD key offer is the only one I've never had an issue with I've never had a bad key I've never had to call customer service I've never had to email customer support and I've never had to activate Windows over a phone which is super fun right now you can get a Windows 10 Pro OEM key for around 22 bucks but wait add it to your cart use the 25% discount code bw20 at checkout and the price drops to just $16.93 bu grab thar's Hammer what a savings to use your new key just go to your purchased orders from the dropdown menu to view and copy the key once you get there and then paste that key into the Windows activation page voila you've got an activated OS that's also eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 11 alternatively you can skip the upgrade and buy Windows 11 Pro directly using the same code bw20 to snag the OS for around 23 bucks activate the key using the aformentioned steps and get the full Windows Experience easily and affordably thanks again to cdkey offer.com now back to the main video so like I said I started collecting Pokemon cards when I was a young lad it was right after the the games had come out for Game Boy red blue and yellow version those Pokemon games were the first to come to the US and and I was obsessed so once the cards came out obviously uh I was obsessed with that too and I collected them for a couple years I think it was just a couple of years and then it stopped completely I can't remember exactly why but I think it's because I got pantsed in middle school you know it's like when that happens you have to you know I was like I have to Rebrand and so I I came to school the next day like all I do is play Tony Hawk bro Pikachu's gay and then fast forward to 2020 uh that's when I got back into it and I hate to say it but it was when because that's when Logan Paul bought that first edition shadowless Charizard for like 150 Grand which if you don't know that's like the Holy Grail of Pokémon cards cards that Charizard and uh and it got me thinking like where's my old collection you know my cards are probably worth something these days and so I made a vlog on this I searched my parents storage unit and actually found my old collection I found every single card except for the Charizard and it wasn't a first edition shadowless like you know the one he bought but it was still you know potentially worth thousands upon thousands of dollars depending on the condition but the reason why that was the only card missing is because I kept it separate from the pack in a acrylic case it was so highly sought after even back then that I was like this is this one's special and ironically that's the reason why um I I couldn't find it why it got lost from the others and I've since searched high and low in my parents house and in their attic and stuff till this day it has yet to be found so it would be nice it'd be a it's kind of like one of my goals I guess as a Pokemon Card Collector is to eventually get that Charizard whether it's that specific one that'd be awesome um or or just another one that I buy afterm Market would be would be pretty sweet now I'm going to give you a close-up look at all these cards in just a moment but while I'm doing it I'm going to be taking mental notes as to which ones are good candidates for grading and I'm going to be very selective with that because grading is not cheap I don't know what the prices are with other grading companies like Becket and cgc but for PSA it's about 25 no I think it's like $25 a card um and that's if I if I'm okay with like the potentially three Monon turnaround two to three month turnaround before I get my card sent back to me um could expedite that for a much higher cost but I'm sticking to uh I'm just going to wait it out and it's going to be about $25 a card so I've limited myself to choosing just 10 cards from this entire collection that I'll be sending into PSA and the way I'm going to determine which cards to to send is a couple different ways one is the Rarity or the potential value of the card so a card that's you know $11,000 uh is probably going to have a higher chance of getting sent in than one that's 25 um but then the other the other factor that I'm looking at is condition so if I have a cool card I'm like yeah this would be cool to get graded but it's beat up and it's probably going to get a low grade then it's not as worthwhile in my eyes to spend $25 on grading a card that's going to return a low grade and it's interesting because if you don't know anything about Pokemon cards or how grading works then you don't realize understandably how much impact the physical condition of a card has on its value for example let's take this polywhirl here I guess excuse me ditto don't mean to touch you there ain't no potty like a ditto party um so this is uh potentially has has some grade potential because it's a first edition shadowless which you know I'm not going to get too deep into that but it's a really early print one of the very first prints in the US uh to ever be released and so you might go oh that could be valuable and if it got a PSA 10 it probably would be it probably would be worth something um considerable but then you take a closer look at it there's a little bit of surface damage maybe just a little bit on the edges but then on the back side it's is really revealing cuz you can see that there's some white some of that blue paint has been chipped away slightly on the edges and just that little bit even though it's not terrible that is going to drop down the grade potentially significantly and therefore affecting its value significantly so if I were to suspect that this is going to get a PSA 5 out of 10 then it's probably not worth it for me me personally uh to to get it graded to pay the $25 to have someone examine it up close with a magnifying glass and all that crap and go eh it's same wor um that's a nutshell very high level explanation