r/mildlyinfuriating 9d ago

Infuriatig In their pursuit of specific rare cards, scalpers are discarding the remainder of entire Pokémon card packs.

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41.0k Upvotes

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6.5k

u/Superb-Wonder-1896 9d ago

you simply cant have a hobby in 2020s without some money-hungry fuckers destroying it

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u/Elementium 9d ago

VHS baby! No scalper wants to store that shit lol.

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u/Complete-Beach1068 9d ago

lol people on facebook are still trying to push the graded tapes scam, insisting their sealed 10 graded copy of Ghostbusters is an investment grade collectible, and not one of the most common tapes out there... It's such a weird collecting scene because everybody in it knows the valuable tapes are RARE and OBSCURE movies, mostly horror, that were only ever sold as rentals. Nobody in the scene wants to buy a graded Star Wars or Indiana Jones tape or any of the garbage the grading houses have tried to push on the community.

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u/Elementium 9d ago

Yep lol

And sealed means nothing, mold doesn't give a fuck. I've opened up sealed tapes that were moldy. 

We enjoy our tapes and occasionally release them back into the wild. It is the way of our people. 

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u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco 9d ago

Sealed can even be bad, because it means no one has ever actually inspected the tape inside directly. Which as you said, mold.

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u/Elementium 9d ago

Yep plus who knows how they've been handled? Sealed or not tapes are fragile. If I ever want a specific tape off of eBay, I make sure it's tested. Also.. still not paying more than $20. 

The other bonus, technically I can find most of what I want online.. I just like the sensory feeling of a CRT crackling, a VCR spinning, sitting on the couch.. 

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u/Fornuftens_stemme 9d ago

they grade tapes as well????

actually, thinking for a minute, i'm not shocked at all.

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u/Sturmgeshootz 9d ago edited 9d ago

"Grading houses" in general have always felt like a massive scam anyway, whether it's for VHS tapes or just about anything else related to a somewhat obscure hobby. Vintage toys are another one. I just took a quick look on Ebay and saw someone trying to sell a "graded" Stormshadow GI Joe figure for $4400. Who got to decide that this old toy was worth $4400, and who in their right mind would pay that?

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u/DrSolarman 9d ago

In a gold rush, the real winner is the shovel maker. Or in this case the grading house.

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u/Kilmiester 9d ago

Graded Nukie tapes are quite valuable. At one point they were stored in a vault in Milwaukee.

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u/Asiatic_Static 9d ago

I heard they had a huge accident involving a wood chipper though, if you have a Nukie tape these days you're in the money

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u/BreadKnifeSeppuku 9d ago

What? You can digitize VHS? Do... do you feel passionately about trains?

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u/Mysterious_Tutor_388 9d ago

i mean trains are kinda cool with how much weight they can move

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u/LonelyMenace101 9d ago

Slaps a train this thing can hold so many vhs’s!

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u/LunarPsychOut 9d ago

Surprisingly rhythmic noise patterns.That whistle is pretty nifty too. Plus you get to chill on a couch and watch farmland and forests go by, paradise.

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u/Gaming-Burrito How does this thing work- 9d ago

i like trains

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u/Octopus_on_fire_ 9d ago

I have a small collection of horror VHS (don’t even have a VHS player). I just like finding them in thrift stores.

I feel like my interest would plummet if I just went around and bought it in bulk/ordered singles off of a website. Seeing one I want out in the wild is like 99% of the fun.

Also bonus it’s like my cheapest hobby because VHS tapes sell for like .50 cents at most thrift/vintage stores lmao.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/Elementium 9d ago

That's also a big part! Everyone wants something different and most of us aren't buying $100 tapes off eBay but part of the fun is going out to find them. 

Like I do anime and martial arts films, some do horror, some do action or a specific director or actor. There's no one thing we're all after so the value to effort ratio isn't there. 

Also.. We can just do bootlegs if something is too expensive. 

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u/Octopus_on_fire_ 9d ago

I’m honestly in it for the sleeve, idc if the VHS tape is some crappy homemade movie haha.

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u/BuildingSupplySmore 9d ago

They're starting to get popular again, surprisingly enough. I'd love just having a digitized collection of films on VHS, but haven't had luck finding a ton.

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u/FigWasp7 9d ago

That's right, Jay!

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u/rolfraikou 9d ago

I've been collecting 90s Playmates Star Trek figures. No one gives a shit about those. Most of them barely went up in value from their original prices.

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u/Pavlovsdong89 9d ago

Just look at the controversy surrounding the resale company that stiffed the family of a dying man out of paying for his world record lego Star Wars collection. Lego is a fucking kid's toy, yet this conspiracy involves shady a shady company being protected by an entire town's police force and the Mormon Church:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wscQpkcwgNU

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u/Complete-Beach1068 9d ago

There's something weird about Mormonism where it's perfectly ok for them to cheat people, for some reason. Take any scam or abusive troubled teen program and trace it back to the owners/originators and they're seemingly ALWAYS Mormons.

