Efour Weekly — May 17–24, 2026
By the numbers
- New topics: 53
- New posts: 1,247
- Top poster: @tilla13 — 242 likes, 52 posts
- Most active category: collecting
- Standout metric: A single Mew ex with an Oddish cameo cleared $236,543 at auction — $233,000 more than a comparable copy without it
Why Is Everything So Expensive, and Whose Fault Is That, Exactly
I’m here on da scene and da Crazy Market thread is doing what it does — pulling in everyone from the economists to the philosophers to the guy who just wants a $4 pack. This week the conversation graduated from “prices are high” to something more structural. @swoleking laid out a detailed argument that survivorship bias and social media distortion are driving speculative behavior — people chasing “exit velocity” rather than collecting. @tstark20 pushed back slightly on framing but landed in roughly the same place:
Pokemon is the vehicle for this movement, but if Yu-Gi-Oh was the more popular franchise, we’d be seeing all this chaos over there instead.
@CardboardInsanity catalogued three lies new collectors believe — including the claim that the market has beaten the S&P since 2004 (false, per the post; only since 2016, and barely, pre-2020). By midweek the thread had drifted into EX commons selling for $2–5k territory, with @tidaldreams asking in the English Market thread what most people were thinking but not saying out loud.
Hungary Was Always Here
The week’s most quietly remarkable contribution came from @tilla13, who opened a dedicated Hungarian Pokémon collection thread and proceeded to populate it post by post over four days — VHS releases, Junior magazine tie-ins, Tazo festivals, Mirinda bottle cap campaigns, McDonald’s promos, cinema ticket giveaways. It reads like a regional archive being assembled in real time. What made it land harder: @tilla13 had already surfaced in the older Minta watermark thread, identifying the Hungarian TCG promo card that had puzzled collectors for months and explaining its origins from firsthand memory.
The Laserdisc thread, the Mewtwo article thread — @tilla13 turned up in those too, contributing scans. Fifty-two posts, 242 likes. Dis is what sustained documentation looks like.
The Card That Wasn’t (And The One That Very Much Was)
Two authentication stories ran parallel this week, pulling in opposite directions. On the fake end: a claimed Ken Sugimori illustration and signature was called out within minutes — @swolepoke noted missing pen strokes on the Japanese signature, an incorrect English signature, and artwork copied from official sources rather than sketched. Verdict: fake, thoroughly.
On the genuinely surprising end: @Quuador helped close a years-long question for @Komono, confirming that a “Sample” Wailmer e-series card that had circulated online was an internet hoax created just before the Japanese e-series launch — not a real unissued promo. The creator had apparently admitted it in 2023. The forum’s long memory does its best work in moments like these, where a single credible post saves a collector from chasing something that never existed.
Completions, Quietly
Several significant personal milestones landed in the binder page thread and recent purchases this week. @UKLugia finished the Gym Challenge binder set with a cracked Ace 8 Venusaur — Base through Gym Challenge now complete, with Neo sets next. @corncob2001 wrapped a full Komiya binder, final card a Diglett 028/072, crediting @CollectableCardboard’s documentation thread as the checklist. @Quuador, on the collecting side, acquired the last non-TCG Seviper item from the Dancing Secret Base line — 34 items tracked, one final ©2004 Gotta Dance card to close it out. Three different collectors, three different finish lines, all crossed in the same week.
The Oddish Industrial Complex
JoshsOddCollection’s post was framed as advocacy but functioned as a market report: a Paldean Fates Mew ex in BGS Pristine sold for $236,543 — the distinguishing feature being an Oddish cameo in the artwork. A comparable copy without it had recently sold for $3,300. The thread immediately became a referendum on whether the premium was rational, with @Bellsprout pointing out that a Bellsprout cameo was also present and therefore the math should be split, and @tidaldreams asking whether buyers expect the card to double. Nobody had a satisfying answer. The Crazy Market thread absorbed the residual shock. As a data point about where this hobby currently is, it’s hard to top.
That’s da week — Meowth out, and youse better keep dem Oddish safe.