It’s not the case because of supply and demand.
Same reason why a PSA 10 1st Edition Base Set Hitmonchan can go for more than a PSA 10 1st Edition Base Set Venusaur.
You’re cherry picking one example to make your argument. Yes, Hitmonchan sells for more than Venusuar, partly due to Hitmonchan having a lower pop. However, Charizard has double the pop of Hitmonchan and sells for 8-10x the price. Blastoise also has a higher pop and sells for slightly more than Hitmonchan.
Although supply and demand clearly has an an effect on price, it’s only one of many different variables that lead to a certain sale price.
Supply and demand is the ONLY thing that has an effect on price. Your example of charizard being worth 8x-10x very simply because the demand curve pushes way way higher than a hitmonchan, pushing the equilibrium price very high. Hitmonchan’s supply curve may be steep, but the demand curve is pretty shallow compared to charizard.
There isn’t one price jump or decline that can’t be explain by supply and demand, period. “Hype” is demand, “Nostalgia” is demand, those are just terms that make people think there are other variables at play. People may say Skyridge is “hyped” but guess what, that means the demand curve jumps up leading to higher price. Granted, you can argue if it’s an “inorganic” demand but demand is demand and supply is supply. Skyridge has low supply and it’s not getting any bigger and (at the current point) has decently high demand.
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@winters and I were just talking about this on discord. Prices for even singles have definitely gone up. Cards about 4-5 years ago worth about 10-20$ USD are now selling for over $100. Didn’t know it had a short print run. I know this was a wicked popular set, so having a short print run would make it so that you don’t find these as much anymore. Glad I got my Unlimited and 1st Edition copies when I did.
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I used one example literally just to make my argument. There are plenty of other examples of this, such as Neo Discovery Yanma, Neo Gen Typhlosion, Neo Rev Ampharos, Fossil Lapras and Jungle Kangaskhan. Throw Dark Magneton in there, too.
A PSA 10 1st Edition Fossil Lapras just sold for $1,200, more than double the price of what Dragonite usually sells for. Now tell me: is Lapras more popular than Dragonite? Or is the price higher because of lower supply?
I also never said it was “the only variable.” I’m saying it’s a pretty damn big one, and the fact that Hitmonchan sells for higher than Venusaur in spite of being FAR less popular is a prime example and I’m not sure why you are overlooking it.
The reason why Base Set packs go for FAR less than Skyridge packs is because there are FAR more of them out there. If the population of the two sets was the same, Base Set would go for more, but that’s not the case. There is inherent value in rarity.
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@jcincy101 you’re completely right. I was explaining that supply isn’t the only factor, but that’s not even what was said.
@mjs61290 I’m not overlooking it. I’ve personally paid the highest sale price to date for a PSA 10 1st edition base Hitmonchan. Your statements are correct, but I disagree that Skyridge prices are being driven by supply and think they are actually being driven by hype. The Skyridge Charizard PSA 10 story is a clear example of how much hype surrounded this set.
I think it is both. Skyridge is hyped, but no matter how much hype there is, the supply will never increase. So any hype whether it is organic or not, will eat away at supply even more. Whether it is YouTubers doing openings or people buying for their collections, the already small supply keeps shrinking. Base set there is a demand for but there also is sooooo much product still. Look at some of the pictures Gary has posted before with probably a hundred base set booster boxes.
Short of someone with an insane amount of money trying to buy literally every base unlimited box online, they are going anywhere and you can get one from so many sources. If you go on eBay now, there is only 5-7 packs for sale in total, all like 400-500, with some 1-pack blisters over $1k and PSA packs over $1k.
People like skyridge and the more people like it, the more other people hear about it and want it also. Whether that will last long term, who knows. But the supply will only decrease. I could see pack selling for $600-700 in a couple years easily.
Skyridge isn’t hyped in any sense of the word.
Everything aside from the sealed product is experiencing massive retraces. Skyridge cards are rarer than the average WotC holo and it’s reflected in prices.
The sealed product is genuinely scarce, hence $400 packs.
Supply and demand matters but it’s what affects supply and demand that will determine value.
So I’d say cause and affect > supply & demand.
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I’m really interested in your thoughts on why you think sealed WoTC product will drop? Coming from somebody who has been thinking of keeping several booster boxes over opening them. For the sole purpose of selling 4 (3 or 4 years from now)to cover the cost of opening 1.
Talking about sealed WoTC product in general, not a specific set.
I remember last summer teeter tottering whether to buy a complete set of the 4 skyridge packs (I didn’t do it). One year ago they were in the 220-250ish range if I’m recalling correctly. I haven’t followed them much since then but for me that sucks they are that high now haha. That’s wild they went up that much in just a year.
As far pricing in the future goes, my GUESS would be it will continue to creep up as time marches on. Seems like more people are getting back into the hobby then are leaving, which to me would mean more demand. I reckon that the 10 year olds collecting and playing now will one day become interested in WOTC stuff whether it be for investment or wanting cool old valuable stuff to have a rad collection!
So if you were gonna buy the packs and were deterred by the 400, id say go for it! If they do drop, I couldn’t imagine it’d be by that much anyway. You gotta risk it for the biscuit!
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Anyone who knows anything about them would have weighed them already right? Waste of money no?
Sure, they leave money on the table when they don’t weigh them and as a buyer you need to assume every loose pack out there has been weighed, but there are still reports of people pulling great cards out of those vintage packs.
So some sellers actually stay true to the spirit of how the distribution of these packs were intended. Or they don’t know how a scale works, idk. 
People will buy sealed packs no matter what.
Sealed packs are still a great investment. The box rises and so will the packs.
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totally i buy sealed boosters because i like them as objects. they hold a weight figuratively and literally that a card just cant. i have more nostalgia for packs then for individual cards. i dont particularly like the crystal charizard but i really like the look of tge packs themselves.
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supply and demand plays a big big part in my view on prices for boosters cards and so forth. I will say years ago booster boxes of lots of the older sets were cheap to no bound. 1st edition jungle and fossil boxes were selling for less than 200 at one point. during the time of the e-card era Pokemon hype was down and other games were coming into play like Yu-Gi-Oh. the hype and nostalgia factor do play in small bits for things as well as fan favorite characters. charizard being the biggest.