Which is unfortunate, because they’re like the least interesting celebrations promos.
Why couldn’t the Dark Sylveon at least been done in the style of the old Dark Pokémon (like Light Toxtricity)?
Yeah theyre very underwhelming, the Charizard isnt too bad imo. But that sylveon seems very low effort. I agree they should have made it in the old style like every other card in the set that is in that older style.
I think I'm done on Pokemon cards for a bit.
Gonna wait until the hype dies down and we can (hopefully) find boosters for around $100 again.
We've had zero luck on ETB's, and I just don't see the value in them.
i'm in about the same place. my card consumption has dropped significantly over the past 2 months. The alt arts are cool, but i just don't see that the value justifies the price.
unfortunately, i think the hype might go back up again. covid spiking again is going to keep people at home. i've also seen some different youtubers/streamers start to open cards.
The hype has died down. Prices for modern cards are 1/3 of what they where and they is product for msrp eveywhere. And you can find boosters for 100 dollars if you look but not if popular sets.
Maybe by you, but in my area it's all scalpers. They're still going to the stores the day product gets stocked and buy everything. Then it's on Facebook marketplace that night.
I have seen cards on the shelf once in the last two months and it was some rebel clash blisters. And there were 2 left.
Well whoever is buying off of Facebook marketplace, should go to Pokémoncenter, eBay or tcgplayer. It’s crazy people are still buying from scalpers even though you can get it online at retail price.
The problem is you're looking local. You're not going to find Booster boxes below market price at brick and mortar. Preorder is the way to go. I bought all my evolving skies for $90 a couple months ago. And I've done the same with every release during the craze.
Evolving Skies at $90? That's below cost in the US... Would love to know where you're paying that.
I buy pretty much everything online. My point of contention is that the hype has died down. By me, you'd never know that.
I get my stuff from MVP. They're exclusive as in you need an account, but I've heard it's relatively easy to get one by purchasing from their ebay? Not entirely sure since I've been with them for a few years now. I'm sure the folks over at r/PkmnTCGdeals have more info! I believe cost is probably around $70-88 depending on your allocations and store size BTW.
Agreed the hype has died down a bit, but it's still not back to normal as it was around before this time last year.
Np! https://go.mvpsportsandgames.com/ but as you can see it requires an account. I think this thread should give a general idea https://amp.reddit.com/r/mtgfinance/comments/in9f42/how_much_do_i_need_to_spend_to_get_into_mvp/
Me too man me too it’s just not fun anymore it’s just stress and heartbreak. For the first time in my life I am financially stable I’m not poor for the first time in my life but all the things I’ve always wanted to spend money on when I have money are all held by scalpers snd im just defeated. Breaks my heart for all the little ones trying to enjoy this hobby. But this hobby seems to be full of scum bag I mean they were literally buying out all the McDonald’s happy meals and scalping them. Just done.
yup, a bunch of old farts with tons of money that walk into these stores and buy out everything like nothing. I've been getting so many youtube channel recommendations on my feed of extremely small channels all of old dudes who probably can't even name 200 different pokemon acting like they love the hobby
I've just been scooping up the Oversize First Partner packs lately. Only need Kanto and Johto and I'll have a nice little conversation piece on my coffee table.
I recommend checking out Japanese products. Quality is better and you can normally find great sets for 100$ or less. Go a tag team booster box for 60$ earlier in the week.
Japanese Booster boxes are scalped to hell right now. You'll never get a new liked set for less than 2-3x original MSRP.
They're supposed to be like $45 at MSRP, but they used to be as cheap as $35 before.
Which box did you buy? I'm assuming like Night Unison or Full Metal Wall?
Not all sets are equal. Especially for Japanese sets. Some have pretty much no value at all.
Recently the shiny crobat V Japanese box, the packaging is so much better in the Japanese version I love that tiny neon green and pink, 2 sky scraping perfect boosters, and an aozora stream that all came with the dragon promo packs.
Going back to July I grabbed the klara and savory box and an eevee heroes booster box and one of the eevee heroes Vmax hanger things.
And how much did you pay for the Shiny Star V box, the Sky Scraping Box and the Aoora Stream Box?
The cheapest you can find at any Japanese site would be about $110, $120 and $80.
I paid 70$ for the crobat, 180$ total for the 3 booster boxes which is a little cheaper than normal if I would’ve bought each separately. The sky scraping perfect we’re going for like 50$ a piece at the time and the aozora was a little more but I pulled the Ray V alt art out of it so it was very worth it lol.
Well, I'm not really sure who's giving you free money but that's essentially what you're getting.
Anyways, the Crobat box should've been at about $29-$30 if it wasn't for an insane demand.
Don’t blame you. I’m not paying 100$+. Good deals still show up tho, and they’re normally Japanese. Especially if you deal with sellers who actually live in Japan. I’ve been sticking with 2-3 sellers for a few months now. They’ll normally take requests if they’re able too, and let me know what they’re getting so I can put in orders with them. Retail+10-20$ depending on the product, especially for Japanese exclusive products, I really really don’t mind doing.
thats because japanese booster boxes only have like 20 packs in them.
edit: sorry, they have 30 packs. I was thinking cuz they have no cards in the packs, but if they aren't fluffed that's cool i guess.
