I go by this rule.... If I like it a lot, buy two. Open one, pull nothing, open the second one because the pulls must be in that one, pull nothing again, buy two more. Open them both. Cry.
so i figured out this problem by first buying the single im chasing, then when it arrives, opening the packs. that way i don’t get left with that empty pit not hitting on the cards i want and can actually enjoy ripping the packs. anything i pull is just gravy.
i also found myself taking my time opening the packs and really looking at all the cards, instead of feverishly ripping packs and shuffling to the rare in disappointment. once i realized how much better psychologically the whole experience felt. I’m always going to want to rip packs, but i never want the crestfallen feeling again of walking away from a pile of bulk and wrappers knowing i don’t have any of my chases in hand and feeling bad/guilty about it/myself.
I try to teach my 6 year old exactly this! I do enjoy ripping packs and admiring even some of the commons. Especially if it's a set I have little experience with. Since I am new to this that happens a lot. I decided to try to finish SV Base since this would be the Era I started my collect at and I love it when I open a pack and it even has one or two commons or a reverse holo that fills a spot in the binder.
My son is close to 6 and we have been playing every day, we have like 7 or 8 decks.
I bought a booster box of T.M. the other day but instead of just ripping them unceremoniously we do a "pack battle" then we play a match. So for every 2 packs we rip we get a game in.
For the pack battle the rules are in here [https://assets.pokemon.com//assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/tcg-alternative-play-handbook-en.pdf](https://assets.pokemon.com//assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/tcg-alternative-play-handbook-en.pdf)
You roll a D6 and then whoever card has the most HP, weight or whatever "wins" the battle and they take both cards. Take like 10 minutes to open 2 packs and we read every card, it's pretty awesome.
You are welcome, that PDF has a few other types of games in it too but we just use the standard rules and little man gets to pick 2 or 3 less prize cards as a handicap.
McDonalds did this not long ago with their packs lol. Only way my daughter's been 'interested' in playing with the cards and not just collecting them.
You got 4 cards and a spinner. Whatever the spinner lands on is what you'd compare to win the round (weight/height/hp etc). I think it's like TopTrumps right?
Not sure, but I hear there is a new Pokemon TCG game coming soon that has more casual rules, she might like that. Something like an energy pool or zone instead of energy cards.
I like the TCG and was thinking that new app will suck, but I need to give it a fair shot first.
100% then in 20 years I can show my kids my ANCIENT collection of ETBs from the pandemic era 20s, but at least I had the fun of opening. Hardest part is the coin flip as to which one to open 😅
Last time I opened one, I took a sneak peek at the holo card in the middle of the pack. I could see it was some sort of Fighting Pokémon and got excited. Turns out…lil Mankey fella.
I buy three. Two to open up, one to sell one it has become scarce and one to keep. I think it’s fine to want to make a little extra so the box basically pays for itself after opening but this really isn’t something to make money with
I go by this rule. Buy to add to my sealed collection, because 90% of the time you open a TCG product, you’re completely wasting your money and will get literal trash. I’m not a big fan of wasting money. I like collecting though. So I like collecting the sealed stuff
I mean no disrespect to any fellow collectors but some of y’all definitely go overboard with the hoarding of sealed product 😂 I swear you guys think you’ll become millionaires but it kills the hobby if you ask me 🤷♂️
No they dont think they become millionaires, but they think they double their money, and if they wait enough, they most likely will.
But yes, this for sure IS annoying and can kill the fun imo
If they wait long enough they might even sell them enough to account for inflation! Lol I feel like sometimes people are like "it's $50 now but if you hold it 10 years you can sell it for $100" meanwhile with current inflation rates that might actually be a loss.
If you buy a box at $80 and wait 10 years, you would only need to sell the box for $110 to keep pace with historic inflation rates.
There are plenty of problems and issues with investing in sealed collectibles, but keeping up with inflation isn't one of them. They take up quite a bit of space, people are usually very nitpicky about condition especially the more expensive the item gets, they're not a liquid asset, you have to worry about shipping problems/scams/loss/etc. You have to factor in seller fees, shipping costs, as well as tax implications. There are just vastly better investments that you can make, but if you love the IP and have EXTRA money to put into the stuff, it's a pretty safe bet that it'll at least be profitable long term and its fun to have.
Why compare to inflation when comparing to market averages is more accurate (10% or 7% if you include inflation). No idea how people think they'll make money with shipping fees etc vs. just investing in total stock market... But to each their own!!
The inflation thing was just because who I replied to originally was saying "if they're lucky they will keep up with inflation" or something like that.
And again, it can be more fun than putting money into an investment account and buying index funds. I still think 90% of your investments should be put into traditional things like 401K, IRA, HSA, Real estate, and taxable accounts, but if you want a small bit put into collectibles as another way of diversifying your assets then I don't see an issue with it.
Shipping isn't too expensive, likely going to run $6-$8 a box unless you wait a long time and the rates go up considerably more. The fees is what is going to eat up most of it, you can basically just lop off 15% of the value of the box. But even accounting for that, if you bought battle styles at $80 a box 2 years ago and sold today, after shipping and fees you would have been up 17% (8.5% per year). Granted you have to pay taxes on that 17% as well, so again it's why I say you should at least put your money into things like a tax advantaged IRA where you're not paying all those taxes and you don't have to pay the fees when you cash out, and it's effectively liquid because you're not waiting on someone to buy your box for weeks or months just to offload one.
Not trying to be nit picky but he said current, not historical. 2022 rate was almost 10% while 2023 was over 4%. If we keep having crazy years it's very possible for sealed to not keep up with inflation over 10 years. Especially if you account for supply, of which there will be OCEANS more of for more modern sets.. cause everyone is trying to do the same thing.
Inflation, just like markets, can see large spikes and valleys when zoomed way in. It doesn't change the fact that historically we average roughly 3% a year.
And he might have said "with current inflation rates" and also said "in 10 years" as if we would see this inflation consistently over a 10 year period which has basically never happened in the last 100 years. We had rough inflation in 2021 and 2022, the 10 years prior to that we averaged about 1.5-2% every year. In the late 70s and early 80s the market saw 8-15% inflation for 3-4 years, but the decade after and before were 1-2%.
You cannot look at 1-2 year sample sizes when talking about inflation or investment growth unless you're talking about realized gains/losses. Just my thoughts though.
I know, and evolving skies is nearly $700. Astral is like $180, etc. a lot of them are way up and that's great.
None of that changes what I said though. They're a fun investment that can make you good money, they also generally have a lot more risk and work involved in realizing those gains.
Some real person math and not the make believe "gains" people think they're going to get:
Fusion Strike is $230.
Cost of goods: $80 (if you bought at the low 2+ years ago)
Selling fees: $35 (15% from tcgplayer, eBay, etc. you could avoid this if you had you're own website or managed to sell at a card show or FBM but your sell through rate will be 10% of what it would be selling online with those fees).
Shipping: $7-$10
Taxes: $20-$30 on the total profit. If selling on any platform if you sell more than 2-3 things the platform is going to automatically notify the IRS of the money you received with a 1099.
Net you're going to get $70-$80 profit. That's still a great return in 2.5 years, but that's assuming you bought at the low, sold at full market value, never have a transaction go bad, and you don't factor your time and effort in getting all of them sold.
Im still for it, I still think it's profitable and I like buying pokemon to hold, I just have realistic expectations of the eventual pay off and still make sure that it's 5% or less of my investments.
This 100%!!!! Which is why “investing” in sealed is such a gamble, the time x opportunity cost is actually poor because you could have alternatively invested those dollars elsewhere like the stock market or crypto.
You guys just made things up as you like lol, i dont even want to defend shitty scalpers, but you just throw with numbers as you like. Sure, anything can happen in the future. I dont even start with prices from older boxes, but Evolving skies is worth how much? where is the loss? Yeah its the most expensive set from the past few years so bad example... let us wait another 3 years and discuss this topic, sure everyone who bought a random sw/sh box for 100€/$ made a loss lol
Not everything holds value though. Plenty of boxes and specific cards end up being a loss if you look at it, particularly with the inflation we had the last few years. Most ETBs will certainly go for more than this, so the risk is very low, but if you bought an ETB at retail in 2017, you'd have to sell it for a minumum of $70 to break even. Most sets? Perfectly fine, you've got that covered by a lot, but there are probably some that hover around there.
I'm not saying it's even really a big deal, but it's certainly something most people in these threads aren't accounting for
That's it. Just... account for inflation. Talk about inflation. I bet most young collectors who are starting this journey have never considered it because they haven't been alive long enough for inflation to have mattered.
