have you met @triple
Bidder is a whale, likely will be paid for
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Wow. Even a 9 is over 40k. Id be thrilled, then sad so much would go to paying taxes on that, then thrilled again because a single card just paid for a year of mortgage even after taxes. Probably would be worth it to actually look into the tax implications of selling through pwcc to see if its worth trying to be smarter than just handing over whatever capital gains is at that level.
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A bit late to the whole discussion across the two threads about “waifu” cards, but thought I’d still chime in.
I’d be curious to know what percentage of E4 are moderate anime consumers (even just being aware of the popular shows each season) or mobile gacha gamers, because I feel like those demographics probably don’t find the current phenomenon of female full art trainer cards exploding in popularity (and price partially as a result) particularly outlandish considering the majority of new buyers are likely in Japan or China where those demographics are very large. I think a lot of colloquial terms like “waifu” or “weeb” have changed over the years as anime has become increasingly mainstream in the West, and most of the time they don’t really have the darker undertones that people read about in definitions when used in passing.
Of course, there are examples of people who take things to the extreme, but the majority of people who might buy merch of their favorite anime/game characters because they’re cute/cool/aesthetic/whatever are just normal functioning human beings with pretty normal social lives. Some just happen to have a lot of money that they choose to use to whale on their favorite characters, and I don’t think that sentiment is any different from people obsessively collecting things of their favorite Pokemon. As for why male full art trainers haven’t exploded in the same way, I would guess it’s because statistically, most people in the Pokemon/anime/mobile gacha/idol communities are heterosexual males who naturally find female characters generally more aesthetic, so TPCI tries to market towards that. If the female demographic were as large as it is in popular Kpop boy group communities and TPCI spent more effort to pander to them, I’m sure male full art trainers would be expensive too. Based on all of the divisive comments here on this topic, it’s easy to understand why this all seems extremely alien to people who have never been exposed to these spaces or watched any anime outside of kidswb/cartoon network, but most people who collect full art trainers do so innocently in the same way most people collect Pokemon.
Tying everything together, the EBD Lillie is a legitimately rare card (the rarest jp full art female trainer along with Acerola with roughly 300 in estimated distribution each) of a very popular character in China/Japan with a unique distribution that was cut short by a global pandemic, so it makes sense that whales would shell out tons of money for it. I just don’t think people expected it to rise so quickly, but when you consider that people shelling out thousands on characters in gacha games is nothing out of the ordinary and how a game like Genshin Impact has generated 4 billion dollars of revenue in just 2 years, it’s not particularly surprising when you have those people entering the market. The whole gambling/youtuber stuff happening in Japan is just another layer on top that is bringing attention to it all and contributing to another 2020 (west) situation where you have multiple factors compounding on each other (not to mention China’s big pockets as well). I would guess that the whole K-shaped recovery that we saw in the aftermath of the 2020 boom will probably happen here too.
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Curious, why would selling via consignment lead to less taxes owed?
That is precisely why Japanese artists like Naoki Saito, kirisAki, Mizutani and even En Morikura are designated to illustrate the best versions of these characters which happen to be set Full Art Supporters. Saito and Morikura’s work outside Pokémon is very well-known for catering to this idol demographic
kirisAki
their first cards
Naoki Saito
high class pack version
En Morikura
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Thanks for this @odnihs! :))) I think this is a very valid observation that comes with a good understanding of all the things that’s going on!
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I can’t be the first one to point out that there’s an undercurrent of racism or bigotry in these criticisms. If the collecting of waifus suggested something was innately creepy about these individuals, then presumably these countries would have a staggering amount of pedophiles or child sexual abuse compared to others.
As this was discussed on Discord the other day, what do people think of the amount of sexualization of teenagers in Western tv shows and movies? Or is that OK because it’s the West? Because it’s what you know and have normalised or internalised?
This was reported yesterday:
Maybe reflect on your own (or your own culture’s) biases?
Also, for people who don’t play the games and don’t even like Pokemon past Gen 2, why do you make the assumption that anyone watches the anime or is able to differentiate supposed age of the characters? These are fictional anime characters, of which, almost all look generic.
This discussion has been ongoing since the price started to spike, is it only now that when prices are high, morals are suddenly at the forefront? Lillie’s first card was 6-7 years ago.
With this and the other thread bashing on Japanese artists for not assimilating to Western norms, there’s a real unpleasant racial superiority aspect that really fucking stinks here.
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mods what? the discussion in here is super civil no? why the 4 hour thingy.
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It was until the post above yours 
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I am no tax expert which is why I’d look into it but my understanding is that there may be some legal moves that can be made since pwcc is based in a state with a more lenient tax system, where one may be able to defer being taxed similar to when gains on selling property may be rolled into a new property before being responsible for the taxes from the sale.
If I could sit the money from the sale in a pwcc account, purchase a few more collection items that i would buy anyways from them, perhaps purchase some cards that have “guaranteed” values and demand so that i could sell them locally quickly if i needed to, and then wait the appropriate time for when shipping out my purchases from their vault would no longer count against me. It would possibly lead to a much smaller tax burden while also letting me use more of the money from the sale on things that I was already looking to purchase since capital gains is around 15k for a sale like this which can pay for a lot of cards if I were able to use it effectively instead of losing it to taxes. Again, it is highly dependent on your local laws and your situation and I may be mistaken about the whole thing anyways. Its always worth considering tax implications on sudden financial windfalls.
Also if anyone can help clarify or correct, that would be great. I dont expect to ever have a 100k card but I guess its good to be prepared with the way the hobby has been surprising people.
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I disagree with the first part of your post, and honestly didn’t read further. It’s not underlying racism or bigotry to make comments that perverted/nonce-like behaviour is more rife in Japan than one’s own country. I’ve lived in Japan for almost 10 years, I don’t know a single female friend who hasn’t been groped at least once on a train, or followed back home. I’ve seen old grown men reading books & manga with child pornography on trains, in public, more times than said children would even be able to count to. Many maid cafes have women dressing up in school girl outfits because salary men will pay to see that and interact with them. Some trains even have specific buttons to alert the driver that there has been a ‘chikan’ incident (groping, etc), it’s that common.
And the comment on looking at ones own country first is meaningless. We are all from different places, and just because we’re saying this is rife in country A does not denounce the fact that it is likely an issue in country B too. Not that this is the goal of anyone here since it’s a discussion only on waifu sub-culture within the TCG, but it sounds like you are saying that we should ignore it in Japan because it exists elsewhere too.
My 2c.
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Gatekeeping 2.0
Sexual violence affects millions of people each year in the United States. Researchers know the numbers underestimate this problem because many cases are unreported. Survivors may be ashamed, embarrassed, or afraid to tell the police, friends, or family about the violence. Victims may also keep quiet because they have been threatened with further harm if they tell anyone or do not think anyone will help them. The data shows:
Sexual violence is common. Over half of women and almost 1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes. One in 4 women and about 1 in 26 men have experienced completed or attempted rape. About 1 in 9 men were made to penetrate someone during his lifetime. Additionally, 1 in 3 women and about 1 in 9 men experienced sexual harassment in a public place.
That’s just America - but do you know how bad it is worldwide?
I am in no way excusing sexual assault in Japan, but the comments here are hyper focused on some kind of degeneracy that only involves another country? It’s everywhere and it comes across as moral & racial superiority all because they collect cards of female characters, almost all of which aren’t even sexual to begin with.
Final thoughts: If people resort to calling others racist, especially potentially the site owner, not only are you not discussing pokemon anymore, you have completely lost the plot. This is a polite warning that nonsense is not tolerated here.
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