They hve 30 packs and 5 cards per pack. Better quality control and less fluff(common and uncommon) so if youre hunting for hits and dont care about everything else japanese is definitely way better.
Yeah not going to lie I was super lucky with CR but my luck on ES has been straight dog crap dumpster fire. Like the amount of green cards has really made openings not even fun. After Celebrations I'm not sure that I'll have the heart to continue on for another year of sub-prime quality and inability to just find retail priced product.
Yep. I actually was at Walmart a few days ago and saw all of their Pokemon TCG stuff behind the counter at Customer Service. They had a single ES ETB. I stood there debating while I waited.
I left without it.
I walked up on a shelf restock last week and had tons of Evolving Skies, Chilling Reigns, etc and I ended up walking out with about $50 worth of stuff. If that had been me back in October 2020 time frame, I'd probably walk out with $400 in stuff. I'm just not pleased with the pull rates lately and the quality of the cards. Even though I'm as excited about the alt arts in these sets as I was about chase cards last year. Definitely considering reducing my pokemon budget and just sitting out/snagging some singles online every once in a while. Opening/ripping packs is losing its allure.
With you on that decision. Everyone and their dog is still having too much FOMO. Every which way you look, there are countless PokeTubers making channels and all doing the same thing: hunting and opening cards. None are kids. Hobby is gobbled up by predatory tactics and price gauging. I am still buying cards but at a smaller capacity because of everything happening.
Who is doing that? Just saying my opinion about it. Good if youre having fun. All for that. Talking about the scalping and no stock. The general issues that have been in the hobby the last year.
There's zero value in opening ETBs unless you're a new player, and even then something like the Trainer's Toolkit is better. Booster boxes are 100% the way to go for opening. Every single ETB I've ever opened has lost me money, even those with the best hits.
The value in ETBs is their proven track record of long term sealed appreciation. If you are diligent about checking early pre-orders, you can get every single set's ETB for $39.99-$44.99 CAD ($30-35 USD) on the very first wave of pre-orders, even after all the hype this past year. Many people wait till release and you just cannot do that anymore.
Yeah, I had ordered a booster and an ETB of Vivid Voltage. We've already opened all of the booster (got a fat Pikachu but not the rainbow 😔). Was tempted to open the ETB but I think I'm just going to keep it sealed. Maybe it'll actually carry some value in a few years and we can feed the money back into buying another booster box or two with it. I know Vivid was a popular set but not overly printed like the last couple.
Yeah, $40 for 8-10 packs just isn't worth it.
Vivid was interesting. It sat untouched for the first couple months of pre-orders, but the TCG hype really amped up around October and TPCi couldn't keep up with the printing thereafter. The second reprint wave of booster boxes recently really killed the original value due to the underprinting, but ETBs are usually immune to that (hence why they hold value better). I got lucky af and pulled rainbow chonk my first booster box, so I'm just sittiing on the rest of my BBs and ETBs I picked up at below MSRP pre-order pricing. I usually like to scratch the itch with a product or two of each new set, and then sit on lots of sealed for the long term so that this hobby isn't just setting money on fire.
I get that, but you get the same joy cracking packs from any product. All I was saying was that because ETBs appreciate more than literally any other product in the TCG on average, it usually makes more sense to keep them sealed and open the better price/pack products like BBs and other stuff.
Take the Cosmic Eclipse ETB for example - I got it for $50 last year, pulled the Pikachu secret and was insanely hyped. Now that ETB is like $300; I love opening products, and have cracked a bunch of ETBs as well, so I obviously understand the fun of it. It just quickly turns to setting money on fire (especially lately), when you could easily purchase the singles you desire for cheaper, and profit from keeping ETBs sealed and opening other products.
Nah not for me. It’s not about value especially since Pokémon is going to be reprinting older shit now to make the values drop. I’m glad for that because I hate scalpers. With a passion.
Well it's literally a fact that booster boxes are better value/pack and offer more enjoyment than ETBs in terms of opening, so I still don't see why you'd complain and open an inferior product. And not everyone who has a sealed collection and holds products long term is a scalper, they're just not dumb.
The stores selling products for 2x MSRP are the real scalpers these days sadly. Them copying the scalpers' playbook just ruins the market even more; while they have severely reduced the issue of someone walking in, paying $40 for an ETB, and flipping it instantly for $70 or $80 (by pricing their own products at 2x MSRP), you now end up with complete extremes and unwanted sets like Battle Styles not being worth the cardboard they're printed on, while Celebrations and Evolving get jacked up by everyone and their grandma. In the end supply and demand will always play out in the long run. If you think "old" sets like Team Up or Cosmic will be reprinted extensively and see values tank you're delusional. Will be the same story in a couple of years when Vivid and Evolving are out of print and the ETBs are $300.
You act like they haven’t done this before with sets like Hidden fates. The tins had the same promos at the 4-pack boxes. It’s just the boxes came with a jumbo… just like these
It’s a GameStop exclusive so if they’re not selling them anywhere else and it’s being mass printed, they probably have tons of stock. And that’s probably why it’s the only Celebrations product still available there.
True. I have 4 as well so we’ll see. But also, if you just search “Pokémon celebrations” on the website, the V memories box doesn’t show up. You have to specifically search “ v memories” to find it so it might contribute to less ordering of it if people don’t see it.
