With Japan being prodigal in exclusive releases, I wonder whether any print run adjustments have been made over the years to meet demand from international collectors for free promo cards.
We can safely assume that older exclusive promo cards like the Natta Wake Pikachu or the Corocoro Mew were printed without any regard for international demand as it simply wasn’t there at the time of release.
I know most promos are given’while stocks last’, and most likely, 10 years ago, no Japanese seller would buy 100 CoroCoro magazines to sell off the cards on YJ. Nowadays though, there seems to be a shift and we can see that as soon as a new promo comes out, hundreds of listings show up on YJ as sellers are more aware of international demand.
Seeing how the most popular recent promos tend to dry up and increase in price over a short period of time, I would be inclined to believe that even though print runs have increased, they are still not quite on par with international demand. Anyway, let us know if you have any specific information, or what your opinion/experience is on the matter.
Do you think promos like the boss pikachu or poncho eevee have been printed in proportion to international demand or do you think print runs are more reflective of local demand?
I would say considering Nintendo hasn’t really had the Western Collector in mind with modern product, it’s likely they are printing for local demand. In saying that though, local demand has likely increased due to international demand buying out these guys selling 100 copies of the card from Japan.
The increase in print to match this increase in demand that is channeled through these middlemen (since westerners aren’t buying directly from the Pokémon Center or other locations) will likely increase. However, until we start seeing Nintendo setting up international distribution (unlikely), we will likely see supply run out quick has it has been for some time.
All of my post here is anecdotal as I’m far from an expert on Japanese promos, but it appears to me like there is a significant amount of opportunity as a collector right now with Japanese promos if you are paying attention.
Yes, that’s exactly my perception as well. We have pretty common promo cards that were distributed in Japan for free less than a year ago selling within the $50 range at PSA 10, and that seems to signal some degree of scarcity.
Picking up on Scott’s adage (The older, the rarer the minter the better), even though they are not yet old, they seem to be some of the rarer and minter low cost product that nintendo is putting out these days.
Surely they are produced en masse, but if nintendo gives them away on a one promo to five booster packs and each booster box contains 30 packs, they should roughly equate to 6 times the amount of booster boxes nintendo expects to sell in Japan. If we consider that they are supplied ‘while stocks last’ that would mean those numbers probably acompany the first print run of a set. Add to this the actual demand by Japanese consumers, it doesn’t seem like much would be left for international collectors.
I was in Japan during the Eevee Poncho campaign and it had only be going for three weeks I believe, and some pokemon centers had already run out of a few of them. Not saying these will ever get to $500 each, but seeing a free PSA 10 Japanese Poncho Eevee sell for the same price as a PSA 10 English Jungle Eevee seems to say something scarcity wise.