As a person who rode the waves of the pokemon craze, I can’t help but notice people are still doing the same pack opening again, and not really doing anything else. I feel like it’s become more of a business strategy than a actual enjoyable hobby. So many people are just looking to resell and none of them are actually enjoying the journey of collecting them. I mean, it’s ok to make a bit of money, but if your not admiring the AMAZING ARTWORKS that sometimes a lot of people overlook, whats the point?
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If it’s getting views, why would they change ?
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YouTube is an entertainment platform. Meaning you and your stream of content have to be entertaining to be recommended.
So far, there are only a handful of Pokemon models that “work”. Pack openings/PSA returns, drama topics, investment topics. That’s kinda about it. It’s because they already well-defined models and frankly, easy to repeat the same thing a couple of times a week.
I think there is a lack of innovation but it has a lot to do with how the youtube algorithm is set up and the kind of content that the general audience finds entertaining.
There are a ton of collecting-centeric channels out there but they are almost exclusively boring video topics discussed by boring people.
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Buyers still pay exorbitant prices for rips. The YouTube/streamers won’t stop till their buyers do some research on current conditions for the cards they get from their rips
If anyone here on e4 has participated recently in breaks I’d be very interested in hearing about the mindset. Mainly just curious. I see people opening packs where the chase card in a 10 is like 50$ more than the pack price. Who is doing this? I doubt it’s anyone on e4 but you never know
People buying packs want to support or interact with a streamer. Rather than donating a digital rose or coin, they get something out of it. In the case with someone like pokerev, you also get advertisement. Companies would have to pay at least what most packs costs to get a shout out. I remember when Logan was doing his openings, a shoutout for a channel his size would be like 40k or more, so a 10-20k pack and a shoutout is a better deal.
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Right but for the no name whatnot people ripping sandstorm for 350-400$ a pack? I doubt those people have a huge premium from their advertising. I also doubt that this inflated box breaking would be as widespread if it was all just advertising and donating.
Obviously gambling is a key issue here, but when the odds are 1:3 that you at best make like 50$ and probably worse, who is doing that. You could pull a Gardevoir or wailord from every heavy and still be losing money.
Also in the case of these streams on whatnot and IG, (not pokerev/Logan sized ones) the buyer “advertising” argument doesn’t make much sense. It’s more common for the streamer to reap these advertising benefits. When the hits are reposted the streamer gets the praise not the buyer
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@Vertemes The real harsh answer, because the cOMmUnItY is fickle, and pack openings are the easiest model to cater to a fickle audience. I’ve done interviews for channels larger than mine that make beautiful edits and put together a work of art, yet it will earn less views than someone opening a charizord.
Doing Poketube is a terrible lifestyle of high exposure, constantly grinding, and catering to the lowest common denominator. People who do it for a living have to do what makes money. There isn’t money in deep dives on cards. Even on my niche within a niche channel, if I talk about some market topic it will earn 3x more views than a full history of a set or card release. The bottom line is people who say they want something else either don’t really represent the majority, or more importantly, they don’t show up.
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The short answer to OP’s question is that pack openings garner views and make money. If something works financially in an unpredictable environment like content creation, why change?
And for big box openings, the money isn’t made from selling the packs, but by the views and donations received during and after the video airs. At one point yesterday, Pokerev had 20,000+ live viewers on his stream and he was getting donations seemingly every minute. When he went down for 5 minutes, he lost 17,000+ of those viewers and it took him at least 30+ minutes to get them back. It’s an unreliable job environment, so finding out what your community likes and doing that consistently without fail is the key to success.
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The only place you’ll find less mass-market content and appreciation is on small channels who only do Youtube for their own personal enjoyment. I’ve stopped watching most larger youtubers and now really enjoy content from people like @trainerji, @sacari, etc. who don’t necessarily have huge followings and just post what they want.
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This is the hard truth to swallow for me since I just follow for the art and I only care about prices because I just want to get it cheapest lol. I got caught up in the flipping perspective that others were advocating to have net zero cost but didn’t work out for me because I then didn’t want to sell (lol) because surely others would appreciate the art, how can it be so cheap? (they don’t).
This is premature but that era ranking thread has SV ranked last in all the 3 or 4 posts in it which I cannot understand. What basically amounts to 150+ alt arts already and ranked last?? There is no way you can be nostalgic for 8 eras.
I made fun of TCG Pocket when it was announced a few weeks back, but now I’m actually looking forward to it because it may usher in a demographic that may have greater appreciation for art if the focus is on immersives and art.
For anyone who wants something different, or in my case, wanting texture/art videos you can check out okJluv’s latest video and Primal Lugia on YouTube.
If anyone has other channels that have texture close ups, please do let me know to check them out.
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I mean, the youtube algorithm for pokemon is setup so that the big youtubers keep on thriving while others are just fighting for those competitve spots. I think that using a unique pokemon niche like competitve pokemon or pokemon art or animation could get you out there, then you can expand to other niches as you go on. I think that pokemon niches are just turning out to be a starting niche that can expand to other channels.
People are starting to say that enough is enough for pokemon cards, and are just willing to appreciate the small creators that care about collecting and showing valuable artworks. Now there are things like locarena and One peice card games, which are also boosting the amount of pokemon cards being sold along with them. I feel like there might be a breakout star that might be able to do something different than these scammers that only focus on getting rich quick.
The issue isn’t the algorithm, it’s the audience.
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Pokemon buyers are still immature for the most part I’d guess. And the avg age is probably like 20 so the hobby will grow with them imo. But still the types of things we see in this market baffle me everyday
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It’s both. But the algorithm is designed to serve people what they are more likely to watch. It’s a bit of a chicken-egg
I know some channels that effectively died because the algorithm changed from prioritizing their content to not. You really need engaging content and the algorithm to be kind to you
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Hey just wanted to say your the first pokemon youtuber ive ever followed (not counting the ones my son follows) and i gotta say your videos are right up my alley so anyone with recommendations im open.
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At this rate the only Youtubers I watch are smpratte, Wolfey and the random PrimetimePokemon video. I dont enjoy watching all the open mouth youtube garbage these days. If I am watching you pokemon content then I am trying to learn something. Primetime is a rare example for me and maybe its something nostalgic with him. He also opens new product so it gives me an idea on if I should buy the product or not.
I did find a recent channel that goes through the history of the tcg in the competitive mindset. I found that really interesting and loved the content!
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I also watch Primetime when I want to see some modern product to check out the contents. I used to watch him all the way back in DP era, since I was collecting/playing at that time, but I was able to buy maybe 1 pack meanwhile he was the biggest person doing openings in 2007/8, with multiple booster boxes sometimes, which blew my mind.
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Yeah he was my go to channel when I started collecting again. Back then I enjoyed seeing people open wotc packs that I remembered from my childhood. Times were so simple.
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This is actually why I got into (and still sometimes enjoy) JLuv. I appreciated that he interacts with the cards at both a competitive and Japanese-speaking level. It definitely adds more depth beyond just “oh look charizard.” lol
Granted, I haven’t watched his content in quite a while. This was back in 2020-2021. Hopefully he still does that stuff.
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