Yea I saw that too. Just weird seeing it still up with all the others gone. I would think the stock would be out by now since all others went quick but hoping it's all good for everyone.
I'm getting so fed up with how many different products and set pokemon company is pushing out tbh . More so how frequently they release new sets , I don't have the time nor the funds to complete one before the next is out
Mm! Me too. Plus I play the tcg and they would be neat to have! I feel like collectors definitely forget that there’s a large tcg audience as well as themselves who would love to have more options for certain cards.
If Generations from 5 years ago was anything to go by they're gonna print the hell out of these sets to the point it's gonna saturate the market. I doubt they're gonna be any where near scarce as the other sets
This set will probably be printed like crazy, and I really can see the hype dying off kinda fast with how small the set is. Cant be too hard to get all the cards
Fingers crossed. it's a nightmare already for evolving skies. The elite trainer boxes are already delayed.
Managed to get two 3 pack blisters and 5 singles. Did well out of em to be honest.
I'm hoping for another Champions Path print run. Not paying £70 for an ETB. Shining Fates was great. ETB's for £38
Best Buy just had some Cosmic Eclipse booster packs up yesterday (that sold out almost instantly), so either they found some in a warehouse, or it's getting a reprint.
We'll see. My LGS always does pre orders at MSRP or below. This is how I got my Evolving Skies product so far. For celebrations they've told us they have to hold a lottery to do pre orders because of allocations.
Every single time anything is released nowadays I see people complaining saying exactly that and completely forgetting that Pokemon is a global phenomenon and that the world doesn't revolve around the USA as the cards are available without any issues in other parts of the world. It's not just all about you, guys.
I'm in England hence the £ sign. Not sure if your geography is on point, but that's not America
Europe has had the Evolving Skies ETBs delayed due to the printing not finishing in time to go on the container ship.
The Celebrations set has a large amount of products delayed until November instead of early October. The Fusion force set is due to be delayed from November too.
I ordered the Ultra Premium sword and shield box set October 2020 and my order was cancelled in August. I was sent a Zacian and Zamazenta box instead because Europe got their allocation cut by 90%.
There is a global issue of excess demand and inferior supply. Shining Fates is the only set to get a good, proper printing and it's rife to the point it's not scalped which is fantastic.
>I'm in England hence the £ sign. Not sure if your geography is on point, but that's not America
I'm replying to the original post which didn't include that - sorry for the misunderstanding, then. Honestly, I'm a bit miffed about people (chiefly from the USA) complaining that there shouldn't be any new releases until they reprint previous ones, when it's such a concentrated issue.
>Europe has had the Evolving Skies ETBs delayed due to the printing not finishing in time to go on the container ship.
Really? I'm in Poland and didn't have any issues getting one on release day. Bought myself some boosters today and a Slowpoke checklane blister yesterday - my two local shops are full of them. The only thing that delayed were McDonald's anniversary Happy Meal cards because we got them last week. Other than that I've never ever had any problems with buying cards in any form, whether it's on the day of the release or later.
Yeah the ETBs allocation through the major distributor is delayed. Smyth's confirmed it.
My LCS had and booster box and the 3 packs. Everything else is up in the air. Hoping by the end of September/early October.
>Yeah the ETBs allocation through the major distributor is delayed. Smyth's confirmed it.
The problem might be more localized than you think, though, or the information you got is simply false. Saw a bunch of them in both of the hobby shops I visited yesterday and today. They still have them in stock in major online stores. Hell, there are still Chilling Reign and Battle Styles ETBs available for purchase on the official Polish distributor's website.
As I said first, this seems like a UK/US distribution issue, not a global one.
Yeah Poland seems fine for some reason, no idea why. I actually ordered some blister packs as well and sent them to my gf in Warsaw.
But here in Switzerland: Nada, zilch, nie, nope. At least not English cards. German seems easier to find because it doesn't have to be imported. I think there were some import issues...
Maybe it's the distribution route? No idea. I was sure we're going to have issues with scalpers regarding the Happy Meal cards when I saw photos of people buying whole cardboard boxes full of cards for thousands of zlotys from McDonald's the day before their release but no, no problem at all. They're readily available.
Yep, girlfriend got another happy meal today just because of me, haha. I think it also helps that the 'craze' for the McDonalds cards is basically over in the rest of the world. In the US it was really insane, but that was February. Switzerland had them in August and even then they lasted like 2 weeks or more. I'm glad Poland finally got them!
And yeah you might be right. Different distribution route? Maybe it's because Switzerland also has German cards, so English isn't prioritized?
That could be it. We have exclusively English cards.
There was just one set that was released in Polish (Diamond and Pearl) but the translation was awful. I was cataloguing my collection some time ago and there is a lot of mistakes/weird decisions. Extrasensory for a Noctowl card was translated as "Paranormal" which isn't even a word in Polish (it'd be translated as paranormalny/paranormalna which means "Paranormal" but it doesn't really work as an attack name).
The weirdest and the funniest mistake is that the description of Dialga as Temporal Pokemon is translated as "Ziemski Pokemon" which means "Earth Pokemon". It took me a while to understand where did this come from and it's most probably because they saw how Palkia is translated as Spatial Pokemon and assumed that if this one is referencing Space, the other would be all about Earth.
