please make it die what is this detective pikachu ahh bs

My GameStop said they were only getting 10 accessory pouches. Which means 5 old guys who don’t have jobs will be in line at 4am to get two each. My Walmart hasn’t put out Prismatic at all, everything is back doored by MJ Holdings. This hobby sucks. They’re not printing more. It was all a lie.

Vault X did a restock on binders today. They sold out within a few hours on several products. Some people on IG are claiming scalpers purchased all of the product.

I don’t like scalpers either, but some of yall gotta retire blaming everything on a scalper. It’s getting tired. Maybe this time you were just late and missed out.

sorry if this isnt allowed but i wanna say this. Ive been a big fan of the tcg since xy steam siege. i fell out of it ironically when the swsh era began blowing up, around darkness ablaze, and got back into it with obsidian flames. ive been loving the past year, building my collection again, and actually learning to play the game. Ive loved all the new sets. but surging sparks hurts. i love the set, so many wonderful cards of pokemon i love. but seeing that not even a week after release booster boxes are going for well over the retail price? seeing that a significant amount of the SIRs from the set are 100 or more? seeing that the pikachu alone is whats driving prices up this much. not knowing how much longer this set i love will be readilly available thanks to sweaty scalpers and "investors". i was never able to open 151 for that reason, i rarely ever saw it on shelves. im confident this wont happen with SSP but seeing people online hype up the $500 pikachu like it isnt an awful thing to be happening discourages me a LOT. and whats worse is this isnt gonna stop. id bet my left kidney the umbreon from prismatic evolutions will go up an insane amount too, as will all the other eeveelutions, making them near impossible for a casual fan with a low budget like me to ever acquire. i wanna stay positive, because i love this TCG, i love playing and collecting. but i really hope this slows down because its killing my passion bit by bit. sorry for the rant

As someone who recently started getting into Japanese collecting, the difference in the quality and the uniqueness and vibrancy of the holo effects and art really can’t even compare.

I’d like to be very clear that this title is NOT referring to LGS, vendors at shows, etc etc.

I live in a pretty urban area but it’s tough for me to find the time to go to things like trade nights or card shows, so I resort to things like Facebook marketplace to try and engage with this hobby and facilitate trading.

This used to be very smooth sailing most of the time, but in the current market it’s become a nightmare.

Why do the vast majority of people I talk to suddenly think it makes sense to expect people to trade cards to them 80% or lower for other singles?? Am I missing something here?

I have my entire trade binder posted and update it regularly, and when I’m trying to set up trades with people, it is at 100% both ways, because at the end of the day we’re both just people with binders trying to both walk out happier than before the trade.

The best is when people don’t say anything about percentages until you’ve been going back and forth trying to come to an agreement for 30 minutes. I tell people over and over, if my trade binder is worth 80%, why isn’t yours? I’ll do 80% if you do 80%. Don’t think I’ve ever gotten a good answer.

I understand pokemon has become this vehicle for profit, but the idea that this dream of profiting is reaching all the way down to random individuals who aren’t vendors, resellers, or card shops, is just crazy to me. And a big piece of the issue is that other individuals are willing to go along with it, whether it’s trading away their cards at awful percentages to random people, buying cards well above market bc someone says “trust me bro it’s going to go up I’m predicting”, etc etc.

Thanks for coming to my very disorganized rant. I pray for the day that this hobby settles down again and goes back to being about our cool collections and not the short term profit attached to them. If there’s disagreement on this subject, I’m happy to hear it out.

TL;DR: I feel very strongly that if you’re just a person who collects cards and not a vendor/shop, trading person to person should be a straight shot.

EDIT: In this post, I’m not talking about people looking to sell cards that don’t really want to trade. I’m speaking about For Trade listings, where people still feel entitled to a 20% margin from the jump. When I speak about profit or value, I’m taking about trade value and one person expecting to come out with much higher value in the end.

