Tldr: Collecting changed in 2020. What was casual and relaxing for many Pokemon has become stressful and hardcore. After big price increases, many collectors are priced out overnight from certain cards and collector’s now play their cards close to the chest. Awareness is more important to suceed in a more competitive hobby.
Personally, I’ve changed since 2020. I used to never stress about cards and said to myself, “I easily have 5 years to complete a WOTC 1st edition PSA 8 holo set”.
Ever since the 2020 boom, I have found the hobby to be more stressful. Some days I don’t care about stonking, and the next day I get stressed that Vmax Climax will increase in price by the next month. I get these FOMO urges at random times that the clock is ticking for goals. With modern, these urges have in several instances ended up being accurate.
I have pretty much been buying doubles and triples of cards in anticipation that everything in the hobby is becoming optimized, and if I don’t build a position now, someone else will. If I want to continue collecting at the same level I have been for years then I either must pay for cards out of my paycheck or buy/sell items that stonk.
Basically, I am spending way more time trying to hedge against future price increases instead of just buying the cards I want to collect, the way I did pre 2020. Collecting was not source of stress but a relief of stress.
I actually do think all of this was there pre-2020 (I think some people forget just how manic the Pokemon Go boom was). It has just been amplified significantly since the pandemic.
I really appreciated this video too. I love collecting and having a reminder that I’m not the only one out there with FOMO is reassuring.
One benefit to the boom has been the ability to appreciate sets and cards I never would have before. I was English set collecting or busy. That’s still where a majority of my goals lie, but have discovered Japanese set cards that are amazing and affordable. Even today, I discovered the Meiji chocolate foil promos, and they are awesome!
One final piece that I want to call out is a thank you to Mr Pratte for keeping the advertisers and sponsors at bay. E4 is so much more enjoyable that reddit or facebook or other communities out there, and it’s something I really appreciate.
Not sure if I’ve felt like the community (at least where I am) was a friendly, helpful one. They don’t want to help you get a card, but want to make sure they can sell you the card for a markup.
And now that modern chase cards are being speculated on en masse to the detriment of everything else being released, you get priced out quick especially with the US dollar continuously strengthening. And there doesn’t seem to be an end to the tunnel. While the pandemic heights are gone, there’s still a change in culture that has persisted and shows no signs of stopping.
As okjluv said about the JP card spikes, it’s becoming a rich man’s hobby. If you can’t get it now, you may never get it at all. That’s not sustainable to build any kind of collection.
I second your thanks to Scott for keeping the advertisers and sponsors at bay! I know it comes from a lot of personal time, effort, and money to keep E4 the amazing space it is (along with many great mods)… so thank you for making a great space for us + keeping it great!
Haven’t watched the vid yet but so far across 2021-22, outside of specific set cards, I have been able to get every Japanese product I have wanted at retail price. The massive caveat being that they were mostly won through lotteries, or reprints that took six months to deliver. Unfortunately anything that I couldn’t get I have just had to forget about, and to be honest no longer want at this point.
I was part of the crowd that got back into collecting during the boom period in 2021. I was amazed by modern sets like Shining Fates with the shiny cards and then dived into the deep end when alt arts released with Battle Styles. To say I had fomo would be an understatement and I got into this mindset I had to collect everything rare to not miss out.
Later on I jumped into collecting JP cards and it was fairly chill until people got more focused on the money aspect of the special arts. Coupled with Japanese card shops pumping prices for oripas the prices quick got out of control with speculators entering the scene too. All in all I think it’s been a crazy year for 2022 and it doesn’t seem like it’ll calm down too much with singles. I’ve just learned to collect what I like and not worry about holding a “position.”
My little refuge has been my local playing group. Collections are much more casual but everyone is more than fair on trades and sales. On cards ive been chasing for a while that they have people undercut comps by 30-40% and generally pay it forward. Nothing crazy but ive picked up some neat tag team alts and playables for better than anything people would go close to online
I think the thing that affects people the most is the fear of missing out, and I know this is usually referred to as FOMO but I feel like the popular understanding of what FOMO means isn’t as sober as I’d like it to be.