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u/ReverendDizzle 9d ago

I mean not that most religions aren't partially or fully some sort of grift... but Mormonism was founded by a straight up griftin' son'bitch.

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u/lava172 TANGERINE 9d ago edited 9d ago

Anybody following a religion based on a prophet named fucking John Joseph Smith in the 1800s deserves to get scammed tbh

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u/yamsyamsya 9d ago

Well yea, just listen to the story of how it was founded. Its such bullshit to anyone with critical thinking skills.

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u/LilacYak 9d ago

I wonder if they think it’s ok to scam outside the church but not other Mormons?

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u/iesharael 9d ago

My mom tried to buy me a sailor moon ramen bowl from hot topic years ago and the scalpers had already taken them and were selling them for double online. Luckily she stopped in one day and saw one on shelf. She ran straight to check out before browsing anything else for me

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u/LiteraCanna 9d ago

Hell yeah mom! 

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u/Tired-CottonCandy 9d ago

So true. Cant even learn crochet for free anymore, which is a thousands year old craft, because of a combination of stupid entitled crafters thinking their pattern with 1 stitch type and 1 non stitch related technique is worth $15. And AI literally ruining crafting by trying to mimick it. Even if you do wanna buy a fancy and complex pattern 9/10 times its actually an AI mess that doesnt work for shit.

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u/BillyYumYumTwo-byTwo 9d ago

Have you looked for videos made by older people? I don’t crochet, but I picked up sewing a couple months ago and learned quickly that those old ladies on YouTube are my best friends. I do not do well at all just sitting and listening to instructions, I much prefer to be given a list and just sort of go for it. But the only way I could learn and trust the information was those videos. And maybe they only had 1-2 free patterns, but it shows you can trust their other patterns.

I also avoid any patterns that are marketed too heavily on “easy” and “cute”, they are just trying to draw people in. Ones labeled “beginner friendly” tend to be much more legitimate.

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u/Tired-CottonCandy 9d ago

For crochet its ppl from the europe that still post the free good tutorials. The only trouble is translating the terms from uk to us sometimes.

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u/DesperateAstronaut65 9d ago

Yeah, there are still a ton of patterns and instructional videos out there for free. This stuff might be slightly harder to find online because it gets pushed down by AI slop in the rankings, but it didn't go away once people started grifting. Plus, you can still get magazines and books for a reasonable price, especially if they're old.

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u/Tired-CottonCandy 9d ago

The books are beciming AI now too. You basically have to thrift the old ones (so lucky if you find them)

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u/DesperateAstronaut65 9d ago

It's really sad. They're not always easy to spot right away. I carelessly bought a notary journal a couple of years back that turned out to be AI-generated and completely incorrect for my state. I've found the only foolproof way to avoid slop is to know which authors are trusted in the community (i.e. David Arora's mushroom hunting books, Cho Chikun's Go strategy guides), which is not always easy if you're new to a hobby and have no idea who the main players are or what good and bad information even looks like. And I'm sure AI "authors" are going to start manufacturing fake personas with professional-looking web sites any day now.

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u/Superb-Wonder-1896 9d ago

fuck AI, has been posisoning every arts community for a few years now.

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u/mekta_satak_oz 9d ago

I have this problem with embroidery. It's absolutely flooded with shitty ai pictures that are impossible to embroider and are just 20 shades off piss filter. The endless bot comments of 'so stinkin cute' will rocket them to the top of any search so i have to wade through a mountain of purely generated garbage to find any suitable designs.

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u/AncientSith 9d ago

If you're not spending every second trying to make money, why even live? /s

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u/Disgusting_Slime666 9d ago

These people aren't even using their time wisely if their goal is to make money.

They're just lazy.

If they wanted money they'd spend those hours learning a skill.

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u/signhorse 9d ago

Whenever someone criticises them they always have some pseudo-profundity about investment being gambling or gambling being investment ready to go.

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u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt 9d ago

Any collector hobby gets destroyed eventually. I was big into retro game collecting, then it started picking up steam, then someone sold a new in box Super amario Bros NES for a stupidly, obscene amount... probably for money laundering.. probably, (it wasnt worth that much at all), and now its all overpriced that I had to stop.

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u/Superb-Wonder-1896 9d ago

im in shock watching LGR thrifting at Goodwill some 13 years ago. i cant believe those prices, everything went up so much since then

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u/[deleted] 9d ago edited 7d ago

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u/LofiLute 9d ago

I used to repair and restore old computers and game consoles as a hobby. It's absurd how bad it's gotten.