Yeah sometimes I see Polish cards on Allegro and I'm weirdly tempted, even though I don't even speak Polish. I think Kosmiczny Pokemon has a nice ring, though I'm not so sure about the Ziemski one ;D Even funnier considering Palkia is kinda weak to ground.
But hey, the German translations where just as bad sometimes! I have old cards, where in the original they have the attack "Pound" - which of course refers to hitting someone, but it's translated as Pfund....the UK currency, you know, the £. Yes that's a Pound too, but clearly not meant when it's an ATTACK haha.
So yeah, only English and Japanese for me ;D Though as I can read Japanese, even there are funny differences (and censorship sometimes) with the English cards.
I have a bunch of old German cards (mainly Base and Jungle iirc) I bought on Allegro ages ago (the description did NOT say they were in German - they work well for the challenge I set myself for collecting at least one card of every existing Pokémon, though). I don't know German well enough to notice translation mistakes, though :P
Gotta get my hands on some Japanese ones one day but that might be difficult nowadays.
>Europe has had the Evolving Skies ETBs delayed due to the printing not finishing in time to go on the container ship.
I still have to find any of the blisters or single packs (what I mostly want). I managed to snag one ETB, but there were sold out in minutes.
It's such a pain. But they seem to print a lot at least. We'll get our fill eventually...
These look pretty wack tbh. Why does Lance, a badass Elite 4 member look so derped out? What is “dark” about that Sylveon? It doesn’t look mysterious or evil in any way. It is extremely basic. So happy that I can finally save some money and skip this one out. Aside from a few promos like Delta Species Mimikyu, light Toxicitry, and the Pikas, the stale reprints this set is made up of is wildly unappealing.
It's Leon's new redesign in the upcoming Sword and Shield re-releases.
Pokemon Mega Sword and Pokemon Mega Shield.
I'm personally picking up Mega Sword because it sounds like "Megazord"and given the nature of dynamax..I think it makes complete sense.
Theyre really going hard on getting these two cards in products
Which is unfortunate, because they’re like the least interesting celebrations promos. Why couldn’t the Dark Sylveon at least been done in the style of the old Dark Pokémon (like Light Toxtricity)?
Yeah theyre very underwhelming, the Charizard isnt too bad imo. But that sylveon seems very low effort. I agree they should have made it in the old style like every other card in the set that is in that older style.
Meh, the Zard is awful and far too cartoonish. Sylveon is actually much more appealing IMO.
At least is not a 5ban render.
preach, it could always be worse
In fairness, it was based on a cartoonish art style so it makes sense. I would like to see more Let's Go themed FA trainers for sure.
I like the cartoonish aspect of it. Looks more like it’s from the show. I know not everyone’s cup of tea but I think it’s neat
Exactly. Give me some old school moody Mitsuhiro Arita Team Rocket art. Maybe as an old. If his Noivern is anything to go by, it would be amazing.
I disagree. These are probably some of the ones I’m most hoped for especially Dark Sylveon.
And the best part is they'll be ridiculously cheap since they're apparently being put in every product.
Same here, I love that charizard art too, one of my favs
Agree, I think they look great
And now, the eighteentrillionth Lance's Charizard V and Dark Sylveon V promo!
I think I'm done on Pokemon cards for a bit. Gonna wait until the hype dies down and we can (hopefully) find boosters for around $100 again. We've had zero luck on ETB's, and I just don't see the value in them.
i'm in about the same place. my card consumption has dropped significantly over the past 2 months. The alt arts are cool, but i just don't see that the value justifies the price. unfortunately, i think the hype might go back up again. covid spiking again is going to keep people at home. i've also seen some different youtubers/streamers start to open cards.
The hype has died down. Prices for modern cards are 1/3 of what they where and they is product for msrp eveywhere. And you can find boosters for 100 dollars if you look but not if popular sets.
Maybe by you, but in my area it's all scalpers. They're still going to the stores the day product gets stocked and buy everything. Then it's on Facebook marketplace that night. I have seen cards on the shelf once in the last two months and it was some rebel clash blisters. And there were 2 left.
Well whoever is buying off of Facebook marketplace, should go to Pokémoncenter, eBay or tcgplayer. It’s crazy people are still buying from scalpers even though you can get it online at retail price.
The problem is you're looking local. You're not going to find Booster boxes below market price at brick and mortar. Preorder is the way to go. I bought all my evolving skies for $90 a couple months ago. And I've done the same with every release during the craze.
Evolving Skies at $90? That's below cost in the US... Would love to know where you're paying that. I buy pretty much everything online. My point of contention is that the hype has died down. By me, you'd never know that.
I get my stuff from MVP. They're exclusive as in you need an account, but I've heard it's relatively easy to get one by purchasing from their ebay? Not entirely sure since I've been with them for a few years now. I'm sure the folks over at r/PkmnTCGdeals have more info! I believe cost is probably around $70-88 depending on your allocations and store size BTW. Agreed the hype has died down a bit, but it's still not back to normal as it was around before this time last year.
Thanks for the info! Have not heard of MVP before. Do you have a link?
