Opinions on opening packs? Singles or Pulls?

General
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Hello E4! With Guardians Rising releasing today, I was ready to go out, buy the four pack arts, and test my luck with some pulls. Before I went through with my usual release day plan, I decided to check ebay for Guardians Risings uncommon/common lots. I found one that contained all of the rares/uncommons/commons and decided to pick it up. The kicker? It cost less than buying my usual 4 packs. Sure, I’m missing out on the thrill of an amazing pull, but from a monetary standpoint, the thrill doesn’t work for me as it used to.

I also checked TCG Player this morning to check single prices on the new cards, seeing where the post prerelease hype was falling for these cards. All of the holos from what I can tell are under $0.50. I could buy 8 holos instead of getting a $4 booster pack! Right now for Ultra Rares I can purchase Wishiwashi, Kommo-o (my favorite Guardians Rising GX), Metagross, Vikavolt, and Wishiwashi FA for less than a booster pack. The most expensive card is SR DCE, which is at $77, less than a booster box.

Once again, thinking of my bank account in mind, I just can’t find the need to buy packs. I’d much rather buy into a guarantee and something I really enjoy than a chance. This isn’t helped with all of the reprint EX boxes Pokemon has been putting together lately. No one is really buying the Pokemon Legacy Evolution Pin collection, right? For $40 you really want a holo Slowking, Blissey, Crobat, Bellossom, Politoed, and reprint Steelix EX? For $40 you could buy a high end NM ungraded Ultra Rare. I can’t justify buying tins/boxes like I used to since if I like the promo, I can just buy it separately.

So, I guess the thrill of the pull has switched to the thrill of the ebay hunt? It’s becoming a lot more satisfying to hunt down the perfect single than it is to pull the perfect single.

Also, me thinking of this hobby with a larger understanding of costs/money in mind hasn’t decreased my enjoyment. It makes planning easier/goals easier to accomplish when you see how much a lot of cards is going to cost you, and plan your budget accordingly.

Are your opinions similar to mine? Completely different? Would love to hear what you think about buying packs vs singles!

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I gotta open at least a couple boxes before I start buying singles… and maybe an elite trainer box too. It brings back the memories for me which is why I got back into the hobby in the first place.

I always feel salty when I spend more than I had to for a set though lol.

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Good question! I generally do a mixture. Its all about those crazy pulls! I remember opening one pop 5 pack, and pulling a GS. Sure, when opening packs the probability is not on your side, but fun is!

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Well Pokesoap for me personally, it’d be fun to buy a few packs now and then however with packs at 6€ Each in the store it’s not really worth it to me, i’m more inclined to buy a boosterbox… :blush:

Guardians Rising only has 3 cards i really want; Sylveon gx/FA and Hyper rare, obviously it’d be extremely exciting to pull one of them however from one box is not very likely so i guess that takes us to the Ebay hunt lol. Saves me from being bummed out afterwards and offers gaurantee.

So i guess unless the set has many appealing mons both, otherwise singles.

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I always like to open some packs of new set as it’s fun. With English I usually buy around 10 booster packs only, meanwhile with Japanese I always buy one box of each set and open them. If I don’t pull what I really want, then I go buy the singles. I love it when I get lucky and pull something that I really want straight from a pack, but then again you are never guaranteed anything. But that’s the thrill :blush:

Meanwhile I understand your point as you are a full set collector, for you it does make much more sense to get the singles rather than opening lots of packs and boxes to make that happen.

And like you said about that Legacy Evolution Pin Collection box, I really don’t understand those products. Nothing special is being released, another thing that I don’t like are those other EX-boxes too with only an EX that already exists in a set and with the exact same artwork and the jumbo version doesn’t add anything into it. Thankfully it looks like they are going to change that for the Sun & Moon era as they are releasing Umbreon GX & Espeon GX boxes with a new artwork for both of the cards.

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Prices in this set started much lower than the ones in Sun & Moon, so singles are easily better. Wishiwashi GX is already $3 for instance.

I bought 2 boxes and got 3 Secrets, but none of them were the big money ones, so I lost out quite a bit. I guess it’s good to get most of the set not second hand and in pack fresh condition, but it will cost you.