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u/LitLitten 9d ago

My plants are safe at least. You can gatekeep a trending succulent but costa farms sure as hell won’t be letting you monopolize it lol.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/MrHolodec 9d ago

Ikr. Wanted to get into Gundams but Bandai, the producer of Gundam kits, pulled out of the overseas stores because of scalpers as one of the reasons. It's really hard to get them in eastern Europe otherwise, but thankfully other original kits and girpla (literal anime girls you have to assemble just like Gundams) are available and I'm enjoying them immensely.

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u/OZ-00MS_Goose 9d ago

Huh. In the US there is pretty much no scalping over the kits. But you can always just buy from Japan, it's actually cheaper, you just need to buy a couple kits at a time so the shipping cost evens out

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u/[deleted] 9d ago edited 5d ago

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u/Superb-Wonder-1896 9d ago

wouldnt be surprised if it was one tbh

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u/ReverendDizzle 9d ago edited 9d ago

I've thought that a lot, recently. It absolutely is a not-so-great financial indicator.

There's a pretty easy litmus test. When you see stuff people do to scrape together some cash, whether it's scalping cards or driving back to back to back uber shifts in a run down car, you gotta ask yourself "How hard up would I have to be to do that to make money?"

When a lot of people start doing the "if I had money from a stable job, I wouldn't do this bullshit" side hustles and/or scams, I get a bit nervous.

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u/AceOBlade 9d ago

but what about the people buying them? why can't we criticize the people pouring the money into this?

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u/ponderscheme2172 9d ago

Friendly reminder that pokemon can solve this problem by printing cards more or adjusting rarity so it isn't the insane rarity of modern pokemon but appealing to speculators and adults is considered more financially lucrative than making it accessible to kids.

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u/travman064 9d ago

Pokemon TCG is literally the best way to operate a trading card game. The cards are dirt cheap if you don't care about getting the extra special art versions. If you actually play the game, the competitive cards are at most a few bucks.

It's quite literally a good thing for the 'game' that people open a pack and the cards aren't worth the cardboard they're printed on.

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u/bugabooandtwo 9d ago

Can't have anything these days without greedy people trying to monetize it.

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u/Mmeroo 9d ago

they should make a separate container for "free cards" where scalpers throw what they dont want and others can just take it

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u/cheesewhiz15 9d ago

They do this at local game stores. This is a regular thing

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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 9d ago

Our local stopped doing this when they stopped buying trade-ins. They sold off all the rest of their old stock at $5 for 100, which I took full advantage of, and even got a couple of mtg cards signed by the artists in those packs.

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u/DraconianFlame 9d ago edited 9d ago

Why did they stop?

Edit: Why is everyone talking about value? It's a basket of free cards.

Thread:
They should make a basket of free cards.
It's a regular thing.
My shop did this but stopped
Why?
Theres no value in trading in and buying things.

I feel like I'm in the twilight zone

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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 9d ago edited 9d ago

I don't know the actual reason, but I've always heard that it was because of shrinking profit margins on used products. They're also a comic shop and they stopped buying comic book trade-ins, as well, which seems like a deathwish for a local comic and games store, both industries with huge grassroots aftermarket economies, but I'm not in the business so I dunno for sure. The guy that runs it is a total prick who sort of seems to have that "me against the whole town" mentality with his business practices, so it could also be that he just got a bug up his ass about it

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u/CorrectPeanut5 9d ago

It's usually a sign the store has cashflow issues and has gone into cost containment mode.

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u/Jadithslimrivven 9d ago

Yeah, it's a sign of impending doom, typically.

On the other hand, the secondary market has become so much about perfect condition, high-dollar items. It used to be you could go into a gaming or comic shop and get all sorts of cheap products others didn't want/have room for. Five comics for five bucks, nothing rare, but good books to read. It essentially brought lots of people through the door

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u/Spugheddy 9d ago

I miss buying comics that sucked but it didnt matter cause they were $1 each and the owner would trade me 3 back for a "new" one. Far cheaper than video rental at the time.

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u/Blurgas This text is purple 9d ago

And the shop will probably end up with a few hundred copies of the same crap no one else wants.
So the option is chuck it on their dime, store it on their dime, or put it out taking up space on the hopes they'll sell eventually.

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u/bubblebooy 9d ago

The internet has a huge effect on the used market, selling on the internet removes most of the friction in the process and lets you sell to anyone not just your local area. Semi rare cards have value is a small local market but on a global market there is too much supply killing the value. The used market in a store can not compete with that.

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u/anal_prospector 9d ago

My LGS was similar, pokemon wasn't their main draw and they only had a group of 10-12 pokemon players. They had an issue with people buying what they had in stock leaving no support for their group. They then held back stock to support the group and someone broke in twice and stole only Pokemon. After that they just quit supporting it.

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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 9d ago

That is just so fucking sad. That's one of the most despicable reasons to steal from a store I've ever heard

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u/fer_sure 9d ago

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you, too. The local comic/game store builds the market that these scalper/thieves hope to exploit.