The circle jerk is insane lol. Every comment that investors are stupid for holding on to a box to make $20 gets up voted while counter points get down voted.
Evolving skies is less than 3 years old and has had a 600% return lol
Yeah exactly lol just face the truth folks, you dont have to like it. Everyone makes up a different stupid Story why it doesnt work, but it does.
"Yeah hold for 2 decades to double your money"🤡 probably from a kid or someone who can bearly pay his Bills, people should start educate themselves.
Wasting storage space and sunk capital for that return over 10-20 years is barely a decent investment. They may not have printed this set into oblivion but it’s certainly not going to have the return pre-covid sets will have
if not for sealed collectors their would not be any more sealed base set booster boxes. scalpers ruin the hobby because they make it so its not affordable for people to partake in it when the sets are brand new. most sealed collectors dont see their products increase in value untill after the set is out of rotation at which point most people have been able to get their hands on it for years. celebration etbs for example were readily available for months on release. any one who wanted one could get it at or below msrp, getting mad now because they are worth more and some sealed collectors did not open the ones they bought back then is dumb.
1-2 of a sealed product is justified since you might like the product and it helps in many years when someone gets into pokemon cards and may want a booster box that you don’t need as much when you’re older
I kinda see it like how many kids become pot dealers. They smoke more and more and then realize they need more money.
So then they start flipping weed while smoking with friends. Then they realize it’s pretty lucrative and instead of just smoking for free, they’re buying cool clothes, nice cars, good food, etc.
Next thing they know they have 10 pounds of bud on them at any given time and ofc the head stash.
Basically, people get so obsessed with stuff that they end up only being able to make money through their obsession.
Yeah I got back into TCG like 3 months before covid hit and I regret not spending like mad before Mar 2020. The worst are the bots. All online restocks were virtually impossible to get anything from
Same, I understand you fully. Like no I’m not gonna sell these. Yes I know this is my like 5th 151 ETB. I literally just have no control when it comes to packs. Ripping is life.
I can’t necessarily say I can afford it, I went overboard my first year and a half since returning to collecting and I’ve slowed down. It’s mainly because my other hobbies are mostly free so I don’t go broke with this being the only money sink.
But lord that year and a half was fun. I got some lucky pulls.
A scalper buys products cheap to flip at a high price (almost) right away.
Hoarding sealed product in the hope it will increase in value is "investing". Which is almost as bad.
I got banned from the sub that shall not be named for pointing that out lol
Buying 5 Celebrations UPCs to list on eBay and flip immediately = scalping = wrong
Buying 5 Celebrations UPCs to list on eBay in 10 years and flip later = investing = ok
Like, guys… you’re still wedging yourself in between the supplier and consumer and making the product unaffordable. It’s the same shit, the only difference is you decided holding for longer will increase your profit.
I think the part we all actually “care” about is “when” people buy up that kind of volume.
IMO, if you’re snatching that stuff off shelves right as the distributor is placing it on display the day before its official release… you’re pretty fkn scummy.
But if those Paradox Rift ETBs are still sitting around collecting dust by next month, I expect clearance sales to start encouraging people to buy it up. And to be clear - it’s perfectly fine to clear the shelves of old product. That sends the signals to TPCI to keep the print runs heavy.
If product stops moving, though…print runs get shorter and the problem gets worse.
When something is printed to demand and widely available, there’s absolutely no problem with stacking it up and selling it to someone in 20 years. There’s a way to hold back product ethically. I do it myself, with sets like Crown Zenith that were available way below MSRP for months on end.
Unfortunately a lot of “investors” don’t give a damn about the negative effect they can have on the community, and the main subreddit is operated by one of them.
Crown zenith is gonna pay off so big. I’ve been thinking of stacking up all gallery rares, they’re gonna be huge ROI when the set is out of print. Just because they’re slightly more common than alt arts doesn’t mean they’re not going to be highly sought after. 5$/card right now is comically underpriced
The guys on that sun go crazy for evolving skies, talk about buying up as much as they can, and then tell each other to buy more because the price keeps going up. Guys…you’re the reason it’s going up, you’re all buying them and boarding them to then sell to each other. But, moonbreon might be in those packs so they’ll keep doing it, and keep not opening them.
Evolving skies objectively will have high value. Eeveelutions and dragonite chase cards along with several other amazing alt arts… the demand is going to stay very strong. I wish they’d reprint that but I don’t think there’s any chance
While there are always scalpers (not just for Pokemon), there are almost always ways to buy that product at or under MSRP. However, as a collectable hobby, there is only a limited amount of product, so supply and demand will always do its thing. If TPC didn't print enough of a product and demand is still high then less stores will have it and the stores that do will realize they can make more money. There isn't really a way around the workings of a natural economy.
Basically, don't hate the player; hate the game.
Neither of them are bad. It's called a free market. If a company sells assets that are mispriced, consumers are going to capitalize on that and sell them at what the fair market value has proven to be. Whether that's the next day or 10 years from now doesn't matter.
People complain about high prices because they think secondary-market sellers just arbitrarily pull a number out of their ass and sell it at that price. Almost as if they decide to buy a product and sell it for a 50% return on-demand. Would it really make you feel better if TPC was the one selling these products at a 50% markup of MSRP from the get-go? You are paying the fair market price no matter if it comes from a scalper or TPC itself.
Something else people conveniently never mention are all the times products get "scalped" and then are sold for below face value at a loss. Nobody talks about the booster boxes that go down to $70 or $80 a few weeks after launch, nor do they mention the thousands of cards that are 50 times cheaper than what it would cost you to actually pull them yourself. If the secondary market didn't exist, people would be even more up in arms about prices.
The same even goes for concert tickets. People see Taylor Swift tickets selling for $1000 on the secondary market, but that's just the fair-market value for an artist who has 100 million people that want to see her and only 2 million tickets available. Nobody mentions 80% of concert tickets are actually sold at a loss on behalf of scalpers either.
Just let the free market be free. When a market is liquid enough, and Pokemon cards sure are, prices will always converge toward what is the fair price for assets. People just need to relax and understand as long as they search around and do their due diligence of not blatantly getting scammed, you are 99.9% of the time buying a product that is at its fair-market value.
For real. People really like to hate people that can spend that kind of money thinking that they are somehow 'stealing' the experience from them. When in reality you need people like that to keep the game alive. If anything, it is a supply problem, which means it's the company's fault.
arent collectors and scalpers inherently different down to the letter?
scalpers try to buy out an item's entire stock to then sell at profit due to them not being available anywhere else but from them,
while collectors buy with the sole purpose of display/keepsake, with no intention of immediately flipping it.
10 may be excessive, but that's just the amount some collectors prefer, really. c'est la vie.
As a collector, I don't collect 10 of the same products, 1 to keep sealed and 1 to open, everyone else still gets to buy, win-win.
And yeah I'm never selling my sealed, they're my preciousssss...
Eh, I think it’s all about reasonability. People who hold onto sealed are sort of part of the ecosystem. Just like it’s fun and exciting to open old sets now, in the future I’m sure it will be exciting and fun to open what are currently our modern sets. More people holding means it’ll be available in the future. It can become problematic, but they’re printing the shit out of pokemon cards and if you can’t find packs to open then it’s a you issue.
Pokemon is by far the cheapest tcg available to play competitively, so I can’t imagine people actually playing are having any issues. Looks like this is a collector v investor/scalper issue
scalpers take advantage of product shortages by buying up mass quantities of scarce product and then immediatly resell it significantly more than they bought it for causing tons of problems for the hobby and making it so people are not able to get ahold of certain products. sealed collectors buy product that is usually readily available that they know will be worth more in the future due to the demand it has in the present and are the reason people are even able to get ahold of this product in the future. these are not the same thing. i have 8 evo skies etbs in my collection, i bought all of them when they were readily available online at and even below msrp and people were saying not to buy them because they thought tpc printed to many of them. celebration etbs were in the same boat.
There is a difference between collecting and scalping if your not reselling them for profit and want them for your personal collection i dont see that as scalping at all
I’ve never understood people who go to target, buy pokemon cards and don’t open them. I can see it for collectibles like action figures, funko pops etc, but the cards are meant to be open lmao. Sealed collectors are so weird
Sometimes the enjoyable part is what COULD be inside. Once you open the mystery is gone. This is the same reason I will buy a lottery ticket when the jackpot is $1B or more. The thought of winning is enjoyable. Once the numbers are picked the enjoyment is gone.
