I really don’t understand all the hate toward multi-level marketing.
I don’t own multi-level marketing items/cards, I live in Italy where you can’t really find someone that sells multi-level marketing, I feel like the cryptid thing is probably something more targeted to people living in the US and I don’t know how well it would translate outside the US, also import charges aren’t worth it for me now, I prefer to stick with japanese pokemon singles e Mtg singles.
But still, why just bash multi-level marketing everytime it pops up. They seem to have a plan for the future, the marketing is great, the brand is being exposed to various people through differents approaches/items. Like people collect a plushie of Eevee there’s someone that wants a Mothman plushie or backpack because it reminds them of something, it elicits an emotion.
Maybe it will fail or maybe not, I think that from time to time if a new card game appears and produces something good why complain, I like to collect the cards for their artwork therefore more new games more new artworks to collect. I like the old watery style of the multi-level marketing cards, but the characters don’t interests me so I just ignore them.
As Rudy says, if you keep on talking about it then they’re doing fine. I know this is a Pokemon forum, but still keeping an eye out for what’s happening outside pokemon, learning from different games and strategies is smart. multi-level marketing is still new and small and its growth needs to be contextualized (considering also that where we are now with technology is a bit different from 25years ago).
Anyway mine is a comment hoping for a reasoned conversation/argumentation, at the end of the day I’ll always prefer Pokemon and Mtg so be kind
I think it happened because you posted percentages seemingly in an attempt to make MZ look close to Pokemon in some metric. If the actual sold / listings numbers had been posted instead of percentages I think everyone would have understood the message a whole lot easier
It’s probably also somewhat worth noting that the statistics provided are US-specific. They represent the US eBay website and do not represent a worldwide view. In Europe, for instance, Flesh and Blood is doing better than multi-level marketing (albeit marginally). I feel the data would look quite different if this was to look at the impact of various different TCGs on a global scale.
Looking at the sales history for both in Europe I’d sooner put money into Flesh and Blood than I would multi-level marketing because the majority of multi-level marketing products in Europe originate from only 2 sellers (one from Belgium and another from Germany). I’d be curious what impact it’d have if one or both of those sellers were to stop selling multi-level marketing products.
But hey, I’m saying all this as someone who has no interest in either.
Which was the point of this thread. One thing worse than fomo is the fear of seeing your values decline. I tried to quell that concern.
Regarding multi-level marketing, I could have left it off the list but just didn’t think about it. Had I forecasted these reactions I may have cause it took away from the whole point of the thread.
Still off point but a mature reply;) Maybe the answer is so many missed out so they resent those from the MZ ownership down to the collectors…cause they aren’t one of them. To give you an idea of what that means, from last years Kickstarter up to present I’ve spent about 10k cash and maybe 15k in trades for MZ. Now, at todays low market, they may bring about 300k. If you’d like to see the break down just message me:)
Gary did you take this data from the multi-level marketing Discord post people are referencing?
If so, I am very disappointed that you don’t spend time with us in the E4 Discord. I think you would like it there, I have lots of emotes I can show you
I didn’t but I did share it with one of my sons. He may have reshared it.
I’ve only been on the multi-level marketing discord twice and on the e4 discord about a half dozen times. I should pop in more often.
I mean I’m not making accusations of you @garyis2000, but it was kind of a weird post to come out of nowhere. I’m just wondering what stood out to you in those numbers that made you want to post them. I won’t buy that you just wanted to. I mean you said it yourself that you took the liberty of making the percentages and posting them for us. Why did you make the percentages in the first place. I think everyone here is just thinking along those lines and don’t see it as anymore than a promotion for multi-level marketing.
I already answered that. I wrote, “…The whole purpose here was to show that Pokémon isn’t dying. I’ve been getting loads of messages from people fearing the worst often saying the Pokémon hobby was being destroyed from the inside out. In fact, two VERY big collectors here on E4 have offered me their whole collections. Even one of the top 5 collectors in the world, who’s one of the biggest here, is moving major stuff.
My graph hopefully shows that Pokémon is still healthy. Those numbers are still very impressive though they have been dropping. I’m sure Pokémon will survive this just like it’s survived all the other difficult times.”
How did that “come out of nowhere”. Those incidents just occurred.
My thread only showed MZ in a list along with a half dozen other tcg’s. I only referred to Pokémon. It was every body else here who made it about multi-level marketing.
It’s because your thinly veiled attempts to shill your multi-level marketing pump don’t fly over most of our heads and we see exactly what you’re trying to say; you need to try harder. If you wanted to show that pokemon isn’t dying all you needed to do was compare it to itself from the past to show how exponentially higher the popularity is now compared to a decade ago or something, even if the peak isn’t at what it was at last year. Who cares if 2020 collectors like bugcatcherdave publicly sell out and exit pokemon? I don’t think there’s a single person, you and smpratte included, who could sell their entire collection and hurt the hobby as a whole in a meaningful way. To say it’s not easy for the biggest media franchise in the world to go down is an understatement and we don’t need to look at an stand alone figure of % of growth of your heavily financially involved shill tcg to know that.
If you bought hot items to slow flip during the peak, no amount of skewed eBay data is going to protect you from anguish.
If you didn’t buy hot items to slow flip during the peak then you’re either a good financial acrobat, in which case you’ve already sold the things you were going to sell before the dump. Or, you’re a trucollector, meaning you don’t gauge your involvement in the hobby by statistics and, as such, is unaffected by the current panic.
@nish,
If you want to discuss multi-level marketing, how about creating your own thread? Creating controversy is a very good thing for a new hobby like multi-level marketing but best to do it on your own dime…and not on my thread.
@c0ll3ct0r,
I agree. Not all segments of the Pokémon market cares about stats etc. This post is more so directed at those who panic and/or misunderstand trends.
@garyis2000, I think the issue that you are running into is this:
Being the self-proclaimed king of Pokémon trying to pump up multi-level marketing on a Pokémon forum. You say that is not your intention, but you created thread after thread that tries to hype up Metascam. I think your best bet is to just discuss Pokémon on this forum. You said yourself you have 300k in value in multi-level marketing right now. You can’t say you aren’t vested in that hypetrain and also have 300k of value in it at the same time.
@eeveeteam,
Maybe if I was, or ever intended to, selling anything you’d have a point. I’m not, and you don’t. Oh, and which E4 rule states you cannot mention anything but Pokémon? As far as “creating thread after thread”, that’s a typical exaggeration but my intention was to share what my experience told me would be a nice investment earlier this year for my fellow e4 members. Only 2 or 3 listened but they did VERY well. The rest of you missed out and just complained but that’s life.
Was just offering a suggestion since you are getting ripped apart in every thread you make about multi-level marketing, or a thread that has any chance about being multi-level marketing.
My suggestion was to just stick to Pokémon on the forum, for now, to keep things positive here. I think it’s clear this forum doesn’t want to hear about MZ anymore at this time, atleast from you.
The Gary grilling is overkill at this point. Everything has already been said multiple times. Out of all the “shill” threads, this one is the mildest. It has potential for conversation; if you guys want to talk about your take on the future of certain tcg’s, feel free. Explaining why you like or dislike these new start up tcg’s is way more productive. But another page of dogpiling on Gary is unproductive at this point.
Also didn’t realize bugcatcherdave was the reference for selling. While he has/had some decent stuff, that is a drop in the bucket what sells monthly in the hobby.