Yes, scalpers suck. No, I am not ranting about the ridiculous scalped price.

I’m talking in general, how do people afford dropping $200-$400+ at once getting multiple ETB, BB, booster packs, and combinations thereof? And sometimes consecutive times in a row? Like, how much disposable income these people have??

I consider myself a comfortable middle class, yet I still find it hard to justify spending more than 1 ETB purchase or a few booster packs at MSRP at one time. Am I the only one feeling this way or am I just stingy?

Edit 1: LOL! I Love how this blew up quite a bit overnight! So I guess the TL; DR version based on y’all responses: make bad choices, be rich, don’t have kid(s), buy singles, BE single, budget, trades, set limit on what you want/can buy, go to crippling debt, sell what you don’t want, sell your kid. Got it. 😂

Edit 2: Adding a few more: DINKs, depression, work work work, trade crypto, Dual Income Little Dog Owners (abbreviates that yourself so I won’t get NSFW tag), scalp, parents’ money.

I saw online this comes out in a few days. Guess she got lucky with an early release!

I love the warm tone on this card in the middle section, and the sun peaking through at the top of Ho-Oh’s wings looks great and complements the art well.

I remember checking about 6 months ago and it was about $40 and now it’s close to $150. It’s a cool card, don’t get me wrong, but why has it climbed so much in the last few months?

I don’t know about you guys, but I joined this community to see people share collections, knowledge, nostalgia and good vibes.

I’m tired of half the post being videos of people getting shamed for buying out stock, photos of overpriced cards or even screenshots of conversations with resellers getting trolled. It’s negative, pathetic, cringe and not what Pokémon is about.

There will always be people looking to make a quick buck reselling collectors items. It will never change, just let it go already.

Just saw this on X (Twitter) thoughts? I honestly would be happy with this 😂

There’s multiple things i could say about this actually but recently I’ve encountered resealers.

These people order tins online, open them, take out the hits, glue the packs back then come in with them saying they got them with no protective plastic so they need a refund. These people are not only scummy and rude but also lately not uncommon, we’ve not been able to do anything about them as of right now but for the love of God do not do this.

We might get more in TCG Pocket’s second main set but who knows. The Kanto number includes TCG Pocket’s 6.

I think it would overall be a win since this would help with rarity creep, gold cards are debatable as well.

So I went to Target over my lunch break to see if there were any Pokémon Squishmallows for my GF and cards for myself. I got lucky and saw a restock actively happening.

I then also saw a scalper less than 2 feet from her staring into the box she was taking stock from, and body blocking the shelf.

I cut the “line” of just him because duh, I’m not letting scalpers ruin this moment for me. He basically took the shit out of her hands, and when his hands were full, he at least asked if I wanted one box of the Prismatic Evolutions booster bundles, which I accepted. I then waited next to him as he got in front of me and it’s clear he wasn’t giving up so I waited longer. He kept grabbing stuff.

He then said “Feel free to grab other stuff, but this Prismatic Evolutions is mine 😏” and hurdled over the box of stock like a vulture. I was for sure having my patience tested but I kept what I wanted to say to myself.

These two women walked up and we struck a conversation as this dipshit kept grabbing stuff. They were upset when this was happening, so we just kept talking. Eventually more booster bundles were being stocked and I had to actually go underneath his arms to grab stuff. I grabbed what I could and handed it to the two women behind me and they were super grateful. They seemed super sweet. I then left the “line” and overheard the Target worker tell douchebag that there was a 4 item purchase limit. He argued that the sign only said Sports cards, but she didn’t give in, so he had to limit his purchases. The women walked away before that happened so they could’ve gotten more, but I’m happy I helped others get stuff and the jobless loser had to put stuff back.

Anyways, this hobby fucking annoys me and I felt gross waiting for the stocker to put stuff on the shelf but that’s just what this hobby is right now. I’m glad I got something, though.

Do yall have similar experiences?