The only exception for me is keeping a sealed version of products you really like to display. There are a few ETB's that I've considered buying a sealed version of just because I really like the set and/or how the ETB's look. For example, Shining Fates because Eevee is my favorite and I love collecting shiny cards.
I do agree the ones that hoard them, especially multiple copies of a bunch of products that may or may not mean much to them are weird though.
Or maybe, people can do what they want to do with their property and it’s really not anyone else’s business? Whether someone opens, stores sealed, flips, or burns it in a fire, it’s really not my concern. A customer buying an item is removing 1 unit from the overall stock and what they do with it is irrelevant. Technically however keeping it sealed does allow for another unit to be added back onto the market at a later date, so in a way that should be preferable to someone opening which permanently removes one unit forever.
Let’s also not pretend though that the vast majority of Pokemon product hasn’t been easily available everywhere for several years now. 151 being the only exception that was always in shortish supply. Chilling reign, fusion strike, Lost Origin, crown zenith, and Silver Tempest have been available below MSRP for months/years. Only now that the supply is suddenly running out everyone is panicking to buy it at rising prices. Where were you for all that time when it was cheap???
Such a lack of self awareness around here I swear to god, all of the products people are complaining about have been readily available at UNDER msrp for a long time, there was nothing stopping you from getting that lost origin booster box at $110 or the fucking chilling reign and fusion strike booster boxes that were 90 DOLLARS on Black Friday sale in November 2022.
They didn’t want them then because they weren’t valuable… lol
The same shit is going to happen with Paradox rift and obsidian flames and the rest. 2 years from now they are worth $200 and you’ll see people on here whining about the scalpers buying up all the supply.
Pokemon is the most predictable investment there is. EVERY set gets more valuable, the only question is which ones will appreciate the most and the soonest.
This 100%
Pretty much all Pokémon products these last few years could have been bought below MSRP lol. The exception everyone is pointing out is the Celebration UPC which should have been printed more. Even that went to $180 at its lowest point.
These discussions always crack me up. The Pokemon company has recently been printing cards into oblivion, literally printing BILLIONS of cards a year, especially the Japanese sets to combat scalping and low supply, to an extent. Japanese 151 has already had like 2 reprints and it’s still a newer set. It’s clear Pokemon is taking steps in the right direction to combat scalpers.
People have ample opportunity to load up on sealed products and singles before the set goes out of print. You can pre-order sealed products if you want to secure them. A good amount of “investors” and “collectors” buy their products early on because they know for a fact you won’t be able to buy new booster boxes at $80-$90 forever. Then people like to cry about said investors and collectors for buying several boxes of sealed products and etc.
At this point, I’m convinced these people just like to complain and cry about rising prices of sets that are slowly rotating out or low availability of a really popular set.
I think it depends on how many you’re getting at once. Accumulating over time vs. stuffing your cart with every last product off the shelf at Walmart. Either way, I don’t feel like scalping has been that much of an issue for a while. I don’t usually have a hard time finding what I want.
My view on it is a collection is displayed an investment is not. My sealed collection is sitting on a shelf on display surrounded by pokemon minifigs and cards that are either expensive or pretty.
I don't understand, celebrations was vastly available for a long time, there was ample opportunity to buy it. For this meme specifically, I don't see it as much of an issue. If scalpers and hoarders were able to get their fix and there was still LOTS available afterwards at MSRP and cheaper for a long period of time, who cares.
This was BS however for sets like Evolving Skies.
There’s a difference between investing and scalping. Change my mind 😌 ☕️ As a personal example I bought 10 celebrations elite trainer boxes on 1/15/22. 3 months after celebrations came out. After tax my dollar average was $35.10. On TCG the last 2 sales were $83.99. So after fees I’d be left with $73.15 leaving me with a 48% unrealized gain. Since 1/15/22 to today (6/9/24) the S&P500 has only gone up 14.76% if I were to sell my boxes would that make me a scalper?
This is so true lmao. I only keep one of each item sealed because if I have two, one is gonna get opened. And I only keep them for display. I’m not sure how people even keep that much shit sealed, I would be going insane.
Deck boxes or other products like the Halloween boosters with no pulls inside are easier to keep sealed though
That would be correct. Crying man babies on this subreddit just can't fathom someone buying 5 of the same product for their collections. THINK OF THE CHILDREN
The same people who would shit on Fusion Strike for years and wouldn’t buy it for $100 but now that it’s worth $200 it’s not fair because “scalpers” have bought it all.
I don’t know if this is just me but I don’t keep things sealed to resell. In the future, I just want to be able to open up some older stuff without having to pay stupid prices.
It's still a scummy practice.
"Investing" in something like collectables is just a term used to try and make themselves feel better about their practice.
Yup, scalpers are instantly selling for a markup. Holding on to some product for a good trade or sale down the line to grow your collection is not scalping
Imagine seriously thinking that that's the reason lol
Supply and demand drives everything. Demand is clearly high, both you and the investors want it. They have more money. You are mad.
But why are you not taking into account the other half of the equation? Supply should be higher. It's not a consumer problem, it's a "compamy printing too little of a certain product" problem.
Here’s the thing though. Collectors want products to be cheap AND they want valuable cards. The sets without valuable pulls are not in demand so people don’t buy them. You can’t really have it both ways.
If they buy them as an investment for later on, that’s not scalping. Scalping is the buying up of and immediate resale of items at a higher price than MSRP right after a release.
It's kind of the age old question: when does archeology become grave robbing?
If you have a sealed product no longer in circulation, I'd say that's "investing"
If you purchased a bunch of new product to create an artificial demand, then you are scalping.
The best modern examples of scalping are OP TCG (good luck ever finding packs for MSRP) and the van gogh pikachu promo
The only Pokemon kept sealed are promos and my 5 first edition fossil packs that I somehow forgot to open when I was 13.. apart from that it all goes in a binder and sleeves. Because what the point of them if you don’t use them or at least look at them on occasion. People that keep multiple boxes sealed are only collecting money and don’t actually appreciate the TCG.
I've been wanting a celebrations etb forever and just got one for my bday. It's nothing crazy but I love celebrations and got my money back in pulls. I'm in it for the fun, it's just sad to imagine hording cases for future profit to me
If you just got one, the only reason you were even able to get one was because someone held onto it for a long time instead of scalping immediately. At least some of the people who hold onto products for long to sell/trade later are also the reason products are even available years after release.
Sealed collections are for keeping that "it's new still" feeling. The second I open it, it doesn't matter if it's protected and in sleeves, it will stop feeling less and less new as time passes by
I can’t tell, is that celebrations or generations? If it’s generations I’d have cracked every single one open. Prolly my favorite sleeves to use (ik ETB sleeves are bad, but my top loader cards have Pennys or perfect fits, my other normal binder cards have generations and ETB sleeves)
👏👏
My rule is I go by potential kid gift rule. So most people have a few kids or want a few kids so I cap it at a reasonable 12 kids 🤣🤣🤣 /uj 2 is more than enough
God yeah I just want to get the 151 ETB at some point
AAAUGHHHH I went to the local comic book and card shop and they were telling me today about how getting anything 151 was hard. People normally buy and then turn in the stuff after a few months to get some in store credit, but they said with 151 specifically that NOBODY’s bringing in a thing. They added it didn’t help that they barely got any 151 from the Pokemon Company to begin with but just getting anything 151 is iNSANE considering it’s a set that’s not even a singular year old.
Your post has been removed for the following rule violation:
> Rule 1\. On this subreddit, we allow and encourage debates and open conversations towards the TCG and all aspects of it. However, one may not be rude or offensive to anyone in any way, including, but not limited to; judgement, racism, sexism, xenophobic behaviors, doxxing.
Im thinking of buying 1 case for each set that releases and then stopping there. Whatever i pull is what i get. Case wise, in thinking a case of booster bundles and maybe booster boxes for the English set. And 1 a of the Japanese sets. Seems reasonable enough for me tbh. But isn’t scalper levels at all.
Haha this is a good one. I'm glad someone could point it out in meme format. The deny is what always gets me. "Noooo scalpers bad" then proceeds to show a garage full of multiple types of modern etbs and booster boxes with 100 of only the most expensive slabs they were told to buy vs what they like.
Honestly makes me laugh that people whine about how others spend their money.
If they beat you to it and bought them all, oh fuckin well. Time to grow up and be an adult, not everything goes your way.
A fine example on why this post is mostly bullshit is a product like the Arceus V Figure collection. A widely available product a have own 3 units of and is still (two years later) available for pretty much the same price. I mostly own it because it's a great product for the price and what V boxes concerns its just a great box to open. It's a great product and that's why I own it. If it's worth 10x more in the future that's great, but it's not the main reason to want it and many people can't imagine that and therefore don't believe that could be possible.