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ugh, I posted a long reply and it isn’t showing up :slightly_frowning_face:

Anyway only open packs with friends now, even if they don’t play/collect, its just more fun, and doesn’t seem like such a loss if you don’t pull anything.

Wait for deals to pick up sealed product like Black friday for $10 tins, and the Legacy pin collection promos should go for cheap if you are patient.
If you are patient enough, may as well just buy bulk to complete sets.

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I like to open a booster box and see what I get and go from there, normally open 1 or 2 booster boxes dependign on the pulls and luck. Then buy singles etc.Maybe a pack randomly but its not cost efficient to buy a single from stores…plus some weigh the packs.
Its always more exciting to open and pull rather thn just outright buy(mostly…) Also with these newer sets there are soooo many cards even a booster case wont get you all cards ha.It used to be buy one and get most cards except the exs etc then pick those up.Now there are soo many its impossible to pull them all without it costing you way more than buying the singles/bulk lots/bundles(alot of rare sets, holo sets, unc and comon sets sold all in one on ebay for cheap).

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It’s funny, because that’s the route that I usually go whenever a set comes out. I still enjoy opening packs, it’s just the saltyness and the prices I sometimes can’t get over. I purchased an Elite Trainer Box when Sun and Moon base came out and pulled a Lunala GX. Sure, it was a nice pull and I love Lunala, but couldn’t shake the feeling I spent $40 on a $4 GX. But hey, everyone has unsatisfactory pulls. It’s a game of chance for a reason!
I’m not going to turn away a booster box if an offer is too good to refuse, but with all of the chase cards in the new expansions, there’s so much to cover, and a booster box barely scratches the surface. With the XY sets you usually got a good start on the Normal EX cards and knocked out a few of the FAs, only leaving a few singles to pick up. The SuMo sets just have soooo much ground to cover that the singles start to become more satisfactory and cost effective.

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Thank you! With all past expansions I did a mixture as well, up until this set. Maybe it’s the increased number of secret rares and the amount of variations I have to collect as a set collector? I mentioned in another reply with the XY and past sets you’d get a good chunk of the regular EX cards out of the way and a few FAs, (while opening a booster box) leaving a small amount of singles to pick up. Knowing I’m only going to scratch the surface with a Guardians Rising box, it just feels a little less appealing. With 169 cards, 24 of those being secret rares, that’s a lot to cover. That’s getting close to Aquapolis level. (Secret rares instead of the “H” holos, even though pull rates are completely different)

Crazy pulls do make for amazing stories, and that chance to get that big money card is a pretty awesome feeling. Opening packs is definitely fun, and I’ll probably throw $4 at a pack of Guaridians Rising next time I’m at a store that sells them. (I can’t resist!) Just overall, I feel I don’t want to throw a bunch of money at packs to start off a new set when I can pick up a lot of uncommons/commons/and non-holo rares for cheap.

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Sadly with all of the secret rares/FAs and other ultra rares I don’t think I want to start with a booster box anymore. I’d much rather take the set in steps, buying all the uncommons/commons/non-holo rares/, then the holos, and so on. With the old boxes I’d get a much better base for my sets, and fill in the blanks with a quick TCG player order. With so much to collect, the chance of duplicates, and not getting your value (hey, it is a game of chance!) I just feel more inclined to knock out everything with some single orders.

I totally understand that! If I were only interested in a few cards from a set, I’d definitely pick up singles.

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With this post I act all high and might like “Oh, I’m beyond buying packs, singles all the way,” but I’ll probably see a pack of Guardians Rising on a shelf and give it a go. Old habits die hard! If I was a more aggressive Japanese collector, I’d be buying boxes since a lot of the uncommon/common cards are hard to track down as singles without paying exorbitant prices. (At least from my experience, I rarely dabble in Japanese, so I might be completely wrong!)

I don’t think I’ve EVER completed a set just from opening packs. I’ve always done so through purchasing singles, so that’s probably why I’m always way more interested in singles.

Same! If they were marked with the new “A” symbol as alternative reprints, then I’d definitely pick up the EX singles for master sets. I feel the current EX boxes are devaluing cards collectors already have in their collections by not reprinting them as promos. Makes a card someone may have pulled/bought feel a lot less special. I do like the Alternative Reprints, since it is a variation, and I’m all about those awesome variations, even if I’ve only just started to collect them.

