Hmmm I’m not sure… Maybe those 2ds pokemon bundles. But they were sold out… Fetching decent coin on ebay.
I mainly just bought the cards I needed, and then played pokken tournament against some kids… And lost big time! I felt so defeated…
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Did they have any giant plush? I remember those were the most expensive items at the pokemon store at Worlds. They had these massive pikachus that were $300 or something like that, I believe they sold 5 of them by the time I went to the store.
I might of missed those… But didn’t see any giant plush or those nice medium sized pokemon centre figures they’ve had in the past.
I think this store was sold out of alot of merchandise. Even with their lucky dip draw, the top Prize was the rayquaza towel… I think other centres had figures or plush usually.
I’ve noticed in Japan… That… Well, I think pokemon is dying here…
When you go to various places like the cinemas, which have those vending ball machines for children… Pokemon isn’t there anymore… And almost non existent now at other game centres, and some shopping malls… It’s alot of other brands which are being presented to children, and very little pokemon…
Made me think a little about the franchise at late.
Interesting as their revenue is doing consistently well.
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Few things to note before you start misleading people (don’t worry I know it isn’t your intent, I just want to clarify your statement with some responses).
All the centers have the same prizes for the Pokemon Center Kuji. There is a full list on CV for the breakdown, but the towel is the top prize for this specific lottery. Yes in past kujis the top prizes are usually plush (such as from the Pokedoll Kuji a few years ago) or figures. It really just depends what the promotion is at the time and what they are offering 
In regards to sold out merchandise, if you go to the Pokemon Center Tokyo, they are the busiest center, so they have less stock. Why? Well in the less busy centers, less people buy the plushies, and therefore some will sit on their shelves longer. Whereas in Tokyo, when a plushie is released, it is only on the shelves for a bit because there is so much turnover of stock.
Pokemon isn’t dying, there just isn’t anything new (yet). They are gearing up for the Volcanion movie this summer, and then soon after will be Sun & Moon. The hype always comes back every time there is a new game announced, or is coming out. Remember us all clamoring for the vivillon information etc? It will have interest like that.
The pokemon center has their own gachapon machines, so they won’t need to be at other game centres. It costs companies money to use up the real-estate in those machines, so why not do vertical integration and do it all at the center. Produce, package, gachapon as opposed to shipping it off somewhere to gachapon.
A big time upcoming competitor right now to pokemon is yokai watch. For us, it isn’t ever going to replace pokemon, but I know a lot of people who prefer it. That being said, there are always going to be competition, and perhaps the end of pokemon is on the horizon (pun intended) but at the same time I don’t think we have to worry at all. They are milking the hype & nostalgia train for all that it is worth.
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OH! I forgot to mention. There are currently 3 large plush available at the center. The original kanto starters. Again, Tokyo probably just hasn’t restocked yet.
@kkthxbai Really? I thought Pokemon was doing better than before! their products have a stronger presence in Shops like Target, kmart and EB Games (GameStop ) than in recent years. Does anyone elese think this?
All data, trends and facts say that Pokemon is doing well. Nintendo is also not going to stop their 2nd best selling franchise.
Also, from an anecdotal perspective, the amount of pokemon merchandise in stores compared to 10 years ago is probably 10 fold. I honestly can’t think of another franchise that has more merchandise in target, wal-mart or other large retailers.
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I agree with you guys!
I’m just saying what I’m seeing here. I still think pokemon has a massive presence, and it’s main audience is becoming more or less adults.
I’m just seeing less kids with pokemon these days in Japan… There not playing them as much In schools, and every tcg card centre or hobby shop I visit. Pokemon is the smallest glass case… And sometimes not even there…
Even on the TV’s pokemon isn’t primetime anymore…
There is alot of other stronger franchises doing better for tcg here.
I’m not saying it’s dead… But it seems to be phasing out with children. Of course the games will revitalise briefly. And I’m excited for sun and moon.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
Of course I don’t want pokemon to phase out… >.<
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The Japanese are not the degenerate collectors like most the western world is.
I’ve noticed a big, steady downturn in Japanese product interest based on inquiries across all my work. Oddly enough though, English has risen markedly.
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I have the opposite experience, my Japanese product completely outshines english product, outside of the original WOTC era. Japanese cards have the unique released promos/trophy cards, which is lacking severely in english. However, the sealed product market is more prominent in English.
I think there is a lot of anecdotal experience here, but the real answer is in annual revenue, which is very consistent for pokemon. I think every company would kill for pokemon’s revenue, sales trends, etc. Oh and not to mention, pokemon had a commercial during the super bowl. 
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I guess Pokemon is the Golden Goose! They just need to keep pumping out cool Pokemon generations. I hope they come up with something good for the new generation of cards! I’m hoping They bring back the Gold Star cards!
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I was mainly going by the declining number of Jpn buy requests I get and the larger number of collection sell inquiries.
There are surely exceptions. Jpn promos are still steady with Coros doing well.
Laziness here but is there anywhere you can actually get Pokemon revenue numbers directly @smpratte? Or are you just going off of sales figures for the 3ds games and such? Or Nintendo profit overall?
P.S. I REALLY wish they would just disclose production numbers for each set. Probably would shock the market initially though and lead to some price volatility for a bit, but it would be SO interestng to know how many of each set were actually made and which were the rarest. It would really help in knowing the health of the TCG as well.
That is a good question. Here are a couple useful links, but nothing specific for tcg vs vcg.
I base my observation partially off of experience. I got back into collecting during college in the mid 2000’s. The market was barren. You could probably dig up a discussion with me and @garyis2000 about how much a psa 10 1st edition base charizard was worth. At the time I think Gary was boldly claiming a PSA 10 copy was worth $700. I remember selling a PSA 9 for $260. People reading that sentence today just increased their blood pressure.
It would be ideal to see the numbers for tcg over the years. I know MTG made 250 million. Pokemon stated they make 1.5 Billion annually. However, I don’t know how much of that is tcg vs vcg.
Those numbers are Nintendo as a whole though, not just Pokemon. I don’t trust that article and I don’t know how they came up with $1.5 billion for Pokemon alone.
Here. It was linked in the article.
In relation to general discussion, Pokemon had more revenue than Coca-cola, Sony and the NHL… I think they are doing just fine.
Thanks. Interesting link. I guess I wasn’t making sense of how Pokemon had $1.58 billion in sales annually when Nintendo only reported $4.5 billion in net sales annualy. It didn’t seem like Pokemon could be over 33% of their total gross when they are up against the console sales, mario, amiibos and all their other stuff. I see from the annual report that Nintendo holds 32% of voting rights of Pokemon Company so they likely only take in roughly that portion of the profits. I thought they were a wholly owned subsidiary but it doesn’t seem to be the case.
Pokemon is the most multi layered marketable brand in Nintendo, and perhaps all of video games. I can’t think of another series that does as well in combined video game sales, tcg, plushes, action figure and any other miscellaneous sales.