Like Scott mentioned in the video, a lot of people have had to contend with things they once sought exceeding their access and budgets. Sets that couldn’t be completed, big purchases that got put off too long, chase cards that can never be caught, and that’s difficult. It’s difficult to have come into the hobby with an interest, passion, and plan only to realize it outgrew you. People have lots of different reactions to this, but the reaction is often emotional.
But regardless of the emotions you may feel, I think most people internalize the fear that it’s going to keep happening. That it will happen again. They’re going to have to be more aggressive, more agile, they’ll have to be craftier. They’ll have to fight harder to stay alive in the hobby.
This produces situations like the Special Delivery Charizard release. I had no interest in that card, but I knew other probably would. I registered multiple email. I made multiple purchases. I sold every card as soon as I received it. I returned all my Pokémon Center purchases as soon as I received them. This is dishonorable behavior, I gamed the system and engaged with an aspect of the hobby disingenuously. But I made a few hundred dollars, which is a lot of money for me, and that allowed me to buy some cards I really wanted.
And that’s the challenge, you know? I try to keep perspective. With the SDC giveaway, I’m only manipulating a machine. I’d never do anything to try to manipulate or take advantage of a person. I know I’m not the kind of collector who’d stampede an artist to sell their signature. But I do things I never would have done five years ago, ten years ago. But funnily enough, I might have done as a kid when Pokémon was all that mattered to me. I guess everything has come full circle.
Most of 2022 I’d been feeling much more relaxed than the previous couple of years, but lately I’ve noticed there’s a definite mix. Certain cards I want are spiking in value, and there is fomo when the cards are actually hard to find.
I think it’s partly that PSA is opening lower tiers again; people will be able to consolidate their collections/chase higher end cards more quickly now. While I’m also in that boat… it’s a pretty large boat, in a sea of much bigger fish. (Mixing metaphors, but I think it works).
As for the increased competitiveness, I think the negativity that we feel from it is exacerbated by the immaturity in a hobby where the average participant is still very young. On some level we are all competing, but I don’t think you should expect it to be so cutthroat.
Hopefully these are growing pains from an atypical period of growth rather than the genie being out of the bottle.
Scott really nailed my boomer annoyances around the 10:00 minute mark in the video. To quote my dad, nobody just enjoys stuff anymore. I was at Denver collect-a-con and saw this alllll day. Everybody was videoing everything. Everybody was streaming. Whatnot-ers were screaming into their phones the whole time when they pulled the $20 hit from some pack. I dunno. Scott’s right that this is just a reflection of society as a whole but the hustling and social media-driven culture is everywhere and it actually takes work now to avoid it. No, Mr. 19 year old whatnot streamer, I’m 32 years old, I don’t want to buy your damn mystery pack.
Great video, listened to it this morning. I came back in to the hobby in late 2019 so it’s been a bit stressful starting out there and only seeing the hobby ramp up exponentially since then until the recent market cooldown. Fomo and anxiety over the cards I really want getting more and more expensive has me feeling impatient and afraid that I’ll be priced out forever on them. It’s definitely given me urgency in collecting lately and keeps me focused one getting them asap.
I don’t have a ton of disposable income, so selling off parts of my collection to self fund has become critical to keeping my collection growing. The collecting climate has definitely helped me learn how to sell and collect with efficiency and finding good deals though. So all in all, there are good and bad things that comes from the craziness, but it’s what you do with it that counts. I’ve definitely had to adapt to it.
It’s been tiring nonetheless, definitely not 2005 anymore with Deoxys blister packs behind the Borders check out
I came back into the hobby during 2020, so it’s pretty much been pure chaos this past two years. Despite all of that, I am finally seeing all the effort I put in start to come back to me; my first PSA sub just returned, I am about to finally start selling; everything I’ve been thinking and wanting is finally happening. It feels a tad bittersweet though. I wanted to do all of this to help me buy the cards I wanted, but after all the work and getting caught up in the money, it makes it exceedingly more difficult to appreciate the cards I do end up purchasing for my personal collection.
