A Japanese supplier will reach out saying stores can buy in at “X” price. For argument sake…say the supplier says $60 a box. Stores will take that price and presell on credit boxes to customers…say $75 to build in their margin.
If the stores dont pay to lock in the Japanese supplier price…then on actual ship day, I believe they can change the price. So in this case…the supplier is saying, oh that $60 price quote was old…the actual price now is $75 per box…because the store didnt lock in the price with full payment
Because many stores dont have the upfront capital to pay/lock in their price…they can get hosed by the supplier if they change pricing on them.
Ah that makes sense considering how many “in hand” listings there are. The “May” timeframe must have been in regard to in-hand at distribution/store level. Guess it fell early!
The boxes were well absorbed by the market. I also bought quite a bit myself. My cost price went from double the market price (at point of reprint) to be lower than market price now. Waiting for another wave in May.
He’s on the cusp - if so many more are doing it and at larger quantities, how will it be a hedge on anything?
This sealed will go up mentality has to end someday. It’s already irrational now for modern sets where singles are oversupplied and in great condition.
Or maybe I underestimate how degenerate people are in wanting to rip packs since otherwise this is just investors selling to other investors with zero actual demand.
They have to sleep in the basement until they are 18 because their bedroom is full of cards. But hey, they might get some eduction after that. Good for them!
I wouldn’t say that there isn’t demand for these modern sets. Frankly, there is an absurd demand for most modern sets. Now will sets reach a high enough price point in the future that nerfs the demand? IMO yes.
151 is an amazing set that wether you like modern investing or not, is going to most likely StOnK. Them’s the brakes.
Sealed will always go up as long as people are still actually collecting pokemon cards. Once pokemon stops printing a certain set, there is a finite amount of packs/booster boxes for that set and that number can only and will continue to go down every year.
Booster packs/boxes for literally every single set that has gone out of print has raised and continues to over time.
I know that singles’ prices and sealed boxes have diverged in correlation for a long time but at least for older sets supply of those single cards is limited. There is some kind of fundamental that just does not exist for modern cards.
And now we’ve gone one step further back from a sealed box, where people were using copium that they liked the box art, to a brown cardboard case with tape. At that point, it’s just investors selling to each other. It might as well be juice inside.
Older MTG boxes are very expensive. However, WoTC turned on the printers in 2012 (Return to Ravnica). Boxes after RTR simply don’t show the same growth. For example, Dominaria, released in 2016 and described as having a great draft experience is sitting at about 140 per box. There is just so much supply and not enough people who want to draft the set (or crack for singles) to absorb the massive supply.
At some point Pokémon sealed is going to hit this wall. Maybe not with 151, but for sure on modern sets where the EV of the box gets out of whack with the box price, and it isn’t full of nostalgia Pokémon.
