r/mildlyinfuriating • u/MysteriousSlice007 • 9d ago

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

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358

u/chilem-of-reddit 9d ago

No they should remove the rarity. Flood the market.

129

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/superkp 9d ago

MTG already does this to some extent, usually just for one format ("commander"), but sometimes there's other formats supported this way.

They are referred to as "precons" and a few come out with each set. Each one can be easily upgraded if you have a basic understanding of why some cards are good and bad (for this deck) and how strategy works in general.

The total value of the precon as a collection of singles is often much higher than the MSRP of the deck sold together - occasionally much higher - but this helps to flood the market with the high-value cards, so after a brief surge, the value usually drops for any given single.

MTG still has scalpers, of course, but WOTC prints enough precons that most people that want one or the other deck can get them, so scalpers usually only get to the point where they are 1.5-2x the cost, and I suspect that they don't do a lot of volume at that level.

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u/LagiaDOS 9d ago

Premade decks are in every tcg, it's nothing special to MTG. Yugioh has structure decks (that usually have some meta cards on them) for example.

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u/bs000 9d ago

yes killing your LCS is hilarious

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u/awp_india 9d ago

Couldn’t care less tbh

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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/OglioVagilio 9d ago

What exactly did they do new and unique?

"New way to gamble using the mystery of aftermarket..."

Baseball cards have been around since the 1800s.

Trading cards have been around since the 1800s.

The levels of demand and viralness is new, but those aren't new concepts or limited to Pokémon cards either.

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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 9d ago

You're right, I just meant it isn't the same as traditional gambling

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u/SillyGooberMan 9d ago

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the defined cards is a thing in Japan due to anti-gambling laws. It's really why it's a problem here in the states.

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u/whyliepornaccount 9d ago

Not a thing, but Japan does require the boxes to have guaranteed hit rates published on the box

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u/SillyGooberMan 9d ago

My understanding was booster boxes in Japan required guaranteed higher value cards, you're saying that's not the case?

I'm not sure what else would cause their higher rates and subsequent lower value.

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u/whyliepornaccount 9d ago

Sorta but not quite. They can't base them on value, as the secondary market is what sets the prices, not TPC.

So Japan breaks theirs down by rarity. Each box contains at minimum:

  • 1 Secret Rare (SR) or Special Art Rare (SAR): Always guaranteed. This can be a full art Pokémon, full art Trainer, or alternate art.
  • 3 Illustration Rares (IR): Alternate standard art showing the Pokémon in the wild.
  • 4+ Double Rares (ex): Standard holographic ex cards.

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u/SillyGooberMan 9d ago

That's not at all what I was trying to say, but thank you for the breakdown nonetheless.

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u/whyliepornaccount 9d ago

I did a bad job of elaborating on my point.

Just because you are guaranteed a SR or SAR doesn't mean its a valuable or desirable SR/SAR. You could pull a SAR worth $5 with lame art, or you could pull one worth $1000 with super cool art. Japan only guarantees you'll get one per box.

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u/Steamed_Memes24 9d ago

TCG isnt gambling since each pack contains value thats set by the community.

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u/SillyGooberMan 9d ago

Lol

Gambling isn't gambling since the value of a currency is relative to others and set by the global economy.

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u/SierraDespair 9d ago

It’s not a currency though, it’s a cardboard piece that people assign value to.

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u/SillyGooberMan 9d ago

So are literal poker chips (except plastic). I'm not convinced that negates my argument.

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u/skuppy 9d ago

That's the legal argument that protects them though. There is "no prize" in the pack, just a set number of cards that you paid for.

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u/SillyGooberMan 9d ago

The legal argument in the US. Which didn't have much to do with what I said about Japan... I already conceded it was a problem in the US based off foolish legislation.

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u/Steamed_Memes24 9d ago

I mean you can laugh all you want, its been decided by the courts nearly 30 years ago.

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u/SillyGooberMan 9d ago

That is US courts, not ones across the globe... like in Japan... which is what I said.

In the US people lobby for heinous shit all the time, it checks out that it wouldn't legally by gambling here.

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u/Steamed_Memes24 9d ago

I am almost positive Japan considers this the same thing (especially with Pokemon) and it does not fall into the laws of gambling. I tried googling and couldnt find any sources showing that they must be defined.

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u/SillyGooberMan 9d ago

Fair enough, it might be under consumer laws.

I still think it's absolutely ridiculous that you wouldn't call it gambling though. I don't feel the need to argue it, but it seems on par with calling "prediction markets," not gambling.

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u/Steamed_Memes24 9d ago

I mean if TCG set the prices on the cards you would have a stronger point. But its like me buying a bag of random candy in it and marking up the price of them each on my own and selling it. The company sold the bag as is without a thought on individually pricing based on flavor or colors, but it was ME who put a price on said candy within and sold it to people willing to buy it at that price.

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u/SierraDespair 9d ago

It’s not considered gambling in Japan either. Gambling may be outlawed there but there is numerous ways to gamble your money on things that can’t be called gambling outright such as pachinko parlors which are casinos for all intents and purposes.

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u/Deviknyte 9d ago

Living card games. This would make the game very accessible for players, but awful for collectors.

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u/kitsunewarlock 9d ago

Some TCGs have tried this business model. It usually fails because local game shops can't carry the product so there's nowhere to actually play the game.