Much of my engagement in the hobby these days kinda feels like a means to an end. I want to enjoy what I am doing, but that thing that will bring me joy always feels just out of reach. Sometimes, finally purchasing a card I’ve been really wanting, ends up feeling empty and hollow. I wasn’t really collecting a ton prior to 2020 and I honestly regret that. I really long for a time when things were simpler, and maybe that applies to life in general, not just Pokemon. Everything has changed over the past few years and that includes Pokemon. It’s funny how when we talk about hobbies, we get caught up in the simpler times of our childhood. As I’ve gotten a bit older, I’ve realized my entire life is divided up until little moments of good times and bad times; on a microscale, reminiscing on the old days doesn’t even have to go back that far. It really feels like this toxic ‘hustle-productivity-getmoney’ culture is permeating everything.
I never really understood people saying the market was down because I never really felt that. All that noise kinda just redistributed into different sectors of the hobby. On the bright side, learning to navigate the hobby these past few years has taught me a lot about myself and life in general. I’ve had to do a lot of self-reflection and introspection, and ask these kinds of difficult questions about my place in this hobby, what I want from it, what makes the hobby enjoyable at all. I actually recorded a 40 minute think-piece in the summer about this exact topic called What makes collecting enjoyable (and unenjoyable)? I never uploaded it tho. It’s certainly been emotional times and it’s cool to see the ice kinda get broken on the topic.
It feels like everything is moving at mach speed these days. If I don’t pre-order the next UPC or whatever right away then there’s worries I won’t be able to get any. If I don’t buy these singles I’ve been wanting to I worry they will skyrocket in price. There’s constant pressure to buy now / sell now and it was honestly fun for awhile, like a rollercoaster is, but after the 100th loop you’re covered in puke and you just really want to get off the ride.
I also fell victim to the flipper mindset, because for awhile it worked. I could open boxes, keep the cards I wanted, and then flip the extras to pay off what I spent. It felt like a hack to get cards for free. I think that went away after I sold my PSA 10 Rayquaza for $900 last year. I figured well I can buy another one down the line cheaper. Now they’re $600 again. Was the flip worth it? Looking back, no. I regret it now. It was my card, it was the one I pulled. Now if I want the card back I have to buy someone else’s cert, and the story behind me pulling it (and remembering my friends reaction) is gone. It’s just another cert off of ebay. And for what? To make a couple hundred bucks?
You can’t even flip anymore as a casual even if you wanted to. Like is said in the video, there are people with no lives and tons of money who have the game optimized. They had their zard UPCs in hand a week before you and had already expedited the promos to PSA to flip them on return before you even opened your boxes. It’s tiring to try and keep up. I just don’t care anymore.
I think this is one of his best videos because everyone can find a point in there that resonates.
To me, the main message is that the hobby went from a relay race to a sprint. If you look back in time to some of the earliest e4 threads you can find stuff like this HONORABLE MENTION...Who paved the road for you! or people celebrating a trophy purchase because it specifically went to another e4 member.
Some of my best things in my collection were purchased because of the connections I made pre-2020 and other people sharing information or resources to me
Whereas fast-forward to today where multiple people have asked me whether they will get paid for making posts on e4. Even if it’s a joke, the fact that this even is a thought just blows me away. Today, everyone has an agenda (and if you don’t have an agenda, people will still assume you do). It feels like there’s a giant incentive system in place that promotes anti-social, selfish behaviour for short term gains. The hobby is so atomized into either individuals or very small private groups within larger groups.
It’s treated like a purely zero-sum game where the default response to someone else’s success outside your extremely tiny circle is skepticism or jealousy. It’s all a bit sad but I think it’s just a natural consequence of the sheer number of people now seriously collecting and selling and the dollar amounts that are available. Plus it seems like nearly every social platform just exacerbates the problem. Not only is it a rat race for cards and money but now views and followers.
Overall I’m not surprised with the current state of things. Just a bit saddened.
I don’t know if this is entirely post 2020 boom related, but I’ve found myself enjoying and branching out into other TCGs more. This isn’t at the expense of pokemon at all, I just genuinely enjoy the arts and gameplay of Digimon, DBS, and some MTG.
I’ve always collected and graded/sold as a way to further my collecting/life financial goals. It’s certainly a hell of alot less stressful, more enjoyable, degrees easier, and more profitable (less “sweat equity”) applying the same strategies I’ve always done in Pokemon to these other TCGs.
Collecting ultra modern has become like running on a treadmill with high speed and incline. I think from now on I’ll just do Japanese High Class Packs and sit out the rest of the year.
