Before I got y’all’s feedback I had actually decided to decline the deal. I need to do smaller deals with vintage and get some things graded so I can make more informed decisions. The feedback you gave Bryant is super helpful. Thank you!

So I don’t know how many other people do this, but one of the things that I do so grade most cards that I consider are strong 10 contender (53/47 centering, no whitening on corners, no surface issues) and consider selling them to GameStop to help pay for grading fees. I call these my ‘feeder cards’. I have graded probably about 20 Articuno DR Best Buy promos and got 17 of them with PSA 10’s. Then I’ll sell them to GameStop to help pay for the grading fees for future submissions. The Litleo was one that I had done before, too. The Mega Evolution cards are very clean and I have done pretty well with them. I would find a PSA10 of one on eBay and input the cert number into GameStop’s price estimator to determine how much they’d buy the card for. Typically if it gets over $40 I am happy to grade it and sell it to them. Before Litleo had dipped I think I sold one off to GS for $40ish. As a warning, I would not grade cards that are low level and ‘bottom out’ as a 9 if you don’t feel that they are strong contenders. If they even have a little white dot I wouldn’t send it and think, “Maybe if I get a generous grader then it’ll 10.” - I only do this with cards that I feel are VERY STRONG 10s. If the card sells for less than $20 (using Collectr) as a PSA 9 it’ll often have a $3 buy back rate at GameStop. At that point you’d probably just have to sell it for $10-15 a slab and recoup whatever costs you can.

If I only had $1000 to spend for a 3-5 year investment, I’d go in on sealed promos. I’d look for a listing on Facebook Marketplace of someone who is pricing a large amount of them at NM pricing (not sealed pricing) and make an offer of 75%-80%. I’d also ask if they have any other free stuff they’d toss in. Then I’d put in a box, send it away, and forget it. I have picked up a few hundred dollars worth of sealed promos and have overall done well with them! Would love to have this imaginary world become a reality XD

@Zac Burgess This is great counsel! I agree completely. I am sure that my contribution isn’t needed at this point, but if you’re needing liquidity fast I think the DR and Paldea box would be easiest to move. The Celebrations and 151 items are much harder to find for sure and I’d hold onto them as long as I can before you consider selling them. Best of luck.

I’d diversify! Finding things that are harder to find like PC ETBS are worth it in my opinion. Great pick up!