I just published a video on this topic and thought it would be a good conversation!
My current view actually disagrees with myself from 5 years ago. Curious what everyone thinks! 
8 Likes
Iām going to vote no. PokĆ©mon TCG as a hobby is more toxic than it ever has been. Adding 1st edition stamp will only exacerbate such issues.
3 Likes
Bring back 1st ed if they stop making 400 card sets. Having to dedicate an entire 4x3 binder to one complete english set is ridiculous, forget about 2
2 Likes
yal buy modern?
4 Likes
Having first editions only made sense when cards had no variants. Now with all the alt arts, full arts, hyper rares, etc., thereās no need for another stamp variant. Sets are diverse enough as is.
Also you could argue that first edition only made sense early on in the gameās life, when how rare/special a card is was unclear to new buyers. PokĆ©mon is mature enough to have moved past this. Collectors know which cards hold value, and it comes from things far more interesting than a first edition stamp.
13 Likes
If anyone wants to know how 1st ed today would play out in practice, just keep an eye on the japanese gold 25th box.
3 Likes
while it would be cool, itās a big no for me
1 Like
Hey Scott,
One thing I noticed you said was 1st Edition wasnāt really Nintendoās thing. Didnāt they dabble with it in Japan?
Not saying we should bring it back but just clarifying
2 Likes
Some collectors know which cards hold value, thatās the keyword. I would argue a huge chunk of them got no idea what holds value or why those hold value.
For those of us who have been collecting for years, we know a huge chunk of collectors are only āi wanna have fun and get this cardā, thatās it. The problem here is the current environment for collecting in 2021, as smpratte mentioned, nowadays is just too volatile, speculators, hypedriven, etc.
with the awareness of wotc 1st ed mixed with the current flipper culture, I think it would be a damn nightmare. I also agree with sentiment that there is already so much diversity in modern sets, so 1st stamp doesnāt really hold the same value. imagine trying to complete a 400 card set twice?
2 Likes
As I said before, 1st edition stamps should NEVER come back. There were 40 some Eeveelutions in Eevee Heroes/Evolving Skies. As a master Eeveelution collector, I would not be thrilled about having to get twice the numbers of cards for just a little stamp.
3 Likes
No, I donāt think they should.
But if they ever did, I feel like it should only be available for pre-release product. In theory, this would probably help out our beloved brick and mortar shops - which are critical for the game.
I know this wouldnāt be the best for everybody(myself included as my nearest shop is 2.5 hours away)but it is the only way Iād like to see it if the stamp were to return.
I agree with the points in the video but come to a different conclusion.
Yes a special/limited/1st ed print run would be slurped up by the hypebeast scalper/flipper types. It would magnify that component of the market. On the flip side that would make unlimited prints much less interesting to resellers and would dampen the demand for that product.
The result is a two-component marketplace where the stonkers can drive up the price of the āspecialā supply while the bonkers who complain about msrp pricing will have access to a more consistently available supply of retail product.
So who in this segmented market is upset? The financially driven people and collectors who want an additional layer of challenge are happier. The kids and people that just want to rip packs are happier, whatās the problem?
2 Likes
I agree with you.
Plus, bring back boxtoppers.
4 Likes
Admittedly I havenāt watched the video yet so Iāll do that shortly, but Iād love to see it happen but it couldnāt be released the same way that it was in the past. 1st edition would be rarer and thus chased and more expensive. If it was released as in the past, it would create a frenzy and a lot of drama would surface when certain individuals managed to get their hands on the bulk of the product at the expense of everyone else. Here is is an example of an alternative distribution method to an early release or lottery system:
- Do a print run of 1st edition cards (full set).
- Do your next few print runs of the unlimited version.
- Randomly mix some of the rarer 1st ed cards into the unlimited packs.
- Release.
1st ed could serve as an additional layer of āchaseā to what would normally be the holos but it wouldnāt be something that could be weighed or exploited via bots or crazy early purchase heists to land all the product. It would be on a tier with a secret rare or gold star depending on what kind of 1st ed card you nabbed randomly in your packs.
2 Likes
I think no. It drives a ton of demand into a smaller amount of product, which is cool for a security but not necessarily playing cards for kids. In my view it does one thing basically, which is add more challenge to collectors.
I would think no but from Nintendoās perspective. It does not make snese for them because there may be a huge drop off in sales after the 1st edition print run is finished. No one would buy the unlimited set except players and the large mark ups would be for the after market crowd. This means Nintendo would profit less and for what? Just to allow a bit more of a chase initially? Right now they benefit from players and collectors going after one set and not splitting them between two.
Gonna agree with the video and @implode. We barely have reached a balance recently with finding product at all and having a decent chase with secret rares/alt arts. Pokemon has adapted to what the tcg is now versus 20 years ago and I donāt think first edition would work now. Theyāve really gotten things down to a good formula recently imo.
1 Like
My feeling is that 1st ed would be too hot and unlimited would be too grey. The gap would be too big and so the segregation would be too defined, the exact scenario Iād imagine TPC, the embodiment of corporate populism, is terrified of creating.
An interesting segueing from this is how TPC will deal with the class thing going forward, with second hand Pokemon (and thus Pokemon itself) becoming ever more increasingly associated with a higher bourgeoisie and even the overclass. After all, this is all highly related. The mere association with wealth may not be enough to drive away entire groups of customers, but as we have seen, it is capable of driving entire groups of customers from physically receiving products. And then there is the acceptance angle, will we reach a point where Pokemon is considered āunhealthyā again?
Id say yes, just to see how far down the rabbit hole the hobby goes.
2 Likes