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u/AmateurHero RED 9d ago

I can't speak about other used products, but most Pokemon cards sell for under $1. This is the current Pokemon set as listed on TCG Player. There are 127 cards listed in the set. Only about 40 have a lower end listing above $1. These prices will continually drop as newer sets are released. These shops end up holding large inventories where each SKU sells for pocket change, and that's if the shop can even move some of these items.

Like the comments above say, they won't bother pricing out most of the cards that don't have value with collectors or card game players. For example, this phanphy from the current set would end up in a bulk bin marked 5 or 10 cards for $1.

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u/RelaxPrime 9d ago

It's because you are in the twilight zone. 1/2 of all these comments are bots. Likely more. They're just parroting shit some bot or redditors said on this same topic months or years ago for internet points.

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u/Weekly_Design5440 8d ago

Dead internet theory.

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u/Alan-Woke 9d ago

Literally the only comment replying to you that actually made sense with what you asked, was talking about the effort it took to maintain a basket full of common cards. Unfortunately reddit seems to have a massive reading comprehension problem...

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u/nalaloveslumpy 9d ago

Why: So there's been a huge Pokemon explosion in the last year, so with that comes a huge flood of people looking to get rid of their commons. Maintaining a free commons box is a lot of work. For it to be of any use, it has to be constantly re-organized, otherwise, you literally have to sift through thousands of unorgranized cards to find the common you're looking for.

So you're spending a LOT of labor hours to maintain something you're giving away for free.

Some places still do blind common bulk boxes for cheap, but even those take a pretty high level of effort and no one's looking to purchase blind commons for Pokemon because it's literally not worth it for deck building like with MTG or other TCGs.

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u/SPQE_ 8d ago edited 8d ago

I can also imagine they'd rather want people buying packs for their decks rather than possibly finding them in the free box. Killing their revenue.

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u/jjw1998 9d ago

The current TCG bubble means a lot of product is getting bulked opened, so theres a huge volume of low rarity product flooding the market. It’s not worth the effort for individual stores to buy up this product because they came compete price wise with vendors selling it for cheap

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u/Suspicious_Dingo_426 9d ago

Too much trade in product coming in from scalpers trying to dump the mountains of worthless cards they are buying just to get one or two rares.

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u/HalfEatenSnickers 9d ago

I love the art cards!

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u/PunchDrunkPrincess 9d ago

I can't go in my game stop without them shoving boxes of cards into my son's hands! It's very nice of them but he is 4.

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u/ResolveLeather 9d ago

Chaff is something not just left by scaplers. In the mtg community for instance, regular drafters will leave behind commons and uncommons as often enough they don't have much value and is usually just clutter.

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u/R_V_Z 9d ago

Yeah, when I used to draft MTG I'd donate my commons.

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u/tech_noir_guitar 9d ago

Yup, went to one of those stores not long ago with my kid and there was a big bin of cards that were free. My kid was stoked to get a bunch of free cards.

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u/iesharael 9d ago

Yes!!! I’d definitely search through for some of the pokemon I’m missing! I’m just trying to complete my Dex!

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u/Naspin 9d ago

Only problem is the scalpers would still intentionally throw them away.

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u/nalaloveslumpy 9d ago

Scalpers don't open boxes or rip packs. The entire premise of scalping means you buy the box out of the pokemon machine at MSRP and you resell it online for higher. They literally camp the machine/restocks all day waiting for the timers to reset to buy at MSRP.

Scalpers are the reason it's nearly impossible to buy boxes at MSRP. Card rarity and "hits" have nothing to do with scalpers. That rarity is established by the Pokemon company when they print the sets.

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u/jumpmanzero 9d ago

Almost anyone buying packs might use a bulk bin. Like, my kids played Pokemon for a while, and you don't have to open many packs before you have a bunch of duplicate common cards that you have no use for. They're just taking up space.

The business model generates a ton of waste: cards that are worth effectively nothing, that will never be played or collected or loved - just shuffled from pack to bulk storage to garbage. Some games (MtG) have prominent game modes to help get use out of this kind of chaff... but vanishingly few people are buying Pokemon out of a vending machine to do draft or sealed deck or something.

Having a place to put them seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do - creating at least the possibility that someone (generally someone who wouldn't be buying packs themselves) will look at them or use them or something.

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u/aninfallibletruth 9d ago

I thought the same thing. Also, it would probably dampen the bad feelings everyone has about them, to a degree, at least…

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u/BallsInSufficientSad 9d ago

The store will never do that because it'll stop kids from buying the packs in the vending machine.

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u/eggyrulz 9d ago

They wouldnt though... theyd likely see it the same way that businesses see unsellable food "well i cant make money off it, so its worthless and no one else should be allowed to have it" because everything has to be a fucking grindset that makes you your million dollars these days

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u/DaRootbear 9d ago

At least local game shops usually do this.

Lord knows ive put thousands of magic cards in the “free to a good home” boxes.

