In light of the recent/debate between opposum bud and kantoshark, what do you guys think about paying for pokemon advice? Should advice be free or be paid for?
Stay woke guys
I wanted to give an opinion on paying vs. not paying for advice, but I got sick of listening to whoever this guy is and his unending slew of ad hominems. On top of that, I’m sure he’s never paid anyone for advice on anything: a professor, sub contractor, counselor, attorney, doctor, financial advisor, plumber, auto mechanic…oh wait.
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I don’t know either of these names and am not familiar with their debate. I also don’t want to watch the video because there’s a spelling error in the graphic. So I will do what any self-respecting internet person would do here and respond generally and ignore the video entirely.
My moderate take — For the most part, I think you should always be skeptical of anyone claiming to sell you secret knowledge to help you succeed. This is the business of charlatans. This isn’t to say there aren’t people with valuable knowledge and experience, but I think it’s extraordinarily rare anybody is a well of secrets deep enough to justify the expense. A hobby like Pokémon will offer up its tenets and principles for free through ordinary interaction with the hobby and it’s unwise to get distracted by a personality offering you a shortcut.
My 
hot take — It is impossible to replicate or mimic somebody else’s path to success. You will never have the same conditions they did, you will never get the same opportunities they had, and the road of personal progress is completely and totally random chaos that only “makes sense” in hindsight. So don’t bother trying to pay for their wisdom and don’t bother trying to replicate what they did. The only way you could ever match somebody else’s level of success is to go back in time and be them.
The only advice you will ever need to have a gainful collection is buy what makes you happy, don’t sell anything that would be hard to get back, and don’t even pay attention to what your collection is worth until you’re actively looking to cash out. And if you’re a trend investor trying to circumvent this experience and buy for the explicit purpose of cashing out, there is nothing anyone can tell you that’s going to give you a golden path to profitability. Buy popular cards and wait. Pokémon will take care of the rest for you.
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I don’t really care much for the argument. Let people do what they want. But content like this is the absolute worst in my opinion and feels so negative and toxic. We all need to go outside more lol
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we come to this site to avoid the instagram side of pokémon card collecting
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@swolepoke summed this up really well on an IG story and my thoughts are basically the same as his.
It’s great to give out free advice and help to people. We all started somewhere and benefitted from people helping us out. But sometimes the advice someone needs is more in-depth, can only come from someone with a wealth of experience, or you’re asking someone to give up insider information or knowledge that comes from many years of work. In this case, you’re asking someone with experience and insider knowledge to give you time out of their day to help you. As @camrok37 points out, that’s basically how entire service economies work. You pay someone (doctor, mechanic, professor, financial advisor) who has spent years gaining the experience and knowledge you want to utilize so that you don’t have to spend those years yourself.
We can have the debate over whether someone’s prices are worth it, whether they have the experience necessary to provide paid advice at a specific price point, etc. But this idea of “all advice should be free” is pretty problematic. I am not active at all on instagram these days but people find me through youtube and I constantly get questions from people I’ve never spoken to before asking me to provide in-depth answers on the future value of cards, asking for full breakdowns on what to buy or not to buy, my assessment of the overall card market, all of the locations (with links please) where I buy my cards, etc. Sometimes people get resentful if I don’t answer them. If you ask me something I can quickly answer I’ll happily help out. But I’m not taking time out of my busy day to impart years of knowledge to some instagram rando. I don’t charge for advice and won’t start, but if I did, it would make answering those questions a lot easier.
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I don’t have a problem with someone wanting to charge for advice on a very in-depth topic (assuming they have the experience and knowledge). For anything not in-depth, sooo much information can be found for free on the internet that it would make me feel very uncomfortable charging for the most common questions I see in the hobby.
Also, as a side note, community drama like this is very annoying if you’re a frequent IG user. We’ll continue to see everyone’s stories with walls of text on their take on the subject. In a forum like this, it’s contained to one thread and if you want to skip it, you don’t have to click and read. Unfortunately on IG you just have to take the L and scroll past everyone’s drama news. 
