Regardless of if you feel the barrier of entry is too high, there’s nothing that can be done about it. TPCi could impact the barrier of entry for in-print cards, but that’s about it. For anything that it is long out-of-print, the prices are just a product of market forces beyond any one person’s control. Saying that prices are “too high” is basically just saying that you wish supply was higher or that demand was lower. For better or worse, these are not things any of us can change.
In addition, Pokemon doesn’t even have a high barrier of entry for most sorts of cards. I collect both Pokemon and MTG, and I can afford all of the main Pokemon items I want. But there are a lot of MTG cards I want that I literally just can’t afford (namely a 9 or higher Alpha Lotus lol). So for my (and many others’) purposes, Pokemon is super affordable. Compare Pokemon prices to non-Pokemon collectibles, and I suspect you’ll be very happy you’re into Pokemon lol.
And it depends entirely on what you actually want to collect. If your interests are malleable or on the cheaper side then the barrier to entry is not too high. If they are not then the barrier to entry is too high and you’ll have to figure something out or not partake.
Kinda depends on where youre trying to enter. Pokemon cards in general have a very low barrier to entry, as you can literally just go buy a pack from the store. If youre interested in mint condition vintage cards, that bars a little bit higher lol.
While I do feel this sometimes when seeing how low some prices used to be, the fact is that I just wasnt engaged in the hobby then, the way i am now. Things used to be different and they are the way they are now. I may not be able to purchase the same things now, as i couldve if i got more involved 5 years ago, but also the amount of information and speed at which I got to where I am may not have been possible then either. Entering the hobby when things are more difficult allowed me and im sure many others to learn and grow. Not to mention, there are still cards that are very affordable, especially relative to their rarity.
Basically, i know that it sucks sometimes, but there is ways you can use that growth to your advantage and still participate in the hobby happily. Im a student and only work part-time, so i definitely get how money can be an issue. Dwelling on missed opportunities makes you miss more opportunities!!
Entry is very low in Pokemon. Anyone can buy a binder, a few modern packs, some sleeves, and begin their collection.
Most financial barriers can be overcome with: 1) time (e.g., saving your money), 2) reprints (e.g., Evolutions Charizard vs. Base Set Charizard), or 3) condition-buying (e.g., a damaged Espeon Gold Star will still be a lot of money, but it may save you 80% of the NM price). There will always be a few cards that are unobtainable for 99.99% of the collector base, but I do not see anything wrong with that.
People who are exclusively interested in high-end cards are more excited by money than they are by Pokemon cards.
It can be overwhelming looking at modern Pokemon, not just because the obvious chase cards are expensive, but every month there’s some amazing new released. It’s impossible to keep up with if you want to collect everything.
In my opinion if you want to maximise your enjoyment it requires more concentration/focus today than ever before, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for modern bulk. There are many old cards with beautiful artwork that are still very affordable. I could name some but I honestly think it’s so much more fun discovering something for yourself.
I will think that barrier to entry is low, especially in the upcoming Scarlet violet era. With the introduction of ARs, you can basically get good artwork that is very very affordable.
There’s only a barrier to entry if you decide you need to collect high end cards. There are people who collect unpopular pokemon or rip packs of modern and just keep what they get and are happy to stick to that.
The barrier of entry is not high at all - if you are talking about Vintage WoTC you can literally get some PSA 9s Japanese Base Holos for under 60 bucks (will most likely have to be an auction), you can get Unlimited Wotc Holos PSA 7-8s for under 60. There are WoTC 1st Edition holos PSA 8s you can get under $100.
I mean these are over 20 year old cards. If you are looking at the top chase cards then yeah they will be expensive. Even then let’s take the example you used. You are looking to get an Base Zard you can still get a pretty good condition one for under $200, maybe under 150 if you can find the right deal.
I’m probably going to wait until prices stabilize over a couple years on certain modern cards. Unless it’s at a price I’m comfortable with. In the meantime there are plenty of psa 9 chase cards from older sets that are at a decent price now, and it might be better to focus on those items, until the hype dies down on this newer flashy stuff.
This really is the name of the game for hyped up modern cards. Unless the initial cost isn’t a financial burden to a buyer, the prices are always dropping on the modern chase cards; Moonbreon is starting to have semi-regular sold prices in the mid $400’s as opposed to when it came out of the gate and people were paying $1,000+ for it. Now, a year later, you could buy 2 for that price AND a Japanese WOTC Holo. Patience is key
It is good to have some challanges.
If all cards were a few bucks it would also be a bummer.
Agree that if the first hype slows down you’ll get a better price :).
I feel like the millennial birthright was collecting WotC sets. These were the sets that passed through our hands as children. Our ancestral cards. As we aged into expendable income we would return to our lineage and finish what we couldn’t, regain what we lost, and I like that pretty much anyone is able to do that.
Over time, the gulf between unlimited and first edition prints widened. Only unlimited remains the “people’s option”, which was okay. Unlimited remains affordable, available, and anyone wishing to revisit that period of their life is able to do so with relative ease. Some might balk at spending $150 on a piece of cardboard if they’ve never done that before, but if they’re serious about it that’s not a high barrier for anyone to cross. Ask for eBay gift cards for your birthday and Christmas and it’s even easier.
What is additionally true is that the more you collect and the more you learn about Pokémon, the more cards you want. Binder collectors learn about slabs, set collectors learn about promos, English collectors learn about Japanese exclusives, etc. The collector’s spirit is restless, their eyes are drawn continually beyond the horizon, and inevitably people chase more and more expensive cards. It is true that everyone has a limit they not surmount. Eventually, unless you are an independently wealthy millionaire, you are going to have to stop and turn back and accept the things that are out of your reach.
This can be a bitter feeling. People deal with it differently. But it’s something we have to accept as collectors. The lesson though is that there are barriers to all over this hobby and they are not the same for everyone. They’re also not fixed. Where my barriers were in 2010, 2015, 2020, and now have all been different barriers. There are barriers of cost, there’s barriers of availability, there’s barriers of access, but even just focusing on cost the hobby remains open to and navigable to anyone able to accept their personal reality.
It also depends on what the hobby is to you. So many facets, some people would probably find it useful to try and define their interest and then make a decision about whether or not it is financially feasible.
Social or solitary, events or no events, opening packs or buying singles, singles or slabs, slabs or binders, vintage or modern?
Are you someone who finds joy in staring at $0.10 commons until your eyeballs pop out or are you only excited by mint vintage holographics with a 1st ed stamp on them?
Maybe you like several things but the expensive option is much more important and the cheaper is of unsustainably tepid interest, or maybe it’s the other way around?
Do you like to add themes to your collection or do you just want to own the cards you want to own, keep them hidden away and pull them up at your convenience?
Maybe you’re even someone who doesn’t really care about the cards at all but only find pleasure in sealed items (I’m sure there’s someone out there like that too.)
I very interested in hearing what people who have started collecting since 2020 have to say as they are the collector’s who truly experience the barrier to entry.
What do you folks who started collecting since then think?
Moonbreon went down to $160 at one point about 6 months after release and then shot up all the way to nearly $600. I don’t think it was ever going for $1000.
