I think its such a shame that all people talk about within the hobby is money, value and investments. Some of my favourite cards are either worthless, or completely inaccessible because of how insanely expensive they are.
i like my cards, and it’s fun to know what they’re worth!! but it makes me really upset when people do it to the extent of a pseudo stock market. i have a handful of cards that are worth about 50 each, and i treasure them, i’ll never sell
One of the reasons why I love watching your Pokémon card unboxings is that you don’t show the monetary value of each card. You appreciate every single card shown & the art it has, whether it’s a common, rare, full art or special edition/legendary. It’s a refreshing thing to see. Plus, your commentary while opening boxes/reactions to certain cards makes it a lot of fun! Thanks to your channel, I’ve gotten back to collecting Pokémon cards & have been loving it since! Keep up the great work, Foafy!
Really, really good video. It really rubbed me the wrong way seeing channels that consistently post ludicrous pack openings, go on and on about how you need to invest in XYZ cards before its too late, and so on, were posting vids saying "the hobby is RUINED right now!!" Like its not all their fault, but when you're making videos hyping up every little release and every possible card, do you expect your videos to NOT have adverse effects on availability? It seems insanely irresponsible on their parts, or they just dgaf lol.
Of course they don't give a fuck, they don't get paid to give a fuck about little Timmy who got straight As on his report card and can't get the pokemon cards he was promised by his parents because some basement dwelling assholes who haven't seen what a shower looks like in 20 years wants to make a quick buck.
I work at Target, and the week that Prismatic Eeveelutions released, we got calls and people asking what felt like every 30 minutes to an hour. We HAD to tell them they were all sold out. I understand buying just a set or two, but buying everything in stock that we have is insane, even for a collector like me. I also remember the Shining Fates release too. I feel bad for people who genuinely want to get the cards in this set, and hope Pokemon releases new stock for these people.
TPCI is intentionally creating artificial scarcity because TPCI doesn't care who gets the packs/boxes as long as they got paid for and they really just want a small handful of people to benefit from the game and intentionally make the game inaccessible for everyone else. Scummy practice, I know, but as long as there aren't any legal interventions chances of anything changing is literally zero. Even ic TPCI prints more stocks at full speed, as long as one scalper exists, the shortage problem will continue well beyond decades. That's how markets have always worked.
The monetary aspect appearing in the videos is what ticks me off. Charizard isn't valued as a Pokemon anymore. Instead people just see it as money. No real appreciation about card art work, instead losing their marbles over having pulled a Charizard and immediately checking it for damages, off centers etc. It's not about catching 'em all, it feels like people want to rather "grade 'em all"..
My entire big Midwest city isn’t even stocking these sets out of concern for public safety. This has gotten so out of hand, the general public has quite literally no chance of even stumbling onto these cards here.
As another Midwest city resident, it has been really annoying not seeing any new sets, but the one day I saw Prismatic at a vintage game store, the prices were scaled up the wtf
Pokemon adores this. They've acknowledged the issue, "tried" to combat it, know how people are bypassing it, and have done NOTHING. People are illegally registering their home addresses as card stores to order directly from TPCI and it's been this way unmitigated for years. People are poaching from stores by pretending to be stores, and Pokemon are making BANK every time. That's why there were SO MANY Charizards in Sword and Shield
That does not make sense. If they wanted to make the max amount of money, why would they not just print more cards. Or increase the price of the cards/release more expensive special product. Also, if this issue with home addresses were actually as prevalent as you say, and has been going on for years, why would we see issues only now with these hyped sets?
People are botting them directly and taking up slots intended for retail stores. They ARE printing a ton of it. Also this is NOT the first time. Champion's Path was like this and a few other sets in Sword/Shield
As someone who’s been making opening videos for a long time now I like your point about the values being on screen subconsciously affecting the perception of other cards. I admit I do discuss value sometimes and show it on screen for pulls but I think I’m going to stop after watching this. I much prefer talking about my favorite art and which card features the fattest pokemon with my audience. Good video man.
Good on you, Anthony. I'd love to hear more about your opinions on card art, your favorite Pokemon or arts in the sets, and of course about the chubsters.
He started the whole problem!! The ones who are scalping did it AFTER he did the vintage opening and he did it to show off and of course he's "rich" which he doesn't deserve to be rich at all. He's the worst
I fairly recently got the Paldean Fates Shiny Tera Charizard card, and my friend was like “You’ve hit the JACKPOT, you could sell that for hundreds of dollars!” And I was like. “Why would I do that??? This is MY card.” I’m trying to collect a full Pokédex, I’m not in the hobby for the money. It’s mind-boggling to see how greedy people can get, and scalpers are the WORST of this type of person…
The thing is with the money you can get by sellikg the cards , you can buy essentials and invest it better than buy holding what is esseintally pretty cardboard. Although a collection is sentimental value so thats that
YES! Let people be happy with their rares without worrying about $. I pulled the SAR Raging Bolt EX on my birthday 6 months ago. Not selling or trading, just happy to have the awesome art.
The only real important part of the monetry side of the hobby is trading up for older cards - like say, getting 3 paldean fates zards in order to trade for a gold star vaporeon.
And then you’ve got situations where people are selling off their collections because they just don’t want the cards anymore. Ever since I downloaded Pokemon Tcg pocket, I don’t really see a use in keeping the physical cards I own anymore, especially considering how accessible TCG pocket is compared to the physical Tcg. I look forward to giving away my cards to someone who would actually use them for decks.
I mean your friend might have been suggesting you sell it and take the chance that you get another by using those funds to buy further boxes. Kind of like the Magikarp salesman except in this case, it is possible.
pokemon tgc is the peak of consumerism, Millons of dupes and cards in the market selling for 1 or 2 dollars, the massive waste of resources is the pillar of the market and the rarity of the special cards like ex and holos
Buy minimum rarity. And buy in singles. Pokemon, despite the issues with scalping is still the cheapest TCG to play right now aside from maybe one piece.
Yeah, like all the super rare full art cards makes actually playing the game way cheaper. The scalpers are chasing the rare cards, so the more common ones fill up the market and bring prices down. The mega rare cards being worth a billion dollars, yet not any better competitively, makes the commonor ones drop in value, mostly good for the people actually playing the game (bad for the people who want those fancy art cards)
The game is awful. To me its probably worse in terms of capitalism. Always rotating out, stores make you pay to play in tournaments (I dont want prizes I just want to play), and its not even a fun game.
@ I mean your opinion is your own but most games have rotating card sets, and Pokemon’s rotation is more lenient than most, with cards remaining in format for up to 3 years. I mean if you don’t like the game that’s your prerogative but it’s got a huge player base with huge support, and yeah places charge to enter tournaments??? That’s most games, you’re not gonna enter a tournament with usually $60+ in prize support for free???
And if you’re just there to play, tons of places do open play events. I can think of three stores near me that don’t even run tournaments they just have open play for free
I really wanna see people's collection of THEIR favorite cards. Not their most expensive or their most most valuable cards, but the ones they love collecting for whatever PERSONAL reason. I want to see someone's collection of oddish cards just because the Lil guy is their favorite, someone's collection or error cards, someone's collection of water pokémon that are completely under water in the art. My favorite part about my collection is my sleeping pokémon cards collection and I get very happy whenever I find another card to add to it. Let's bring back actually having passion for your hobbies again and doing them for one's own enjoyment
So I like the art of a lot of XY sets, find them exciting, there is an XY Torchic and Bunnelby that are THE BOMB, and yet people like to dunk on Steam Seige which HAS shiny Pokemon and card art where the types DIVIDE. Like Shiny Azurmaill outside the art is half pink and half blue, why do folks despise that?
I feel like with Pokemon Company announcing the year of Eevee this year, it really made people get crazy for the Prismatic Evolutions cause Eevee was front and center on that set
The fact that money is the main point in a lot of these pokemon card openings is why I can't even really get into watch content relating to opening cards anymore. I have not seen a person uploading a video about pokemon cards that has not at least implied that they want a card because it is valuable or "it is an investment" in what feels like years. There are some cards with really sick art that would struggle to sell for even $5 about a few months back and now they are suddenly nearly $30.
You might enjoy SlantedGaming's shorts. His videos highlight the beautiful and clever art of the cards and the only times he mentions a card's price is when he really loves one and can't have it because it's too expensive (which is very relatable lol)
We've seen that pretty recently - the exact same thing. During "Pikachu and VanGogh collaboration" and then 151 scalping. The Pika-Gogh situation was so disgusting (lots of manchildren stampeding in the Van Gogh museum to get multiples of free cards) that I even completely left scarlet/violet collecting. This life is already full of commerce and deception to waste your hobby money on such things.
Personally I like Rev's content where he has a certain budget and he sells the cards he buys with that budget and buys cards until he has none. It might just be the one video from a little while ago, but I think it paints a pretty good picture of how buying cards will really go. In the specific video im talking about, he starts with 400$ of packs. He pulls 54$ worth of cards. He then sells those cards back to the person he bought the 400$ of packs from. Rinse and repeat until he has no more money. It paints a realistic picture of what will happen if you are looking simply for monetary value in cards. You need passion for the cards, and not the money, to truly enjoy ripping packs. For those curious the video is titled "I Sold All My Rare Pokemon Cards" by PokeRev.
As a new casual collector, it's both such a fascinating and worst time to join LOL. I'm happy that a majority of cards I like are not "valuable" to others, but it still bothers me how crazy the prices can get for popular/sought after cards. I'm surprised there still isn't a limit per customer for some of the retail stores. Watching the Costco videos was absolutely embarrassing to watch seeing grown men fight over these boxes...I'm glad some are doing it now, but I definitely purchasing limits, online queues, proper preorders, in store pick ups, etc. can somewhat make this issue better.
I work as asset protection for walmart and I can tell, at least from a retailers perspective, that pokemon "not printing enough" isn't the biggest issue. How we sell the products (at least in walmart idk about other retailers) isnt through the company itself, but through a third party vendor that brings the product in and displays it on our shelves. My part of the process is dealing with stolen or damaged products. The issue with pokemon cards in particular is that (once again probably only a walmart thing) is that when a customer pays for it, most of the profits are going to the third party vendor that is paying us to use our store shelves basically. I cannot recall how many boxes of the 151 collection as well as other modern ones came back to me with stolen or damaged cards is crazy. But because the company doesn't make profit off of it, sadly those ripped open packages have to be either sent back to the vendor or out right thrown away. Idk how long surging sparks or prismatic evolutions have been out, but I have yet to have seen a single package come back to me stolen. What that tells me is we are either selling them so fast they don't have a long enough shelf life to even encourage theft, or that the vendor is simply not displaying enough product. I stopped caring about the physical tcg after about shining fates but its really crazy to be seeing these sets become armageddon for the average consumer, and that the price hikes are making them harder to afford especially with people who will just nab em off the shelves and resell for 3 to 5 times the original retailers price.