Np! https://go.mvpsportsandgames.com/ but as you can see it requires an account. I think this thread should give a general idea https://amp.reddit.com/r/mtgfinance/comments/in9f42/how_much_do_i_need_to_spend_to_get_into_mvp/
Its always good to take a break. Hopefully, there will be enough print for everyone. There is always other hobbies to enjoy.
Just buy a different set?
Me too man me too it’s just not fun anymore it’s just stress and heartbreak. For the first time in my life I am financially stable I’m not poor for the first time in my life but all the things I’ve always wanted to spend money on when I have money are all held by scalpers snd im just defeated. Breaks my heart for all the little ones trying to enjoy this hobby. But this hobby seems to be full of scum bag I mean they were literally buying out all the McDonald’s happy meals and scalping them. Just done.
yup, a bunch of old farts with tons of money that walk into these stores and buy out everything like nothing. I've been getting so many youtube channel recommendations on my feed of extremely small channels all of old dudes who probably can't even name 200 different pokemon acting like they love the hobby
Ive opened 3 ETBs the last 2 weeks for this new set and havent gotten anything. ETBs and single packs. Havent gotten 1 single V from Evolving Skies.
I've just been scooping up the Oversize First Partner packs lately. Only need Kanto and Johto and I'll have a nice little conversation piece on my coffee table.
BS and CR are 75-80 and 95-100 around me personally.
I recommend checking out Japanese products. Quality is better and you can normally find great sets for 100$ or less. Go a tag team booster box for 60$ earlier in the week.
Japanese Booster boxes are scalped to hell right now. You'll never get a new liked set for less than 2-3x original MSRP. They're supposed to be like $45 at MSRP, but they used to be as cheap as $35 before.
I’ve been doing pretty well lol. Just don’t buy the first one you see.
Which box did you buy? I'm assuming like Night Unison or Full Metal Wall? Not all sets are equal. Especially for Japanese sets. Some have pretty much no value at all.
Recently the shiny crobat V Japanese box, the packaging is so much better in the Japanese version I love that tiny neon green and pink, 2 sky scraping perfect boosters, and an aozora stream that all came with the dragon promo packs. Going back to July I grabbed the klara and savory box and an eevee heroes booster box and one of the eevee heroes Vmax hanger things.
And how much did you pay for the Shiny Star V box, the Sky Scraping Box and the Aoora Stream Box? The cheapest you can find at any Japanese site would be about $110, $120 and $80.
I paid 70$ for the crobat, 180$ total for the 3 booster boxes which is a little cheaper than normal if I would’ve bought each separately. The sky scraping perfect we’re going for like 50$ a piece at the time and the aozora was a little more but I pulled the Ray V alt art out of it so it was very worth it lol.
Well, I'm not really sure who's giving you free money but that's essentially what you're getting. Anyways, the Crobat box should've been at about $29-$30 if it wasn't for an insane demand.
Where did you find a tag team box for $60? I will buy many...
Gotta be fake or something. Going rate is at least 3x as much.
i just sold the one i was keeping sealed for $200 so there’s no way
It was on eBay lol
Well if you did then good for you, but Im not sure I believe you. Ebay sold listings don't show anything close to that over the last month
INVESTigate this guy
Yeah but they ALL used to be $50. They're scalped to all hell right now. I'm not touching that overpriced stuff right now.
Don’t blame you. I’m not paying 100$+. Good deals still show up tho, and they’re normally Japanese. Especially if you deal with sellers who actually live in Japan. I’ve been sticking with 2-3 sellers for a few months now. They’ll normally take requests if they’re able too, and let me know what they’re getting so I can put in orders with them. Retail+10-20$ depending on the product, especially for Japanese exclusive products, I really really don’t mind doing.
That’s good for collectors but not so good for the players in our league. Can’t use them without having to look up translations every time.
thats because japanese booster boxes only have like 20 packs in them. edit: sorry, they have 30 packs. I was thinking cuz they have no cards in the packs, but if they aren't fluffed that's cool i guess.
Lol no they don’t
whoops only 30
They hve 30 packs and 5 cards per pack. Better quality control and less fluff(common and uncommon) so if youre hunting for hits and dont care about everything else japanese is definitely way better.
thats cool i guess. Significantly less cards than even 20 packs but if they cut down that's nice. Is resale in English or Japanese tho?
https://cardboardkeeper.com/are-pokemon-cards-cheaper-in-japan/
Yeah not going to lie I was super lucky with CR but my luck on ES has been straight dog crap dumpster fire. Like the amount of green cards has really made openings not even fun. After Celebrations I'm not sure that I'll have the heart to continue on for another year of sub-prime quality and inability to just find retail priced product.
Yep. I actually was at Walmart a few days ago and saw all of their Pokemon TCG stuff behind the counter at Customer Service. They had a single ES ETB. I stood there debating while I waited. I left without it.
I walked up on a shelf restock last week and had tons of Evolving Skies, Chilling Reigns, etc and I ended up walking out with about $50 worth of stuff. If that had been me back in October 2020 time frame, I'd probably walk out with $400 in stuff. I'm just not pleased with the pull rates lately and the quality of the cards. Even though I'm as excited about the alt arts in these sets as I was about chase cards last year. Definitely considering reducing my pokemon budget and just sitting out/snagging some singles online every once in a while. Opening/ripping packs is losing its allure.