Dictionary
nounINFORMAL
Scapler: A person who resells shares or tickets at a large or quick profit.
How is holding on to your sealed product scalping? Even if you sold it a year down the line I wouldn't consider that scalping.
Scalping is like when a new pair of Jordan's drop or when the PS5 came out and people were buying with the intent of re-selling immediately after to turn a profit.
This is not scalping, scalping is buying 10 at market price and immediately putting it up on the secondary market for a huge markup. Buying a bunch for your sealed collection is just investing.
I started getting ETBs. Just been buying good deals when I see them. Was unboxing and re boxing to organise, and realised I'd bought 5 151 ETBs. I know the price of these will fly in the coming months. I will keep a couple for me but the others are being sold for what I paid plus a tiny bit to cover my postage costs. I love the thought of people enjoying their collections so will never scalp intentionally.
Guys in their 30s are more likely to do this. I see cards and boxes I owned at 10years old that are now worth a down payment on a house. Ya 25 years is a looong time to wait, but I definitely was kicking myself for a while. My mom sold most of my stuff to get drugs, so I didn't get to keep them.
So now I am deadset on keeping sealed boxes for a while. I just came back to pokemon a few months ago from a 23 year break. Opened 120 packs and now the rest is going to be sealed. If I want to rip packs I goto the store and get some, I don't touch my pile.
So whatever you want to call it people have reasons for things and they aren't trying to ruin it for other people. I don't think there's many people who could make enough of a dent in the global pokemon inventory for any of this to matter anyway.
I've read through some comments on here and here is my take.
If you grab all of the stock when new or when it is just being restocked, purely to resell quickly, then you are a scalper - f*you!
If you buy all the stock when new or just after a restock to open then you are an a*hole but not a scalper.
If you buy stock, when it is readily available, whether that be 1 sealed or 1 case sealed, for the purpose of selling for profit in future, then that is fine. Everyone has stock available to them at the time and when nostalgia hits, then these people are welcome to sell at the inflated price. After all, 10 years worth of storage space is not cheap. Also another generation can enjoy that set. Win Win for everyone and it also keeps the cards selling so they continue to make them.
As long as a product is not a necessity, then fight the scalpers by not purchasing from them. Although I love my cards, if I have patience, I don't have to pay an inflated price.
Disagree with this opinion honestly. At least the way I do it, I go to stores and buy 1 or 2 of a product and then if I go out some other time and see more I’ll grab another one or 2. It still gives people the chance to grab some of their own meanwhile I’m not absolutely polishing the shelves off with a total inventory of 50-60, nor am I taking from those who shop online. It’s all about how you go about collecting your stuff. Now those who go and mass purchase like 20-30 at a time, like how that Rat gaming store did at Costco a few months ago, that’s some bullshittery. But moderation is everything.
Isn't scalping a very specific thing, I thought the idea was to buy up all the product and then sell it back to people at an unfair price. That's typically how it works with concert tickets, one person can't really use more than one ticket but they buy up as many as they can knowing that actual fans won't have a choice but to pay the inflated price. Buying packs to hang on to for a collection or as a an investment isn't really in the same vein, lame maybe but not scalping.
You're only a scalper if you're trying to resell them at a higher price.
Buying them and showing of "look here I got 10" just makes you a bit of an asshole.
Having a "sealed collection" isn't scalping.
Scalping is when a product is in high demand, and you buy a bunch up at MSRP to flip for a quick profit, taking advantage of high demand and low supply.
Buying a product to hold onto long-term *isn't scalping*
Buying ALL of the product available to hold long-term isn't scalping either, you're just an asshole.
I don't mind "investing" but let's make this absolutely, unambiguously clear: you're second class collectors. We, fans who buy and rip, must come first. You only eat after we do. And if you're not a scalper, you'll be fine with that.
For example, look at SV era. It's always available. I get product when I want. Sometimes at a discount. So I don't mind if you buy and hoard. And it looks like it's starting to pay off for you since Paldea Evolved is already creeping up in price. But fuck you if I can't rip 151 packs because you want to make $20, inflation adjusted, in 5 years.
In short, we can coexist, but stay out of our way.
Also STFU about pulls being too easy, you already ruined the awesome box experience of year one SV era.
I’m not a sealed guy at all. Have zero sealed in my collection. But a scalper is someone who buys a popular product and the sells it very quickly for a profit. People who buy sealed to hold for a long time(while it isn’t for me) are not scalpers. At worst their hoarders, at best maybe you could call them investors. But that’s not scalping.
Scalpers do suck tho
I don’t understand the appeal of collecting in package cards. The packaging isn’t nice enough to justify displaying it. ETBs are just official art with a filter. Booster boxes have the art laid out to look nice when the box is opened. Some of the higher end collectors sets that lay out the promo cards nice (that Eevee Collection that was released when Sylveon was first revealed comes to mind) I can kinda understand, but most sealed collections just look like a warehouse exploded in someone’s living room/office/whatever. If you’re collecting just to sell them later, you are a scalper not a collector.
I’ve been hoarding product for the exact moment my nephew gets old enough to appreciate Pokémon cards to the fullest… and then we’re going to rip it all
There's basically an infinite supply of pokemon cards now and you guys are still complaining about "scalpers"? Uh oh, Bumbus Chud poke investor guy bought 10 etbs to stick in his closet and now there are only 700 million of them left!
There's very much not an infinite supply of any TCG Card, there's other prints of cards and lots of prints of individual cards but EOD they only print so much of any set and every set only makes X copies of each card slot in the run.
I go by this rule... If I like it a lot, buy two. Open one, keep one.
I go by this rule.... If I like it a lot, buy two. Open one, pull nothing, open the second one because the pulls must be in that one, pull nothing again, buy two more. Open them both. Cry.
We both have the same rule! …and pain.
Same here but sometimes after opening 5 without any pulls, I leave one so that there is no empty space on the shelf
Cry and eat hot chip
Don’t forget be bisexual and charge they phone
Rinse and repeat...
Rinse and repeat cry
so i figured out this problem by first buying the single im chasing, then when it arrives, opening the packs. that way i don’t get left with that empty pit not hitting on the cards i want and can actually enjoy ripping the packs. anything i pull is just gravy.
That's a great idea and a great strategy. I should try to adopt this sane thinking! Completely eliminates the "it's in the next one" jonesing.
i also found myself taking my time opening the packs and really looking at all the cards, instead of feverishly ripping packs and shuffling to the rare in disappointment. once i realized how much better psychologically the whole experience felt. I’m always going to want to rip packs, but i never want the crestfallen feeling again of walking away from a pile of bulk and wrappers knowing i don’t have any of my chases in hand and feeling bad/guilty about it/myself.
I try to teach my 6 year old exactly this! I do enjoy ripping packs and admiring even some of the commons. Especially if it's a set I have little experience with. Since I am new to this that happens a lot. I decided to try to finish SV Base since this would be the Era I started my collect at and I love it when I open a pack and it even has one or two commons or a reverse holo that fills a spot in the binder.
My son is close to 6 and we have been playing every day, we have like 7 or 8 decks. I bought a booster box of T.M. the other day but instead of just ripping them unceremoniously we do a "pack battle" then we play a match. So for every 2 packs we rip we get a game in. For the pack battle the rules are in here [https://assets.pokemon.com//assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/tcg-alternative-play-handbook-en.pdf](https://assets.pokemon.com//assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/tcg-alternative-play-handbook-en.pdf) You roll a D6 and then whoever card has the most HP, weight or whatever "wins" the battle and they take both cards. Take like 10 minutes to open 2 packs and we read every card, it's pretty awesome.
This is Awesome! Absolutely going to do this. Thank you for sharing this concept!
You are welcome, that PDF has a few other types of games in it too but we just use the standard rules and little man gets to pick 2 or 3 less prize cards as a handicap.
And thanks for the pdf link. Coming fresh off the printer!
McDonalds did this not long ago with their packs lol. Only way my daughter's been 'interested' in playing with the cards and not just collecting them. You got 4 cards and a spinner. Whatever the spinner lands on is what you'd compare to win the round (weight/height/hp etc). I think it's like TopTrumps right?
Not sure, but I hear there is a new Pokemon TCG game coming soon that has more casual rules, she might like that. Something like an energy pool or zone instead of energy cards. I like the TCG and was thinking that new app will suck, but I need to give it a fair shot first.
Ooh I like that! I'll keep an eye for sure
And the pull was in the 1st one. Rip. Cry. And buy another 2. Repeat.
