^ 1000 times this!
The golden era alone has so many challenging, rare and unique cards to collect. Even modern Japanese promos 5 years-present have such a nice variety!
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I agree that there is a vast amount of rare items in this hobby that already exist and they are amazing! I do however think moving forward for longevity of the hobby Pokemon needs to make distribution changes for the current young generation to maintain interest in years to come. Also it would be so nice to have some new art and new pokemon added to the hobby that contained a chase and a challenge as well, especially for those people who really like the newer generations of pokemon.
I think you’re confusing what you want with what kids want. When I was a kid, my collection was basically moderately played unlimited non-holo wotc cards and a few theme deck holos. Yet here I am today.
Kids don’t want a chase or a challenge. Most probably get less than the equivalent of 1 booster box throughout the year. I’ve opened packs with kids and most are just excited to get a cool $4 GX or something with a lot of HP. IMO Pokemon is doing everything right in terms of targeting their main demographic.
I am not confusing what I want with what kids want. I understand kids are not looking for the same chase or challenge that adults are and that they are satisfied with cheap cards that they just think are cool and that’s fine! My main point is that when these kids get older are they going to stay devoted or loyal or have desire to stay in the hobby like collectors who were kids in the WOTC era? The answer is probably not because when they get older the cards they have nostalgia for will have no challenge or point to collecting if they are completely over saturated and have very little value. This is bad for Pokemon for longevity because they will lack collector retention as the years go on which will lead to decreased sales and eventually this is what kills hobbies as the years go on.
@pkmnflyingmaster, Most of us see nothing wrong with Pokémon spreading out beyond their main demographic. These are bright people who can focus on more than one group. That certainly wouldn’t hurt the kids. In fact it could give their interest a future like it did many of ours.
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How is market saturation a bad thing? The more kids buying packs the better.
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Honestly that is where I am with Modern English! Similar to the new video games; as long as they serve a purpose, and/or the current generation enjoys them, I am happy. The collector market has plenty of other options outside of modern sets.
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Wait 20 years and hope it works the same way as wotc cards.
Tell this to the people who bought baseball cards in the 80s and 90s.
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Pokemon isn’t sports. The inset/numbered cards work well for hobby sports but would not work for Pokemon, which is a TCG first and foremost. Maybe short-print art variations would work, but it still doesn’t make sense to me. Even with Pokemon as a TCG, Pokemon has been tailoring sets more and more to collectors over the late XY-SM era, just look at CP6/Evolutions, Shining Legends, and Hidden Fates. Obviously all of these sets have knocked it out of the park in terms of sales and interest so hopefully they will keep doing this in the future!
In my opinion there is absolutely nothing wrong with the current state of modern Pokemon. Modern and vintage are such completely different markets, we see even-increasing saturation and decreasing prices with modern while vintage continues to climb consistently.
@fourthstartcg,
Are you sure you don’t work for TPI;)
They do do a lot of things right for sure but you can’t be too shortsighted. You can always do better. Once you relax, you will get run over. It’s better to say “how can we make it better” than “there is absolutely nothing wrong”
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Yes, it would work for Pokémon. Short print is short print, and collectors love limited items. The more limited the better. Why do you think Cards already have different rarities. And why do you think scott says the rarer the better? If it didn’t matter all cards would have equal release numbers.
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I guess my argument is more that Pokemon, as a TCG, doesn’t care about collectors too much and we shouldn’t expect them to. Doing things like short print cards would be great for collectors, but I don’t think it fits in with the business model of Pokemon and I don’t think it will happen. Also, if they don’t do these short prints or make changes, I highly doubt there will be any negative consequences down the road as some are arguing.
Would I like to see more sets or items focused on collectors? Absolutely, but I think Pokemon has been trending in the right direction with stuff like Shining Legends/Hidden Fates and even the alternate art Tag Team GX cards, which basically encompass everything people here have advocated for except for not being printed in sufficiently small enough numbers.
While there is always room to improve, I don’t see these short-print things fitting in with Pokemon’s goals and business model, and I don’t see any consequences of modern saturation besides contrived collectors getting annoyed that too many people can access newer cards.
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I’d still argue they’re missing the boat. I’ll use myself as an example. If there was a collectible incentive I would have collected sets from the last decade. Now, I only pay attention to vintage. In other words, they lost me and I’m probably not the only one.
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I agree with this Gary, and I think it supports my argument that longevity retention is diminished through this current modern strategy, but the short term flourishes for them so they haven’t changed anything.
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