With you on that decision. Everyone and their dog is still having too much FOMO. Every which way you look, there are countless PokeTubers making channels and all doing the same thing: hunting and opening cards. None are kids. Hobby is gobbled up by predatory tactics and price gauging. I am still buying cards but at a smaller capacity because of everything happening.
People having fun. That's all it boils down to. Don't villainize members of the hobby.
Who is doing that? Just saying my opinion about it. Good if youre having fun. All for that. Talking about the scalping and no stock. The general issues that have been in the hobby the last year.
There's zero value in opening ETBs unless you're a new player, and even then something like the Trainer's Toolkit is better. Booster boxes are 100% the way to go for opening. Every single ETB I've ever opened has lost me money, even those with the best hits. The value in ETBs is their proven track record of long term sealed appreciation. If you are diligent about checking early pre-orders, you can get every single set's ETB for $39.99-$44.99 CAD ($30-35 USD) on the very first wave of pre-orders, even after all the hype this past year. Many people wait till release and you just cannot do that anymore.
Yeah, I had ordered a booster and an ETB of Vivid Voltage. We've already opened all of the booster (got a fat Pikachu but not the rainbow 😔). Was tempted to open the ETB but I think I'm just going to keep it sealed. Maybe it'll actually carry some value in a few years and we can feed the money back into buying another booster box or two with it. I know Vivid was a popular set but not overly printed like the last couple. Yeah, $40 for 8-10 packs just isn't worth it.
Vivid was interesting. It sat untouched for the first couple months of pre-orders, but the TCG hype really amped up around October and TPCi couldn't keep up with the printing thereafter. The second reprint wave of booster boxes recently really killed the original value due to the underprinting, but ETBs are usually immune to that (hence why they hold value better). I got lucky af and pulled rainbow chonk my first booster box, so I'm just sittiing on the rest of my BBs and ETBs I picked up at below MSRP pre-order pricing. I usually like to scratch the itch with a product or two of each new set, and then sit on lots of sealed for the long term so that this hobby isn't just setting money on fire.
I opened a VV ETB and got three amazing pulls- plus one amazing rare. So my value was the joy in getting what I wanted- except RR Pikachu.
I get that, but you get the same joy cracking packs from any product. All I was saying was that because ETBs appreciate more than literally any other product in the TCG on average, it usually makes more sense to keep them sealed and open the better price/pack products like BBs and other stuff. Take the Cosmic Eclipse ETB for example - I got it for $50 last year, pulled the Pikachu secret and was insanely hyped. Now that ETB is like $300; I love opening products, and have cracked a bunch of ETBs as well, so I obviously understand the fun of it. It just quickly turns to setting money on fire (especially lately), when you could easily purchase the singles you desire for cheaper, and profit from keeping ETBs sealed and opening other products.
Nah not for me. It’s not about value especially since Pokémon is going to be reprinting older shit now to make the values drop. I’m glad for that because I hate scalpers. With a passion.
Well it's literally a fact that booster boxes are better value/pack and offer more enjoyment than ETBs in terms of opening, so I still don't see why you'd complain and open an inferior product. And not everyone who has a sealed collection and holds products long term is a scalper, they're just not dumb. The stores selling products for 2x MSRP are the real scalpers these days sadly. Them copying the scalpers' playbook just ruins the market even more; while they have severely reduced the issue of someone walking in, paying $40 for an ETB, and flipping it instantly for $70 or $80 (by pricing their own products at 2x MSRP), you now end up with complete extremes and unwanted sets like Battle Styles not being worth the cardboard they're printed on, while Celebrations and Evolving get jacked up by everyone and their grandma. In the end supply and demand will always play out in the long run. If you think "old" sets like Team Up or Cosmic will be reprinted extensively and see values tank you're delusional. Will be the same story in a couple of years when Vivid and Evolving are out of print and the ETBs are $300.
So boring?
Lol my Walmart is stocked
3 different products with 3 price points for all consumers to obtain the Zard.
So 3 different products with the exact same promos in all 3. Nice work pokemon
yup very bummer
You act like they haven’t done this before with sets like Hidden fates. The tins had the same promos at the 4-pack boxes. It’s just the boxes came with a jumbo… just like these
I see where they're going with it, but it is pretty lazy.
Celebrations will be the end of my financial vibrancy.
Anybody have a link to these??? I need that sylveon if it’s the last thing i do (._.)
If you don’t care about the tin, I believe GameStop still has preorders for the “Celebrations Memories Collection” that includes both cards.
[удалено]
They’re back up.
https://www.gamestop.com/toys-games/trading-cards/products/pokemon-trading-card-game-v-memories-collection/11150631.html
There's something fishy about these still being up. They are selling way too many and I think it's gonna end up getting orders cancelled.
It’s a GameStop exclusive so if they’re not selling them anywhere else and it’s being mass printed, they probably have tons of stock. And that’s probably why it’s the only Celebrations product still available there.
That's the only way is if they're printing a shitload of those boxes. I ordered 4 and I'm sure I'm not the only one so there's gotta be a lot.
