It’s pretty common is the non-TCG collecting communities I’m in to share rare finds and bargains with others. I was wondering if there was an equivalent to this for Pokémon cards?
I am casually shopping all the time and most of the good deals I see aren’t part of my collection goals so I just keep scrolling. If I’m aware of a specific person on e4 who is after that card I will send it direct but I’ve only been able to do that a handful of times.
E4 might not be the place for something like that of course, I know this forum is better off for avoiding being so transactional. That said some of my fav moments in collecting have been sharing a listing and seeing someone else excited to have found it.
The Giant Auction Thread is the place for you! Even though it says auction thread, posting any interesting items for sale is fine, even if they aren’t auctions.
It would be nice to have a dedicated thread to deals, that auction thread has primarily been about heritage, goldin and pwcc auctions. I mean there’s a dedicated subreddit for pokemon deals. Wouldn’t hurt to have a separate thread for deals.
The funny thing is I was under the impression that most users disliked the giant threads because of how they acted like a place to shove smaller threads into. But I guess they are more popular than I thought. They are easy to resurrect if that’s what the community wants. I think we will avoid consolidating standalone threads into them however
Megathreads are good because the create a sort of “hangout” where people who are drawn to the subject matter congregate and habitually share in that interest. This creates extra familiarity between users who get to know each other more intimately in this consistent shared environment. They tend to produce better conversation as a result because the people in there all have a mutually supported knowledge base. They’re a comfortable place to post.
There’s also the added benefit in attracting an outsider who then knows they’re “asking the right people.” For example, you know that the people who hang out in the Japanese Market thread are going to have the best insight if you have a question about that, so it lets you ask that question and get the best answer.
I think what people dislike is when they want to ask a question to the whole community but get shuffled into a megathread. While people might want to ask the experts who hangout in a megathread, they might be more comfortable or might want a broader range of replies and prefer to ask on the open forum. So when their smaller threads get closed and redirected to a megathread, it is frustrating to the user who is having their preferred way of interacting with the community so regimented.
I think with the more relaxed attitude towards smaller threads you’ve already expressed, this problem is already solved. Megathreads retain their appeal while users who prefer the open forum can still rely on the more diverse set of impressions. I think the more flexible mix you’re achieving now will be satisfying for folks.
I agree, the giant market threads are some of my favorite places on the forum, I would pass so much time reading through it every few days. The market is slow right now so maybe there aren’t a lot of people wanting to talk about it, but I’m sure having them open and active again would facilitate more discussion and interaction!
Edit: I see they are open, should’ve looked first lol.
I agree with the two posts above. It was nice to have the consolidated mega thread area which made it easy for me to browse the topics I follow. For example:
Giants professional grading thread
Japanese market mega thread
English market mega thread
I am also a huge boomer and have a hard time navigating new websites/figuring out the new functionality.
Thanks for letting us know! They are now reopened! We have added tags to the threads as well. We also don’t plan on relocating posts as much as we did in the past.
To give some insight, mega threads were created during the 2020 boom when there were a ton of “what should I buy” and hot takes. They helped consolidating the same frequent variation of a question. Now the threads and hobby as a whole are more relaxed. So we can just keep them going with minimal thread relocation.