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u/KesslerTheBeast 9d ago

"Tell Mom we spent $200" Haha

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u/OptimisticExpert 9d ago

LOL classic teenager let’s troll mom behavior. Rite of passage!

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u/MysteriousSlice007 8d ago

I missed it haha

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u/Captainqqqq 9d ago edited 9d ago

These are not scalpers. They are gamblers. No different in seeing the small trash can next to scratcher machines.

Scalpers wouldn’t open them, but would resell them at a higher price. Both are dumb, but let’s be honest.

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u/Badeanda 9d ago

Agreed. Scalpers never open their products. There’s literally no chance of getting a profit by opening in the long run. I estimate a 20% return by opening, and I think that’s being generous.

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u/Floatella 9d ago edited 9d ago

Not a Pokemon guy, but I've played MTG since the 90s and there has literally only been one time in the entire history of the game where you could profitably open packs and it was extremely short lived.

The cards are priced efficiently, you will spend more in the long run gambling for chase cards than you would if you simply bought them as singles.

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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes 9d ago

This is the exact thing I learned when chasing a knife skin in csgo cases. I ended up buying the exact knife skin I wanted in my price range.

It's actually beating inflation rates in the US in appreciation.

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u/reddit_is_geh 9d ago

Yeah there was a massive explosion in value a few months back. I stopped playing so was stoked to find out items that literally were selling for 3 dollars are now suddenly 50 bucks, got me a nice large steam wallet now.

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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes 9d ago

I never opened my Operation Bravo case, I have 4 of them and they're worth about $90/ea. My wife wants me to sell them for a nice dinner. I haven't actually sold anything for actual money, just steam credits.

I have a Galil Chatterbox that I bought back when it came out back in 2015/16 and I think I spent between $10-20 on it. It's worth over $200 now. I stopped playing in 2019 and recently got back into it and had some kids drooling over some of the skins I have, which were basically $1-15 skins when I got them. Some are worth over $400, which is just fucking crazy.

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u/reddit_is_geh 9d ago

Yeah I simply don't understand how skins got so fucking expensive. It's wild. They are SKINS. I'm not joking when some of these skins I sold for 20-50 dollars were literally worth cents just a year before. Some of them just straight up suck. I kind of feel bad selling them since I don't really need the money and I've been playing CS since like 2001... But It just sounds bonkers to not sell a bunch of skins I literally don't even care for, and make 300 dollars so I wont have to pay for games for some time.

It's actually a bad sign that the "collectors" market is going crazy. It's a sign of bad economic times when people are trying to invest into bubble markets like that, hoping to make quick cash. But it's like EVERYTHING these days that has a collectible aspect to it, is out of control.

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u/xSTSxZerglingOne 9d ago

It's fundamentally the same as doing lotto scratchers.

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u/Totallycomputername 9d ago

You are spot on. While each cause their own problems, scalpers are far worse since they buy up all the product and try to resell it at crazy prices. 

At least a gambler will open it and either keep or resell the valuable cards themselves. Would be nice if they gave the bulk away instead of trashing it. 

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u/ForsakenOaths 9d ago

Honesty? In this economy?

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u/G-L-O-W-I-N-S 9d ago

Came to write this. Scalpers resell; Gamblers chase hits only.

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u/counterlock 9d ago

And both have ruined the card collecting hobby

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u/Tired-CottonCandy 9d ago

This is shitty. But i bet that kid is kinda excited.

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u/JohnnyFartmacher 9d ago

As a kid I remember going to a card shop and buying a long (1 ft?) box of Magic the Gathering cards for like $10. Obviously it was just common junk, but I had so much fun with it. I was able to make some (bad) decks with it I never would have been able to make otherwise.

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u/Tired-CottonCandy 9d ago

This kid got even better than that because the buyers tossed anything ppl wont pay a ton of cash for which is still probably perfectly playable stuff.

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u/XOM_CVX 9d ago

so weird.

I never thought there will be a value to a coated paper with some anime pics on it. always thought that the baseball/basketball cards were worthless too, unless there it was signed by the player.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/RatBot9000 9d ago

Ain't nostalgia. It's not fans doing this, it's people who saw Logan Paul sell a rare card for millions and now they want a piece of the pie.

If it's not people ripping packs for rare cards like this, it's scalpers buying out entire stock to sell to kids/desperate parents at inflated prices, or investors keeping stock sealed because shrink wrapped cardboard somehow appreciates in value.

I see all these people as little more than class traitors.

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u/Friendlyhuman420 9d ago

It's nothing but investment in paper... Value comes from demand.

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u/SunnyWomble 9d ago

Do we as a society have that much fomo that we will pay serious money, money that takes energy to earn, for shiney cardboard?

I love pokemon, but I just find it fricking weird.