of sort of how how that works and the last reason is well it's less of a reason in more like bonus qualifiers but if the card has really nice artwork that I absolutely love it gets a point of consideration for that and also if it has some element of sentimental value for whatever reason which a few of them do then uh that that's also a point let's go ahead and take a look at uh these cards I'll give you a closer look and also I'm curious those of you who are familiar with this world which of these cards you would have person chosen to be graded cuz I'm sure they're going to be a little different than mine but let's go ahead and check them out starting with some of my old school vintage cards the ones that I've had for many many years there something very special about a collection that's decades old I don't know if it's just the Nostalgia of simpler times and and and childhood but I really love these cards probably above everything else in my collection so I've got the base collection here this is the very first set to ever released in the US and I've got every card in it again except for the Charizard this is an impostor he's a placeholder he actually from the Evolutions XY set that was released in 2016 nowhere near as valuable as the original Charizard but I had to take a photo for the thumbnail and it just look really sad with an empty space there so uh clickbait and then we have the jungle set here jungle set was the second set ever released I've got some first editions here as well like the the Flareon which is really cool and then we have the fossil set which uh I think I think I like this one a little bit more than Jungle just when I was a kid I was like there was some edginess to it you got you more of the ghost Pokémon like Gengar and Haunter some really cool artwork here in this particular set a few first editions as well that kabo tops we see you and I did say that I've never graded any cards for my Personal Collection which is true but I do own some graded cards that I purchased either on eBay you know aftermarket or some of them were gifts as well and these are no surprise some of my most valuable cards because they're all PSA 10s they're already pretty rare SL you know uh valuable cards to begin with but the PSA 10 just puts that official stamp on it that this is a completely gem mint card it's more or less in perfect condition I really like this Moon on that has been popping off I think I bought it for around 4 or 500 bucks and it's now going for around 1,300 I think I saw it hit 1,500 at one point it's just absolutely wild and then we have that Lugia Classic this is probably my most valuable card in my collection actually the Charizard GX PSA 10 it's just a very highly sought after and it was an extremely hard pull rate you know there was very low probability of pulling this card and so this one's probably Worth close to $3,000 which is about what I paid for it I think it's actually gone down maybe 100 bucks or so that's the other thing too about this this whole thing guys is that like some people grade their cards because they're investing in Pokémon cards which I fully support you know like get your bag and all that that's not for me I just I just like to collect them I like looking at them for me grading creates a sense of completion once a card has been slapped slabbed referring to the plastic case that an authenticator places the card in and seals it once it's been graded and that also helps protect and preserve the condition of the card as long as you keep it in there but not going to lie it's also a pretty cool Flex to be like look at this piece of cardboard it's worth more than your house you anyway back to uh the rest of the cards here oh yeah that gutina you got to got to give some screen time to that gutina V baby good God it's a nice card and then these are these are not really super special these are just kind of like full arts just you know they're all Hollows and stuff but um nothing too valuable here this is very poorly organized by the way some people are very good with organization I like instead of organizing them by sets I organize them like herey these are my waifus these are gold cards it has zero meaning whatsoever these are also vintage these are OG japanese cards but I only have a few Hollow none of them are here these are all the commons and uncommons most of them in just whatever condition but still kind of cool these are all my Charizards not all of them are super valuable like this one's probably like a dollar card at best but I just like keeping all the Charizards together Charizard's cool he's the goat but there are some Heavy Hitters in here like uh that ex right there I mean even the the V-Max absolutely there's some really cool cards in here one I think probably one of the coolest ones that I might actually have already decided I'm probably going to get graded is this Japanese char Charizard from the original base set that was released in Japan so this is a like a 21-year-old car this is actually probably older than uh all the other vintage cards that I have because the cards released in Japan first so I probably will get this graded it's super cool it's potentially worth a lot of money but it also does have a crappy Wrinkle in the middle of the foil it's hard to see on camera but it definitely has a crease you can see it right there it's a crease right above his neck like right above his back sort of that's going to dock it quite a bit but I don't care it's still such a cool card and then these are high grade potential I would say just because they're either rare or I like the artwork A Lot these are all my shadow list cards these are common and uncommon Shadow list cards from the base set there some of the very first prints available and there's some really cool ones in here these are basically fossils actually even even more fossil are the the very small collection of first edition