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I’m very happy that the hype prices have died out. Seeing many of the cards already at lower prices is going to make it a lot easier to pick up singles. Looks like Wishiwashi is going to be the Gumshoos of this set.

With the newer cards, most of the time the cards I buy from sellers come in the condition I’d expect. (NM+) The current price of just the secret rares is falling at around $531, approaching a case in value, but I’d still rather buy singles than end up with a lot of duplicates from a case + NOT completing the set. I’m crossing my fingers this value will decrease over a few months. I’m in no rush to complete this set, and have been focusing my efforts towards older sets, which are personally more cost effective for me to complete.

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I still open packs with my parents. We like to have our own mini pack battles with each other, which can be a lot of fun.

Even then I’d lean towards a $10 single than a $10 tin, I can get a pretty nice amount of holos I need for $10 for sets. I’m in no rush to collect the promo singles. There are so many out there that it isn’t a rush for me personally. I’ll grab then when I’m ready.
If I bought bulk I’d be buying duplicates! I sold all of my bulk last summer. I don’t have too many uncommons/commons I need to pick up, just some miscellaneous trainers and some WotC cards.

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With the amount of cards to track down in the newer sets, even booster boxes have started to loose a bit of their appeal to me. It doesn’t give a good base as it did for past sets. I haven’t seen any problems with weighed packs since the new code cards were introduced. (Maybe weighers have found a way around this, but I’m every inexperienced with weighing packs because the practice does not interest me.)

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Yea newer sets have sooo many cards to try get its tedious rather than fun now

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With new sets singles is by far cheaper, especially with so many secret rares. You would go crazy trying to pull them out. I usually wait a month because that’s when the prices get stable and drop A TON. I’m a Eevee collector and the full arts and secret rares in SM were selling for quite a bit when SM came out, month later and I was able to snag the full arts for less than $5 each and SR for $15. a Good $10-$25 lower than they were selling just 3 weeks before.

With GR I couldn’t wait and bought 4 packs today at Target, managed to pull 2 GXs. Which for someone with as bad luck as I have was amazing. Unfortunately not any good ones, just the ones selling for $3.5o each on TCG player.

If I had just paid that same money on TCG player for singles I could have gotten 8 different GXs.

The gamble of pulling a high dollar secret rare is always inciting though and better than lottery tickets.

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I used to open lots of booster boxes during XY era but tbh. I started to get bored with it. I don’t even buy random booster packs from stores anymore, if there’s some specific want for collection I go to ebay or this forum and be happy once it arrives.

CP6 is last completed set and to achieve it I only opened one booster box and bought rest of the cards as singles. Much better way and no need to worry about huge stack of extra uncommon/commons.

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The english boosters are much more rewarding then the japanese simply because the pull rate, the bad quality, and the amount of cards per pack. This goes for both people investing, and people who are collecting to have fun.

If the japanese had the same amount of cards per pack, then they would probably be just as fun imo for collectors. But would they be as rewarding given the high quality, there will be 2 many psa 10s, and to many gem copies.

Now that engrish have upped the quality, i feel for there liverlyhoodmen in the future in investmon terms! But I still feel they will do alright, just not super special like stuff that was terrible quality in xy and BW. ect.

Like There was some real nasty card quality sets in XY and BW, and these were mainly the best sets… which i think is just an amazing job on tPI part.
Flash fire full art zards… I know multiple people that have sent in 20+ copies of mint fresh full art engrish zard from flashfire and they didnt get a single 10… That is impressive.

ANd BW7 plasma gale… Oh my god… dont get me started. I think charizard authority sent like 100 copies of the Secret gold boarded blastoise/charizard and got like 1 psa 10, or not a single psa 10… Now thats a set… Not to mention how amazing the artwork and layout was on the charizard and blastoise… Why they left out venusaur still shits my panties to this day

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Buying singles is the most effective and cheapest way to complete a set.

I was naive once and thought I can complete a whole set just by opening packs, boy was I wrong.
Years of spending vast amounts of money on packs and getting nothing has made me bitter! Oh the saltiness rained down on me like a father’s disappointment.

Plasma Storm is my Vietnam!

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