And honestly from a consumer perspective its ridiculous that something as big as pokemon needs third parties to sell to these big companies, and how to get these cards is just waste gas and miles going to these superstores because no one has any idea when the cards go on the shelf
I'm wondering if the distributors are holding some of these products back so they can repackage them as the chase cards in the holiday mystery packs this year.
I find it sad that its even hard for CHILDREN to open packs because of scalpers Edit: 5:30 nope your right pokemon card ads never show up on UA-cam unless you go to thier channel
Umm idk if you collected cards in 2014 but kids don’t exactly have jobs and Obama was on his second term devaluing the US dollar and undoing 60 years of anti racism handed to us by MLKJr
Great to see more creators publicising this issue. As someone who enjoys the cards for a mixture of childhood nostalgia & admiration of the modern artwork designs, I've always appreciated how you refrain from showing monetary value when opening packs and don't exaggurate your reactions when finding a rare card.
It's so weird seeing the difference between the communities within Magic the Gathering (another card game) and Pokemon. I've collected pokemon cards since I was a child, just art i like and mostly shinies. I never learned to play Pokemon, but I do play Magic. Both communities show the monetary value of the cards but in Magic, the community around pricing is very different. Like I've never seen ppl rushing to shelves for popular releases. Maybe because cards are priced not only by popularity but actual usefulness.. While Pokemon like Charizard and Umbreon are priced in the thousands only because everyone likes those pokemon. Aka Magic prices can be crazy but it's usually for "real reasons." The card is amazing in any deck, its vintage, or serialized, etc. But Pokemon prices are really set by the community just because of popularity and just because.. It's just become very greedy? (Yes i know vintage, useful, rare pokemon cards exist and im not taling about those. Im not talking about the recent Umbreon card already going for an absurd amount for example)
as a creator, another subtle problem I see is that pokemon content on yt just doesn't earn as much ad revenue than if you start talking about "investments" and "money. I feel like that has an effect on the content that creators draft up and it gets reflected in the videos that get made.
Pokerev is a reseller, so I'm sure he has insight but I mean, also, ya know. I dunno, I'm glad he spoke up for the "normies" like me, but it's weird to say that but have his actions say otherwise? His mystery packs are $60 for 5 booster packs. C'mon
I am super sad prismatic evolutions was caught up in this. I wanted to buy some to open just to hunt a sylveon for myself. Its my favorite eeveelution AND Pokemon overall after all!!!! But seeing the card is like 200-300 dollars, and sets are in the THOUSANDS to buy packs, its so frustrating as someone who just wants a cool ass card of their fave!!!!!
Me too! I was so excited about prismatic evolutions and was shocked to see the prices when I tried to buy a tin (not to mention everything else was sold out!) Being an eevelution fan is torture sometimes 😢
5:30 the only ad for Pokémon cards I’ve ever seen wasn’t even the actual card game, it’s pokemon TCGP that or a whatnot ad that just so happens to be pokemon
Something I'd love to see from pokemon pack and box opening channels came from my question: "What do they do with all their bulk? Their commons, uncommons, and cheap rares?" So I'd love to see these channels partner up with game stores, where their viewers can buy singles, and ship all that excess product off to a store from which their viewers can *buy those cards* without having to find vanishingly small amounts of sealed product left on shelves.
When u sit there opening over 720 packs of prismatic, you cannot sit there and complain about investors buying up all the product. If he cared he would give away his entire position of prismatic instead of bitch about it. He has only given away a very small amount.
I know. It's probably the best game to play competitively if you are on a budget. At least compared to the big three card games. Even the prize pool for regionals and championship increased last year. Heck you get a free pack of pokemon cards just for playing for free at locals and those have some big money cards in them too if not good playable cards.
I personally am having a blast learning the card game. I both collect and play the game and its super cool to be ripping packs and see some regular common and uncommon cards most creators skip over that actually have a ton of value in the TCG
My husband recently went through his whole collection (he has cards from the 90s up until 2014) and took a bunch of them and put em in a binder to trade with people. He's gotten a lot of folks offering to pay for the cards inside, but he says no it's trading only. We've had a lot of people excited to trade and doing very fair trades too. It reminds people of the simpler days when we were all just excited about the cards and not thinking of the monetary value of each one.
4:15 Funny that you mention that I just saw One of the many things on my list to pick up a booster box on Amazon and to be honestly, it was my first one. it also the one I can afford, it was called paradox rift.
@@MarioCartRacer04booster boxes in Canada where I live are about $220+ closer to 300 for most sets it's rediculous. I found a good deal on pokeball tin cases and bought 2 cases because it was still cheaper then buying a single booster box for the same amount of packs.
@@zoarsnowpaw3549 I just wouldn’t buy anything to rip at this point in time. Unless you can find good deals, ripping booster boxes at their current prices is just burning money
Back when I started making content I put the price of the cards I pulled in videos to give people an idea of what that card was worth if they wanted to pick it up for themselves. Back then prices didn’t shift much so it stayed around that price for a long time. A few weeks back I came to the same realization that the price really doesn’t stay that way and I just kept doing it cause it was something I had always done. I’m not a big channel or anything like that but I don’t want to help give into this over inflated hype so I’ve started take the prices out of all of my long form videos (doing the same with my shorts when I get through the stuff I’ve already had done). I make content for the joy of collecting and I like sharing that with people! I honestly couldn’t care about the price of a card.
Its so sad that this is happening when im kinda having a personal relove of pokemon cards. I kinda just want to collect again. Prismatic Evolution was my hype set solely because i love eevee. Hell i was so excited that for the first time since Astrial radiance that ive been wanting a ETB. I only buy those for pokemon i love, literally i only ever got 2 because it had Eevee and darkrai on them. It reminds me of the other day. I checked my local Walmart for a sec and say a guy doing the same. We chatted for a minute over the new set. He was just looking for the poster box set and i wanted the binder box set. Its been so disheartening to see this happening again when i personally just like buy a few packs to bring joy in my life
As someone who grew up with the Pokemon community (Games, Anime, and light TCG) like Jwittz, NatewantstoBattle, TheDex discovering the TCG community feels so slimy and hallow. Like the more I find out about stuff like "Investors" and the entire Rip and Ship space, it makes me realize the community is NEVER going to fix the shit it's in right now. Like think about it, most content creators tend to get items from distributors for likely the same price as LGS and Branded companies, so they likely aren't paying MSRP but actively shift the price based solely on how much it's worth now. Like at the moment a single pack from Surging Sparks from one of these Rip and Shippers is $8.50 per pack, these people could've paid extra, but there's also a chance they might've had them from the launch where they were $5 ish and now they're just getting more profit because "its a business". The sad truth is most TCG community members aren't going to fix this issue, it's not a bug it's the intended feature they want this. Like people why would a Rip and Shipper ever want TCG to not be hard to find? That means people will be less likely to buy cards from them. Why would an investor not hype up and over insinuate the value of a new card it makes their assets grow in value dramatically. Hell even people like PokeRev have mystrey tcg packs you can buy that play on the hype people have for vintage packs and stuff like Evolving Skies, this entire community is designed to drive profit from the viewers and that's it. It would be like if Jwittz sold Pokemon games he made videos and hyped up their value, or if Matt Pat "invested" in Fnaf products then hyped it up to his audience. It just feels so hollow and unless we see a mass exodus from the profit focused members this is going to keep happening every 3-4 years.
It doesn't help that Pokemon sell only 10,000 master sets per set run. Unless they reprint. So special illustration rares only have 10,000 copies. which seems like a lot until you realize there are over 2 million people that collect pokemon cards. Meaning at minimum 0.005% of people will get a full master set. It gets worse because there are people that collect sealed products that might have a special illustration rare in them. Meaning someone trying to get a master set might not be able to because the card they need is in the sealed products.🤔
Just going to add something that happened a year ago. Pokemon co switched from lgs distribution to big company distribution (Walmart, Target, etc.) ps 75% Big company to 25% lgs. Because of this Pokemon lost their safe guard on cards. Because lgs would only sell little at a time while big companies put out all their stocks. Plus they would just sell any amount to a customer. look at what happened at Costco or shiny fates at Walmart. Pokemon co did this to themselves. Now the normal customers of Pokemon cards will suffer while the scalpers get richer. 😢
they should either reduce the sets sizes, or only release a set every quarter or so, (excluding the small sets) it extends the life of each generation (giving the games more time to be made *cough* *cough*) and makes it easier to not only reprint/make enough cards, but also makes it more consumer-friendly as there's not a rush to get everything before a new set steamrolls in. making them less often could also mean sets are slightly bigger (more art cards are always welcome) but also laws against scalping is definitley important
You’re forgetting that Pokemon is a game first and foremost. The TCG is built from the ground up as a game. Releasing a set quarterly would absolutely destroy the competitive scene and stagnate the meta in an atrocious way
@@lukasmccartney2860 that is true, i hadn't considered that the constant card releases change up the tcg, then printing a ton more is a good alternative, especially if scalpers refuse to die down
In the uk i think we are introducing laws to tax scalpers and flippers (if you sell over a certain amount of things or price you are considered a business) . My dad was complaining about it 😂
I’m a collector that’s in it for the cards and the fact that I love Pokémon… I’m the guy with a PSA 10 Moonbreon that will probably never sell it because I just love Pokémon that much, it’s not about money but…it’s been absolutely ruined for me… when you add the pull rates with how I can’t even get any cards literally anywhere it’s just become a burden more than a fun hobby I got into years ago…. I hate scalpers, with a passion, I’m so sick of 1 guy buying everything and I’m just stuck either paying outrageous prices or having to make it a job to go to every store everyday in the hopes I find literally anything…. I can’t even talk about it with my friends anymore cause we’re all just so sick of the state it’s in… I’m sorry but I’m just about done with it and I’ve loved it for a long time… f.uck you scalpers
FINALLY!! SOMEBODY HAS SAID IT!! MASSIVE RESPECT TO YOU, Footofaferret! 🙌 I've been waiting for someone to realize this and spread the word, but with the countless videos of youtubers explaining the scalper situation deflecting all the blame to the company not printing enough cards, they never took part of the blame in all this. They only needed to look in the mirror. This problem was so obvious from the start. If people wouldn't stop talking about the value of the cards, then the scalpers (and potential new ones) wouldn't even have the idea of making money out of the tcg in the first place. Collectors need to be back in the forefront of the hobby, not these investors. And hopefully, your video reaches a lot of people so they could realize how money ruins the hobby.