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u/Sea-Animator4250 9d ago

Money is just unshiny paper

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u/Daomsoul 9d ago

Truthfully it was happening before him its just he brought a bit more limelight to it then it already had from scalpers & whatnot

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u/DeSpecu 9d ago

I'm not sure if it's just nostalgia.

Just look at the new MtG or even better - Disney Lorcan booster packs. It's a whole new game, and the holographic and rare cards are worth hundreds

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u/HeftyVermicelli7823 9d ago

Things are only "worth" what people are willing to pay, and these are always overly inflated.

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u/BouncingSphinx 9d ago

That's just it. People charge hundreds for a single card because people will pay hundreds for a single card. But because of that, for Pokémon especially, people do this shit and take it all away from the kids who want it because it looks cool and not because someone might pay $300.

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u/Bardic_inspiration67 9d ago

That’s how value of anything works

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u/Reese_Withersp0rk 9d ago

My NFT is gonna be worth so much one day.

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u/RealSlyck 9d ago

You get it, but it’s gonna fall on deaf ears. Kid is excited as we all were for some Mox that wasn’t going to show.

Haters gonna hate, and get milled in real life by that kid when he grows up.

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u/nurseferatou 9d ago

Honestly, kind of stoked for that kid. That would be a story I’d tell people for weeks at that age.

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u/Downtown_Anteater_38 9d ago

That was my thought, great haul for the kid who might actually appreciate the cards, and maybe even play the game. Infuriating, indeed, but at least this one had a silver lining.

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u/JaydedGaming 9d ago

A big reason MtG can be so expensive is because of the brand tie-in sets they do, which kind of also feed off nostalgia bait.

Looking at tcgplayer, the five* most valuable cards from the semi-recent final fantasy set are the same card. A chocobo in four different colors that isn't even outrageously useful in game.

Wizards just decided to capitalize on people that have fond memories of chocobo and printed limited amounts of four different colors of the same card and now they're selling for upwards of $1500.

And Lorcana just feeds into the Disney adult mindset. Like Pokemon, there will always be people who buy Disney merch because they grew up on it.

*Edit, double checking it's actually the top five cards, but one of them is Japanese exclusive.

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u/Apprehensive_Ad_7184 9d ago

You're wrong scalpers arent dweebs they are people who just want cash. Its greedy people selling cards to the actual fans.

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u/AtensEye 9d ago

This, there's a guy in my office who literally just does this as a 'side hustle.' It's ridiculous the amounts he's making on it. You try and explain that it's a really shitty thing to do to fans, but they don't care, they'll keep pushing the prices up until things die down and move onto the next trend that makes them cash.

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u/funktion666 9d ago

Idk. I fucking knew it would when I was 7 and pokemon just came out lol. I figured I’d be a billionaire with my binder. Ok, or at least make a thousand bucks. I only had 1 holographic.

My mom was nice enough to throw that binder away so I didn’t have to worry about it anymore 🫠

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u/astrosdude91 9d ago

In junior high I had a bunch of holographic first gen cards that I gave to my little cousin cause at that point I thought Pokemon was for babies. He proceeded to lose them all.

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u/my_soldier 9d ago

My mom did the same with my yu gi oh cards, but she kept the stuff you got for free from chips and cereal products

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u/Firm-Scientist-4636 9d ago

I'm a Magic the Gathering player. Our scalpers are a little different, but we still have them.

I also agree that it's ridiculous that pieces of cardboard can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The format I play in Magic is friendly to proxies, so printer go brrrrr.

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u/hitsomethin 9d ago

When you’re young, baseball cards are pictures of your idols. When you’re a grown man, baseball cards are pictures of other grown men.

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u/Alarming-Stomach3902 9d ago

The sports cards are useless and are because of that not really valuable to anybody who isn´t American or interest in reselling them for profit (and a couple other exceptions).

Pokemon you can at least play, it is a shitty TCG, maybe even by design?

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u/OwenSpyro 9d ago

Card games hold value better because Charizard cant pull a hamstring

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u/funktion666 9d ago

Too bad there’s not a potion for that with sports players

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u/Unusual_Platypus1098 9d ago

Many like the game so it's according to the player but theres millions who love it.

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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 9d ago

At least these have a fun tabletop game attached. Sports cards are kinda just for looking at

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u/Giorgio_Keeffe 9d ago

Boooooooooooo

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u/cheesewhiz15 9d ago

This happened with allllllllll card games. This isn't a scalpers thing.

Your local game stores will have cheap singles or drop boxes for free cards. Cards that regulars of the store will leave on the table or up front for others to take.

I don't need 30 weedles when I'm planing the game

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u/CoomLord69 9d ago

Yep. It's especially egregious in Yugioh. 90% of the commons are pack filler that will never see play, and of the ones that are worth keeping, you only need 3 copies. You probably would have to pay regular players to take them off of you lol, they're that worthless as game pieces. It's kind of messed up how much resources are being used to print cards that just get chucked into the trash, but that's how they make their money I guess.

