Agreed that the time for selling singles at a premium is long gone…I was one of the early folks who got many ETBs during the 2-week period before full release and I made back everything I spent while being able to keep a few rainbow rares and Shinings. If you play or collect online, however, codes are at such a premium (as mentioned previously) that there’s still money to be made there and the secret rares are sought after so much online that you can trade for much rarer cards than what some of them are worth (for example, I traded 2x normal GX Zoroarks for a Rainbow Rare Charizard online, even though there is a Zoroark collection box coming…lol).
This is such a fantastic set and i’m loving the hype it’s getting on every social media platform right now…it just has such a great combination of card-types that appeal to both old and new collectors alike (GXs, full arts, holos and reverse holos, rainbow rares, throwback-style shinings), a great selection of Pokemon in the set overall and of course, tremendous art (even with the common/uncommon cards).
TPCI knocked it out of the park with this set even if we already knew that when it released in Japan a couple months ago.
As an aside, Rainbow Rare Raichu appears to still be the hardest card to pull just from my own experience and lurking online watching pack opening vids and such…i’ve seen some data from a few 1,000-pack openings now and it’s gotta be at higher than a 1:250 pack pull rate it seems…definitely interested to see where that card’s price plateaus, but just not sure if Raichu itself has enough appeal to justify a high price even with its relatively low pull rate (if it was a Rayquaza rainbow rare with Raichu’s current pull rate prices would probably be insane lol).
EDIT: Annndddd there’s a Raichu GX box coming out in January now…yeesh (pic from Pokebeach).
Hadn’t seen this mentioned anywhere online including Reddit, but it looks like the PokemonCenter website put the “Super-Premium” collection box set up early yesterday:
So the lugia and celebi arent out right now in english and they wont be attainable through packs, just thro that ho oh box, interesting why they made THREE of the shinings promos, and imo they’re some of the best ones.
Yup the same was done with the full art versions of Zoroark GX and Raichu GX from the set. I almost don’t mind it because it means there is less need to buy tons and tons of packs and boxes to complete the set or get specific cards that you want.
At the same time though it is a gigantic money grab situation and I see where people may not like it.
You caught me. I like the whole set, except shining Gynasect. I feel like there was absolutely no thought when they made that Pokemon. Rather than be creative they just said “lets make a transformer looking Pokemon that looks like a bug.” Only reason I will keep mine is that it completes my shinings from this set.
Pokemon Center online sells products 2 weeks before full public releases; they like to cash in on early buyers before everyone jumps on eBay, Wal-Mart or their local hobby shops to nab their product.
The Ho-Oh boxes went up right around lunch time Pacific time yesterday (I had been waiting for them to get listed and even though they released a product announcement last month saying availability would start on 10/6 online, the box wasn’t listed for sale at midnight on 10/6 when I checked). I jumped on a few of these boxes since i’ll likely be able to recoup some cash parting out the box contents and cards I don’t need, plus I plan on keeping a few sealed and stored away.
My only concern is getting promo cards that aren’t edge-whitened to hell, since the pin collection box promos were very loose and resulted in the majority of mine having quite a bit of whitening save for a couple due to bouncing around in the packaging. I don’t know how many more years TPCI needs before they figure out a way to reliably not damage these promo cards when they stick them in these box collections.
I bought two boxes honestly I’m not going to buy anymore than that. If I don’t get good promos for lugia, I’ll just buy one off ebay once they come out with psa grades when the price goes down. Same goes with the rest of the cards I am searching for as potential 9s and 10s for psa. Just looking at all those ho-oh shining promos I took out of 10 boxes only 2/10 I would say are grade worth of a 9. I don’t even know about a 10. I’m used to WOTC cards. The new cards are in a way different in cut and centering sometimes which throws me off and makes it hard to judge what is worth keeping for grading and what isn’t. The
Biggest reason is lack of experience with the new sets and even old sets in general as far as what I truly should be looking for. I can see the obvious things such as marks and obvious whitening. It’s the finer details I don’t have a true clue on.
When I eventually get these cards graded I am most likely going to go through someone else to get a second opinion. Maybe Scott . I definitly need that second opinion from someone with years of experience. Especially since it will be my first PSA submission once I do it. Over time I’ll get the hang of it i am sure, in the mean time though a second opinion is one I am more than willing to take before actual submission to PSA.
Prices take time to stabilize. A month is approximate, but yes this is true for every set. Even if the prices don’t go lower for every card, it is best to wait as you’ll get the stable prices.
Whenever you see people talking about cards and their values long-term, they’re assuming you purchase after the hype dies down. The first few weeks have erratic, inconsistent prices and it is always a bad time to buy for mass-produced releases.
That said: If you want to voice your support for a set’s direction to Pokemon or have a small business you want to support, purchasing sealed product is still a good thing to do. Which is why I bought 10 ETBs but did not purchase singles. I’ll sell off most of my singles before prices hit the floor and repurchase what I want after a period of time. Best of both worlds.
I really don’t think so (I definitly didn’t cause any damage to the cards as I was opening them). They are medical grade gloves and powder free. It’s personal preference. It’s soft rubber. All it does is prevent my hands from getting there natural oils on the the cards and possible sweat over time. I see it as extra precaution for preserving the cards. Just like scientists when they handle something delicate and want to best preserve but still want to study, they put on gloves.
I just opened two boxes this weekend and I’m a 100% sure one of my ETB boxes came with 11 booster packs instead of 10. I thought I had one unopened from the first box but when I counted the code cards I had a total of 23 which meant I really did have an extra one
Just opened up an ETB that had a regular holo in the reverse holo spot for every pack. The actual holo/ultra rare slot was unchanged. I’ve opened up a few others from that case and haven’t come across the error again, but I’m going to finish off the case later and see if it shows up again. It seems weird to have an entire ETB that has the error, but the rest of the case doesn’t. Does anyone have any insight into how these cases are packed and how boosters are put into specialty products like these?
For those bargain hunters Target has $25 off $100 toys purchase. This makes 2 ETB $75. (No filler needed to push over $100 in store at least) Plus taxes minus red card if you have it. Slightly better deal than Walmart has had for the past few days.
. I definitly need that second opinion from someone with years of experience. Especially since it will be my first PSA submission once I do it. Over time I’ll get the hang of it i am sure, in the mean time though a second opinion is one I am more than willing to take before actual submission to PSA.
wouldnt those hurt the card more than help