The small amount of Pokemon is also quite beneficial. 1000 may seem large, but if you look at Magic or Yugioh, there are many, many, many more creatures and cards. With Pokemon, if you grew up collecting gen 3 sets, you will be pleased to find gen 3 pokemon scattered across the subsequent 6 generations of sets.
For those who collect certain pokemon, or for those who just enjoy seeing familiar faces, its a great feeling
Definitely. Pokemon is more for collectors while other TCGs like Magic are very player-based. Not saying that Pokemon is the only TCG with collectability or that Magic isnāt collectable, but Pokemon is certainly the one with the most juice in that category.
New Video TL;DR:
Sounding like some bad earnings on the Hasbro front are coming. A lot of Floppy Tacoās being passed around Iād say:
Wonder how theyāll try and damage control things from here? Looking forward to the Rudy vids.
I would assume that āAmazon dumpsā (selling booster boxes at extremely low prices) are coming if theyāre in panic mode. The company was supposed to make plenty of cash from Magic 30, but threw that into the toilet. Theyāll have to be creative in order to replenish Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 expected revenue.
Rudyās response, lol:
Youll just be able to read the video titles to know what he thinks and save time
Congrats @smpratte for the mention in Rudyās recent video.
TL;DW: Rudy mentioned (and regrets) selling tons of XY-era sealed product to this guy named āScott Pratteā
I remember seeing his ebay listings for the evolutions sleeved boosters. Those specific listings made me think evolutions was a set going no where. Itās the reason I didnt buy much sealed evolutionsā¦
I still have those packs! Actually I think the original package is still sealed! 
Rudy is annoyed by people suggesting that SW/SH-era boxes are in a speculative bubble.
I feel like the comment section is pretty good evidence for why sealed SW/SH-era boxes may very well be in a speculative bubble. Here are just a handful of direct quotes from different commenters (it took me like 5 seconds to gather these ā there are PLENTY more):
āEvery pokemon sealed booster box rises over timeā
āPokemon booster boxes will always retain their valueā
āI only hoard Pokemon boxes because they only go upā
āa double return [on Pokemon boxes] is a safer investment than any stockā
āthe question is not if but when [Evolving Skies hits $1k per box]ā
Just full of people making baseless, blanket statements. Hyper-confidence that something isnāt in a speculative bubble is a pretty good sign that something is in a speculative bubble.
Rudy also has at least 1 Mil in modern pokemon sealed from the last 3 years alone. Its pretty nuts how much people believe he is objective on this stuff
on the other hand, I have gone to my local flea market for the past 5 weekends with a case of modern boxes each time. Every time I am swarmed and it is sold instantly, so idc what people think, it moves and its easy
pokemon to the moon
I would agree with SWSH era boxes being in a speculative bubble if sealed collector āinvestorsā werenāt just a small portion of the people buying into them. Naturally, the theming of the channel attracts a lot of these types, so of course those are the comments youād find.
I do believe the vast majority of people buying products are buying with the intention of opening them, but that is just my observation, and I could be totally wrong.
But how many of the people buying into Evolving Skies boxes at $400 ea or Evolutions boxes at $700 ea are collectors intending to open them? I have a tough time imagining that the people buying those boxes at those prices are collectors ā especially given that you can get 36 loose packs of those sets for significantly less than the sealed box price.
Like, why would someone intending to open the packs pay $400 for an Evolving Skies box when they could instead pay $250 for 36 loose packs? The fact that thereās such a large gap in those prices leads me to suspect that very few of these Evolving Skies booster boxes being bought at $400 are actually getting opened.
I donāt disagree with you that people buying in at $400 for Evolving Skies are sitting on it to speculate rather than to open.
But the reason that people would pay less for loose packs is clear. There is immense fear of pack weighing.
Iām not talking about sketchy eBay sellers selling these packs; Iām talking about legitimate vendors. I doubt that any reasonable person would suspect that T&T is weighing Evolving Skies packs, yet you can buy 36 loose packs from a T&T EVO vendor right now for under $250. And if you want to buy from T&T themselves, you can get 36 for $288.
Itās always been the case that loose packs are worth less than a sealed box. You can look across Pokemon and MTG and find this to be true.
The sentiment on the open market remains that loose packs = searched/weighed even if this is false/unfounded. Itās psychological for most consumers, Iām sure. In their head, if they open a box, they have a higher likelihood of pulling a chase card.
Thatās definitely not true with MTG ā thereās little to no gap between box and packs prices in MTG (with very few exceptions). I challenge you to find me an MTG set where you can buy 36 loose packs for more than 25% off of the box value (let alone nearly 40%, as is the case for Evolving Skies). In most instances, the gap is under 10% (if it exists at all).