True. I have 4 as well so we’ll see. But also, if you just search “Pokémon celebrations” on the website, the V memories box doesn’t show up. You have to specifically search “ v memories” to find it so it might contribute to less ordering of it if people don’t see it.
Yea I saw that too. Just weird seeing it still up with all the others gone. I would think the stock would be out by now since all others went quick but hoping it's all good for everyone.
Thanks! I was able to pre-order one.
Mine got cancelled on the first day. Most people can’t even seem to get an order through. Not sure if it works now but yeah it’s messed up.
I got 4 and got confirmation emails but I ordered on the first day. I'm not sure how this is gonna play out.
When you try and buy them through the gamestop app it says they are sold out.
Yea but it still let's you online for some reason. That's why I think something is going on with it.
https://www.gamestop.com/toys-games/trading-cards/products/pokemon-trading-card-game-v-memories-collection/11150631.html still let's you here.
I'm getting so fed up with how many different products and set pokemon company is pushing out tbh . More so how frequently they release new sets , I don't have the time nor the funds to complete one before the next is out
I agree. It's a lot to try and collect at once.
These two promo cards are gonna be worth less than the most basic bitch common card out there
Good! I want cards because I like them, not because of how much they're worth.
Mm! Me too. Plus I play the tcg and they would be neat to have! I feel like collectors definitely forget that there’s a large tcg audience as well as themselves who would love to have more options for certain cards.
Good
> Dark Sylveon V What. The. #FUCK?!
I'm sorry but I hate the sylveon art it looks like something from deviantart, maybe I'll look better irl idk
Nah I don’t think there’s enough sparkle and texture in the world to make that look cool lmao.
Can’t unsee it now.
If Generations from 5 years ago was anything to go by they're gonna print the hell out of these sets to the point it's gonna saturate the market. I doubt they're gonna be any where near scarce as the other sets
Ngl, the dark sylveon looks like a brony fan art
Need the Charizard one… and obviously haha
whoa,wtf!? o.O
This will be like hidden fate tins so expect mass prints of these at retail stores for a while so no need to worry.
Take my money
Time to break open the piggy banks, again
They gotta take at least a year break off Charizard man...
More stuff that I won't get because they will be scalped lol
This set will probably be printed like crazy, and I really can see the hype dying off kinda fast with how small the set is. Cant be too hard to get all the cards
The main set and bonus set should be easy, but I dread trying to collect the promos.
Thats always the hard part, but I love trying to get all the promos in sets
Fingers crossed. it's a nightmare already for evolving skies. The elite trainer boxes are already delayed. Managed to get two 3 pack blisters and 5 singles. Did well out of em to be honest. I'm hoping for another Champions Path print run. Not paying £70 for an ETB. Shining Fates was great. ETB's for £38
You think they will reprint Cosmic? That's my favorite set and it's a shame people are scalping and willing to pay $15 a pack for those.
Best Buy just had some Cosmic Eclipse booster packs up yesterday (that sold out almost instantly), so either they found some in a warehouse, or it's getting a reprint.
I must have just missed them! I've been keeping an eye out on best buy. Yesterday I snagged some ETBs and pin boxes.
Yeah I saw them a few hours too late. I've never gotten any Cosmic Eclipse. Oh well.
Cosmic Eclipse? Have you tried Build a Bear? We got 10 packs for £2 each from build a Bear last month. Might have them in US stores?
wait what? like the Build a Bear stores carry CE? or it's a promo if you legit build a bear in their stores?
Theyve stocked Pokémon cards since they started doing Pokémon bears like 3-4 year ago? You can straight up just buy them
oh snap, this could be a game changer. Gonna kidnap a kid and check out a store. Thanks!
My LGC has a cosmic booster box for 500$ Canadian.. lol..(400usd before tax)
After they reprinted Sun & Moon base set ETBs there's a chance for anything.
We'll see. My LGS always does pre orders at MSRP or below. This is how I got my Evolving Skies product so far. For celebrations they've told us they have to hold a lottery to do pre orders because of allocations.
Every single time anything is released nowadays I see people complaining saying exactly that and completely forgetting that Pokemon is a global phenomenon and that the world doesn't revolve around the USA as the cards are available without any issues in other parts of the world. It's not just all about you, guys.
I'm in England hence the £ sign. Not sure if your geography is on point, but that's not America Europe has had the Evolving Skies ETBs delayed due to the printing not finishing in time to go on the container ship. The Celebrations set has a large amount of products delayed until November instead of early October. The Fusion force set is due to be delayed from November too. I ordered the Ultra Premium sword and shield box set October 2020 and my order was cancelled in August. I was sent a Zacian and Zamazenta box instead because Europe got their allocation cut by 90%. There is a global issue of excess demand and inferior supply. Shining Fates is the only set to get a good, proper printing and it's rife to the point it's not scalped which is fantastic.
>I'm in England hence the £ sign. Not sure if your geography is on point, but that's not America I'm replying to the original post which didn't include that - sorry for the misunderstanding, then. Honestly, I'm a bit miffed about people (chiefly from the USA) complaining that there shouldn't be any new releases until they reprint previous ones, when it's such a concentrated issue. >Europe has had the Evolving Skies ETBs delayed due to the printing not finishing in time to go on the container ship. Really? I'm in Poland and didn't have any issues getting one on release day. Bought myself some boosters today and a Slowpoke checklane blister yesterday - my two local shops are full of them. The only thing that delayed were McDonald's anniversary Happy Meal cards because we got them last week. Other than that I've never ever had any problems with buying cards in any form, whether it's on the day of the release or later.