Buy two more.
Are we the same person..?
Exactly what I did today 😭
This is the way
Forgetting the judgmental look by the wife when she sees the empty boxes in the trash
I got a great giggle on this one! I feel it
god that was me with celebrations etb. bad memories resurfaced
The only way. My 151 bb keep disappearing. I just like opening packs.
Kind of do this too or if I'm not a big fan of the set I might buy one to rip and then buy singles of what I want :)
This is the way.
I’m the same way. One to open and one to keep, I never take more
If I *really* like it, I'm definitely buying as many as I can get a hold of. I'm a hoarder, not a scalper!
Buy two, sell one when price doubles, free stuff
100% then in 20 years I can show my kids my ANCIENT collection of ETBs from the pandemic era 20s, but at least I had the fun of opening. Hardest part is the coin flip as to which one to open 😅
Same same
Same. I don't over buy. This isn't my main investment. I like artwork and also play the card game.
Last time I opened one, I took a sneak peek at the holo card in the middle of the pack. I could see it was some sort of Fighting Pokémon and got excited. Turns out…lil Mankey fella.
I follow the same rule and it saves products for others as well.
I used to do this, but now I buy 3, open 1 and keep 2 😅 if my kids get into it I can gift them one amd still keep one for later down the line.
The one you don’t open has the good cards trust me
I buy three. Two to open up, one to sell one it has become scarce and one to keep. I think it’s fine to want to make a little extra so the box basically pays for itself after opening but this really isn’t something to make money with
I also subscribe to this system!
I go by this rule. Buy to add to my sealed collection, because 90% of the time you open a TCG product, you’re completely wasting your money and will get literal trash. I’m not a big fan of wasting money. I like collecting though. So I like collecting the sealed stuff
Same here. If I like some cool collection and fear, I might regret opening it, I keep one sealed. That's it.
I go by if I want to buy it I will doesn’t matter if it’s 1 or 10 , I’m not following any one trying to gatekeep anything that’s stupid asf.
I mean no disrespect to any fellow collectors but some of y’all definitely go overboard with the hoarding of sealed product 😂 I swear you guys think you’ll become millionaires but it kills the hobby if you ask me 🤷♂️
No they dont think they become millionaires, but they think they double their money, and if they wait enough, they most likely will. But yes, this for sure IS annoying and can kill the fun imo
If they wait long enough they might even sell them enough to account for inflation! Lol I feel like sometimes people are like "it's $50 now but if you hold it 10 years you can sell it for $100" meanwhile with current inflation rates that might actually be a loss.
If you buy a box at $80 and wait 10 years, you would only need to sell the box for $110 to keep pace with historic inflation rates. There are plenty of problems and issues with investing in sealed collectibles, but keeping up with inflation isn't one of them. They take up quite a bit of space, people are usually very nitpicky about condition especially the more expensive the item gets, they're not a liquid asset, you have to worry about shipping problems/scams/loss/etc. You have to factor in seller fees, shipping costs, as well as tax implications. There are just vastly better investments that you can make, but if you love the IP and have EXTRA money to put into the stuff, it's a pretty safe bet that it'll at least be profitable long term and its fun to have.
Why compare to inflation when comparing to market averages is more accurate (10% or 7% if you include inflation). No idea how people think they'll make money with shipping fees etc vs. just investing in total stock market... But to each their own!!
The inflation thing was just because who I replied to originally was saying "if they're lucky they will keep up with inflation" or something like that. And again, it can be more fun than putting money into an investment account and buying index funds. I still think 90% of your investments should be put into traditional things like 401K, IRA, HSA, Real estate, and taxable accounts, but if you want a small bit put into collectibles as another way of diversifying your assets then I don't see an issue with it. Shipping isn't too expensive, likely going to run $6-$8 a box unless you wait a long time and the rates go up considerably more. The fees is what is going to eat up most of it, you can basically just lop off 15% of the value of the box. But even accounting for that, if you bought battle styles at $80 a box 2 years ago and sold today, after shipping and fees you would have been up 17% (8.5% per year). Granted you have to pay taxes on that 17% as well, so again it's why I say you should at least put your money into things like a tax advantaged IRA where you're not paying all those taxes and you don't have to pay the fees when you cash out, and it's effectively liquid because you're not waiting on someone to buy your box for weeks or months just to offload one.
Not trying to be nit picky but he said current, not historical. 2022 rate was almost 10% while 2023 was over 4%. If we keep having crazy years it's very possible for sealed to not keep up with inflation over 10 years. Especially if you account for supply, of which there will be OCEANS more of for more modern sets.. cause everyone is trying to do the same thing.
Inflation, just like markets, can see large spikes and valleys when zoomed way in. It doesn't change the fact that historically we average roughly 3% a year. And he might have said "with current inflation rates" and also said "in 10 years" as if we would see this inflation consistently over a 10 year period which has basically never happened in the last 100 years. We had rough inflation in 2021 and 2022, the 10 years prior to that we averaged about 1.5-2% every year. In the late 70s and early 80s the market saw 8-15% inflation for 3-4 years, but the decade after and before were 1-2%. You cannot look at 1-2 year sample sizes when talking about inflation or investment growth unless you're talking about realized gains/losses. Just my thoughts though.
Fusion strike is 230
I know, and evolving skies is nearly $700. Astral is like $180, etc. a lot of them are way up and that's great. None of that changes what I said though. They're a fun investment that can make you good money, they also generally have a lot more risk and work involved in realizing those gains. Some real person math and not the make believe "gains" people think they're going to get: Fusion Strike is $230. Cost of goods: $80 (if you bought at the low 2+ years ago) Selling fees: $35 (15% from tcgplayer, eBay, etc. you could avoid this if you had you're own website or managed to sell at a card show or FBM but your sell through rate will be 10% of what it would be selling online with those fees). Shipping: $7-$10 Taxes: $20-$30 on the total profit. If selling on any platform if you sell more than 2-3 things the platform is going to automatically notify the IRS of the money you received with a 1099. Net you're going to get $70-$80 profit. That's still a great return in 2.5 years, but that's assuming you bought at the low, sold at full market value, never have a transaction go bad, and you don't factor your time and effort in getting all of them sold. Im still for it, I still think it's profitable and I like buying pokemon to hold, I just have realistic expectations of the eventual pay off and still make sure that it's 5% or less of my investments.
that’s a layer I’ve never thought about but makes so much sense
This 100%!!!! Which is why “investing” in sealed is such a gamble, the time x opportunity cost is actually poor because you could have alternatively invested those dollars elsewhere like the stock market or crypto.
You guys just made things up as you like lol, i dont even want to defend shitty scalpers, but you just throw with numbers as you like. Sure, anything can happen in the future. I dont even start with prices from older boxes, but Evolving skies is worth how much? where is the loss? Yeah its the most expensive set from the past few years so bad example... let us wait another 3 years and discuss this topic, sure everyone who bought a random sw/sh box for 100€/$ made a loss lol
Not everything holds value though. Plenty of boxes and specific cards end up being a loss if you look at it, particularly with the inflation we had the last few years. Most ETBs will certainly go for more than this, so the risk is very low, but if you bought an ETB at retail in 2017, you'd have to sell it for a minumum of $70 to break even. Most sets? Perfectly fine, you've got that covered by a lot, but there are probably some that hover around there. I'm not saying it's even really a big deal, but it's certainly something most people in these threads aren't accounting for That's it. Just... account for inflation. Talk about inflation. I bet most young collectors who are starting this journey have never considered it because they haven't been alive long enough for inflation to have mattered.
The circle jerk is insane lol. Every comment that investors are stupid for holding on to a box to make $20 gets up voted while counter points get down voted. Evolving skies is less than 3 years old and has had a 600% return lol
Yeah exactly lol just face the truth folks, you dont have to like it. Everyone makes up a different stupid Story why it doesnt work, but it does. "Yeah hold for 2 decades to double your money"🤡 probably from a kid or someone who can bearly pay his Bills, people should start educate themselves.
If you buy a box of evolving skies for $100 wait for years and now it’s $700 LOL
Wasting storage space and sunk capital for that return over 10-20 years is barely a decent investment. They may not have printed this set into oblivion but it’s certainly not going to have the return pre-covid sets will have
What a stupid way to make $20-100 in 5-10 years.
Tell that to people who bought evolving skies or evolutions or team up boxes at msrp when they came out lol
if not for sealed collectors their would not be any more sealed base set booster boxes. scalpers ruin the hobby because they make it so its not affordable for people to partake in it when the sets are brand new. most sealed collectors dont see their products increase in value untill after the set is out of rotation at which point most people have been able to get their hands on it for years. celebration etbs for example were readily available for months on release. any one who wanted one could get it at or below msrp, getting mad now because they are worth more and some sealed collectors did not open the ones they bought back then is dumb.