shadowless cards that I have that are even again pre-release before those common and uncommon and you can see that I have 10 of them exactly which explains why I also have this nid King first edition shadowless it's the only first edition Shadow list card that I have from the base set that's a hollow and obviously you can tell it came from that pack because those are the only other cards that I owned that are also first edition shadowless so they're all classmates they all came they're all Cut From the Same Cloth which is pretty cool oh and you know what speaking of being cut from the same cloth one thing that I completely forgot to mention when going over the physical condition of these cards is centering centering plays a role in the condition of a card or rather not the condition so much but the grade so what I mean by that is God dang it let me get a card where I can actually see the back of it going back to poly World Poliwag sorry so the way that Pokemon cards are actually made is that they all get printed on these large sheets and then those sheets get cut into the individual cards that you get as a as a retail customer and a lot of the time those machines do not cut perfectly so what you'll end up seeing is one border is thicker than the other this one actually has pretty decent centering it's kind of hard to see on camera this is an example of a well centered card if everything else about the card was perfect it could potentially get a 10 grade but if the centering is really poor like one border is very thin and the other is really fat it could potentially dock the grade which is a really interesting part about grading because it's the one area where you have no control over it you have no control over how the machine cuts that card but it does carry a lot of weight in how a card is graded and that is my collection in a nutshell which means I now have to make 10 very hard decisions as to which ones I'll be sending off to PSA for grading and I'm realizing this is a fairly involved process cuz I have to look over every card consider which ones I want to grade which is probably going to be at least a quarter of them and then from there check and exam the condition myself of each one if it's even worth sending in and then look up the uh the value the current value of what they're going for on sites like TCG player and what they're selling for an eBay it's going to take me hours to really distill my entire collection down to the 10 chosen ones so give me a sec I will be not really right back but I'll for you for you I'll be right back okay I've got them they're all right here the Big 10 oh boy oh boy this was not easy by any stretch but here we are I've got them in my hands and we're going to go through them one by one I want to show you guys the ones that I feel have the potential to get a PSA 10 the ones that I feel are in perfect enough condition to actually pull a 10 so obviously those are going to be for the most part the more modern cards and then we'll go from there but this is the first one in the Big 10 the Leafeon Vmax from evolving skies I absolutely love this card uh this would be a great one to pair and sort of complement the Umbreon the mbon that I already have in a PSA 10 uh because it's from the same evolving sky set I love that set I I went ham and bought a lot of cards from that set I pulled this and at the time I pulled it I didn't realize that it was actually worth something I think it's probably going for $3 $400 now in a PSA 10 so if I can score that that's uh that's that's cool and then the centering is just bang on it's totally perfect I have no concern that it's going to get docked for the Sentry it's it's pretty spot-on and the next one we have is also from evolving Skies the Rayquaza Vmax so this was my ultimate number one Chase Card Chase Card meaning this is the card that I really wanted to pull the most out of this entire set so I went ham and bought like $1,500 worth of booster packs from evolving skies and after opening every single one I did not get the Rayquaza Vmax he never showed up the pull rates for this were pretty difficult but uh out of the blue my friend just gave this card to me he knew that I was chasing it and he was just like oh I've got one of those you can have mine and I was like what oh my jeez do you want me to like do you want to trade and he's like no no it's fine um so yeah shout out to my friend for this amazing amazing gift um but the artwork on it just you know just as it is is amazing I love it it's uh it shines really nice in the Sun and when there's good lighting and then the centering is also bang on no issues here perfect condition pretty much so uh yeah this is this is going to be a really nice card to grade and then next up we have Magikarp Magikarp from pdia evolved this is a a Full Art card is this a secret rare no it is it is a secret rare um now when I pulled this card I had no idea that it was worth anything I just thought oh looks like really cool artwork but apparently it's going for a good 4 or 500 bucks I think for p on you know PSA 10s so uh and this is definitely like I said candidate for PSA 10 really good centering maybe a little thick of a border on the bottom but it's it's really not too bad and I love the fact that it's you know it's such a highly sought-after card and it's so valuable yet it's Magikarp which is the most useless Pokemon in the game like he could he couldn't even attack enemies his only move was Splash um which did zero damage he just flailed around and now now he's he's got he's an expert splasher so he's really good at being useless and then we have Lily uh Lily from sun and moon this is from the sun and moon base set uh again I just love the artwork on all of these this was also a Sentimental card because I was at a local trade show with my girlfriend and she kind of ran off by herself and uh and bought this card for me behind