So… I know people think my takes may be “controversial” especially on the discord, but… let’s start:
I’d imagine almost everyone is aware that MTG did serialized with their The Brother’s War set and now the LOTR set will feature a 1/1 ring. A lot of talk has been going on (“noise”) and the key takeaway question I hear is: “What if Pokémon made serialized cards?”
WOTC / Hasbro’s Chapter: Beginning of the End
I believe MTG is dying, tbh idk how much longer IRL playing card game life span has specifically in competitive. If you ask me, I have never met a single teenager and/or kid (zoomer as I like to say) who is interested in MTG in any capacity, however when you ask if I have seen kids or teenagers who love Pokémon, there’s so many who love and enjoy Pokemon whether its cards, video game, toys, etc. Pokémon is approx. 97.5% (made up statistic) card collectors with 2.5% player-base, while MTG is the complete opposite. I believe that Hasbro / WOTC is trying to create artificial demand and get consumers to get interested into collecting rather than playing. We are currently in a technology revolution and it’s only going to keep growing at exponential rates (ChatGPT, Bard, Autonomous vehicles/robots/computers, etc) where technologgy is so advanced that digital will take over a lot higher percentage of our dailyhood in the next 5-10 with social media being a good example in recent years. I believe we will eventually get to a point where playing card games especially at tournament levels will enter a drought and that may be MTG’s last breath unless they can turn more players into collectors with serialization, but I think you already understand where I’m coming from here…
Toxic Environment
Serialization is unhealthy because it creates artificial scarcity and demand. It can also shift the health of a product especially if there are only single digit serializations. For example even if a card were to have unattractive artwork, but the card is from a popular IP and is a 1/1 serialized card; there will be demand due to the rarity, price, and potentially even the Internet Clout you earn from owning such a “rare” card. Now let’s get to product health, if we have a 1/1 card or 1/10 or another small sized serialization and we are able to track down every single number or the 1/1 has already been pulled: the demand for that product is more than likely to significantly drop as the chase is over and people will have ill feeling towards a set due to the chase no longer existing and will most likely no longer buy that peoduct. I pray that Pokémon does not take this idea from Magic as the current state of Pokémon is overall healthy.
Misconceptions of Scarcity and Demand:
Serialization will create a false sense of demand as the majority of collectors or “participants” in the hobby want the next best thing (Moonbreon is a good example, but this is another topic for another day). There could be this insane Pikachu art 1/500 card that is serialized and comes out, but 1 year later a new Pikachu that is 1/500 with significantly better artwork comes out and the demand switches and may lead to a dump of the original as these “next best thing” collectors would not be able to hold more than 1 card, hell I’d say a lot of collectors today that own a PSA 10 Moonbreon, actually cannot afford it as most Americans cannot afford a random $600 expense as the average American credit card debt is quite high. On another note, serialization will create unnatural pumps and people are bound to get burned and end up having terrible experiences in the hobby. Serialization will exclusive at the beginning, but with longevity the true colors show that its just “rarity” with extra unneeded steps.
TLDR: Serialization creates an unnatural demand and if Pokemon creates serialized cards from sets, it will create a downfall of popularity due to a high chance of getting burned and many bad experiences to come with a false sense of scarcity.
Don’t let Pikachu cry, say no to serialized cards - Triple
