There’s a rumor going around on Virbank City that TPCI will no longer be doing Staff promos (according to store owners).
On one hand, I always loved staff promos, but I understand the reasoning behind this because there are some slimey store owners not giving them to their judges like they’re supposed to.
Yes, some store owners here and distributors got mails saying that TPCI is no longer doing staff promos for the time being. There was no reasoning whatsoever.
My guess would be about fishy stuff like you mentioned plus the ridiculous prices these cards are fetching for having a gold stamp. Pokemon is probably sorting out a better way to deliver them or just change them completely.
As an organiser and TO (UK based) I can confirm this.
Just personally speaking to people I’ve heard of four stores that didn’t give their Judges/Organisers their Staff promos for Vivid Voltage. Must be dozens of stores across the world that didn’t give them up because of Zord.
Hopefully we get some cute pin badges or deck boxes to give out instead like in the ex era!
I’m not sure who exactly is sent these promos, but I feel like they realized that they are just being resold for crazy prices. It seems like a lot of these are just being graded and resold for insane amounts and not actually remaining with the people Pokemon intended them to stay with.
These promos were sent directly to the store
If true that is sad to hear. I’ve been learning a lot about stamped cards recently so I’ve started to appreciate Staff cards more and more than I already have.
Return to pins and deck boxes!!
I hope they eventually come up with something as a token of appreciation for their volunteers but also discouraging resale of those things
Never understood of the value increase because it has the staff stamp…now if it had unique art for that specific release then that would be different.
Pokemon: prints a STAFF charizord, sells for 4 figures
also Pokemon: prints another STAFF charizord, sells for 4 figuresalso Pokemon: prints ANOTHER STAFF charizord, sells for 4 figures
also Pokemon: We have decided to stop distributing STAFF promos because people are reselling them on the secondary market
I think instead of eliminating these, simply changing the distribution channel would make for amazing tokens of gratitude to Judges and Organizers while still giving them the option to either sell their cards if they need some financial compensation or keep them for their emotional value.
The way this could be achieved would be to implement a points system in which each judge/organizer accumulates points for their participation and engagement at events throughout the season. These would be logged by the stores and whoever had between 1-10 points would get a certain promo, 11-20 points, another promo and so on.
Promos would then be sent by TPCi by post to each individual at each rotation. I know the logistics may sound cumbersome, but if Japan managed to pull off the Masaki trades, I see no reason for a judge programme not to work in a similar manner.
staff prereleases are going away
Well it seems it’s official now:
www.pokebeach.com/2020/12/staff-promos-for-prereleases-officially-discontinued-after-vivid-voltage
They used a photo from my eBay. I took that like 2 hours ago inbetween meetings. Had to do a double take on the cert.
If staff promos are done, it does put a nice wrap around the full printing; 2007-2020. It’s no longer an endless stream of stamped cards to chase.
Most people are speculating due to aftermarket value. Could there be other nefarious reasons?
Finally, I believe Worlds promos may be treated differently since Pokemon has more control over the process. Who knows? All reasons are guesses from an email at this point.
All potential reasons are just pure speculation and people are just using it as an excuse to gripe about whatever grievances they have about the hobby - scalpers, speculators, secondary market, high prices etc.
Worth baring in mind that the email we received only specifies Prerelease Staff promos. Will soon be League Cup, Regional, International Championship and World Championship promos to collect still.
Never collected and have no interest in these cards but I can imagine these will go even higher in price now that they’re going away.
I’ve had a several staff packs listed for about a month now. Only one has sold within that time, until today; all of my remaining packs sold this afternoon. People are really hyping this news up.
I have a feeling they will print staff promos again, I think the reason they are stopping now is because you can’t have in person competivie play due to the virus. Im guessing 2022 they will make new ones.
Agree but still, we all know the weird relationship pokemon have with the ultra high prices in secondary market.