What makes me the saddest about all this is seeing so many children getting caught up in this "investment" approach to colleting cards, usually by their own parents. I've met 6 year olds who are only interested in the cards for the money and not for the Pokémon themselves. I'm also very disappointed that most children I see with cards have no interest in learning how to play the game. Isn't that the whole point of a TCG? If you're not playing, it's just TC, no G.
one of my biggest issues with the hobby, as someone who is getting into the tcg, is that the focus is less on the game and collecting, but everything is about the financial value of the cards. I roll my eyes every time a price is mentioned during a card opening. It's annoying as hell. Are you passionate about the game and Pokemon as a whole or are you just into gambling and using TCG as an outlet?
The only cards I have were because in my country, a company that sells "Stuffed Croassants" with a toy, they did a promotion with Pokemon and they put cards in the packages.
Yoooo you are talking about vuala It was so fun to collect the cards that way I think I only miss one or two from that set and one of the funniest thing that happened to my was that a package has 3 Lapras and 2 have been damage because they put the cards in the edge of the box but it was funny seeing those wrinkly Lapras cards
9:20 just recently I watched this random small youtuber with no edits opening just the "Scarlet & Violet Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box" it was quite chill video where he did pulled a pretty full art without showing any money value, but I get your point
I have noticed that there are very few youtubers that don't show the monetary value of cards. I think I have only found one other than you. I collect pokemon cards because I like the artwork of the cards and am sad that there are so many that there is no chance I will be able to get a hold of unless I save a TON of money to buy them on the secondary market.
I do remember saying this in a video before, but: People are genuinely insane for Pokemon cards, like all logic out of the window for them. Been to a local card shop for around 3 years now, literally only two people work there and they're doing their damn best with demands. When 151 came out half of their stock got stolen by a damn delivery driver! Right under their noses! With Prismatic they're doing a one per customer - casual collectors, kids and usuals get first dibs on stuff. I remember going over to pick up my pre-order and the shop had been open for like 30 minutes, nearly half of the stock they had was already sold.
Thank you for being honest about the role that Pokémon UA-camrs play in this madness. There’s also this new wave of investor bro culture that has always had a grip on the Pokémon market but seems to have really dug its claws in this year. These new consumers don’t enjoy anything but the chance at making money. To them everything has to be some sort of “investment” but they’re either too broke or too dumb (or too rich to care) to actually invest in less volatile assets like real estate or the stock market. Instead these fools are embarrassing themselves buying out happy meals and getting up at 6 am to beat the 6 year olds at target in order to make $100 on Facebook marketplace.
I'm in the middle of writing a script on this for an upcoming video, and then I see your vid which touches on most of what I'm writing lol. I have a similar take. Nicely done! (After watching the whole vid) Where we vastly differ is how you end the video. I go in a completely different direction. I'll see if I can get ahold of you somehow as I've reached out to many content creators I'm in touch with about using clips from their vids (I'm not making a drama vid BTW), and their thoughts on my premise, which, again, is similar to yours, but also very different in the end.
as a person in kuwait we still havent gotten prismatic NONE in big or small and we have only RESENTLY Have gotten surging sparks in kuwait and big shot stores are out
What sucks about this is that there is going to most likely be an even bigger boom than this one. I say that because in a few years Pokemon is gonna have its own themed land and attractions at Universal Studios Florida thanks to the Nintendo agreement. If Mario and even DK become much more popular thanks their own individual lands, Pokemon is gonna be on the next level. Also for those wondering it’s been heavily rumored for years that Pokemon would be replacing The Simpsons Land (Universal Studios Florida) and The Amazing Spider-Man Ride (Universal Studios Japan). But this has basically been teased thanks to not only Pokemon already having a moderate role in Japan, but also a Pokeball Firecracker was released in Florida around late last year.
One reason the cards are getting so big again that I don't really see too many youtubers talking about is TCG Pocket. It got SO many people interested in buying the cards again. I thought I was just going to stick to Pocket since I knew getting into the real TCG would be an expensive endeavor, BUT after seeing one of my streamer friends open a booster box of Surging Sparks, I thought, "huh, that seems fun", so it got me back into the real thing, lol. And opening real cards compared to TCG Pocket just feels better with the cards in your hands. It's gonna be a pretty hard year trying to find product, but hopefully things will calm down enough for fans and hobbyists to be able to find things at retail soon without having to worry.
I work at an LGS, and we have been lamenting for weeks the shift in tone for Pokemon fans. The people buying the product don't know any of the names, and some still say "Pokemans", talking about how they can't wait gor 5 years when their product raises in value. I have been a fan since the beginning, and still am, so obviously this hits harder for me, but even sports nuts are coming in, and these were the same guys that bullied us for being nerds back in the day now parousing the scene and clearing out any chance normal fans have at enjoying the product. What a mess
As someone who loves pokemon and collects the cards the situation is pretty unfornate im sure if i remember right this isnt the first issue theyve gone through i think they had the same issue yrs ago with pokemon mcdonalds cards my shops have no packs available since then this started happening and i feel bad that anyone wasnt able to get one during christmas holiday or their kids birthday my walmart for example has been hit hard during the christmas holiday all of the pokemon cards were gone way before weeks before christmas its more saddening that i was planning to buy a blister pack but couldnt because everything was gone im hoping evuntally theyll come back soon
Really well thought out video, you raise great points but I feel like showing off the card‘s prices will be something we cant move on from because it makes the gambling more enticing. I also struggle a bit with calling collecting stuff a hobby because in the end youre just buying stuff and maybe putting it on display, but many seem to not even care about actually playing the game, which would be more fit for a hobby.
Can we also maybe talk about the biggest problem of all: Grading? Not only does it add to even more plastic waste, but it adds another layer of gambling and wasting money that makes everybody focus only on centering, whitening and all the little blemishes when they open cards, which again ties back to just monetary value. I'm SO over it. It's a pain when you just want to buy a vintage card for your binder and everything is graded, too.
yeah this is very interesting. i actually have some creators i watch who don’t usually focus on the monetary value - but specifically because they’re ASMR channels. you don’t wanna worry about how much a card is worth when you’re trying to sleep! eta: i also care wayyyyy more about the art and even playability than the price myself, but i do still get excited about expensive cards. i definitely enjoy pokémon opening videos and influencers, but i do really wish there were more creators out there who were focused primarily on their favorites - collecting a certain pokémon, artist, etc. - rather than just the money. i have no hate to any creators! but i personally collect yuka morii, asako ito, and i want to collect rainbow rare cards. most people hate rainbow rares, but i adore them. i wish there was more focus on personal preferences instead of just the money. idk if any creators will even see this comment, but i really hope to see more of that type of video.
Just yesterday I saw someone else talking about it. They said with karmesin & purpur the vendors always had product at market prices for moths at market price and nobody wanted it. In the end they got messaged that Pokémon will reduce printing by 60-70%. Its hart to believe for me that these numbers are actually that high but in general it makes sense for a company to do that. These sets were less interesting for the normal consumer but that changed and the demand grew back. Looking the the investor side of things it makes sense for them to step in and by sort after sets what worsens the situation more.
I can agree that pokémon influencer does play a role in this. They can specifically hype up packs and prices on new cards certainly don’t help but I’m not sure how big of a influence the prices have because this is nothing new to Pokémon.
The hobby is in shambles, can pokemon fans stop worrying about the money and just have simple fun like we used to? It should be about playing, enjoying art and making memories with those around us! Not trying to pull the card that would sell for the most money!!
@user-tb9gq4mw2c that can be said about anything, video games, board games, books, movies and more. I feel like its only a problem if the whole community becomes money focused.
@ it wont be purely money focus the pokemon tcg is and will always be around the game itself. Thats what separates it from video games or other forms of physical objects Would it be bad for pokemon company if its purely money focused not really it is a business for them to get as much from there fans.
@@user-tb9gq4mw2c it just makes it bad for the fans, not so much the company, which is fair because the point of a company is to get money, so the company is doing well because people are buying their product
I didn’t think you’d make a take like this, but it’s good that you did. It’s very true that so much of the TCG is about profit and trying to make bank with random cards (like with stuff like the Persian and the Duskull from SF rn), and influencers are a big reason why. Pokemon cards were never about profit, and ideally should never be about it, and the new trend of influencers leaning into that has definitely been a net negative for that front. And while investors and scalpers are both definitely bad, you’re right that one of the main reasons for these “floodgates” being opened is for people like those influencers, so talking about their influence is really good. Hopefully, one day that wave of profit will at least calm down, and we won’t have every single new product being treated like it’s the new GameStop stock. Good video, and thank you for making a point like this. Hopefully the PTCG will become more stable soon
People will complain about there not being enough Pokemon Cards, then scoop up every TCG product they see in stock, and then act surprised why there are no cards. Those types of people are a huge part of this problem.
So crazy thing. Scalpers actually affect local card shops here in my area. Prismatic evolutions only gave my locals 2 ETBs and 3 boxes of booster packs. So the store agreed to use them as prizing. First place won the chance to buy the ETB at 50 dollars. The retail price, then there was a raffle to win the chance to buy the ETB at 50. I bought the cards and saw their value at 120 dollars. I sold it to my shop for store credit. My friend bought an ETB at a different store at 120 dollars. I gave him my condolences because he got scalped for the ETB. And I don’t know if he got luckily like I did. Not sure if he even broke even. Scalpers are the worst and I haven’t bought any new packs since
as a huge fan of the trainers specifically and a total tcg hobbyist I am sooo worried for journey together’s English release… really praying I can grab the binder set at least
The only solution Pokémon can implement is a print-to-preorder sales model on main expansions. NOT print-to-order, only print-to-preorder, and NOT special expansions, only main expansions. Just as a quick example, take Scarlet and Violet; the main expansions would be S&V Base, Paldea Evolved, Obsidian Flames, Paradox Rift, Temporal Forces, Twilight Masquerade, Stellar Crown, Surging Sparks, and (coming soon) Journey Together, while the special expansions are 151, Paldean Fates, Shrouded Fable, and Prismatic Evolutions (The best way to tell if a set is a main expansion is to check if a booster box can be ordered for the set). Transitioning to print-to-preorder, TPCi would get thousands of preorders on booster boxes, and it would likely take a very long time to print them all. However, anyone who wants the cards that badly will have the opportunity to at least get packs at a reasonable price. This would drop the prices of sets which, for all intents and purposes, SHOULD be cheaper, and allow for new fans to jump into collecting. Similarly, special expansions would not get this same luxury, to allow for more hardcore fans and collectors (and, unfortunately, scalpers) to have their fun. But just to reiterate, yes it's the Pokémon UA-camrs that have created this mess. Stop putting price tags next to cards as you pull them; you're influencing children to treat Pokémon like gambling, and you're giving gamblers a new method to satiate their addictions. Hell, with the amount of parallels to gambling presented by these UA-camrs, your content should be age-restricted similarly to people posting videos of themselves at a roulette table or playing blackjack. And it's this fact alone that should really disgust most people; this is a hobby, stop treating it like an investment.