my back I thought that was really nice so so uh yeah I I think this could get a 10 the centering looks pretty good actually the centering on this one's very good and uh no scuffs or anything this is just possibly a gem mint card and uh yeah we'll see we'll see how that one turns out and then another waifu which is misti's favor I got this at that same uh that same local trade show and I just purchased it there I thought it was a cool looking card Misty's an OG of course and it's really shot up in value since the time I purchased it I think I bought it for maybe I can't remember if it was like $60 to $100 $60 to $100 but a PSA 10 is now going for I think three 300 something like that but um yeah lovely card and then our last potential PSA 10 you you might be surprised to see is a Squirtle shadowless from the base set now I looked at every single one of my shadowless and first edition shadowless cards and inspected the condition of each and this was the only one that I I thought I felt could possibly pull a 10 it is in Immaculate condition especially given the fact that it's over well over 20 years old uh the centering is good there's just maybe the tiniest tiniest Speck of white on one of these corners on the top right corner but I I can't even really see it it's it's pretty damn perfect and uh and if I can get a PSA 10 on in this um man that would be that would be awesome squirtel I mean Squirtle means a lot to me he was my uh my starter Pokemon in the original Game Boy games so uh yeah so it makes a lot of sense that I would naturally also want to grade this Blastoise also from the base set Blastoise and I were Bros we uh we crushed it we crushed all the uh the trainers together um I don't think this is going to get a PSA 10 this has a few scuffs on it a few little bits of white just a tiny bit of white on the corners the top right and left Corners have a little bit of white really not too bad and super minimal white on the bottom you can see that tiny little speck right there but overall a very clean card this could get a PSA 8 that may be a little too optimistic it just depends maybe maybe a seven I think at least a seven and eight if we're lucky but either or would would make me very happy and then of course uh I alluded to this one earlier that I was possibly going to grade this one my Japanese Charizard from the original base set and uh again this is a really nice kind of classic vintage card it's the oldest Charizard card that I own in my collection uh apart from the one that I lost and you can see there once again there's that that nasty wrinkle crease in the holographic part and it does have bit of a scratch just outside the frame right there the backside is pretty tattered you can see that it is definitely at least a moderately played card um which is isn't terrible but it's not great either so I would suspect this could be a PSA five maybe I don't know it really just depends on on who's grading it I suppose there's lots of sto stories of people sending in PSA cards getting like a uh an eight one day and then sending it back in and getting like a six and then vice versa sometimes they send it in twice they can go from an 8 to a 10 it's just kind of all over the place but um we also have a 25th anniversary Charizard that is in Japanese this is also kind of more of a Sentimental card I got this with my girlfriend in in Taiwan I think about a year ago we bought two actually I bought one from my collection she just bought one for investing because I convinced her that it was a really good deal and I think at the time I really did think it was a good deal but I don't know how uh the values fluctuated since then hopefully it does increase in value I thought it would be kind of nice to just get it um you know get it graded for her kind of give it to her as sort of a gift be like all right you know kind of protecting your investment um and hopefully it does you know increase in value for her sake uh and for my sake cuz she'll be very mad at me if it doesn't and then finally the last card in our top 10 the Nitto baby the nid king first edition shadowless this is uh arguably the coolest card in my entire collection because it's so old and it's first edition shadowless it is the only first edition shadowless holographic card that I own and because of that I just I just have to I have to case it I have to grade it um even though I'm not expecting fantastic results uh it is again I don't know if I mentioned that earlier but it does have quite a bit of like surface damage it looks like like like the equivalent of if a card like was just sunbathing for 25 years and do there was just a bit of skin damage and sun damage and you just kind of you can tell that it's you know hasn't been really taken good care of you know there's a scratch right right by the HP look at that o that's a nasty gash and then you've got little micro scratches in the foil that you can see it's really not in good shape and the back doesn't doesn't look much better you can see all of the the tattered right there all the white all the white is not looking great so this might get a PSA three but it's such a badass card I'd be happy with a PSA 1 I just think it just it deserves to be in in a PSA case in some sort of graded case it would just make just makes me happy just it would just make me happy to see it so there it is the Big 10 10 pieces of cardboard but you know when I really think about it that like each card has a story and uh I can remember for a lot of these exactly where I was and who I was with when I pulled that card and it just brings back a lot of fun memories or if they were gifts you know uh from someone special or um just you know a reminder of Good Times these there's a reason why these cards mean so much to me and uh and and why I'm so terrified of sending them out but it is now time for me to face those fears and uh and say goodbye for now a\n"