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Every time I see this guy’s videos pop up somewhere, its always drama-related and negative. But I guess that’s what gets the views.
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I think it only really become a problem when the person asking the questions feels entitled to have them all answered. If there’s something specific to ask then sure, they might respond. It’s like when people on ebay send questions that have nothing to do with the item. Usually these also have a rude tone: no greeting, explanation/background, thanks, or resolution.
It also should go without saying that trying to come up with a black or white answer will end badly: of course I’m more likely to answer my friends and have a discussion rather than just answer a Q&A.
Basically, be respectful of someone else’s time—especially if you don’t know them—and understand that they might also have stuff in their life that means it’s unreasonable to expect an answer.
A few people here expressed opinions very similar to mine, so it would be redundant if I ended up writing statements that echo them. Instead I’ll just say, there’s definitely a neutral stance that most people on Instagram won’t take because, well, it’s Instagram.
I’ll also say that if you own or are trying to run a successful business, it’s usually best to avoid giving your opinions on hot “drama”. Just keep your mouth shut and let everyone else do the talking. Seeing the way some people are talking on both sides is disappointing, definitely some true colors being shown. Having a differing opinion is one thing, but personally attacking others over that difference in opinion isn’t cool, no matter how big or small you are.
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Kantoshark has a business to maintain so asking to get paid for tips is not a very strange thing. if, on the other hand, you are a private collector and ask to be paid for asvice that’s another story.
If I were to ever pay for advice which is highly unlikely, I’m gonna need to see some sort of resume (experience, deals, total sales etc). There are people doing consultations who have no business doing it lol.
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Why shouldn’t it be paid for?
I don’t understand where people get the idea that they are entitled to the life experience and knowledge of another person. We all have access to (most) of the information we need if we were to put the time into researching, but nobody wants to do that, many people want it consolidated and put on a platter for them.
If the people complaining had an attention span that could last beyond an Instagram story, they would realize that places like E4 are available, for free, and you can find or receive answers from the most knowledgeable people in the hobby.
The only time I’ve “paid” for advice/information was when I asked Smpratte through Patreon about some specific Dragonair cards I couldn’t find. Though I pay for the entertainment of having someone deep in the hobby talk about Pokemon for a few hours a month and the question part was just a bonus value.
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This dude is right. I just walked to a banker and bonked him in the head and sayd “Whats up my dude, give me your business secrets so I can be rich.” Now i’m rich.
Ofc you pay for experts opinion if you need one, no one should expect to get consultation, pricing guide etc for free. Maybe that was the case years ago but Pokemon is business for a lot of people now and if they reply to all “how much is my 1st ed Machamp worth that my dog chewed on” I feel like that would take a lot of valuable time off of their day.
Also this is me now that I’m rich
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we need a poll to see how many people agree or disagree 
- Paying for TCG advice is ok
- TCG advice should be free
0 voters
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Can anyone find that Ken Goldin “be rich by flipping pokemon cards” course?
That was hilarious!
Insert meme → Be patreon of SmPratte (Drake says no), buy a course from Goldin to be roch (Drake approves)
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imagine being entitled to someone else’s time… instagram is toxic af
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I am a collector – but I’m also not stupid. If I get a duplicate alt art pull and it looks like stellar centering, I’m going to keep the more off-center one in my binder, send the centered one to get graded, sell the graded card, and use the profits to continue building my collection. That’s me using my knowledge to make money and provide a good to someone else.
Opossum went too hard on this one. Nothing wrong with using your knowledge to make money while providing a service or good to someone else. The free market will decide in this case if your knowledge really is that valuable.
I truly believe most information you need is online for free, but there are some people who might need a second opinion when dealing with high end items and there are members who are more knowledgeable in those areas and if they choose to charge for their time that is on them. If someone ever came to me asking for advice/ opinion I wouldn’t charge a dime, helping someone can save them from being scammed, and in the long run it helps our hobby.