Solid point about the marketing hype from creators, but there is something else going one recently. For background I’m from the uk, I’ve never seen adverts on tv or out in the world, not even for 151. But since surging sparks I’ve started seeing billboards, walls of lifts, and larger displays within stores. It was even such a noticable change that my mum noticed it when we were out for a meal
This was exactly my thought process when the Pokerev video dropped. Some content creators even put thr PSA 10 price up just to make the price point seem even higher.
This is my first time encountering you, and this was a lovely watch. I like your position and thoughts on the matter. I don't buy Pokemon cards currently, but I'm a long-time card gamer and started on playing card games with Pokemon Base Set.
Hey, just wanted to say that I really appreciate you saying what needed to be said and not shifting blame or tip-towing around the "influencer" factor. This is absolutely a problem of their own making. For years, all it's ever been about it is opening 100+ packs for "LE EPIC RARE PULL!" and when they do, "CHA-CHING!!!" So yeah, no shit that when hundreds of millions of people see that, they get it in their heads that "hey, if he could get rich by opening card packs, so could I!"
This is a video that was needed to be made, I hope this video makes waves and helps people and general content creators open there eyes to the product they’re promoting in a monetary way being a huge problem. We also gotta talk about bot usage and how websites really need to take a step to stop bots mass buying products before we can get them.
Watching the majority of Pokemon UA-cam videos just feels like watching gambling. Skip the bulk, gawk at the big cards. When I watch a Foafy video, it’s like a york peppermint patty. Fresh every time. Bro is loving and appreciative of all cards, expensive and cheap🙏
* hope I can get your perspective on this* I used to have binders full of these cards back in the day, but unfortunately cannot find them. I’m currently 36 years old and have two young children, my oldest is nearly 1 and a half years old. Was at target last night and saw a lot of excitement and a line had formed for the new packs coming out. Really reignited my curiosity and I was surprised how there is still energy for Pokémon cards. Went down the rabbit hole last night and it just seems like everybody is up-charging and scalping them on secondhand sites. I got the itch to get back in and start a collection for my son and I. But it almost seems like it’s no longer about the cards and it’s just a money making game. Another weird thing that I realized is I have an actual job now and the idea of having a card that was worth say $40 back then seemed amazing. But something worth $40 right now just doesn’t seem to hold the same weight. Conflicted. **subbed 😎**
I started my collection again from scratch and my only goal is to complete the „Pokédex“ - means one example for every number. Of course I am attracted to holos and full arts and if I get one, its a really nice bonus. But that’s not the goal. So I barely buy booster packs but look on flea markets for the Pokémon that are missing in my collection. I am not in a rush with this, it’s a journey and I can highly recommend it.
Honestly the community brought it on themselves and absolutely deserves everything that's happening. Supply WAS fixed for Scarlet and Violet year one. Boxes were cheap, available, and the hits were plentiful (up to two SIR's per box). And was the community grateful? No. They complained hits were "too easy" and that there was "no value" and chased older Sword and Shield sets instead (that they lobbied the SAME complaints against). What did anybody expect Pokemon to do as a reactive, profit engine? They dialed back production and made hits harder. And here we are, wondering who kicked the goal and not bothering to look down.
this is why I really like dpm , I feel like his set completion videos are a really good example of what card collecting can look like when not focusing purely on money
Absolutely agree with your take. It also rubs me the wrong way when I see the big popular poketubers explaining the current problem with the hobby. They mention everything from Scalpers, to the Pokemon Company under-supplying, to Distributors holding onto product, to more Local Game Stores wanting a piece of the Pokemon pie contributing to lesser allocations- All that but they don't mention themselves. I am not saying its 100% their fault or mostly their fault, but the way they frame their content is definitely a part of the equation. There is no 1 bad guy in the problem, everyone has a part to play in the absolute insanity that's overrun the hobby.
Good video. I think it was pretty well said Glad to see someone bring up the weird focus/fascination with the monetary value of every pack of cards they open. I do hope that people can join a different way to market their card opening videos outside of that. Because I do agree with you that has kind of sensationalized the act of opening cards in a way that makes it feel like I'm watching people do scratch offs
I'm finding some issues that are making the space not so ghreat. I'm glad you're highlighting some of the issues I have and making the point about people injecting money into every aspect, but it's also kind of rich coming from a guy sat there with a Pikachu SIr and Base Zard. Are they genuine favourites or based on value? Here are some things I've noticed in the hobby; 1. With so many sets a year, none really get the time to sit and percolate. 2. The barrage of sets means printing is often done months in advance, not leaving room to publish sets to demand. 3. The reality is that TPCI doesn't need to print more. If the projected number of sales is met, then a set is profitable, and on to the next one. 4. The hobby has become a space for rampant consumption beyond reasonable measures, and when combined with worsening pull rates, it's perfect for TPCI. 5. It's easier to blame scalpers, hoarders, rip/shippers, and greedy UA-cam types. While they are partially responsible, the situation is a culmination of factors, and most leave TPCI with no real need to do things because they profit off each release.
i only recently wanted to start collecting but oh my god my jaw slowly dropping as i realized how expensive it is and how almost every interesting set was sold out and had double the price on ebay
I believe the blame is 100% on the influencers and the scalpers with the influencers not wanting to shine the light on their hypocrisy and am glad to see someone finally shine some light on it. Having these big clickbait thumbnails focusing 100% on the monetary value and in the video showing the price for every card just adds to the problem of what they are buying to profit off of costing more and then complaining that they have to spend more for it. Like the biggest channel, Pokerev, does this exact same thing focusing on the money with big money in the thumbnail then complains when the product is going short.
The problem with the money flashes is that it is unfortunately a primary aspect of the UA-cam algorithm… It’s not only that subconscious tool, but also a tool for UA-cam success. And you’re right when I’m some cases it’s fine, but I agree in that the money flashes is not a favored option.
I don't deny that influencers had a part in Prismatic Evolutions being sold out, but I think there are multiple factors involved. One of the factors that I don't see a lot of people talking about is that this set is attractive to both players and collectors. Most sets are attractive to one group or the other, but not usually both. The collectors want that crazy Umbreon and other Eevelutions. There are a ton of other cards that are great for players. In your unboxing video, you got a bunch of Dreepys, Drackoaks, Duskulls, Dusclops, Budews, rescue boards, and a Prime Catcher. Those are all very important cards in the current competitive meta. I would argue that Budew is the most important card in the game right now. So, since both groups want the set, it gets sold out fast.
I don't usually make rant videos...but this problem (scalping) made me make my first rant video (on pokemon scalping crushing the supply of prismatic evo)
I am brand new to this hobby. I have been a Pokémon fan my whole life due to the anime and games but never collected the cards. I am getting into it now because I’ve been placing tcg pocket and it seems so fun. All I want to do is go to the store and buy a couple of packs to open. But there is nothing😢
I agree 100%, just a few people care about the cards and the art, for most of buyers cards are an investment or gambling. The worst part is that we are showing this behaviour to kids and they are starting to treat cards the same way.
I re-entered the hobby in the beginning of last year due to my niece getting an interest in pokemon and of course pokemon cards. I quit because I didnt have anyone to talk to or bond over pokemon with, so I wanted to instead give her that opportunity, and one way was through opening one pack each whenever we got togheter. But that is almost impossible now since there are very few single packs of almost any recent series available (live in a European country where pokemon have never really been a big deal). I feel so bad for people of all ages not having an equal accessibility to the otherwise wonderful hobby.
As a casual collector I really hate that getting products is incredibly difficult, near impossible unless I pay double the price or preorder right away (in which case I'm not given time to think about how much I really want.)
about the printing stuff, it's been the 4th year in a row where they broke their record of biggest increase in printing capacity. in the last 1/2 years, they've printed more than half of the cards ever printed. It's true that they're "underprinting" but that's because the increase in demande is much faster than the increase in production (and nobody knows how long it'll go, maybe forever, maybe it'll die in a few years, so they're understandably scared of going all out and x10ing the production to follow the demand)
The problem is one word....distribution. distributors are realizing they can sell it for double msrp and just canceling allocations and increasing the price.
I think its such a shame that all people talk about within the hobby is money, value and investments. Some of my favourite cards are either worthless, or completely inaccessible because of how insanely expensive they are.
THANK YOU. Nobody talks about this. Why are all the best looking cards the most expensive?
@@RandomDude-Z840Demand fails to meet supply
true but the cards that look cool to me being cheap means i can buy them easily
i like my cards, and it’s fun to know what they’re worth!! but it makes me really upset when people do it to the extent of a pseudo stock market. i have a handful of cards that are worth about 50 each, and i treasure them, i’ll never sell
@@Dowonutzi agree with this but it gets pretty damn hard once you want a baby pokemon
One of the reasons why I love watching your Pokémon card unboxings is that you don’t show the monetary value of each card. You appreciate every single card shown & the art it has, whether it’s a common, rare, full art or special edition/legendary. It’s a refreshing thing to see. Plus, your commentary while opening boxes/reactions to certain cards makes it a lot of fun! Thanks to your channel, I’ve gotten back to collecting Pokémon cards & have been loving it since! Keep up the great work, Foafy!
Thats why I only watch 2009 era openings - no money, no excess, no fame, just people opening cards to see pull rates.
What about playing the card game?
Me too, I always keep EX's, Holos, Reversals, Full Art, etcetera in my binder
Really, really good video. It really rubbed me the wrong way seeing channels that consistently post ludicrous pack openings, go on and on about how you need to invest in XYZ cards before its too late, and so on, were posting vids saying "the hobby is RUINED right now!!" Like its not all their fault, but when you're making videos hyping up every little release and every possible card, do you expect your videos to NOT have adverse effects on availability? It seems insanely irresponsible on their parts, or they just dgaf lol.
This.
Of course they don't give a fuck, they don't get paid to give a fuck about little Timmy who got straight As on his report card and can't get the pokemon cards he was promised by his parents because some basement dwelling assholes who haven't seen what a shower looks like in 20 years wants to make a quick buck.
Yugioh tried to imitate this, I believe that fizzled out pretty quickly, there was a channel about investing in Yugioh for awhile though.
SO TRUE THEYRE THE ONES BUYING LIKE 5 BOOSTER BOXES FOR THE NEW SET
No silly, xyz cards are Yugioh
I work at Target, and the week that Prismatic Eeveelutions released, we got calls and people asking what felt like every 30 minutes to an hour. We HAD to tell them they were all sold out. I understand buying just a set or two, but buying everything in stock that we have is insane, even for a collector like me. I also remember the Shining Fates release too. I feel bad for people who genuinely want to get the cards in this set, and hope Pokemon releases new stock for these people.
