Instagram story viewer> @stephychu025> Posts

Stephy ⚡️ | Pokémon Collector

@stephychu025

6.8K

followers

3553

following

Pikachu collector ⚡️
Sharing stories & lessons along the way ✨
Cards for sale + Links ↓

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Most people think risk is buying a card nobody wants.

The real risk?

Buying a card everybody already wants.

The market rewards conviction long before it rewards consensus.

Agree or disagree?

#pokemon #pokémon #pokemontcg #pokemoncards #pokemoncommunity by @stephychu025

61

10

4 months ago

7 Things I Wish I Knew Before i started buying Pokémon Cards

Most people think making money in Pokémon comes down to finding a rare card.

I used to think the same.

But after years of buying, selling, and watching this market, I’ve learned that rarity is only one piece of the puzzle.

A low population doesn’t automatically create demand.

A record sale doesn’t always represent the true market.

And buying a great card doesn’t always mean it was a great buy.

The biggest shift for me was realizing that every purchase deserves the same question:

Would I still be happy owning this card if the market slowed down tomorrow?

That mindset has helped me become more patient, more selective, and more confident in the cards I choose to add to my collection.

What lesson has changed the way you collect the most?

#pokemon #pokémon #pokemoncards #pokemontcg #pokemoncommunity by @stephychu025

74

8

4 months ago

I paid $8 per card to grade these in 2015. Today, some of them are considered major Pokémon grails. 🤯
Grading Pokémon cards back then felt like a completely different universe.
There were no endless market alerts, viral investment videos, or daily price discussions. Most of us were simply collecting the cards we loved and trying to preserve them properly.
One of my favorite submissions included multiple copies of the 2012 Japanese Rayquaza EX Lottery Promo, all graded PSA 10.
Only 1,000 copies were distributed in Japan.
At the time, I wasn’t thinking:
“How much will these be worth in ten years?”
I was thinking:
“These are special, and I want to protect them.”
The result may look obvious today.
It was not obvious then.
There was uncertainty.
There were opportunity costs.
There was always another card to buy.
And nobody knew which cards would become the future grails of the hobby.
Many of these cards have since moved on to other collections.
Some were sold to fund new collecting goals. Others were sold because investments outside of Pokémon had gone badly and we needed liquidity.
Those were not always cards we wanted to let go of. Had circumstances been different, some would probably still be with us today.
That is the part hindsight often leaves out.
It shows what an asset eventually became—but not the pressure, priorities, or circumstances behind the decision to sell it.
Sometimes selling is not about losing conviction.
Sometimes it is about liquidity.
Sometimes it is about pursuing another goal.
Sometimes it is simply the best decision available at that moment.
Not every card becomes a grail.
Not every purchase becomes an investment.
And estimates are not guaranteed sale prices.
But time has a way of rewarding rarity, significance, condition, and genuine collector demand.

What card did you sell before the boom that you still think about today?
And what cards are collectors overlooking now that could become the legendary grails of 2035?

#pokemon #pokémon #pokemoncards #pokemontcg #pokemoncommunity by @stephychu025

38

19

3 months ago

PSA 10 Pikachu 15th Anniversary
Guess the price of this PSA 10 in 2013 👇🏻

#pokemon #pokemoncards #pokemontcg #pokemoncommunity #pokémon by @stephychu025

117

6

a month ago

Saw this at a show!
Remember the days that to see a grail in person you literally had to buy it? Now you can just walk into a show 😂

#pokemon #pokemoncards #pokemontcg #pokemoncommunity #pokémon by @stephychu025

152

9

a month ago

The card wasn’t even here yet, and I was already looking for the next one.

That’s what made me pause. I could spend weeks wanting something, then barely give myself a moment to enjoy finally owning it.

Now I don’t feel like every card I want needs to become my next purchase.

And lately, I’m more comfortable letting something pass without immediately looking for something else.

The excitement is still there. The urgency isn’t. And I’m enjoying that change. 💛

#pokemon #pokemoncards #pokemontcg #pokemoncommunity #pokémon by @stephychu025

9

1

a month ago

When you say you are done collecting but then you buy one more… and another, and one last one!

I swear each one had a very valid reason. 😭⚡️

#pokemon #pokemoncommunity #pokémon #pikachu #pokemoncollector by @stephychu025

8

1

a month ago

A new Pikachu has arrived ⚡️

Steiff Pikachu is officially home and honestly, the details are even crazier in person. This little guy is less of a plush and more of a collector piece. Limited to 1996 💛

Would you have kept him sealed or opened him too? 👀

#Pokemon #Pikachu #pokemoncommunity #pokémon #pokemoncollector by @stephychu025

12

4

a month ago

My trading setup ✨
Trader by day & Pokemon collector by night ⚡️
I think I need more Pikachu.

#pokemon #pokemoncards #pokemontcg #pokemoncommunity #pokémon by @stephychu025

5

0

2 months ago

I used to think making the “right” decision meant getting the best outcome.

Sell a card and it goes higher?
I should’ve held.

Hold a card and it drops?
I should’ve sold.

And somehow, no matter what happened, the question was always the same:

Did I make a mistake?

But I’m learning that a good decision doesn’t always create a perfect outcome.

Sometimes selling really was the right choice, even if the card kept climbing afterward.

Sometimes holding is the right choice, even if the value drops.

We make decisions with the information we have at the time — not with the chart we get to look at years later.

So I’m trying to focus less on “Was I right?” and more on whether I made a decision I could live with.

Manage the risk.
Have a process.
And remember why I started collecting in the first place.

I’m a collector at heart first.

I’m just learning how to balance the passion with the responsibility that comes with owning things that can become valuable. ⚡️

Collectors which hurts more: selling too early or holding too long? by @stephychu025

11

1

2 months ago

I sold the Pikachu illustrator in 2019 🫣
I used to think the mistake was selling the card.

Years later, I think the more important lesson was how often I believed I needed to be doing something.

The truth is, selling the Illustrator was my plan.

Back then, I was much more focused on making money in the moment. Buy, sell, move on to the next opportunity.

And for a while, that became a pattern.

The next card.
The next investment.
The next trade.
The next shiny thing that looked like it might do better.

I’ve experienced that feeling across collectibles, stocks, crypto and trading.

And I’m not against being active. I still trade. I still research. I still look for opportunities.

But I’ve slowly learned that activity and progress aren’t always the same thing.

Sometimes doing nothing is a decision too.

Sometimes the hard part isn’t finding a great asset.

It’s recognizing when you’ve already found one… and having the patience to give it enough time.

Of course, not everything deserves to be held forever. Things change. And sometimes selling is absolutely the right decision.

But that’s probably the biggest way my thinking has changed over the years:

I’m learning to separate the things I trade from the things I believe are worth owning for years.

Stocks, crypto, ETFs and collectibles are obviously very different.

But at least for me, the longer I’ve been doing this, the more I’ve realized that I don’t always need to find what’s next.

Sometimes I need to give what I already found enough time to become what I saw in it.

That Illustrator Pikachu taught me that one a little late. ⚡️

Have you ever sold something, only to realize years later that the bigger lesson wasn’t the sale itself… but how you were thinking at the time?

#pokemon #pokemoncards #pokemontcg #pokemoncommunity #pokémon by @stephychu025

29

2

2 months ago

People will pay a premium just for the PSA label… but would you actually pass on the card because it’s CGC? 👀

Testing the waters to see if anyone wants to buy this Team Aqua’s Kyogre EX 6/34 CGC 8 Pokémon card

DM if interested 😆✨

#pokemon #pokemoncards #pokemontcg #pokemoncommunity #pokémon by @stephychu025

50

1

2 months ago