I’ll preface this by saying I don’t give a damn what someone else does with their money and I’m simply playing Devil’s advocate. But I think there’s a distinct difference between someone making a value determination of a card like PSA 10 T17 and paying more than others thought was reasonable (which I believe is a real-life example that happened here on E4), compared to selling shining fates packs for $75 when there’s probably tens of thousands of data points every day to show that there’s an established price range; enough to say that there’s some non-pokemon-related factors at play. Again, I don’t really care if someone wants to get their name shouted out by the streamer, I think it’s weird but that’s about it. But there’s at least some room to be skeptical, especially if there’s younger audiences involved.
chappo
63
nobody stops you to make your own streams and sell packs for a fair price. If guys like pokerev can sell out packs with a hefty markup within seconds, they are doing something right.
2 Likes
pfm
64
The product that is being sold is not the pack. This is why a famous streamer can make sales at $75 per pack and I can’t.
what else is being sold and what’s it worth?
$75 for a shining fates pack is gross. Love TCA though ha (trying to make it creator focused thread)
13 Likes
pfm
67
You’re paying for the social capital that has been built by the streamer. It’s an experiential product. You can either open a pack by yourself for $4 or pay someone famous to engage in the experience with you at a higher price. The “worth” is entirely subjective based on what you value the experience at.
If Beyonce started cracking pokemon packs on a twitch account, I think most people would be understanding that she’s not charging $6 per pack. If there were people that would pay $1000+ it wouldn’t surprise me. Unfortunately for me, I probably couldn’t even get away $10 per pack even if I wanted to. But for some reason it’s absurd that there are people with levels of fame between me and Beyonce that could charge $75? I just don’t see the issue.
This will be my last post on this topic. I didn’t realize my position was so controversial and the conversation would go on for this long. I think it’s close to being outside the purpose of this thread too. If anyone wants to continue this discussion with me just tag me on discord.
7 Likes
The 25th anniversary is already past so does anyone know what Katy Perry or any other celebrities are doing with Pokemon yet? If it’s music it would be cool to have some more Pokemon music sampling like they did with Ecruteak city and Post Malone
fresco
69
My main issue here, is that some people always give credit to the person doing the “live opening” and cherishing their “achievements” as a streamer/creator instead of questioning the people buying the packs.
Sure, there are some that might add some value, some others that not but using the term “gatekeeping” for questioning the sanity of how people spend their money is a long stretch. I understand this is a non essential good and a regulation is absolutely out of the equation but as a community there can be general consensus, behaviors and such which can always make the hobby better, one thing for example is giving information out to the public.
If something, it shows you how feeble and easy to manipulate people are (nothing new tho).
1 Like
How dare you!? I’m celebrating the 25th anniversary all year long. Maybe even into next year, haven’t decided yet.
chappo
71
but that is totally unrelated to pokemon. These people could very well donate the money to these content creators, play slots in a casino, pay overpriced drinks in fancy bars, etc. The truth is that there are always people that spend lots of money in stupid ways, just as there are people that think I am a retard for spending several thousand of dollars on cardboard.
Like I said if people like pokerev grinded their ass off to the point where they can overcharge for booster packs and people enjoy these live openings, they are doing something right and they sure didn’t get there by manipulating people like some are suggesting.
3 Likes
fresco
72
My comment was not targeting a particular creator (pokerev) just as a general point of view. More like, it’s easier to praise the effort of someone rather than questioning why someone follows/likes that person.
Just to contrast the hate on the high pricing by pointing out that there are some out there still selling as much product as possible at ~MSRP. Crazy to me how much money is being left on the table and all the extra work that is required to do it limiting to 1 or 2 items per buyer. Check out Danny Phantump but expect to have to be quick like you would have to on the PokemonCenter or in the stores. It’s not anything I pursue because I have my own direct wholesale connection, but what he seems to do it have market pricing on his website and then drops discount codes in the middle of his Youtube videos for loyal followers to pick up on. I listen to his videos in the background to just keep up on modern releases, allocations, upcoming releases etc.
2 Likes
I thought this video was spot on.
6 Likes
I think she’s talented and I enjoyed the video’s production value. But that said, I thought there was way too much entitlement and tin foiling for my taste.
4 Likes
Does she have tattoos? Is she the one Gary is scared of?
9 Likes
Where do you think the entitlement or tin foiling was in this video? Could you flesh out your thoughts on those?
You quoted the wrong post. I didn’t say that. 
I don’t believe she came off that way at all. I thought she gave a pretty fair view of things.
I stopped watching the video when she said people are quitting because they can’t buy shining fates. Here are 3,732 listings, prices starting at $75-80. With more being released down the road. Also, Hidden fates etb’s are lower today than the pre scalper era. Which completely contradicts the narrative of the video.
8 Likes
Tattoos or not, that girl has some serious problems. I actually watched it before, I even commented on it back then. She was such a Debbie Downer that she made ME want to give up the hobby lol. What’s up with that? She’s bad mouthing Lee and Nate and others through pictures and inuendo, who are tremendous assets to our great hobby. I just spent the weekend with them for an appearance and you should have seen all the kids who idolized them. Even their parents showed gratitude for how they positively influenced their families. Hour after hour of giving all the love and attention they had for all the fans.
And at the same time this kid is sitting on her negative arse driveling garbage. Shame on her.
Lastly, she blamed everybody for her woes except TPCI who are really the ones to blame for empty shelves and scalpers. What, was she trying to protect? Her one etb box a year she qualified for from TPCI? And did you see the end? She gave away one little box of something saying I care for you all cause I’m giving one person a stipend.
Oh, did I mention she even used a picture of me in her ridiculous diatribe? After 23 years of Pokémon devotion, thousands of hours of dedicated work for the hobby, she throws a picture of me up on this hit piece. I guess garbage in, garbage out. I shouldn’t take it so seriously. After all, she’s no worse than Jake Guru. I just wished she had injected a tiny bit of well directed criticism into an overall positive video. This great hobby deserves that.
2 Likes
@garyis2000, aside from all that, Happy Cake Day!
1 Like