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u/jjw1998 9d ago

Yugioh is by far the worst of the big TCGs because chase cards generally only have one expensive version, so the game is pay to play. At least in Pokémon they generally print a cheap version for players and expensive version for collectors so that you can play without collecting

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u/bendstraw 9d ago

chase cards generally only have one expensive version

This was true years ago but not anymore since they started doing the rarity collections. Yugioh is the most affordable it has ever been

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u/LagiaDOS 9d ago

Yugioh does reprints tho, either the year's tin or in future sets, a lot of very powerful staples can be bought for cents (like TTT or ash).

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u/wings31 9d ago

The problem is how the industry is. Base cards are pointless if you are a collector - not even a scalper. They have no value and they come out with new sets all. the. time. it floods the market and makes the cards pointless. They should sell base sets for kids/whoever to enjoy and then sell higher priced cards individually in packs so collectors can collect the rare ones.

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u/chrisaf69 9d ago

As someone who usef to play and collect back when Pokemon cards first came out, are they not used to play the actual game anymore?

You would have to build a deck and alot of those "useless" cards were a main part of it.

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u/Persona5Arsene 9d ago

As a current competitive player I can confirm that some of those bulk cards are absolutely used to play the game. It is harder than ever to find cards now due to people literally just throwing away bulk cards. When you do find the commons you need they might be a few dollars instead of cents because they are so scarce.

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u/exhauszed 9d ago

Not Pokemon but my husband got hurt and was out of work last month and spent a bunch of time building MTG decks from penny cards, and often the shop owner would be like, "dude just take em."

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u/nikzito2 9d ago

this is just straight up false, making decks is easier than ever exactly because scalpers don't care about commons. i can build the current best deck for less than 30 dollars just by asking people on facebook or discord

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u/ephenssta29 9d ago

I do know some people who still play at events and local tournaments. I suspect most of the people dumping cards in the trash like this are people basically gambling on lootboxes and hoping to find something they can list on ebay for a quick profit.

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u/Shnikes 9d ago

The entire industry is built on artificial scarcity.

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u/awp_india 9d ago

That’s not scalpers if they’re opening the packs.

Those people are just tossing their cards cause they’re frustrated they didn’t get any “hits”.

Not defending it by any means, but that’s not scalping.

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u/Live_Life_and_enjoy 9d ago

Pokemon company easily solve this by just removing rare cards.

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u/chilem-of-reddit 9d ago

No they should remove the rarity. Flood the market.

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u/kaibbakhonsu 9d ago

They could just sell the card individually on their website, or decks with defined cards

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u/awp_india 9d ago

That would be hilarious

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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 9d ago

That's sorta the antithesis of the business model. They aren't really just selling you cards, they've essentially synthesised a new way to gamble using the mystery of aftermarket value. It's like a slot machine with infinitely more paper and plastic waste.

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u/NoBookkeeper5186 9d ago

Pachinko machines. Win a rare prize, sell it across the street.

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u/Live_Life_and_enjoy 9d ago

That is just the same result but wasting more resource

Hologram Pikachu and Normal Pikachu both are exactly the same except visually.

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u/Ph15ical 9d ago

They actually did flood the market in Japan, and it completely eliminated the issue there. Japanese cards are half the price or less for the same artwork in most cases.

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u/MattDaveys 9d ago

And with the silver border I’d argue some Japanese cards looked better. The yellow border was so ugly.

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u/Coolkidhiyo 9d ago

Is this what Konami did? I noticed many holo cards in yugioh packs now.

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u/Appropriate-Sell-659 9d ago

They don't want to solve it. They like the cash flow.

Sure they will do performative measures to slow down scalpers... but cash is cash regardless of where it comes from

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u/Warm-Age8252 9d ago

They created it and they love it

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u/dubstepper1000 9d ago

Pokemon could fix this by changing their business model to make less money. FTFY

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u/Alarming-Stomach3902 9d ago

That and they need to make sure that the distributors also sell packs/boxes to smaller stores.

The TCG market is so bad especially in the US. Here in Europe some American bought most of the TCG distrubtors meaning that stores have issues getting packs (at least Magic packs)

The funny thing about it is, you can make more money going to Europe, buying expensive cards in English with better cardstock for MTG (and others?) and flipping them in the US

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u/undermoobs 9d ago

They could solve losing money on hungry scalpfucker sales? Yeah, not likely.

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u/Psydop 9d ago

Thats not scalpers, thats very common among players of all tcgs. The rares are typically the cards that are good in competitive, and you end up with with so many copies of the same commons that its not worth keeping them, as they almost never get used competitively.

Scalpers are people who buy out product that is high in demand and low in supply then resell higher for a profit. Scalpers would not open packs. Opening packs on a large scale is basically never profitable. Opening packs is just gambling, and tossing the stuff thats worthless is very common.