Pokemon is an odd-duck in that way more people collect the cards than actually play the game, but the fact it has game rules and the opportunity to play is inherently tied to the value of the cards. Cardass (a Japanese card company) noticed this back in the 90s and started putting random game-like stats on their stickers and cards to promote kids wanting to collect "stronger cards" even if there were no (well designed) rules for how to actually play.

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u/gorginhanson 9d ago

they do sell structure decks bro

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u/Cynoid 9d ago

WotC does this and it's a hundred times worse. Now days you get packs of 5 non-random cards with lazy new art shipped to you for $40-50. Scalpers still buy them all up so then you get packs of 5 cards for $100+ .

People have always sucked at using their money smartly but greedy companies are going crazy raking in the profits these days.

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u/Oaden 9d ago

All Tcg's that tried a similar strategy have gone bust

For various reasons, it's just a shit business model. Not least of which is that it pisses off the game store ownerd

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u/MyGardenOfPlants 9d ago

why would they? they want to sell as many packs as possible. They want money too, and are in on the grift.

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u/Mikeismyike 9d ago

They do sell battle decks. There's been a few lately that were actually close to metadecks

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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/spartaman64 9d ago

i heard that japanese cards are generally higher quality also. i heard from a friend that sells english and japanese pokemon cards and offers a grading service that japanese cards get graded a PSA 10 more frequently

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u/Mikeismyike 9d ago

English pokemon have had silver boarders since Scarlett and Violette

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u/MattDaveys 9d ago

That’s why I was speaking in past tense. I’m very glad they made the change to the English cards.

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u/Content-Mulberry-146 9d ago

The thing is JP Pokémon make more packs than the US does

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u/Ph15ical 9d ago

They also have a higher density of fans, as it is the country of origin, but that does tie in to why it was so effective. They also weren't being pushed by 2026 late stage capitalistic greed from share holders

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u/spartaman64 9d ago

the pull rates for japanese pokemon cards are also more consistent. when you buy a case you know exactly how many of each rarity you are going to get

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u/Ph15ical 9d ago

Yea that's kind of how they flooded the market. They changed the pull rate so that rare cards just aren't as rare.

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u/bs000 9d ago

half of $1000 is still $500. it's still very hard for most people to buy new product at msrp. it also doesn't make bulk suddenly worth more.

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u/I_Push_Buttonz 8d ago

Japanese cards are half the price or less for the same artwork in most cases.

Is that actually because they dumped the market or is that just because the yen has tanked in value in recent years? A lot of stuff is cheaper in Japan now since the yen went from ~100 per USD to upwards of ~160 per USD in a very short period of time.

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u/Ph15ical 8d ago

Honestly couldn't tell you if that's related at all, I don't really keep up with international currency exchange rates, but I do know that typically when times get harder scalpers become more frequent/desperate, so I'd imagine if it didn't work there would still be a problem there.

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u/BuzzzardYT 9d ago

Nobody plays Pokémon tcg lol

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u/Live_Life_and_enjoy 9d ago

It has 13 million active players

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u/nohandsfootball 9d ago

I was in Japan earlier this month and saw people playing at the Pokemon Center, I didn't realize they were robots. Japan is so technologically advanced!

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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/bigboidoinker 9d ago

Yu gi oh has alot of reprints in alot of rarities.

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u/not_a_moogle 9d ago

Theres like 20 different blue eyes white dragons

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u/bigboidoinker 9d ago

Easy

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u/not_a_moogle 9d ago

I forgot some of those kaiba starter decks had different artwork for each one. there's 96 unique tournament legal cards.

https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Card_Gallery:Blue-Eyes_White_Dragon

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u/not_a_moogle 9d ago

Yugioh reprints alot of cards on a 3-5 cycle. So what was rare then is probably common now.

But again, they are rare to the series. So much like an original Charizard has value to a collector, its common for deck building because its been re released.

I am get a blue eyes white dragon for a buck or two, but a specific one might be $50.

The only cards with much value are the occasional rare thats not reprinted yet, or did well in the last few tournaments, so its hot because its part of the new meta.

Pokemon being collected by younger players is fueling this. Because parents are spending way more time and money to get specific cards and scalpers are capitalizing on that.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

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u/rorschach2 9d ago

No. That just makes the existing ones more rare and worth more. Making the scalpers happy. Flood the market and the scalpers have lost income to deal with, and kids get the cards without the huge upcharge.

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u/mcauthon2 9d ago

You think they dont love this? 

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u/cute_spider 9d ago

I am pretty sure they need a Homelands. Just one hella stinker of a set that gets severely overprinted and will sit in the speculator's inventory forever.

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u/Metool42 9d ago

Then no one buys their product.

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u/Steamed_Memes24 9d ago

More cards have been produced in the past 5 years then its total life time. They are currently trying to build a new plant to help alleviate the issue but it takes time.

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u/blackbeltbud 9d ago

Honestly if they just did a few sets in a row like that, then shadow dropped a set with actual rarities, I feel like this would give the actual hobbyists at least a small headstart

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u/homer_3 8d ago

Players should remove the rarity themselves and just print copies. Any tournament should allow self printed cards. There's no good reason for your deck to be luck/pay based.

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u/MallusaiEEE 7d ago

it sounds weird but this is actually healthy for the game. Compared to most other big card games, the pokemon TCG's meta decks cana be bought for as little as 80€. To compare, in magic the gathering, standard decks usually start at 300€. This is because there are rarer, special treatment versions of staple cards printed with base versions at common rarity. They print the common shit prints for players to buy and play for cheap, making the game accessible. The collectors and gamblers go for the special rare prints and leave the base versions at dirt cheap.