I’ve been talking to a TON of people who have entered the hobby in the past year and a half (people I meet at shows, online, and even some real-life friends). An alarming number of them don’t believe me when I tell them the “normal” price of booster boxes used to hover around $100, with the less desirable sets in the $80’s (I don’t even bother telling them about the price of Evolutions boxes pre-Logan Paul). It became clear to me that a lot of these people have never seen a sub-$150 booster box, and maybe Perfect Order dropping below $200 is the first time they’ve seen a box drop into the $100’s). Many of these new people don’t have Pokemon social media accounts and get most of their cards from WhatNot and Card Shows. Like I said, a lot of these new people have a difficult time believing $150 was expensive for a modern booster box (and many of them don’t even want to talk about vintage cards…but I’m seeing a shift there).
How concerning is this to you all? I thought the prices of modern sets in 2020/2021 were outrageous, but the past year has felt…worse? Back then, I remember thinking pop reports for modern PSA 10’s going above 1,000 was insane…but now we have some PSA 10 pops going above 20,000 in under a year. There’s no way this “new norm” is sustainable, but it feels like there is a serious knowledge gap in the hobby right now. I don’t want to see a ton of these new people who genuinely love Pokemon get burned, but I think that might be what this market requires? Idk, am I crazy or are people seeing similar things?
I used to buy XY Evolutions booster boxes for $75 just to feel something. I’m starting to feel insane because there are people who genuinely do not believe me when I tell them these stories.
Not everyone does this for profit. Prices are only the barrier to entry to owning a card you want. If you’re a small collector with a shoebox of cards under your bed, does it really matter if card values get cut in half? I’d argue no.
I would agree with that, but I also think there’s a lot of new people who genuinely don’t realize they are only in it for the money…if that makes sense. Ask a few people who have recently entered the hobby if they would consider buying a card graded by CGC and you’ll hear some very interesting responses that all boil down to “I can’t make money off of CGC cards” (I know I went a bit off topic but I think the percentage of new people that entered the hobby recently who are “genuine collectors” is low…I could be wrong, but that’s just my opinion based off my personal experiences over the past year)
cgc pristine selling for 30-50% of the psa 10 price will never not be funny esp since the “record prices” they are paying for psa 10 are in trash condition
cgc pristine actually used to sell for more than psa 10 before the boom boom lolz
This is why I’m starting to feel a little crazy. I’ve gently tried to walk a lot of these new people through how to use an ounce of critical thought when evaluating cards. I’m not joking when I say I’ve had MANY people look at me like a crazy person when I try to explain that graders don’t just look for whitening on the backside of cards…they also grade the front surface etc etc…and yes, the number of people who have told me WhatNot is where they get all their cards/information about cards from is HIGHLY concerning.
I’m personally not a fan of Kyra, but she said one thing in this video that stuck with me: “the demand isn’t for Pokémon: the demand is for MONEY”. Pokémon is just the current hottest means of obtaining money, nothing more. Someone who got in a year or two ago solely to make money and sees Perfect Order/Chaos Rising/Pitch Black at sub-$200 thinks 1 of 2 things: either A) “this box too cheap, line no go up, me no buy” or B) “this box way cheaper than everything else, me see opportunity”. Not realizing that $160-180 used to be CRAZY expensive for an in-print box. Remember when Ultra Prism was $150 per box and people lost their minds?