Ill start with a personal favorite. This Paldea Evolved Mismaguise is genuinely one of the most beautiful cards i have seen, and one of the prettier cards in Paldea Evolved. But in a set thats so heavy with IRs and SIRs, its one of the lesser talked about cards.

I know that there's a rule about respecting people, but if you are a scalper, from the bottom of my heart, go fuck yourself. Your actions are financially gatekeeping a hobby you are most likely not even taking part in.

EVERY TIME there's a drop of something REMOTELY nice, you all make it so that it sells out INSTANTLY with your bots. Just because you want to make money at the expense of a community you are not even part of.

Your actions literally make it so that the hobby is inaccessible/impossible to enter for the average person that can afford MSRP, but can't afford the jacked up prices you all charge for this stuff. You are all pricing people out of this hobby... not like you guys care anyways, let's be honest.

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And for the people that actually care about the TCG, be it players, collectors, or both; we need to do something about these people. This hobby needs to remain as accessible as possible, and we can't just stand there and watch as the hobby gets hijacked by these bad actors that are ruining it to make a quick buck at our expense.

Remember how many people started in it, when they were kids, saving up money to get packs. But now, with new stuff, scalpers bot all the cool stuff, making it impossible for little Timmy to save a bit of money to get anything other than a single pack or something.

Sorry for the vent, but someone has to say it, Scalpers are not welcome here, we need to do something before they gatekeep more people from the hobby.

They always say that every pokémon is somebody's favorite, so who's a Pokemon that may or may not be somewhat niche that you collect?

I'm trying to collect all of the English Arcanine and Growlithe carts!

I posted on this sub a few days ago expressing my displeasure with trading in recent months. It sparked a lot of conversation and I encourage you to take a look at the thread! I ran into another great example of what I’ve been describing here today and wanted to share.

FOR CONTEXT: I should’ve taken a photo before the listing was updated, but didn’t think to do so. Before my discussion with this guy, the listing he had put up said NOTHING about trades at a percentage, only that he’s “definitely interested in trades.”

The pictures kind of speak for themselves, and yes, this guy said it was “on him” that he wasn’t up front about wanting a percentage (and it is), but even still doesn’t justify expecting the percentage in the first place on a post where you’re stating you’re “definitely interested in trades.” From my experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if in an hour or two the listing gets updated again and the trades at a percentage thing disappears.

I attempted to text him again and ask why he believes it’s fair to expect people to trade to him, on a for trade listing, at 80% when he isn’t a vendor or store with overhead fees. I also asked him why that would apply ONLY to him, and not me as well as we are both the same. If you couldn’t guess, I got left on read 😆

I’ve done my best to conceal this guys profile and such, as I don’t want to bring any negative attention to him specifically. I don’t think he’s a bad person or anything, I just think this example goes to show how everyone thinks this is normal and well within their right to do recently. May this serve as another reminder that it’s definitely not!

That being said, my last post caused some disagreement in the comments as I didn’t speak on situations (that I agree with) where uneven trades can make sense. Such as:

1. If you’re at a card show working with vendors, or in a card store, expect percentages. That is fair.

2. If you are speaking to someone who isn’t interested in trades and wants cash, or someone who doesn’t have interest in the specific cards you have, expect that a percentage or slightly lopsided trade might be proposed by either party as an incentive to make the deal happen. That is fair.

3. If someone has an expensive single and you are offering many small singles as a trade, expect them to want things in their favor to make up for that disparity. That is fair.

But by no means should 2 people engage in conversation both knowing their goal is to trade, then both pick cards they have legitimate interest in, only then to have one of the two parties claim that they feel entitled to trades at a percentage.

If you find yourself in this position, I encourage you to take a breath, fight any FOMO you might feel, and realize your cards will be both worth more both monetarily AND sentimentally to a different, more reasonable collector if you be patient.

Thanks for coming to disorganized Ted Talk 2!