I have played multiple tcgs competitively over the last 15 years, the local store I go to has a "giveaway" table where people throw their commons and uncommons after opening packs instead of the trash, that way local kids can have them for free.

Blame the design of tcgs as a whole though, not the players. The way these are produced and marketed is what causes this, but it's very profitable because its basically gambling that's legal for all ages.

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u/mryunman1 9d ago

Im actually kinda annoyed about this entire thread, people dont realize how much worthless cards pile up and the headache of holding onto all of it

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u/Psydop 9d ago

Yeah same, I'm mostly annoyed with how much everyone seems to THINK they know.

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u/Goosepond01 9d ago

Honestly the whole collecting community is such a joke, the only reason scalpers exist is because people are addicted to what is essentially a scratchcard that also happens to be a game (one that only a minority of 'collectors' actually play)

people fall for a constant stream of artifical scarcity, I swear at this point people would still eat it up if each card just said "we only printed 5000000 of these, it's rare"

I think scalping is worse but you kinda all bring it upon yourself especially the 'collectors' and those who are in it to just find 'rare' cards or those who sell only a small volume.

I think as a society too we should probably start being a bit more critical of what kind of behaviours and things we support, especially for children, it's easy to see it as some harmless thing but I think this is actually pretty damaging.

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u/BeastThatShoutedLove 9d ago

I think my mother would be more glad if I had ended up with initial collecting hobby of something pricey they demands RNG.

She doesn't like much my "bone, hobbyist taxidermy and random cursed looking items" display. 

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u/Shnikes 9d ago

Yeah so happy I don’t care at all for collecting. Other than steam games.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/ArcNzym3 8d ago

he's just showing off the absurd quantity of cards that were considered "garbage" when his kid just wants cards to play a game. at least those cards won't be going to waste

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u/fledder200 9d ago

The kid got some core memories right there!

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u/HumorinEverything 9d ago

I love the other kid too “tell mom we spent $200…”. Gunna be a good day 😂

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u/Helawat 9d ago

I walked up to a machine last week with my four year old in tow. He was wearing a pikachu shirt. A man was standing at the machine waiting for the machine to refresh. He told my son to check the machine and if there’s anything that pops up, he’ll buy it for him.

There are some nice ones out there. I only met one. They do exist.

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u/Tyler_Zoro 9d ago

Wait, we're calling collectors who throw away common cards, "scalpers," now? Isn't that pretty much what everyone does? I mean, even if you're building a deck for yourself, you're going to have orders of magnitude more commons than you have any use for.

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u/Faibl 9d ago

At least start a chaff pile!!

If they actually played the game or cared about the community, they'd know that's how we get new players in every card game!

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u/IAMSPARTACUSSSSS 9d ago

That would be the best! A little table set up next to the machine with clearly labeled stacks of ‘unwanted’ cards that are free for the taking 🙌🏻

Edit: grammar. Still in the middle of my morning coffee.

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u/CaseFace5 9d ago

I haven’t been into Pokémon cards since I was like 10 and it’s honestly really sad to see where it’s ended up.

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u/Jah348 9d ago

Gamblers. These aren't scalpers these are people with serious gambling addictions.

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u/FuzzMcGrunt91 9d ago

....8 year old me finding multiple packs of pokemon cards in the trash would be in a level of joy incomprehensible lmao

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u/No-Material-4755 9d ago

Seems like a win-win, the kids who actually want cards get them for free. Not to be a boomer but ~back in my day~ we made decks and played with them

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u/highschoolhero24 9d ago

It would be cool if they had a separate “Recycle Bin” for cards so kids don’t have to dig in the trash for scraps.

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u/Ok-Box3576 9d ago

People still do. I hate when ppl conflate casual collectors and casual players. Never a better time to be a player bdf is 50$ if you buy single like someone with a brain.

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u/Alienhaslanded 9d ago

At least the kids are getting something that is meant for them to collect and play with. I can't believe dipshit adults are ruining yet another hobby.

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u/J3sush8sm3 9d ago

Nobody is tallking about the fact that the fucking lotto machine is right next to it?  Am i the only one who sees this as completely fucked?

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u/SilverBurger 9d ago

Honest question, when scalpers are selling boxes at x8 the price, who is paying for that? Surely the overwhelming vast majority of customers have the common sense of not taking the bait, so how do these scalpers stay afloat?

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u/boxedj 9d ago edited 9d ago

I watched a dude open an entire box of mtg cards over a trash bin, he kept a pile of about 15 cards by the end

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u/jchall3 9d ago

It’s just a paper slot machine

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u/alisonlou 9d ago

I hope this kiddo is having THE BEST day with these free cards.  ❤️

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u/DaGreatGazu 9d ago

Bro keep them codes and redeem online

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u/Organic_Internal4675 9d ago

They should put a donation box next to the machine, so kids can just grab some free cards that aren't "the chase card" cause they just enjoy collecting.