Our store had a one per person per day limit
My target stopped answering lol
TPCI is intentionally creating artificial scarcity because TPCI doesn't care who gets the packs/boxes as long as they got paid for and they really just want a small handful of people to benefit from the game and intentionally make the game inaccessible for everyone else. Scummy practice, I know, but as long as there aren't any legal interventions chances of anything changing is literally zero.
Even ic TPCI prints more stocks at full speed, as long as one scalper exists, the shortage problem will continue well beyond decades. That's how markets have always worked.
The monetary aspect appearing in the videos is what ticks me off. Charizard isn't valued as a Pokemon anymore. Instead people just see it as money. No real appreciation about card art work, instead losing their marbles over having pulled a Charizard and immediately checking it for damages, off centers etc. It's not about catching 'em all, it feels like people want to rather "grade 'em all"..
My entire big Midwest city isn’t even stocking these sets out of concern for public safety. This has gotten so out of hand, the general public has quite literally no chance of even stumbling onto these cards here.
As another Midwest city resident, it has been really annoying not seeing any new sets, but the one day I saw Prismatic at a vintage game store, the prices were scaled up the wtf
I haven't seen any statements about public safety, we just don't get any new releases
Pokemon adores this. They've acknowledged the issue, "tried" to combat it, know how people are bypassing it, and have done NOTHING.
People are illegally registering their home addresses as card stores to order directly from TPCI and it's been this way unmitigated for years. People are poaching from stores by pretending to be stores, and Pokemon are making BANK every time. That's why there were SO MANY Charizards in Sword and Shield
That does not make sense. If they wanted to make the max amount of money, why would they not just print more cards. Or increase the price of the cards/release more expensive special product. Also, if this issue with home addresses were actually as prevalent as you say, and has been going on for years, why would we see issues only now with these hyped sets?
@@leotaku5216isnt the reason for high prices is the scarcity?
@@leotaku5216Why don't we just print more money.
People are botting them directly and taking up slots intended for retail stores. They ARE printing a ton of it.
Also this is NOT the first time. Champion's Path was like this and a few other sets in Sword/Shield
@@leotaku5216 scarcity IS the value
As someone who’s been making opening videos for a long time now I like your point about the values being on screen subconsciously affecting the perception of other cards. I admit I do discuss value sometimes and show it on screen for pulls but I think I’m going to stop after watching this. I much prefer talking about my favorite art and which card features the fattest pokemon with my audience. Good video man.
Good on you, Anthony. I'd love to hear more about your opinions on card art, your favorite Pokemon or arts in the sets, and of course about the chubsters.
*stares at Logan Paul for no reason*
Pokemon Go too.
He started the whole problem!! The ones who are scalping did it AFTER he did the vintage opening and he did it to show off and of course he's "rich" which he doesn't deserve to be rich at all. He's the worst
@@chaudspieleryou definitely voted for Kamala
@@moonflowerpalace3872 far from that
@@notsure2688Nobody cares
I fairly recently got the Paldean Fates Shiny Tera Charizard card, and my friend was like “You’ve hit the JACKPOT, you could sell that for hundreds of dollars!” And I was like. “Why would I do that??? This is MY card.” I’m trying to collect a full Pokédex, I’m not in the hobby for the money. It’s mind-boggling to see how greedy people can get, and scalpers are the WORST of this type of person…
The thing is with the money you can get by sellikg the cards , you can buy essentials and invest it better than buy holding what is esseintally pretty cardboard. Although a collection is sentimental value so thats that
YES! Let people be happy with their rares without worrying about $. I pulled the SAR Raging Bolt EX on my birthday 6 months ago. Not selling or trading, just happy to have the awesome art.
The only real important part of the monetry side of the hobby is trading up for older cards - like say, getting 3 paldean fates zards in order to trade for a gold star vaporeon.
And then you’ve got situations where people are selling off their collections because they just don’t want the cards anymore. Ever since I downloaded Pokemon Tcg pocket, I don’t really see a use in keeping the physical cards I own anymore, especially considering how accessible TCG pocket is compared to the physical Tcg. I look forward to giving away my cards to someone who would actually use them for decks.
I mean your friend might have been suggesting you sell it and take the chance that you get another by using those funds to buy further boxes. Kind of like the Magikarp salesman except in this case, it is possible.
pokemon tgc is the peak of consumerism, Millons of dupes and cards in the market selling for 1 or 2 dollars, the massive waste of resources is the pillar of the market and the rarity of the special cards like ex and holos
The worst part is no one actually plays the game. I want to actually play but I can’t ever afford to build a deck because of these insane scalpers
Buy minimum rarity. And buy in singles. Pokemon, despite the issues with scalping is still the cheapest TCG to play right now aside from maybe one piece.
Yeah, like all the super rare full art cards makes actually playing the game way cheaper. The scalpers are chasing the rare cards, so the more common ones fill up the market and bring prices down. The mega rare cards being worth a billion dollars, yet not any better competitively, makes the commonor ones drop in value, mostly good for the people actually playing the game (bad for the people who want those fancy art cards)
The game is awful. To me its probably worse in terms of capitalism. Always rotating out, stores make you pay to play in tournaments (I dont want prizes I just want to play), and its not even a fun game.
@ I mean your opinion is your own but most games have rotating card sets, and Pokemon’s rotation is more lenient than most, with cards remaining in format for up to 3 years. I mean if you don’t like the game that’s your prerogative but it’s got a huge player base with huge support, and yeah places charge to enter tournaments??? That’s most games, you’re not gonna enter a tournament with usually $60+ in prize support for free???
And if you’re just there to play, tons of places do open play events. I can think of three stores near me that don’t even run tournaments they just have open play for free
I really wanna see people's collection of THEIR favorite cards. Not their most expensive or their most most valuable cards, but the ones they love collecting for whatever PERSONAL reason. I want to see someone's collection of oddish cards just because the Lil guy is their favorite, someone's collection or error cards, someone's collection of water pokémon that are completely under water in the art. My favorite part about my collection is my sleeping pokémon cards collection and I get very happy whenever I find another card to add to it. Let's bring back actually having passion for your hobbies again and doing them for one's own enjoyment
Hello, I am Cal Zone and this is the oddish army.
I agree! I’m collecting all Suicune cards and I am SO CLOSE to completing it!
So I like the art of a lot of XY sets, find them exciting, there is an XY Torchic and Bunnelby that are THE BOMB, and yet people like to dunk on Steam Seige which HAS shiny Pokemon and card art where the types DIVIDE. Like Shiny Azurmaill outside the art is half pink and half blue, why do folks despise that?
i love collecting cards of my favorite pokemon! valuable cards are cool and all but i still love my 2 cent cards of my favs.
I collect silly little guys and cute/unique normal card arts. It's so fun to dig through bulks!
I feel like with Pokemon Company announcing the year of Eevee this year, it really made people get crazy for the Prismatic Evolutions cause Eevee was front and center on that set
The fact that money is the main point in a lot of these pokemon card openings is why I can't even really get into watch content relating to opening cards anymore. I have not seen a person uploading a video about pokemon cards that has not at least implied that they want a card because it is valuable or "it is an investment" in what feels like years. There are some cards with really sick art that would struggle to sell for even $5 about a few months back and now they are suddenly nearly $30.
You might enjoy SlantedGaming's shorts. His videos highlight the beautiful and clever art of the cards and the only times he mentions a card's price is when he really loves one and can't have it because it's too expensive (which is very relatable lol)
We've seen that pretty recently - the exact same thing. During "Pikachu and VanGogh collaboration" and then 151 scalping. The Pika-Gogh situation was so disgusting (lots of manchildren stampeding in the Van Gogh museum to get multiples of free cards) that I even completely left scarlet/violet collecting.
This life is already full of commerce and deception to waste your hobby money on such things.
I've always seen scalpers since I collect older cards. These "buyups" and "pricehikes" are common grifts.
@@creatingvideostobreakmyspe6049 It was never so bad as during sw/sh-s/v. Current popular "investors' trend is way more terrible.
Personally I like Rev's content where he has a certain budget and he sells the cards he buys with that budget and buys cards until he has none. It might just be the one video from a little while ago, but I think it paints a pretty good picture of how buying cards will really go. In the specific video im talking about, he starts with 400$ of packs. He pulls 54$ worth of cards. He then sells those cards back to the person he bought the 400$ of packs from. Rinse and repeat until he has no more money. It paints a realistic picture of what will happen if you are looking simply for monetary value in cards. You need passion for the cards, and not the money, to truly enjoy ripping packs. For those curious the video is titled "I Sold All My Rare Pokemon Cards" by PokeRev.
I like that he doesn’t clear out shelves when he goes to target and stuff, even if it’s Prismatic-because he knows he doesn’t need to!
As a new casual collector, it's both such a fascinating and worst time to join LOL. I'm happy that a majority of cards I like are not "valuable" to others, but it still bothers me how crazy the prices can get for popular/sought after cards.
I'm surprised there still isn't a limit per customer for some of the retail stores. Watching the Costco videos was absolutely embarrassing to watch seeing grown men fight over these boxes...I'm glad some are doing it now, but I definitely purchasing limits, online queues, proper preorders, in store pick ups, etc. can somewhat make this issue better.
I work as asset protection for walmart and I can tell, at least from a retailers perspective, that pokemon "not printing enough" isn't the biggest issue. How we sell the products (at least in walmart idk about other retailers) isnt through the company itself, but through a third party vendor that brings the product in and displays it on our shelves. My part of the process is dealing with stolen or damaged products.
The issue with pokemon cards in particular is that (once again probably only a walmart thing) is that when a customer pays for it, most of the profits are going to the third party vendor that is paying us to use our store shelves basically. I cannot recall how many boxes of the 151 collection as well as other modern ones came back to me with stolen or damaged cards is crazy. But because the company doesn't make profit off of it, sadly those ripped open packages have to be either sent back to the vendor or out right thrown away. Idk how long surging sparks or prismatic evolutions have been out, but I have yet to have seen a single package come back to me stolen. What that tells me is we are either selling them so fast they don't have a long enough shelf life to even encourage theft, or that the vendor is simply not displaying enough product.
I stopped caring about the physical tcg after about shining fates but its really crazy to be seeing these sets become armageddon for the average consumer, and that the price hikes are making them harder to afford especially with people who will just nab em off the shelves and resell for 3 to 5 times the original retailers price.