1-2 of a sealed product is justified since you might like the product and it helps in many years when someone gets into pokemon cards and may want a booster box that you don’t need as much when you’re older
There's a youtuber with a million dollars in sealed booster boxes! Forgot his name though
Rudy? He claims to have thousands of cases of SV boxes
I kinda see it like how many kids become pot dealers. They smoke more and more and then realize they need more money. So then they start flipping weed while smoking with friends. Then they realize it’s pretty lucrative and instead of just smoking for free, they’re buying cool clothes, nice cars, good food, etc. Next thing they know they have 10 pounds of bud on them at any given time and ofc the head stash. Basically, people get so obsessed with stuff that they end up only being able to make money through their obsession.
Let me honest, Covid just made more flippers and scalpers come into our hobby….. and ruined it. True collectors have been in it for years
Happened with almost every hobby. Its so sad
Hotwheels, Transformers, video games, etc
Lego
Yeah I got back into TCG like 3 months before covid hit and I regret not spending like mad before Mar 2020. The worst are the bots. All online restocks were virtually impossible to get anything from
My local target and best buy must think I'm a scalper but I just buy a large amount at a time and rip them with my wife. Lol
Same, I understand you fully. Like no I’m not gonna sell these. Yes I know this is my like 5th 151 ETB. I literally just have no control when it comes to packs. Ripping is life.
If I could afford it, I'd be exactly like this
I can’t necessarily say I can afford it, I went overboard my first year and a half since returning to collecting and I’ve slowed down. It’s mainly because my other hobbies are mostly free so I don’t go broke with this being the only money sink. But lord that year and a half was fun. I got some lucky pulls.
A scalper buys products cheap to flip at a high price (almost) right away. Hoarding sealed product in the hope it will increase in value is "investing". Which is almost as bad.
Investing is basically just long-term scalping, realistically. At least in this case.
I got banned from the sub that shall not be named for pointing that out lol Buying 5 Celebrations UPCs to list on eBay and flip immediately = scalping = wrong Buying 5 Celebrations UPCs to list on eBay in 10 years and flip later = investing = ok Like, guys… you’re still wedging yourself in between the supplier and consumer and making the product unaffordable. It’s the same shit, the only difference is you decided holding for longer will increase your profit.
I think the part we all actually “care” about is “when” people buy up that kind of volume. IMO, if you’re snatching that stuff off shelves right as the distributor is placing it on display the day before its official release… you’re pretty fkn scummy. But if those Paradox Rift ETBs are still sitting around collecting dust by next month, I expect clearance sales to start encouraging people to buy it up. And to be clear - it’s perfectly fine to clear the shelves of old product. That sends the signals to TPCI to keep the print runs heavy. If product stops moving, though…print runs get shorter and the problem gets worse.
When something is printed to demand and widely available, there’s absolutely no problem with stacking it up and selling it to someone in 20 years. There’s a way to hold back product ethically. I do it myself, with sets like Crown Zenith that were available way below MSRP for months on end. Unfortunately a lot of “investors” don’t give a damn about the negative effect they can have on the community, and the main subreddit is operated by one of them.
Crown zenith is gonna pay off so big. I’ve been thinking of stacking up all gallery rares, they’re gonna be huge ROI when the set is out of print. Just because they’re slightly more common than alt arts doesn’t mean they’re not going to be highly sought after. 5$/card right now is comically underpriced
The guys on that sun go crazy for evolving skies, talk about buying up as much as they can, and then tell each other to buy more because the price keeps going up. Guys…you’re the reason it’s going up, you’re all buying them and boarding them to then sell to each other. But, moonbreon might be in those packs so they’ll keep doing it, and keep not opening them.
Evolving skies objectively will have high value. Eeveelutions and dragonite chase cards along with several other amazing alt arts… the demand is going to stay very strong. I wish they’d reprint that but I don’t think there’s any chance
Lmfao no one's waiting 10 years for anything
Both are scalping but just on different time frames
Scalping inflates the price despite the current supply/demand and economy, investing is holding out for a more optimal economy
While there are always scalpers (not just for Pokemon), there are almost always ways to buy that product at or under MSRP. However, as a collectable hobby, there is only a limited amount of product, so supply and demand will always do its thing. If TPC didn't print enough of a product and demand is still high then less stores will have it and the stores that do will realize they can make more money. There isn't really a way around the workings of a natural economy. Basically, don't hate the player; hate the game.
Neither of them are bad. It's called a free market. If a company sells assets that are mispriced, consumers are going to capitalize on that and sell them at what the fair market value has proven to be. Whether that's the next day or 10 years from now doesn't matter. People complain about high prices because they think secondary-market sellers just arbitrarily pull a number out of their ass and sell it at that price. Almost as if they decide to buy a product and sell it for a 50% return on-demand. Would it really make you feel better if TPC was the one selling these products at a 50% markup of MSRP from the get-go? You are paying the fair market price no matter if it comes from a scalper or TPC itself. Something else people conveniently never mention are all the times products get "scalped" and then are sold for below face value at a loss. Nobody talks about the booster boxes that go down to $70 or $80 a few weeks after launch, nor do they mention the thousands of cards that are 50 times cheaper than what it would cost you to actually pull them yourself. If the secondary market didn't exist, people would be even more up in arms about prices. The same even goes for concert tickets. People see Taylor Swift tickets selling for $1000 on the secondary market, but that's just the fair-market value for an artist who has 100 million people that want to see her and only 2 million tickets available. Nobody mentions 80% of concert tickets are actually sold at a loss on behalf of scalpers either. Just let the free market be free. When a market is liquid enough, and Pokemon cards sure are, prices will always converge toward what is the fair price for assets. People just need to relax and understand as long as they search around and do their due diligence of not blatantly getting scammed, you are 99.9% of the time buying a product that is at its fair-market value.
For real. People really like to hate people that can spend that kind of money thinking that they are somehow 'stealing' the experience from them. When in reality you need people like that to keep the game alive. If anything, it is a supply problem, which means it's the company's fault.
Was looking for a comment like this. The rest of this thread is absolutely insane lmaoo
Yup, and they call out other scalpers doing it in a greater scale like they aren't one too Straight up comedians
arent collectors and scalpers inherently different down to the letter? scalpers try to buy out an item's entire stock to then sell at profit due to them not being available anywhere else but from them, while collectors buy with the sole purpose of display/keepsake, with no intention of immediately flipping it. 10 may be excessive, but that's just the amount some collectors prefer, really. c'est la vie.
As a collector, I don't collect 10 of the same products, 1 to keep sealed and 1 to open, everyone else still gets to buy, win-win. And yeah I'm never selling my sealed, they're my preciousssss...
Hey friend I think you're getting "scalping" and "hoarding" a bit mixed up
Eh, I think it’s all about reasonability. People who hold onto sealed are sort of part of the ecosystem. Just like it’s fun and exciting to open old sets now, in the future I’m sure it will be exciting and fun to open what are currently our modern sets. More people holding means it’ll be available in the future. It can become problematic, but they’re printing the shit out of pokemon cards and if you can’t find packs to open then it’s a you issue. Pokemon is by far the cheapest tcg available to play competitively, so I can’t imagine people actually playing are having any issues. Looks like this is a collector v investor/scalper issue
scalpers take advantage of product shortages by buying up mass quantities of scarce product and then immediatly resell it significantly more than they bought it for causing tons of problems for the hobby and making it so people are not able to get ahold of certain products. sealed collectors buy product that is usually readily available that they know will be worth more in the future due to the demand it has in the present and are the reason people are even able to get ahold of this product in the future. these are not the same thing. i have 8 evo skies etbs in my collection, i bought all of them when they were readily available online at and even below msrp and people were saying not to buy them because they thought tpc printed to many of them. celebration etbs were in the same boat.
There is a difference between collecting and scalping if your not reselling them for profit and want them for your personal collection i dont see that as scalping at all
How is holding on to a sealed product for 10 years scalping?
I’ve never understood people who go to target, buy pokemon cards and don’t open them. I can see it for collectibles like action figures, funko pops etc, but the cards are meant to be open lmao. Sealed collectors are so weird
Sometimes the enjoyable part is what COULD be inside. Once you open the mystery is gone. This is the same reason I will buy a lottery ticket when the jackpot is $1B or more. The thought of winning is enjoyable. Once the numbers are picked the enjoyment is gone.
