How does this impact us on a micro and macro scale?
I don’t collect Magic cards, but I enjoy watching these videos. Yet, I also wondered if there would be any impact for us. I think there could maybe be some crossover feelings just because it’s shiny cardboard on both sides, and we know that there are Pokemon collectors that like to watch what is going on in the Magic community, whether or not they participate in it as well. I think it just reinforces that at the end of the day we should continue to purchase what we like, and not just what we think will increase in price, at least short term. Overall I think it’s fine. Prices go down, and then up, and that’s normal.
Rudy mentions that a lot of Vintage money is being redirected into modern, and with Pokemon I know that there are many products being released today that I end up purchasing too. I am just happy that with Pokemon the prices for Vintage, as well as modern, are both very affordable with plenty of availability, and I think that that is currently a great strength for Pokemon. TPCI also doesn’t make the super limited edition Timmy boxes printed only to 2k or whatever it is that WotC does now to try and increase interest. If there is interest in Pokemon cards, more will come (Hidden Fates I’m looking at you). When Rudy starts talking about Reserved List prices, I know I would personally be priced out, which is why I only watch Magic videos, and not actually buy Magic cards, ha.
Finally, we don’t even have a Reserved List and I think this changes the mentality of Pokemon collecting. In Magic, the Reserved List is the hot topic. It’s easy to look at fewer specific cards/sets, and trigger warnings when prices increase or decrease so much, which then leads to videos just like this one. I don’t think we have anything like that in Pokemon. An individual card or set will suddenly skyrocket or tank, and that’s cool, but there is less emphasis on what those specific increases or dips mean for the hobby as a whole.
The more I think about it, the more I feel like Magic and Pokemon are more different than alike. Not all the reasons I can really explain though, more so I just believe they are very different based on personal observation. I think the largest factor might be the seemingly lower barrier to entry on Pokemon’s Vintage side, with plenty of availability in almost every category of the hobby, which I think leads to a bit less FOMO and more organic collecting. A little less serious, and a lot more fun.
This is just my honest ramble as a random Pokemon collector, looking at some Magic cards from the outside.
I watch Rudy sometimes even though he does Magic. Pokemon is newer in comparison to other TCGs as far as vision. What I mean by that is within the recent few years, Pokemon has seen huge growth compared to other TCGs. At the same time, is has a wide variety of merchandise but in my opinion, has been more of a collector’s market vice a players unlike Magic. I’m no expert, just an opinion on what I’ve seen. I started doing a little Final Fantasy TCG collecting for myself but hasn’t kicked off like Pokemon. The only other TCG I’ve seen get some attention is DBZ.
Pokemon has so much going for it that magic doesn’t
DBZ as in the Dragon Ball Super card game? How’s that doing rn?
Not great, but not the worst. They’ve released some really cool chase cards recently that are probably going to help sustain them a for a bit.
I think Pokemon and Magic are too different for them to have a huge impact on each other. The one thing that may have an impact is that there are a lot of crossover collectors that own both Pokemon and Magic and I can see some collectors taking hits on one side and jumping ship on the other.