And honestly from a consumer perspective its ridiculous that something as big as pokemon needs third parties to sell to these big companies, and how to get these cards is just waste gas and miles going to these superstores because no one has any idea when the cards go on the shelf
I'm wondering if the distributors are holding some of these products back so they can repackage them as the chase cards in the holiday mystery packs this year.
I find it sad that its even hard for CHILDREN to open packs because of scalpers
Edit: 5:30 nope your right pokemon card ads never show up on UA-cam unless you go to thier channel
i get constant card ads
Umm idk if you collected cards in 2014 but kids don’t exactly have jobs and Obama was on his second term devaluing the US dollar and undoing 60 years of anti racism handed to us by MLKJr
Great to see more creators publicising this issue. As someone who enjoys the cards for a mixture of childhood nostalgia & admiration of the modern artwork designs, I've always appreciated how you refrain from showing monetary value when opening packs and don't exaggurate your reactions when finding a rare card.
It's so weird seeing the difference between the communities within Magic the Gathering (another card game) and Pokemon. I've collected pokemon cards since I was a child, just art i like and mostly shinies. I never learned to play Pokemon, but I do play Magic.
Both communities show the monetary value of the cards but in Magic, the community around pricing is very different. Like I've never seen ppl rushing to shelves for popular releases. Maybe because cards are priced not only by popularity but actual usefulness.. While Pokemon like Charizard and Umbreon are priced in the thousands only because everyone likes those pokemon. Aka Magic prices can be crazy but it's usually for "real reasons." The card is amazing in any deck, its vintage, or serialized, etc. But Pokemon prices are really set by the community just because of popularity and just because.. It's just become very greedy? (Yes i know vintage, useful, rare pokemon cards exist and im not taling about those. Im not talking about the recent Umbreon card already going for an absurd amount for example)
My local comic shop had to announce they can’t participate in Pokemon Day because they can’t get stock.
as a creator, another subtle problem I see is that pokemon content on yt just doesn't earn as much ad revenue than if you start talking about "investments" and "money. I feel like that has an effect on the content that creators draft up and it gets reflected in the videos that get made.
Pokerev is a reseller, so I'm sure he has insight but I mean, also, ya know. I dunno, I'm glad he spoke up for the "normies" like me, but it's weird to say that but have his actions say otherwise? His mystery packs are $60 for 5 booster packs. C'mon
Exactly. No need to sanctify this guy for feigning concern over an issue he is directly responsible for. I don't buy it.
Thank you for really thinking critically and speaking your truth Foafy! And thanks for standing up for us average collectors :')
So how will this affect Jerkmate servers?
😢
Back open homie happy slappin!
I went into a store to see a SINGLE pack of Prismatic for $30 CAD 😭
That might not even be legal for retail
Ive seen those pokeballs with 3 packs on them for 100 dolars (in my country currency) and i was like dude its just 3 packs😭
I am super sad prismatic evolutions was caught up in this. I wanted to buy some to open just to hunt a sylveon for myself. Its my favorite eeveelution AND Pokemon overall after all!!!! But seeing the card is like 200-300 dollars, and sets are in the THOUSANDS to buy packs, its so frustrating as someone who just wants a cool ass card of their fave!!!!!
Me too! I was so excited about prismatic evolutions and was shocked to see the prices when I tried to buy a tin (not to mention everything else was sold out!) Being an eevelution fan is torture sometimes 😢
Me with Umbreon😭😭😭 its consistently been my favourite pokemon for a decade and i wanted to make a deck around the EX or even just get the normal one
5:30 the only ad for Pokémon cards I’ve ever seen wasn’t even the actual card game, it’s pokemon TCGP that or a whatnot ad that just so happens to be pokemon
Something I'd love to see from pokemon pack and box opening channels came from my question: "What do they do with all their bulk? Their commons, uncommons, and cheap rares?"
So I'd love to see these channels partner up with game stores, where their viewers can buy singles, and ship all that excess product off to a store from which their viewers can *buy those cards* without having to find vanishingly small amounts of sealed product left on shelves.
When u sit there opening over 720 packs of prismatic, you cannot sit there and complain about investors buying up all the product. If he cared he would give away his entire position of prismatic instead of bitch about it. He has only given away a very small amount.
and yet, no one plays the actual card game.
I know. It's probably the best game to play competitively if you are on a budget. At least compared to the big three card games. Even the prize pool for regionals and championship increased last year. Heck you get a free pack of pokemon cards just for playing for free at locals and those have some big money cards in them too if not good playable cards.
I personally am having a blast learning the card game. I both collect and play the game and its super cool to be ripping packs and see some regular common and uncommon cards most creators skip over that actually have a ton of value in the TCG
Hello! I play the card game, getting cards is not a problem, everyone is over-reacting!
I play the card game with my family
@@Scilenze12 years of playing here, just buy the singles, far far cheaper!
My husband recently went through his whole collection (he has cards from the 90s up until 2014) and took a bunch of them and put em in a binder to trade with people. He's gotten a lot of folks offering to pay for the cards inside, but he says no it's trading only.
We've had a lot of people excited to trade and doing very fair trades too. It reminds people of the simpler days when we were all just excited about the cards and not thinking of the monetary value of each one.
4:15 Funny that you mention that I just saw One of the many things on my list to pick up a booster box on Amazon and to be honestly, it was my first one. it also the one I can afford, it was called paradox rift.
How much was it? Those were like $80-$100 all of last year
@ mine was around $150
@ 💀💀💀
@@MarioCartRacer04booster boxes in Canada where I live are about $220+ closer to 300 for most sets it's rediculous. I found a good deal on pokeball tin cases and bought 2 cases because it was still cheaper then buying a single booster box for the same amount of packs.
@@zoarsnowpaw3549 I just wouldn’t buy anything to rip at this point in time. Unless you can find good deals, ripping booster boxes at their current prices is just burning money
Back when I started making content I put the price of the cards I pulled in videos to give people an idea of what that card was worth if they wanted to pick it up for themselves. Back then prices didn’t shift much so it stayed around that price for a long time. A few weeks back I came to the same realization that the price really doesn’t stay that way and I just kept doing it cause it was something I had always done. I’m not a big channel or anything like that but I don’t want to help give into this over inflated hype so I’ve started take the prices out of all of my long form videos (doing the same with my shorts when I get through the stuff I’ve already had done). I make content for the joy of collecting and I like sharing that with people! I honestly couldn’t care about the price of a card.
Its so sad that this is happening when im kinda having a personal relove of pokemon cards. I kinda just want to collect again. Prismatic Evolution was my hype set solely because i love eevee. Hell i was so excited that for the first time since Astrial radiance that ive been wanting a ETB. I only buy those for pokemon i love, literally i only ever got 2 because it had Eevee and darkrai on them. It reminds me of the other day. I checked my local Walmart for a sec and say a guy doing the same. We chatted for a minute over the new set. He was just looking for the poster box set and i wanted the binder box set. Its been so disheartening to see this happening again when i personally just like buy a few packs to bring joy in my life
As someone who grew up with the Pokemon community (Games, Anime, and light TCG) like Jwittz, NatewantstoBattle, TheDex discovering the TCG community feels so slimy and hallow. Like the more I find out about stuff like "Investors" and the entire Rip and Ship space, it makes me realize the community is NEVER going to fix the shit it's in right now. Like think about it, most content creators tend to get items from distributors for likely the same price as LGS and Branded companies, so they likely aren't paying MSRP but actively shift the price based solely on how much it's worth now. Like at the moment a single pack from Surging Sparks from one of these Rip and Shippers is $8.50 per pack, these people could've paid extra, but there's also a chance they might've had them from the launch where they were $5 ish and now they're just getting more profit because "its a business".
The sad truth is most TCG community members aren't going to fix this issue, it's not a bug it's the intended feature they want this. Like people why would a Rip and Shipper ever want TCG to not be hard to find? That means people will be less likely to buy cards from them. Why would an investor not hype up and over insinuate the value of a new card it makes their assets grow in value dramatically. Hell even people like PokeRev have mystrey tcg packs you can buy that play on the hype people have for vintage packs and stuff like Evolving Skies, this entire community is designed to drive profit from the viewers and that's it. It would be like if Jwittz sold Pokemon games he made videos and hyped up their value, or if Matt Pat "invested" in Fnaf products then hyped it up to his audience. It just feels so hollow and unless we see a mass exodus from the profit focused members this is going to keep happening every 3-4 years.
It doesn't help that Pokemon sell only 10,000 master sets per set run. Unless they reprint. So special illustration rares only have 10,000 copies. which seems like a lot until you realize there are over 2 million people that collect pokemon cards. Meaning at minimum 0.005% of people will get a full master set. It gets worse because there are people that collect sealed products that might have a special illustration rare in them. Meaning someone trying to get a master set might not be able to because the card they need is in the sealed products.🤔
Just going to add something that happened a year ago. Pokemon co switched from lgs distribution to big company distribution (Walmart, Target, etc.) ps 75% Big company to 25% lgs. Because of this Pokemon lost their safe guard on cards. Because lgs would only sell little at a time while big companies put out all their stocks. Plus they would just sell any amount to a customer. look at what happened at Costco or shiny fates at Walmart. Pokemon co did this to themselves. Now the normal customers of Pokemon cards will suffer while the scalpers get richer. 😢
they should either reduce the sets sizes, or only release a set every quarter or so, (excluding the small sets) it extends the life of each generation (giving the games more time to be made *cough* *cough*)
and makes it easier to not only reprint/make enough cards, but also makes it more consumer-friendly as there's not a rush to get everything before a new set steamrolls in.
making them less often could also mean sets are slightly bigger (more art cards are always welcome)
but also laws against scalping is definitley important
You’re forgetting that Pokemon is a game first and foremost. The TCG is built from the ground up as a game. Releasing a set quarterly would absolutely destroy the competitive scene and stagnate the meta in an atrocious way
@@lukasmccartney2860 that is true, i hadn't considered that the constant card releases change up the tcg, then printing a ton more is a good alternative, especially if scalpers refuse to die down
In the uk i think we are introducing laws to tax scalpers and flippers (if you sell over a certain amount of things or price you are considered a business) . My dad was complaining about it 😂
I’m a collector that’s in it for the cards and the fact that I love Pokémon… I’m the guy with a PSA 10 Moonbreon that will probably never sell it because I just love Pokémon that much, it’s not about money but…it’s been absolutely ruined for me… when you add the pull rates with how I can’t even get any cards literally anywhere it’s just become a burden more than a fun hobby I got into years ago…. I hate scalpers, with a passion, I’m so sick of 1 guy buying everything and I’m just stuck either paying outrageous prices or having to make it a job to go to every store everyday in the hopes I find literally anything…. I can’t even talk about it with my friends anymore cause we’re all just so sick of the state it’s in… I’m sorry but I’m just about done with it and I’ve loved it for a long time… f.uck you scalpers
FINALLY!! SOMEBODY HAS SAID IT!! MASSIVE RESPECT TO YOU, Footofaferret! 🙌
I've been waiting for someone to realize this and spread the word, but with the countless videos of youtubers explaining the scalper situation deflecting all the blame to the company not printing enough cards, they never took part of the blame in all this. They only needed to look in the mirror.