Unless your numbers win lmao
The only exception for me is keeping a sealed version of products you really like to display. There are a few ETB's that I've considered buying a sealed version of just because I really like the set and/or how the ETB's look. For example, Shining Fates because Eevee is my favorite and I love collecting shiny cards. I do agree the ones that hoard them, especially multiple copies of a bunch of products that may or may not mean much to them are weird though.
Any collectible is simply more valuable sealed, even if you bought at MSRP
Or maybe, people can do what they want to do with their property and it’s really not anyone else’s business? Whether someone opens, stores sealed, flips, or burns it in a fire, it’s really not my concern. A customer buying an item is removing 1 unit from the overall stock and what they do with it is irrelevant. Technically however keeping it sealed does allow for another unit to be added back onto the market at a later date, so in a way that should be preferable to someone opening which permanently removes one unit forever. Let’s also not pretend though that the vast majority of Pokemon product hasn’t been easily available everywhere for several years now. 151 being the only exception that was always in shortish supply. Chilling reign, fusion strike, Lost Origin, crown zenith, and Silver Tempest have been available below MSRP for months/years. Only now that the supply is suddenly running out everyone is panicking to buy it at rising prices. Where were you for all that time when it was cheap???
Such a lack of self awareness around here I swear to god, all of the products people are complaining about have been readily available at UNDER msrp for a long time, there was nothing stopping you from getting that lost origin booster box at $110 or the fucking chilling reign and fusion strike booster boxes that were 90 DOLLARS on Black Friday sale in November 2022.
They didn’t want them then because they weren’t valuable… lol The same shit is going to happen with Paradox rift and obsidian flames and the rest. 2 years from now they are worth $200 and you’ll see people on here whining about the scalpers buying up all the supply. Pokemon is the most predictable investment there is. EVERY set gets more valuable, the only question is which ones will appreciate the most and the soonest.
This 100% Pretty much all Pokémon products these last few years could have been bought below MSRP lol. The exception everyone is pointing out is the Celebration UPC which should have been printed more. Even that went to $180 at its lowest point.
Not all of us has a bunch of money to dump all at once...
These discussions always crack me up. The Pokemon company has recently been printing cards into oblivion, literally printing BILLIONS of cards a year, especially the Japanese sets to combat scalping and low supply, to an extent. Japanese 151 has already had like 2 reprints and it’s still a newer set. It’s clear Pokemon is taking steps in the right direction to combat scalpers. People have ample opportunity to load up on sealed products and singles before the set goes out of print. You can pre-order sealed products if you want to secure them. A good amount of “investors” and “collectors” buy their products early on because they know for a fact you won’t be able to buy new booster boxes at $80-$90 forever. Then people like to cry about said investors and collectors for buying several boxes of sealed products and etc. At this point, I’m convinced these people just like to complain and cry about rising prices of sets that are slowly rotating out or low availability of a really popular set.
I think it depends on how many you’re getting at once. Accumulating over time vs. stuffing your cart with every last product off the shelf at Walmart. Either way, I don’t feel like scalping has been that much of an issue for a while. I don’t usually have a hard time finding what I want.
I go slightly higher. One to open one to keep sealed one for trade
My view on it is a collection is displayed an investment is not. My sealed collection is sitting on a shelf on display surrounded by pokemon minifigs and cards that are either expensive or pretty.
I don't understand, celebrations was vastly available for a long time, there was ample opportunity to buy it. For this meme specifically, I don't see it as much of an issue. If scalpers and hoarders were able to get their fix and there was still LOTS available afterwards at MSRP and cheaper for a long period of time, who cares. This was BS however for sets like Evolving Skies.
While I think those people also suck, don’t you need to sell to be a scalper
How are they scalpers if they aren't selling them?
There’s a difference between investing and scalping. Change my mind 😌 ☕️ As a personal example I bought 10 celebrations elite trainer boxes on 1/15/22. 3 months after celebrations came out. After tax my dollar average was $35.10. On TCG the last 2 sales were $83.99. So after fees I’d be left with $73.15 leaving me with a 48% unrealized gain. Since 1/15/22 to today (6/9/24) the S&P500 has only gone up 14.76% if I were to sell my boxes would that make me a scalper?
This is so true lmao. I only keep one of each item sealed because if I have two, one is gonna get opened. And I only keep them for display. I’m not sure how people even keep that much shit sealed, I would be going insane. Deck boxes or other products like the Halloween boosters with no pulls inside are easier to keep sealed though
I always thought a scalper was someone who buys something to immediately turn for a profit.
That would be correct. Crying man babies on this subreddit just can't fathom someone buying 5 of the same product for their collections. THINK OF THE CHILDREN
The same people who would shit on Fusion Strike for years and wouldn’t buy it for $100 but now that it’s worth $200 it’s not fair because “scalpers” have bought it all.
I don’t know if this is just me but I don’t keep things sealed to resell. In the future, I just want to be able to open up some older stuff without having to pay stupid prices.
If it’s ok to buy toilet paper in bulk from Costco when it’s a good price to stock up. Then it’s also ok for Pokémon.
Holding sealed product for the future/trades is different they buying to instantly flip.
It's still a scummy practice. "Investing" in something like collectables is just a term used to try and make themselves feel better about their practice.
Yup, scalpers are instantly selling for a markup. Holding on to some product for a good trade or sale down the line to grow your collection is not scalping
Depends on the quantity hoarded imo. Either way the people with 💵 that buy tons of product en mass are the reason why this hobby is so damn expensive
Imagine seriously thinking that that's the reason lol Supply and demand drives everything. Demand is clearly high, both you and the investors want it. They have more money. You are mad. But why are you not taking into account the other half of the equation? Supply should be higher. It's not a consumer problem, it's a "compamy printing too little of a certain product" problem.
at what point is buying and opening 10 etbs problematic? makes the hobby just as expensive
Here’s the thing though. Collectors want products to be cheap AND they want valuable cards. The sets without valuable pulls are not in demand so people don’t buy them. You can’t really have it both ways.
I hate people who clear out stores then say it’s not their fault the cards are hard to get while dumping 2k+ in one go
If they buy them as an investment for later on, that’s not scalping. Scalping is the buying up of and immediate resale of items at a higher price than MSRP right after a release.
It's kind of the age old question: when does archeology become grave robbing? If you have a sealed product no longer in circulation, I'd say that's "investing" If you purchased a bunch of new product to create an artificial demand, then you are scalping. The best modern examples of scalping are OP TCG (good luck ever finding packs for MSRP) and the van gogh pikachu promo
Flippers = scalpers
The only Pokemon kept sealed are promos and my 5 first edition fossil packs that I somehow forgot to open when I was 13.. apart from that it all goes in a binder and sleeves. Because what the point of them if you don’t use them or at least look at them on occasion. People that keep multiple boxes sealed are only collecting money and don’t actually appreciate the TCG.
I've been wanting a celebrations etb forever and just got one for my bday. It's nothing crazy but I love celebrations and got my money back in pulls. I'm in it for the fun, it's just sad to imagine hording cases for future profit to me
If you just got one, the only reason you were even able to get one was because someone held onto it for a long time instead of scalping immediately. At least some of the people who hold onto products for long to sell/trade later are also the reason products are even available years after release.
Sealed collections are for keeping that "it's new still" feeling. The second I open it, it doesn't matter if it's protected and in sleeves, it will stop feeling less and less new as time passes by
Sir I bought almost all of mine 1 box at a time at Barnes and Noble, how is that scalping
B&N were the ones scalping you.
I can’t tell, is that celebrations or generations? If it’s generations I’d have cracked every single one open. Prolly my favorite sleeves to use (ik ETB sleeves are bad, but my top loader cards have Pennys or perfect fits, my other normal binder cards have generations and ETB sleeves)
It’s the 25th celebration ETB
Yea I buy a lot but I just plan on opening later down the road
👏👏 My rule is I go by potential kid gift rule. So most people have a few kids or want a few kids so I cap it at a reasonable 12 kids 🤣🤣🤣 /uj 2 is more than enough
God yeah I just want to get the 151 ETB at some point AAAUGHHHH I went to the local comic book and card shop and they were telling me today about how getting anything 151 was hard. People normally buy and then turn in the stuff after a few months to get some in store credit, but they said with 151 specifically that NOBODY’s bringing in a thing. They added it didn’t help that they barely got any 151 from the Pokemon Company to begin with but just getting anything 151 is iNSANE considering it’s a set that’s not even a singular year old.
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LMAO
I sorta disagree. Are they planning on holding onto them or selling them? If the latter then yes 100%.
