Nows i javent looked into this too much bit across all of Aistralia pokemon booster boxes are pretty much trhe cheape st ive ever seen, very, very cheap. When divided by 36 it equates to 2.30 usd per pack, it is just ridiculous, espedcially for australia (where the norm use to be 160usd a booster box)!
Erveryone is claiming wholesalers are just having a big sale.
If this is true do people have any idea why? My gut is telling me it could be a permanent thing… what effect would this have on the future of pokemon tcg?
Are these low prices due to bulk and singles being so cheap that people dont want to buy sealed and therefore theyve had to reduce prices.
I think its just the level of mass production. In previous sets there wasn’t as much as production back then as there is now. Pokemon is just dumping out product after product like its the 1928.
Aside from EB games scamming parents into paying $250 lol… sites like ozgames or cherrys are selling them at around $145-160, or having sales at $115… so were talking like $80-$130 usd ball park range… to me, in Australia this is CHEAP… imo is due to mass production & over saturation… it looks like some vendors have over stocked and due to sets rolling back to back every 3 months they are trying to palm off boxes fast.
I used to pay £70 a booster box from a local seller.for roaring skies, phantom forces, xy, flashfire,furious fists.
Before the reprints and mass production
When I got back into the hobby I was trying to complete sets xy onwards and the amount of ultr rares and exes…especially in primal clash…made it far too expensive. I bought a few booster boxes and picked up tins etc along the way for fun…but trying to complete sets purely opening or buying collections was impossible.I havent bothered since evo buying modern sets as its stupid! I may buy certain cards I like, certain hr maybe grade some but Im pulled away from buying into these sets or trying to complete. Better off investing that money in my wotc and old japanese promos. I am also debating selling alot of my cards and the few sealed stuff i have such as tins, collection boxes (modern) and using that money to invest in the older things. I have the evolutions red green yellow and blue collection boxes, a bunch of xy tins, gengar,dragonite, kangaskhan collection boxes and a bunch of other stuff. so mass produced i may aswell either sell or crack and sell…i think anyways!
Walmart lowered prices on almost everything near me as well last month. Boxes from earlier in 2017 are $13-15, certain collection boxes are now wrapped together and prices cut in half, single packs are pack to the original $3.98 that they used to be. Granted these prices still aren’t as cheap as you can find them online, still, seeing retail stores finally catch on and lower prices should be noted.
Amazon has been selling the Alola starter “GX Premium Collection” boxes for $12 and some change, going up to $17 recently - MSRP on these is $40. Crimson Invasion boxes as low as $60 for the last month. The recent XY Premium Collection that has a MSRP of $100 is down to $60 on certain sites - something a ton of people said “would never happen” with the promos in the box sticking at the standard $2-3 bucks like every other new card.
I’ve said it before but I just can’t see buying new product anymore, there’s no money to be made and no value to be held which is a shame. For the last month and a half I’ve literally had to force myself to stay away from Crimson Invasion because it isn’t worth it. As much as I want to buy a box and open some packs up, I can’t justify it anymore. Once a set has been out for a month all of the prices drop in half and make it nearly worthless.
In regards to point #2… So if it was cheaper to complete the set the boxes would be worth…more? I do think 10 secret/hypers in each set is pretty crazy, but ultimately those are the only things people seem to want from newer sets… Full arts and super mega ultra rainbows. If there were only 2 rainbows/secrets per set there’d be 5 times as many of them and they’d be dirt cheap like every other card in the set. Seems like a lot of people are saying the value of the cards being so low is why the boxes are so cheap, which I’d agree with.
I mean… what’s the solution to these cheap box prices? The card game is seeing all time high numbers they haven’t seen since wotc era, and ultimately 90% of the cards are worthless to players but product gets opened for the 10% needed to play.
Do you add shining pokemon? The more desired cards added to the sets the more $ needed to complete sets. You just said that’s a bad thing.
Do you try to get at the people selling boxes at the same price stores get them for and force a price floor if that’s even possible? Again that makes the product opened less but makes playing and collecting more expensive. Some would argue why should the players have to pay more for the investors to get a better roi.
