So I’ve opened up some delicious Champion’s Path today, and I was a bit taken aback with the card stock (my younger brother got the shiny Charizard V by the way 
) The cards seem different, glossier than regular English cards, and the colors are slightly changed. Has anybody else had the same experience? Very similar feel to the cards in the Pokemon Battle Academy board game. Some very offcentre, almost miscut, with sharper corners. But the Vs and full arts were quite nice.
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Yeah, the condition is looking like ass on wave 1.
The ETB Zards are totally ungradable. Very disappointed.
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Why grade the card when you could grade them sealed.
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That’s a bummer but congrats on your brother getting shiny Charizard V!
I saw someone pull some shiny Zard V cards and reported that they had slightly warped corners…
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Tnx, link to images of it here! May you all pull one, it’s even better IRL!
imgur.com/a/DUZ96zD
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So they make a special Shiny Charizard for the set and then the set quality is so bad it will be hard to grade as gem mint… Which will result a PSA 10 being very stonk so people will buy more product in the hopes of getting a mint Charizord
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Bad quality + Zord = stonks
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Wish I had checked here before getting up so early on my day off to go a hunting 
So a Burning Shadows Booster Box should be 10k by Christmas =)
Was wondering if the second wave of ETB and then the later produced products will be of different stock and quality. So for this set looks trash unfortunately, will be a challenge to grade nice 10s
You think there will be a second wave? I saw a total of five HF ETBs in store last September, and none after. Figured CP would be the same
Pikachuminati!!! They call Champion’s Path “Stonkion’s Path.”
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Even the quality of the foil wrapping on the packs seem worse, thinner and weaker somehow
A lot of my local shops are saying they are expecting to get more stock of the ETB’s in October (some said next week but i thought it was late October myself) I also recall people on this forum stating that there will be at least 2 waves of ETB’s (This was stated before the release) Also there have been multiple pre-orders which were delayed to October suggesting that they ran out from the first wave and are waiting for the re-stock.
I went to my local fred Meyers on release day they had two in stock did my grocery shopping came back to pick one up and some one was buying them both on my way out sad day o doubt I’ll see another one there. The poke center vending machine hasn’t been stocked on champions path yet.
I’ve opened about 80 packs of this so far. So far card stock/quality is A+. My modern point of comparison for bad card quality is burning shadows where I bought two cases. from my cases, some of the hyper rares including the zard had machine marks on the side and would be a PSA 6 right out of the pack.
My vintage point of comparison for bad card quality is EX Deoxys/TRR, and the CP cards feel night and day sturdier than those. I haven’t had one damaged card yet and would say on average every card I’ve opened should grade a PSA 9 or 10. Maybe I got lucky, or maybe it’s a more complicated manufacturing issue where there is a bad line or something and mine came from the good line. Anyways, just my personal experience so far.
Best wait for wave 2!
From my experience with the set so far (opened 125 packs) The cards pulled from ETBs all had issues with the corners or weird marks on them. While the packs from pin collections/dubwool boxes still had these issues, they weren’t as prevelant. All in all, I was only able to pick out 4 cards I deemed worthy of being potential PSA 10’s which is pretty bad. XY evolutions esque print quality IMO so far.