It has been driving me crazy lately, and I just need to get this out. I love this forum, but the influx of people that join this forum as a means to profit is extremely irritating. Now, I sell cards for profit ALL the time. I have made a great deal of money on Pokemon and have amassed a massive collection on my journey. But I started as a collector, and made my own way with a genuine love of the hobby, and will always remain a dedicated collector. I didn’t join a forum and then just ask question after question about what to buy, what’s the next move, what cards are underpriced etc etc. So many new members join the forum and then cleverly word questions (and get a ton of responses), when really they just want free investment advice. Many of us have been collecting, and doing the work it takes for years. Call it what you want, but I think it is simply rude the amount of people (new members mainly) that just ask question after question cleverly disguised as simply wanting free investment advice without actually wanting to do any of the work themselves. Rant over. Sour grapes. Peace and love.
I don’t like getting into the circular discussion of collector vs investor, and so I will not touch that. When people come asking specific questions that are quite niche and don’t have an easily searchable answer then I am totally fine. The post with absolutely no effort asking about a particular card, or a very simply googled answer just shuts me down to the idea of engaging.
In a similar way I also cannot fathom partaking in a “debate” that goes back and forth between doomsaying and shilling
I agree. I am a collector and an investor, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s when people are just asking questions, and not wanting to do the work themselves that I find most irritating. You want to invest in pokemon, great! More power to you! But be prepared to work for it, as opposed to just berating the forum with questions seeking free “investment” advice (is what I am saying.)
Just ignore them. Or simply say: “eBay”
This is my thoughts to recent influxes. It is good for hobby and prices for cards as you highlighted… However it is also really taxing and frustrating for those who have had skin in the game for years… Now that Logan Paul jumped ship, I’m sure it won’t be long before more people realize you can’t just figure it all out on the fly. There’ll always be people trying to jump on the next bandwagon to make a quick buck, but that also means there will be people selling snakeskin oil.
This doesn’t really bother me. People wanting “free investment advice” (in a disparaging context) implies a dichotomy in which these so-called grifters ought to be paying for the advice they want. Sorry if this bruises some egos, but there is almost nobody here whose cardboard investment insight is worth paying for.
Unless you’re at the extreme upper echelon of the hobby, like smpratte or Charlie, it’s not reasonable to get stuffy when people have the audacity to ask you investment questions for free — it’s not like anyone is going to pay you for your 2¢ regardless. And anyway, there isn’t any arcane trade secret about Pokémon investing, restricted only to those longtime collectors who have braved some arbitrary gauntlet of research and experience. Most financial projections about Pokémon are a crapshoot, that usually sort of work out because the hobby has an overall upward trajectory.
When people ask for “free” investment advice, you can (1) ignore them; (2) tell them the information they seek is generally unknowable; or (3) tell them the information they seek is generally unknowable, but offer a little nuance about past market patterns and how they might be applicable. It just doesn’t seem worth getting annoyed over, and the canned “go to eBay and do your own research” response, while perhaps appropriate for very simple price questions, reeks to me of elitism and undeserved smugness.
This is like the mirror world version of the “elite members” thread. How will people learn if they don’t ask questions?
Yes I understand the constant barrage of questions can be tiring and some people may just come in and feel entitled to your time and knowledge. But at the end of the day, you hold all the power in this dynamic. If you feel that a particular person is a waste of time or not worthy of having their questions answered, then simply don’t engage and move on. I wouldn’t have enough time in the day if I answered every question I came across
If you don’t like something, simply don’t engage in the thread. You don’t have to offer your time if you don’t want to. If other people want to, that is their prerogative.
I love how Fazool has put it, circular arguments about collector vs investor and the same old comments about the prices going up or down
It gets very tiresome so I think it’s best to not be concerned about what others are doing and enjoy your own collecting. It’s out of our control and you may think that someone is exploiting people, but it’s a free market to buy or sell and anyone who does can either win or lose
420 flip it and blaze it son, welcome to 2020
I really hope this hobby’s market crashes, i wanna see all these investors freak out that their investments are worth nothing
For sure. And I do a pretty job of ignoring it (though definitely have my moments lol). Just needed to rant that’s all.
Why would you want that for people. That is so far removed from having any impact on your life that it really is so unnecessary to hope people get financially ruined for their choice of investment… When you look at your life and what is actually important and matters for your flourishment personally and for your family, I am 100% sure the views and actions of other people in regards to their own personal investments does not fall into those categories. Just ignore them and move on, no need to hope they get financially ruined because they asked a question someone else did before, or are just making veiled attempts at obtaining free advice.
It’s a give and take with the hobby. As long as the cards have value, you will have people asking these kinds of questions. With how high cards have gotten this year, we will never be in the pre-pokemon go period ever again. Prices have just gotten too high that if they significantly fall, people will be swooping up all the cheaper desirable inventory expecting it to go up again. I don’t think this hobby can ever go back to a period where it is just mainly collectors who are buying cards. (I personally wish it does, I think it was more fun to collect then when it didn’t matter how much cards were worth)
Tbh it would have an impact on my life.
Im talking about people that just come into the hobby like a certain bald man, that just wanna make a quick buck, leave and have no interest in Pokemon
Yeah. I miss the days when people laughed at me when I told them I had sealed first ed base set booster packs and was holding onto them.
It’s interesting how the pendulum swings.
Just a few years ago everyone was saying "too many reprints! modern cards won’t ever be worth anything, it’s overprinted, you can’t give it away. why is (insert one of several xy/sun moon sets) pack still in these new tins 2 years after it was released?’
Now it’s “we want more reprints. Not enough supply. Too many scalpers and investors”
When the pendulum swings back, and with Modern I’m sure it will to some extent at some point in time… it will be interesting to see how fast champions path, vivid voltage, etc. floods eBay at that point.
Honestly, let them ask away, flippers will get them buying up cards from their inventory. My issue is with members below 50 posts making brand new posts about their binders asking if anything is worth grading (obviously to sell). It’s easy to ignore once in awhile until it becomes a bigger problem and starts taking up entire pages.