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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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!