As many of you have seen the Sun and Moon era full arts(tag team alt arts) have gone to another universe in pricing. I like the art for these cards, but can’t justify spending these prices for modern cards for seemingly no reason. Most of these cards are not particularly rare in terms of total population or graded population. They were mass produced from main sets which means the barrier to obtain these cards was mostly nonexistent. Is there some reason I am not privy to that would make these cards jump in price so significantly in such a short period of time? It feels like I am missing an important piece of the puzzle.
The answer dear readers, is addiction. Chemical addiction.
I’m kidding. But it might not be so far from the truth… Emotion is a powerful drug.
edit: I’m pretty sure there is a thread discussing this. Check the search function to see if something pops. Also, 11 topics read in 3 days! Welcome to the fourum!
Well i’ve said this before but actually sun and moon was sort of a lower ish era of popularity for the tcg (towards the end with hidden fates and CE it kinda picked up) but besides those 2, the rest of the sets werent printed that much more so if you compare it to the gazillion product that was printed in SW & SH.
So sure, cards or products aren’t thaaaat rare but in the whole context, they are pretty rare compared to at least the most recent sets, you can take a look at several GX alt arts, they are barely breaking the 400-500 mark of graded copies total.
Sure, 500 copies is not rare but compared to the latest era it is rare and now you take into account that those sets seem to not be printed anymore so it’s just “natural” that they go up in price and they have been going up slowly for more than a year.
I do agree that the prices are too exaggerated right now but they definitely were too cheap before, considering the beautiful art, lower psa count and difficulty to pull.
The barrier to obtain those cards then versus now would be a factor. After it’s no longer available for obtainment, it’s not necessarily how much of something was put out into population, but how many preserved their condition over the test of the time.
For example, Sword & Shield - Evolving Skies was once obtainable en masse, but now it is not. At this point, most people already have looked to preserving the hits from that set to protect from the elements or to secure turnaround times.
If you can’t justify spending your money on them, then don’t. It’s that simple.
Just as how some can’t justify spending money on vintage cards. It works the same way.
People collect what they like and though it’s tough for people on E4 to hear, a lot of people appreciate modern “alt arts” so that’s where they will spend their money.
Obviously massive price hikes suggest manipulation/speculation, but the reality is, if there was/were enough supply, it will show up and the prices will drop eventually.
Also, low graded population needs to be redefined. Once again, if only 1 person is interested in a card with a population of 10, that card is high pop. If 10 million people are interested in a card with a population of 1m, that card is low pop. Obviously the fundamentals are different as a change in demand will shift things considerably. It’s riskier, but then there is also no guarantee either that your 10 pop card will ever gain in popularity.
Wow it is nice to be in a room of people with similar interests. I think everyone’s perspectives and ideas are all potential reasons for the price changes. I guess I was more concerned with how much the prices changed in such a short period of time. I appreciate all the input though I learned quite a bit already lol
From my perspective, the Sun & Moon alt arts first started catching some steam when there were unfounded rumors of alt arts going away in the Scarlet & Violet era. This irrational fear caused some short term spikes in Sun & Moon era alt arts (I made a thread on this topic a while back).
Now many months later, it’s easy to see that the interest in Sun & Moon alt arts is genuine. I believe that alt art collectors want to “catch them all,” which conveniently began to include the long-neglected Sun & Moon era.
When I attend trade nights and speak to vendors in my local community, alt arts are treated as liquid as cash. It is actually crazy how quickly they sell at in person events. It’s just the way of the world right now.
Also, 11 topics read in 3 days! Welcome to the fourum!