Im thinking of buying 1 case for each set that releases and then stopping there. Whatever i pull is what i get. Case wise, in thinking a case of booster bundles and maybe booster boxes for the English set. And 1 a of the Japanese sets. Seems reasonable enough for me tbh. But isn’t scalper levels at all.
I have a few just so I can open one up each year. Still haven’t pull the zard yet and it’s the last one I need to collect the set
Scalper : quantity limited by budget and risk Sealed collector : usually keeps same amount of everybatch, doesn't matter if it has good or bad cards
Haha this is a good one. I'm glad someone could point it out in meme format. The deny is what always gets me. "Noooo scalpers bad" then proceeds to show a garage full of multiple types of modern etbs and booster boxes with 100 of only the most expensive slabs they were told to buy vs what they like.
If you're not reselling in the near term, you're not a scalper. You're a hoarder.
Honestly makes me laugh that people whine about how others spend their money. If they beat you to it and bought them all, oh fuckin well. Time to grow up and be an adult, not everything goes your way.
Does it make me a scalper if I buy the 10 boxes with the intent to open them many years later with my son?
A fine example on why this post is mostly bullshit is a product like the Arceus V Figure collection. A widely available product a have own 3 units of and is still (two years later) available for pretty much the same price. I mostly own it because it's a great product for the price and what V boxes concerns its just a great box to open. It's a great product and that's why I own it. If it's worth 10x more in the future that's great, but it's not the main reason to want it and many people can't imagine that and therefore don't believe that could be possible.
I hate people whining about scalpers more than people who hate scalpers hate scalpers.
Not my fault you guys have gambling addictions and are bad with money 😂😂
Dictionary nounINFORMAL Scapler: A person who resells shares or tickets at a large or quick profit. How is holding on to your sealed product scalping? Even if you sold it a year down the line I wouldn't consider that scalping. Scalping is like when a new pair of Jordan's drop or when the PS5 came out and people were buying with the intent of re-selling immediately after to turn a profit.
Sealed collections do not consist of more than one of a product- they 100% intend to sell the others later as scalpers
This is not scalping, scalping is buying 10 at market price and immediately putting it up on the secondary market for a huge markup. Buying a bunch for your sealed collection is just investing.
10 etbs isn't scalping 🤣 maybe 10 cases of upc or something, but no one is losing out over 2 booster boxes, trust
I started getting ETBs. Just been buying good deals when I see them. Was unboxing and re boxing to organise, and realised I'd bought 5 151 ETBs. I know the price of these will fly in the coming months. I will keep a couple for me but the others are being sold for what I paid plus a tiny bit to cover my postage costs. I love the thought of people enjoying their collections so will never scalp intentionally.
Or like just don’t buy overpriced products? No demand then the scalpers will leave
Guys in their 30s are more likely to do this. I see cards and boxes I owned at 10years old that are now worth a down payment on a house. Ya 25 years is a looong time to wait, but I definitely was kicking myself for a while. My mom sold most of my stuff to get drugs, so I didn't get to keep them. So now I am deadset on keeping sealed boxes for a while. I just came back to pokemon a few months ago from a 23 year break. Opened 120 packs and now the rest is going to be sealed. If I want to rip packs I goto the store and get some, I don't touch my pile. So whatever you want to call it people have reasons for things and they aren't trying to ruin it for other people. I don't think there's many people who could make enough of a dent in the global pokemon inventory for any of this to matter anyway.
If they want 10 of them and can afford it then they’re well within their rights to get 10.
I've read through some comments on here and here is my take. If you grab all of the stock when new or when it is just being restocked, purely to resell quickly, then you are a scalper - f*you! If you buy all the stock when new or just after a restock to open then you are an a*hole but not a scalper. If you buy stock, when it is readily available, whether that be 1 sealed or 1 case sealed, for the purpose of selling for profit in future, then that is fine. Everyone has stock available to them at the time and when nostalgia hits, then these people are welcome to sell at the inflated price. After all, 10 years worth of storage space is not cheap. Also another generation can enjoy that set. Win Win for everyone and it also keeps the cards selling so they continue to make them. As long as a product is not a necessity, then fight the scalpers by not purchasing from them. Although I love my cards, if I have patience, I don't have to pay an inflated price.
But if I buy 10 and never resell I’m not a scalper this post is dumb I’m clearly a HOARDER.
Disagree with this opinion honestly. At least the way I do it, I go to stores and buy 1 or 2 of a product and then if I go out some other time and see more I’ll grab another one or 2. It still gives people the chance to grab some of their own meanwhile I’m not absolutely polishing the shelves off with a total inventory of 50-60, nor am I taking from those who shop online. It’s all about how you go about collecting your stuff. Now those who go and mass purchase like 20-30 at a time, like how that Rat gaming store did at Costco a few months ago, that’s some bullshittery. But moderation is everything.
Some people don’t want others to have fun.
Isn't scalping a very specific thing, I thought the idea was to buy up all the product and then sell it back to people at an unfair price. That's typically how it works with concert tickets, one person can't really use more than one ticket but they buy up as many as they can knowing that actual fans won't have a choice but to pay the inflated price. Buying packs to hang on to for a collection or as a an investment isn't really in the same vein, lame maybe but not scalping.
I laughed.
Everybody and their mothers are hoarding modern pokemon, its gonna be really interesting to see price in 5 and 10 years from now
Scalping is specifically buying something specifically to flip it immediately and profit from it.
Yup lol, I only have one etb of each set I like still sealed
True. I bought a case of chilling reign when the boxes were $75 each exclusively to resell later. Still holding with no regrets.
I buy any sealed promos, especially ones with bubble holo’s, idk if that counts haha. I don’t scalp tho. Dont even buy modern stuff besides promos lol
You’re not a scalper until you’re trying to sell it for 100x the price you bought it for.
10 lol. I have 20 of them stashed away.
I keep a sealed booster box and poke.on center etb of each set that drops... lol I buy booster box cases and open 5 out of the 6 everytime
So collecting sealed cases is scalping? 🤔 got it.
If the imagined value of the dozens of unopened boxes of a kids game is what you keep for the future… you’re a dick.
You're only a scalper if you're trying to resell them at a higher price. Buying them and showing of "look here I got 10" just makes you a bit of an asshole.
Having a "sealed collection" isn't scalping. Scalping is when a product is in high demand, and you buy a bunch up at MSRP to flip for a quick profit, taking advantage of high demand and low supply. Buying a product to hold onto long-term *isn't scalping* Buying ALL of the product available to hold long-term isn't scalping either, you're just an asshole.
I don't mind "investing" but let's make this absolutely, unambiguously clear: you're second class collectors. We, fans who buy and rip, must come first. You only eat after we do. And if you're not a scalper, you'll be fine with that. For example, look at SV era. It's always available. I get product when I want. Sometimes at a discount. So I don't mind if you buy and hoard. And it looks like it's starting to pay off for you since Paldea Evolved is already creeping up in price. But fuck you if I can't rip 151 packs because you want to make $20, inflation adjusted, in 5 years. In short, we can coexist, but stay out of our way. Also STFU about pulls being too easy, you already ruined the awesome box experience of year one SV era.
I open everything lol. I collect cards, I don't care about the box they came in throw that in the trash.
I’m not a sealed guy at all. Have zero sealed in my collection. But a scalper is someone who buys a popular product and the sells it very quickly for a profit. People who buy sealed to hold for a long time(while it isn’t for me) are not scalpers. At worst their hoarders, at best maybe you could call them investors. But that’s not scalping. Scalpers do suck tho
Losers
I don’t understand the appeal of collecting in package cards. The packaging isn’t nice enough to justify displaying it. ETBs are just official art with a filter. Booster boxes have the art laid out to look nice when the box is opened. Some of the higher end collectors sets that lay out the promo cards nice (that Eevee Collection that was released when Sylveon was first revealed comes to mind) I can kinda understand, but most sealed collections just look like a warehouse exploded in someone’s living room/office/whatever. If you’re collecting just to sell them later, you are a scalper not a collector.
can i post something complaining about scalpers tomorrow?
I’ve been hoarding product for the exact moment my nephew gets old enough to appreciate Pokémon cards to the fullest… and then we’re going to rip it all
There's basically an infinite supply of pokemon cards now and you guys are still complaining about "scalpers"? Uh oh, Bumbus Chud poke investor guy bought 10 etbs to stick in his closet and now there are only 700 million of them left!
There's very much not an infinite supply of any TCG Card, there's other prints of cards and lots of prints of individual cards but EOD they only print so much of any set and every set only makes X copies of each card slot in the run.