Do you see if wizards of the coast will print and sell the cards? Based off how this forum treats wotc cards as investments that can’t fail having wotc somewhere on the card might be the best thing that could happen to the game
Your #3 is so true. Why should anyone pay $40 for 6 packs and a promo that will be 50cents due to the mass reprinting of the card, when you can get boxes for about $2 a pack. Ultimately it sounds like the main problems are the record # players are opening too much product for cards to be worth anything, and the online sellers selling boxes on preorder for $79.99, but can we really say it’s a problem because we can’t invest in new cards and make money? Sounds like we don’t need to complain if wotc cards are where people should be investing anyway.
Openers, youtube openers, set collectors, players and casuals should stick to modern sets…investors and serious/old school collectors stick to the older stuff, wotc and just after. Tpc will not lower the amount they are pumping out as people like to open collect and use…investors should and would steer away from these anyways! There are many options for hardcore collecting and investing and modern is not it.They are for making a bit of money off for big businesses and not for flips and so on (imo) there are exceptions but generally these newer cards arent for long term investing.They could do what they are now with regard to volume and types of cards but add a real chase card…an actual super rare style? for collectors. Though they dont need to to sell their product :? so wotc and around then is best to “buy into” long term…
Scott has said this in many of his YouTube videos, but bringing back the 1st Edition stamp would be a game changer. I feel like that is the only thing that can add additional value to modern cards at this point, especially when you consider how much is being printed right now. That 1st ED print run would be out there and gone just as quickly I’d say.
1st Edition print would stabilize modern product for collectors. The unlimited could be for players, or anyone who doesn’t want to pay a premium for a 1st ed stamp.
This would be the best and easiest remedy for the abundance of modern product, which is not going to change anytime soon.
I’ve seen a lot of the little shopify store guys that are active on the Aussie facebook pokemon trading groups selling as low as $110 for som boxes, it’s pretty crazy. Nobody could make me touch modern sealed product, there’s just too much of it.
I feel like if they added a 1st edition stamp they would have the 1st edition print runs so massive on the modern sets that it would still be super common and not very special. I can just imagine all the entitled people complaining that they weren’t able to buy 1st edition cards at their LGS.
I am against 1st edition print runs for the shit show that they would likely be as well @pierce. Where would the packs be found? Booster boxes only or would they go in all forms of product? How uniformly would they be distributed? How large would the print run be? How often would distribs just sit on them instead of selling? I’ve never been a big fan of a simply stamp being the difference between many multiples of value. I love base set 1st for it having actual difference besides just a stamp. Maybe if they were to make more distinguishable variants than just a stamp… but still overall I don’t think it’d be a great idea.
stamp and exclusive 1st edition additions to the set. The distribution and numbers would be hard though as people can hold them back and not hand out etc(not saying people will be dishonest…but lets be real…people will be and are)
I’m certain that distributors would hold back 1st edition product if it was ever printed. It’s unfortunate but why wouldn’t they, if the print run is small and they can satisfy demand through the unlimited print run it’s basically free money holding onto it. Holding it back would also push up the price anyway due to the limited supply and most likely high demand.
I think the only way of increasing the stability of the products is by doing what other Trading Card companies are doing by having one card per box be numbered/signed/special compared to the rest.
I’m personally against this for my own reasons, but adding these additional chase cards should keep products reasonably stable. It wouldn’t help the price point of non booster box products, but those products are typically far from collectable anyway.
The 1st Ed. stamp is a good idea, only if implemented in a way that limits the printing run to the first print in a non-gigantic print run.
The brick and morttar stores like kmart would have them available on shelf if they were goven them to sell. So yeah you would just have to pay retail which isnt a bad thing
With mass unbox channels and bulk orders by everybody the first edition print will never reach the shelves and making it very exclusive to those who can order 10 cases of every set to be released. I don’t mind 1st Edition for the collecting aspect, it adds more to it, but not if all the first edition product ends up in the lap of the same people every single time.