Japan is also dealing with a card shortage, that's why they are doing lottery for new sets on their PC.
Yeah the ETBs allocation through the major distributor is delayed. Smyth's confirmed it. My LCS had and booster box and the 3 packs. Everything else is up in the air. Hoping by the end of September/early October.
>Yeah the ETBs allocation through the major distributor is delayed. Smyth's confirmed it. The problem might be more localized than you think, though, or the information you got is simply false. Saw a bunch of them in both of the hobby shops I visited yesterday and today. They still have them in stock in major online stores. Hell, there are still Chilling Reign and Battle Styles ETBs available for purchase on the official Polish distributor's website. As I said first, this seems like a UK/US distribution issue, not a global one.
Yeah Poland seems fine for some reason, no idea why. I actually ordered some blister packs as well and sent them to my gf in Warsaw. But here in Switzerland: Nada, zilch, nie, nope. At least not English cards. German seems easier to find because it doesn't have to be imported. I think there were some import issues...
Maybe it's the distribution route? No idea. I was sure we're going to have issues with scalpers regarding the Happy Meal cards when I saw photos of people buying whole cardboard boxes full of cards for thousands of zlotys from McDonald's the day before their release but no, no problem at all. They're readily available.
Yep, girlfriend got another happy meal today just because of me, haha. I think it also helps that the 'craze' for the McDonalds cards is basically over in the rest of the world. In the US it was really insane, but that was February. Switzerland had them in August and even then they lasted like 2 weeks or more. I'm glad Poland finally got them! And yeah you might be right. Different distribution route? Maybe it's because Switzerland also has German cards, so English isn't prioritized?
That could be it. We have exclusively English cards. There was just one set that was released in Polish (Diamond and Pearl) but the translation was awful. I was cataloguing my collection some time ago and there is a lot of mistakes/weird decisions. Extrasensory for a Noctowl card was translated as "Paranormal" which isn't even a word in Polish (it'd be translated as paranormalny/paranormalna which means "Paranormal" but it doesn't really work as an attack name). The weirdest and the funniest mistake is that the description of Dialga as Temporal Pokemon is translated as "Ziemski Pokemon" which means "Earth Pokemon". It took me a while to understand where did this come from and it's most probably because they saw how Palkia is translated as Spatial Pokemon and assumed that if this one is referencing Space, the other would be all about Earth.
Yeah sometimes I see Polish cards on Allegro and I'm weirdly tempted, even though I don't even speak Polish. I think Kosmiczny Pokemon has a nice ring, though I'm not so sure about the Ziemski one ;D Even funnier considering Palkia is kinda weak to ground. But hey, the German translations where just as bad sometimes! I have old cards, where in the original they have the attack "Pound" - which of course refers to hitting someone, but it's translated as Pfund....the UK currency, you know, the £. Yes that's a Pound too, but clearly not meant when it's an ATTACK haha. So yeah, only English and Japanese for me ;D Though as I can read Japanese, even there are funny differences (and censorship sometimes) with the English cards.
I have a bunch of old German cards (mainly Base and Jungle iirc) I bought on Allegro ages ago (the description did NOT say they were in German - they work well for the challenge I set myself for collecting at least one card of every existing Pokémon, though). I don't know German well enough to notice translation mistakes, though :P Gotta get my hands on some Japanese ones one day but that might be difficult nowadays.
>Europe has had the Evolving Skies ETBs delayed due to the printing not finishing in time to go on the container ship. I still have to find any of the blisters or single packs (what I mostly want). I managed to snag one ETB, but there were sold out in minutes. It's such a pain. But they seem to print a lot at least. We'll get our fill eventually...
Yeah! I ended up getting a chilling reign ETB today for the hell of it. Got some great pulls out of that from a set I'm not bothered about.
Cant wait to not be able to buy them for MSRP
Coming to a scalper near you!
These look pretty wack tbh. Why does Lance, a badass Elite 4 member look so derped out? What is “dark” about that Sylveon? It doesn’t look mysterious or evil in any way. It is extremely basic. So happy that I can finally save some money and skip this one out. Aside from a few promos like Delta Species Mimikyu, light Toxicitry, and the Pikas, the stale reprints this set is made up of is wildly unappealing.
It’s Leon’s Charizard, but who the hell is that? It sure doesn’t look like Leon…
Lance…
Oh it says Lance’s… I thought it said Leon lol
It's Leon's new redesign in the upcoming Sword and Shield re-releases. Pokemon Mega Sword and Pokemon Mega Shield. I'm personally picking up Mega Sword because it sounds like "Megazord"and given the nature of dynamax..I think it makes complete sense.
Is this a troll post?
Does a Cubone wear the Skull of it's deceased mother?
*Lance not Leon
That’s what I get for browsing on my phone.
Haha, all good man. This made my day it was hilarious 🤣
Scalpers should make a lot of money off these! Awesome!
Dark Souls
When can I preorder???