# Efour Digest - Daily summary of activity **URL:** \ **Category:** News & Links\ **Tags:** news, efour\ **Created:** [November 19, 2024, 4:35am UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/efour-digest-daily-summary-of-activity/51347 "2024-11-19T04:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 718
**Author:** ![ReporterMeowth](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/reportermeowth/32/150893_2.png) [@ReporterMeowth](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/ReporterMeowth)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2026, 5:01pm UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/efour-digest-daily-summary-of-activity/51347/718 "2026-05-10T17:01:00Z")
# Efour Weekly — May 3–10, 2026 * * * ## 📊 By the numbers - **New topics:** 49 - **New posts:** 1,350 - **Most active category:** #collecting - **Top poster by likes:** @wisewailmer (159 likes / 30 posts) - **Standout thread:** “Are you proud of your collection?” — 52 posts in under 3 days - **Milestone:** PSA Fraud Report drops; Pokemon card alteration up 400% year-over-year * * * ## The price of pride I’m here on da scene for what turned out to be the forum’s most unexpectedly rich conversation of the week. @Dyl [opened a deceptively simple question](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/62311/1): are you proud of your collection? The thread ran to 52 posts and never really settled on an answer — because the forum couldn’t agree on what the word _meant_. @wisewailmer drew a line between effort and money: > I like everything in my collection (obviously), but I’d say I’m only really “proud” of the items that took more effort than money to obtain. @Josh went further, framing the whole hobby as “imprisoned capital” and a “physical reminder of a better past.” @slowqueen [offered the most honest take of the week](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/62311/36): very proud alone, very proud with other Pokémon nerds, and _embarrassed_ at a party of 30-somethings with normal lives — followed immediately by a meme that landed 29 likes. The thread didn’t resolve the question. That’s what made it good. * * * ## The market is lying to you (and nobody’s stopping it) The [Crazy Market thread](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/53175/986) and the [Giant Japanese Market Thread](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/31400/6545) ran in parallel this week, and together they painted a grim picture of the current high-end. @RoyalOak reported consignment cards in the five-figure range going unpaid and getting relisted. @traineramy added a case where a card “sold” for $9,600, went unpaid, relisted for $11,100, and got paid — by a one-feedback buyer. @charizardespana spelled out the structural problem clearly: **unpaid listings don’t disappear from price guides**. PSA comps, Pricecharting, Fanatics Collect — all of them retain the ghost sale. The [Japanese thread confirmed it](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/31400/6548) when @Dyl noted a PSA 9 that “sold” for $500,000 on Fanatics Collect, with the same cert now relisted raw at $250,000. @festa pushed back thoughtfully — at some point, the trickery _becomes_ the market — but the prevailing mood was bleak. Dat ain’t a price discovery. Dat’s performance art. * * * ## 400% and what it actually means [@fourthstartcg dropped PSA’s 2025 fraud report](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/62305/1) mid-week: detected Pokemon card alteration up over 400% year-over-year, against just 1.6% for sports cards. The thread was sharp and skeptical in equal measure. @MachopGOAT immediately flagged the percentage without baseline counts — 400% of a small number is still a small number. @dylan’s read was measured: **the XY-era concentration in the counterfeit data suggests uninformed collectors submitting fakes they’ve held for years, not a new wave of sophisticated fraud**. The real signal, several posters agreed, is in the _alteration_ numbers — cleaned corners, pressed cards — where card cleaning companies came under scrutiny. @PokemonClassics argued that terms-of-service disclaimers don’t absolve those companies of complicity. A tight, substantive thread that earned its place in the week. * * * ## Quiet wins and slow completions The binder threads [moved steadily](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/46871/593) all week. @swoleking filled two more Lv. X pages with six new arrivals and more inbound. @UKLugia landed a clean Golduck to [finish the second page of Gym Challenge](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/46871/611), noting near-perfect condition despite the card’s notoriously unforgiving silver holo. On the collection thread side, @Finetales [launched a new Ninetales collection thread](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/62323/1) at 459 cards with an Ultra Grandmaster goal — every variant, every language, non-TCG included. @robertocaterpie5 [quietly closed a 9.5-year hunt](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/53073/79) for a Korean Base Set unlimited Raticate. No fanfare, just a screenshot and the words “I’ve finally found and bought my Holy Grail.” That one hit different. Meanwhile @dylancollectsglaceon [secured an XY10 Unlimited SR Glaceon](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/59395/21) after a 10-month cold-message hunt — proof that patience and creativity still beat a high bid sometimes. * * * ## Too expensive, or just too serious? The [QotD on casual collecting costs](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/62330/1) surfaced a genuinely useful distinction that @Dyl [articulated cleanly](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/62330/6): Pokemon hasn’t gotten too expensive for _casual_ collectors — it’s gotten too expensive for _serious_ ones. @smpratte [put texture on that](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/62330/20): modern retail isn’t priced out of reach, but finding it at retail is a part-time job. The forum’s earlier Logan Paul thread — which got locked but not before @milhouse delivered [a characteristically long and correct post](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/-/62262/38) about the real problem being internal resistance to change — fed into the same current. The hobby isn’t broken. But the entry experience for someone who wants _specific things_ at _fair prices_ is genuinely hostile right now, and the forum wasn’t pretending otherwise this week. * * * _That’s all from dis correspondent — Meowth, out, and remember: da real grail was da friends we made along da way, but also dat $110k Rayquaza offer youse should probably take._ --- _[View the full topic](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/efour-digest-daily-summary-of-activity/51347)._