This problem was so obvious from the start. If people wouldn't stop talking about the value of the cards, then the scalpers (and potential new ones) wouldn't even have the idea of making money out of the tcg in the first place.
Collectors need to be back in the forefront of the hobby, not these investors. And hopefully, your video reaches a lot of people so they could realize how money ruins the hobby.
What makes me the saddest about all this is seeing so many children getting caught up in this "investment" approach to colleting cards, usually by their own parents. I've met 6 year olds who are only interested in the cards for the money and not for the Pokémon themselves.
I'm also very disappointed that most children I see with cards have no interest in learning how to play the game. Isn't that the whole point of a TCG? If you're not playing, it's just TC, no G.
one of my biggest issues with the hobby, as someone who is getting into the tcg, is that the focus is less on the game and collecting, but everything is about the financial value of the cards.
I roll my eyes every time a price is mentioned during a card opening. It's annoying as hell. Are you passionate about the game and Pokemon as a whole or are you just into gambling and using TCG as an outlet?
The only cards I have were because in my country, a company that sells "Stuffed Croassants" with a toy, they did a promotion with Pokemon and they put cards in the packages.
Yoooo you are talking about vuala It was so fun to collect the cards that way I think I only miss one or two from that set and one of the funniest thing that happened to my was that a package has 3 Lapras and 2 have been damage because they put the cards in the edge of the box but it was funny seeing those wrinkly Lapras cards
Do the cards smell like croissants?
@@TheChocoboKid the plastic wrap yes, the cards just smell like cards
@@toonorochi indeed, same, I need just 2 to get all, Ónix and Lapras
@@jazz7630 I think I still have some extra back in my house in CDMX. Sadly I currently working in Jalisco and I don't know when I will return
9:20 just recently I watched this random small youtuber with no edits opening just the "Scarlet & Violet Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box" it was quite chill video where he did pulled a pretty full art without showing any money value, but I get your point
I have noticed that there are very few youtubers that don't show the monetary value of cards. I think I have only found one other than you. I collect pokemon cards because I like the artwork of the cards and am sad that there are so many that there is no chance I will be able to get a hold of unless I save a TON of money to buy them on the secondary market.
I've seen a few ads for Pokemon on UA-cam, but ironically more ads for Lorcana.
I do remember saying this in a video before, but: People are genuinely insane for Pokemon cards, like all logic out of the window for them. Been to a local card shop for around 3 years now, literally only two people work there and they're doing their damn best with demands. When 151 came out half of their stock got stolen by a damn delivery driver! Right under their noses! With Prismatic they're doing a one per customer - casual collectors, kids and usuals get first dibs on stuff. I remember going over to pick up my pre-order and the shop had been open for like 30 minutes, nearly half of the stock they had was already sold.
Literally the exact thing my first video was going to be about. Glad to see someone else can see the underlying issue.
Thank you for being honest about the role that Pokémon UA-camrs play in this madness. There’s also this new wave of investor bro culture that has always had a grip on the Pokémon market but seems to have really dug its claws in this year. These new consumers don’t enjoy anything but the chance at making money. To them everything has to be some sort of “investment” but they’re either too broke or too dumb (or too rich to care) to actually invest in less volatile assets like real estate or the stock market. Instead these fools are embarrassing themselves buying out happy meals and getting up at 6 am to beat the 6 year olds at target in order to make $100 on Facebook marketplace.
I'm in the middle of writing a script on this for an upcoming video, and then I see your vid which touches on most of what I'm writing lol. I have a similar take. Nicely done!
(After watching the whole vid) Where we vastly differ is how you end the video. I go in a completely different direction. I'll see if I can get ahold of you somehow as I've reached out to many content creators I'm in touch with about using clips from their vids (I'm not making a drama vid BTW), and their thoughts on my premise, which, again, is similar to yours, but also very different in the end.
as a person in kuwait we still havent gotten prismatic NONE in big or small and we have only RESENTLY Have gotten surging sparks in kuwait and big shot stores are out
What sucks about this is that there is going to most likely be an even bigger boom than this one.
I say that because in a few years Pokemon is gonna have its own themed land and attractions at Universal Studios Florida thanks to the Nintendo agreement. If Mario and even DK become much more popular thanks their own individual lands, Pokemon is gonna be on the next level.
Also for those wondering it’s been heavily rumored for years that Pokemon would be replacing The Simpsons Land (Universal Studios Florida) and The Amazing Spider-Man Ride (Universal Studios Japan). But this has basically been teased thanks to not only Pokemon already having a moderate role in Japan, but also a Pokeball Firecracker was released in Florida around late last year.
One reason the cards are getting so big again that I don't really see too many youtubers talking about is TCG Pocket. It got SO many people interested in buying the cards again. I thought I was just going to stick to Pocket since I knew getting into the real TCG would be an expensive endeavor, BUT after seeing one of my streamer friends open a booster box of Surging Sparks, I thought, "huh, that seems fun", so it got me back into the real thing, lol. And opening real cards compared to TCG Pocket just feels better with the cards in your hands. It's gonna be a pretty hard year trying to find product, but hopefully things will calm down enough for fans and hobbyists to be able to find things at retail soon without having to worry.
To those wanting a more 'pure' opening experience without money being a huge part, a lot of ASMR youtubers that do openings are usually like that.
I work at an LGS, and we have been lamenting for weeks the shift in tone for Pokemon fans. The people buying the product don't know any of the names, and some still say "Pokemans", talking about how they can't wait gor 5 years when their product raises in value.
I have been a fan since the beginning, and still am, so obviously this hits harder for me, but even sports nuts are coming in, and these were the same guys that bullied us for being nerds back in the day now parousing the scene and clearing out any chance normal fans have at enjoying the product.
What a mess
As someone who loves pokemon and collects the cards the situation is pretty unfornate im sure if i remember right this isnt the first issue theyve gone through i think they had the same issue yrs ago with pokemon mcdonalds cards my shops have no packs available since then this started happening and i feel bad that anyone wasnt able to get one during christmas holiday or their kids birthday my walmart for example has been hit hard during the christmas holiday all of the pokemon cards were gone way before weeks before christmas its more saddening that i was planning to buy a blister pack but couldnt because everything was gone im hoping evuntally theyll come back soon
Really well thought out video, you raise great points but I feel like showing off the card‘s prices will be something we cant move on from because it makes the gambling more enticing.
I also struggle a bit with calling collecting stuff a hobby because in the end youre just buying stuff and maybe putting it on display, but many seem to not even care about actually playing the game, which would be more fit for a hobby.
Just found you through this video, automatic sub, love this video!!! Keep it up!! 💙
Can we also maybe talk about the biggest problem of all: Grading? Not only does it add to even more plastic waste, but it adds another layer of gambling and wasting money that makes everybody focus only on centering, whitening and all the little blemishes when they open cards, which again ties back to just monetary value. I'm SO over it. It's a pain when you just want to buy a vintage card for your binder and everything is graded, too.
yeah this is very interesting. i actually have some creators i watch who don’t usually focus on the monetary value - but specifically because they’re ASMR channels. you don’t wanna worry about how much a card is worth when you’re trying to sleep!
eta: i also care wayyyyy more about the art and even playability than the price myself, but i do still get excited about expensive cards. i definitely enjoy pokémon opening videos and influencers, but i do really wish there were more creators out there who were focused primarily on their favorites - collecting a certain pokémon, artist, etc. - rather than just the money. i have no hate to any creators! but i personally collect yuka morii, asako ito, and i want to collect rainbow rare cards. most people hate rainbow rares, but i adore them. i wish there was more focus on personal preferences instead of just the money. idk if any creators will even see this comment, but i really hope to see more of that type of video.
Just yesterday I saw someone else talking about it. They said with karmesin & purpur the vendors always had product at market prices for moths at market price and nobody wanted it. In the end they got messaged that Pokémon will reduce printing by 60-70%.
Its hart to believe for me that these numbers are actually that high but in general it makes sense for a company to do that. These sets were less interesting for the normal consumer but that changed and the demand grew back. Looking the the investor side of things it makes sense for them to step in and by sort after sets what worsens the situation more.
I can agree that pokémon influencer does play a role in this. They can specifically hype up packs and prices on new cards certainly don’t help but I’m not sure how big of a influence the prices have because this is nothing new to Pokémon.
The hobby is in shambles, can pokemon fans stop worrying about the money and just have simple fun like we used to? It should be about playing, enjoying art and making memories with those around us! Not trying to pull the card that would sell for the most money!!
Its no longer a hobby if you look at the vintage sets and see how much there worth youll know theres money to be made off of the hobby
@user-tb9gq4mw2c that can be said about anything, video games, board games, books, movies and more. I feel like its only a problem if the whole community becomes money focused.
@ it wont be purely money focus the pokemon tcg is and will always be around the game itself. Thats what separates it from video games or other forms of physical objects
Would it be bad for pokemon company if its purely money focused not really it is a business for them to get as much from there fans.
@@user-tb9gq4mw2c it just makes it bad for the fans, not so much the company, which is fair because the point of a company is to get money, so the company is doing well because people are buying their product
I didn’t think you’d make a take like this, but it’s good that you did. It’s very true that so much of the TCG is about profit and trying to make bank with random cards (like with stuff like the Persian and the Duskull from SF rn), and influencers are a big reason why. Pokemon cards were never about profit, and ideally should never be about it, and the new trend of influencers leaning into that has definitely been a net negative for that front. And while investors and scalpers are both definitely bad, you’re right that one of the main reasons for these “floodgates” being opened is for people like those influencers, so talking about their influence is really good.
Hopefully, one day that wave of profit will at least calm down, and we won’t have every single new product being treated like it’s the new GameStop stock.
Good video, and thank you for making a point like this. Hopefully the PTCG will become more stable soon
People will complain about there not being enough Pokemon Cards, then scoop up every TCG product they see in stock, and then act surprised why there are no cards.
Those types of people are a huge part of this problem.
So crazy thing. Scalpers actually affect local card shops here in my area. Prismatic evolutions only gave my locals 2 ETBs and 3 boxes of booster packs. So the store agreed to use them as prizing. First place won the chance to buy the ETB at 50 dollars. The retail price, then there was a raffle to win the chance to buy the ETB at 50. I bought the cards and saw their value at 120 dollars. I sold it to my shop for store credit. My friend bought an ETB at a different store at 120 dollars. I gave him my condolences because he got scalped for the ETB. And I don’t know if he got luckily like I did. Not sure if he even broke even. Scalpers are the worst and I haven’t bought any new packs since
i hate how hard prismatic is to get since the eevees are my favorite pokemon
You and me both
I blame the Pokémon TCG Pocket App
That has nothing to do with it
as a huge fan of the trainers specifically and a total tcg hobbyist I am sooo worried for journey together’s English release… really praying I can grab the binder set at least
Doesn't pokerev resell pokemon packs😂
yup. he sells 6 packs for 70 dollars with 1 in 1000 chance of getting a base set 1st ed pack. Total scammer.
Thank you for talking about this, I’d love to see a channel solely focused on discussing the card arts for different sets.
The only solution Pokémon can implement is a print-to-preorder sales model on main expansions. NOT print-to-order, only print-to-preorder, and NOT special expansions, only main expansions. Just as a quick example, take Scarlet and Violet; the main expansions would be S&V Base, Paldea Evolved, Obsidian Flames, Paradox Rift, Temporal Forces, Twilight Masquerade, Stellar Crown, Surging Sparks, and (coming soon) Journey Together, while the special expansions are 151, Paldean Fates, Shrouded Fable, and Prismatic Evolutions (The best way to tell if a set is a main expansion is to check if a booster box can be ordered for the set).
Transitioning to print-to-preorder, TPCi would get thousands of preorders on booster boxes, and it would likely take a very long time to print them all. However, anyone who wants the cards that badly will have the opportunity to at least get packs at a reasonable price. This would drop the prices of sets which, for all intents and purposes, SHOULD be cheaper, and allow for new fans to jump into collecting. Similarly, special expansions would not get this same luxury, to allow for more hardcore fans and collectors (and, unfortunately, scalpers) to have their fun.
But just to reiterate, yes it's the Pokémon UA-camrs that have created this mess. Stop putting price tags next to cards as you pull them; you're influencing children to treat Pokémon like gambling, and you're giving gamblers a new method to satiate their addictions. Hell, with the amount of parallels to gambling presented by these UA-camrs, your content should be age-restricted similarly to people posting videos of themselves at a roulette table or playing blackjack. And it's this fact alone that should really disgust most people; this is a hobby, stop treating it like an investment.
Solid point about the marketing hype from creators, but there is something else going one recently. For background I’m from the uk, I’ve never seen adverts on tv or out in the world, not even for 151. But since surging sparks I’ve started seeing billboards, walls of lifts, and larger displays within stores. It was even such a noticable change that my mum noticed it when we were out for a meal
This was exactly my thought process when the Pokerev video dropped. Some content creators even put thr PSA 10 price up just to make the price point seem even higher.
I got back into pokemon cards in 2020 and I'm still shocked by how many people do this just for the money.
This is my first time encountering you, and this was a lovely watch. I like your position and thoughts on the matter. I don't buy Pokemon cards currently, but I'm a long-time card gamer and started on playing card games with Pokemon Base Set.
Hey, just wanted to say that I really appreciate you saying what needed to be said and not shifting blame or tip-towing around the "influencer" factor. This is absolutely a problem of their own making. For years, all it's ever been about it is opening 100+ packs for "LE EPIC RARE PULL!" and when they do, "CHA-CHING!!!" So yeah, no shit that when hundreds of millions of people see that, they get it in their heads that "hey, if he could get rich by opening card packs, so could I!"
This is a video that was needed to be made, I hope this video makes waves and helps people and general content creators open there eyes to the product they’re promoting in a monetary way being a huge problem. We also gotta talk about bot usage and how websites really need to take a step to stop bots mass buying products before we can get them.
Watching the majority of Pokemon UA-cam videos just feels like watching gambling. Skip the bulk, gawk at the big cards. When I watch a Foafy video, it’s like a york peppermint patty. Fresh every time. Bro is loving and appreciative of all cards, expensive and cheap🙏
Its crazy to me that the biggest issue with Pokemon TCG channels comes from maxmoefoe of all people
* hope I can get your perspective on this*
I used to have binders full of these cards back in the day, but unfortunately cannot find them. I’m currently 36 years old and have two young children, my oldest is nearly 1 and a half years old. Was at target last night and saw a lot of excitement and a line had formed for the new packs coming out. Really reignited my curiosity and I was surprised how there is still energy for Pokémon cards.
Went down the rabbit hole last night and it just seems like everybody is up-charging and scalping them on secondhand sites. I got the itch to get back in and start a collection for my son and I. But it almost seems like it’s no longer about the cards and it’s just a money making game. Another weird thing that I realized is I have an actual job now and the idea of having a card that was worth say $40 back then seemed amazing. But something worth $40 right now just doesn’t seem to hold the same weight.
Conflicted.
**subbed 😎**
I started my collection again from scratch and my only goal is to complete the „Pokédex“ - means one example for every number. Of course I am attracted to holos and full arts and if I get one, its a really nice bonus. But that’s not the goal. So I barely buy booster packs but look on flea markets for the Pokémon that are missing in my collection. I am not in a rush with this, it’s a journey and I can highly recommend it.
Honestly the community brought it on themselves and absolutely deserves everything that's happening. Supply WAS fixed for Scarlet and Violet year one. Boxes were cheap, available, and the hits were plentiful (up to two SIR's per box). And was the community grateful? No. They complained hits were "too easy" and that there was "no value" and chased older Sword and Shield sets instead (that they lobbied the SAME complaints against). What did anybody expect Pokemon to do as a reactive, profit engine? They dialed back production and made hits harder. And here we are, wondering who kicked the goal and not bothering to look down.
this is why I really like dpm , I feel like his set completion videos are a really good example of what card collecting can look like when not focusing purely on money
Absolutely agree with your take. It also rubs me the wrong way when I see the big popular poketubers explaining the current problem with the hobby. They mention everything from Scalpers, to the Pokemon Company under-supplying, to Distributors holding onto product, to more Local Game Stores wanting a piece of the Pokemon pie contributing to lesser allocations- All that but they don't mention themselves. I am not saying its 100% their fault or mostly their fault, but the way they frame their content is definitely a part of the equation. There is no 1 bad guy in the problem, everyone has a part to play in the absolute insanity that's overrun the hobby.
Good video. I think it was pretty well said
Glad to see someone bring up the weird focus/fascination with the monetary value of every pack of cards they open. I do hope that people can join a different way to market their card opening videos outside of that. Because I do agree with you that has kind of sensationalized the act of opening cards in a way that makes it feel like I'm watching people do scratch offs
I'm finding some issues that are making the space not so ghreat. I'm glad you're highlighting some of the issues I have and making the point about people injecting money into every aspect, but it's also kind of rich coming from a guy sat there with a Pikachu SIr and Base Zard. Are they genuine favourites or based on value?
Here are some things I've noticed in the hobby;
1. With so many sets a year, none really get the time to sit and percolate.
2. The barrage of sets means printing is often done months in advance, not leaving room to publish sets to demand.
3. The reality is that TPCI doesn't need to print more. If the projected number of sales is met, then a set is profitable, and on to the next one.
4. The hobby has become a space for rampant consumption beyond reasonable measures, and when combined with worsening pull rates, it's perfect for TPCI.
5. It's easier to blame scalpers, hoarders, rip/shippers, and greedy UA-cam types. While they are partially responsible, the situation is a culmination of factors, and most leave TPCI with no real need to do things because they profit off each release.
i only recently wanted to start collecting but oh my god my jaw slowly dropping as i realized how expensive it is and how almost every interesting set was sold out and had double the price on ebay
it makes me really sad to see so many people only buy it in bulk just because they want to resell it with no actual care for the cards
I believe the blame is 100% on the influencers and the scalpers with the influencers not wanting to shine the light on their hypocrisy and am glad to see someone finally shine some light on it. Having these big clickbait thumbnails focusing 100% on the monetary value and in the video showing the price for every card just adds to the problem of what they are buying to profit off of costing more and then complaining that they have to spend more for it. Like the biggest channel, Pokerev, does this exact same thing focusing on the money with big money in the thumbnail then complains when the product is going short.
The problem with the money flashes is that it is unfortunately a primary aspect of the UA-cam algorithm…
It’s not only that subconscious tool, but also a tool for UA-cam success. And you’re right when I’m some cases it’s fine, but I agree in that the money flashes is not a favored option.
I don't deny that influencers had a part in Prismatic Evolutions being sold out, but I think there are multiple factors involved. One of the factors that I don't see a lot of people talking about is that this set is attractive to both players and collectors. Most sets are attractive to one group or the other, but not usually both. The collectors want that crazy Umbreon and other Eevelutions. There are a ton of other cards that are great for players. In your unboxing video, you got a bunch of Dreepys, Drackoaks, Duskulls, Dusclops, Budews, rescue boards, and a Prime Catcher. Those are all very important cards in the current competitive meta. I would argue that Budew is the most important card in the game right now. So, since both groups want the set, it gets sold out fast.
I don't usually make rant videos...but this problem (scalping) made me make my first rant video (on pokemon scalping crushing the supply of prismatic evo)
I am brand new to this hobby. I have been a Pokémon fan my whole life due to the anime and games but never collected the cards. I am getting into it now because I’ve been placing tcg pocket and it seems so fun. All I want to do is go to the store and buy a couple of packs to open. But there is nothing😢
Wow! I love your views! And Im a new collector (casual) and I really dont like this monetary fixation... I love my common cards too!!
I agree 100%, just a few people care about the cards and the art, for most of buyers cards are an investment or gambling. The worst part is that we are showing this behaviour to kids and they are starting to treat cards the same way.
I re-entered the hobby in the beginning of last year due to my niece getting an interest in pokemon and of course pokemon cards. I quit because I didnt have anyone to talk to or bond over pokemon with, so I wanted to instead give her that opportunity, and one way was through opening one pack each whenever we got togheter. But that is almost impossible now since there are very few single packs of almost any recent series available (live in a European country where pokemon have never really been a big deal). I feel so bad for people of all ages not having an equal accessibility to the otherwise wonderful hobby.
As a casual collector I really hate that getting products is incredibly difficult, near impossible unless I pay double the price or preorder right away (in which case I'm not given time to think about how much I really want.)
about the printing stuff, it's been the 4th year in a row where they broke their record of biggest increase in printing capacity.
in the last 1/2 years, they've printed more than half of the cards ever printed.
It's true that they're "underprinting" but that's because the increase in demande is much faster than the increase in production (and nobody knows how long it'll go, maybe forever, maybe it'll die in a few years, so they're understandably scared of going all out and x10ing the production to follow the demand)
The problem is one word....distribution. distributors are realizing they can sell it for double msrp and just canceling allocations and increasing the price.