I am happy at least this time round they are producing the Illustration Contest top three as cards (as opposed to just one), and you’ll get all three together in a sealed pack.
My biggest negatives is that the Greninja card doesn’t really fit in the border well, and that none of them is a Pikachu 
Really wished they would have picked this Arcanine instead, it’s just so much more vibrant and stylized.
This one was my top Greninja, really wish it would have won.
I agree that the contest winners’ art are pretty bland. They pretty much look like the typical artwork done by Pokémon professional artists.
My favorite are the 2009-2010 contest and the art academy cards. You can really see the creativity of the winners in the cards and they are very charming even though the artwork is probably objectively not as polished.
That is probably why they were chosen unfortunately. Personally, I think the Grand Prix Charizard is as dull as dishwater too… Look at how many sick illustrations for that contest there were and they went with a Charizord ass shot.
Although to be fair I can see there is a kind of sense of situation and story that some of the other images don’t really capture as well as the chosen three.
Have any of you gotten a random package delivered from Pokemon to your tenso address? I had one delivered almost a month ago and have no idea what it is after checking my recent purchases.
Sometimes a freebie like a calender or something.
Don’t know where else to post this but I’m losing my mind with Zenmarket packing in process times. Its takin foreverrrrrr. And sometimes in takes days from packaging to actual dispatch. It takes more time to prepare the package then it traveling across the globe.
I’d pay $100 a year for a premium subscription like Prime to expedite packaging.
Nothin but love for Zenmarket.
Hopefully I get an order to arrive at tenso within 4 days so I can consolidate. If not, I guess it will be gone forever.
I think it gets a bit bad when it gets closer to the holidays. I’ve had ZenMarket take over 2 weeks just for them to get the package together. Was a bit annoying cause they charged fees for having some items over storage time limit. Think it was back in December 2020 when things were crazy.
What do you think about PSA 10 Charizard Cp6 Jap and PSA 10 Charizard 25th Anniversary Jap?
A few months ago the average price of CP6 was around $ 400, while now it has dropped to $ 300, while 25th anniversary was around $ 200-250 and has now risen to $ 300. They are equal.
Is it just me or are Full Art Waifu SR’s hotter than usual?
EDIT: “Hot” as in demand & price movements. 
Yeah - the growth over the past maybe two months or so feels a bit weird. I’m always a bit skeptical when the price on recent set cards inflates so much in such a short space of time.
Curious what other factors besides “end-of-SWSH” fomo is causing it – likewise for the big alt art chases in Incandescent/Paradigm. I wasn’t involved enough during the end of SM to know if this is just history repeating itself on a larger scale or what
Yea, it’s honestly been practically everything that has released within the past year, has exponentially grown in value in like 2 months. It could be “end-of-SwSh” fomo, along with some other factors. I know I’ve heard some people suggesting that Japanese card stores are inflating prices by continuously raising their buy prices on cards. From what I understand, Japanese store’s buylists are often used to gauge the general value of a card, which kinda puts a lot of power in their hands. People see buylists 3x over the course of 2 weeks and start to panic-buy and it becomes a cycle. This is just me relaying someone else’s suspicions, so take it with a grain of salt.
So, it’s possible that speculation, fomo, $$$, are all compounding on price manipulating on singles. It certainly doesn’t help that Pokemon Japan doesn’t seem to be able to keep up with demand; sets that just came out are like $100+ a box! I think this is fairly unprecedented for Japanese modern, especially with chase cards being $500+ on release, but I also was not super involved with JP modern until the beginning of SWSH. I am thinking (and praying) things will cool off moving into ScVi, but with VSTAR Universe looking like the best set ever released, I wouldn’t be surprised if things continue to fly off the rails lol.
Also, everyone is always talking about Eevee Heroes, but I don’t see people talking about Blue Sky Stream. Those boxes are incredibly close to Eevee Heroes and the Rayquaza chase cards are quite expensive as well. We need mass reprints that sadly, are unlikely to come, I think.
They have always been at least in japanese.
For years while in the west we had them super cheap (just till about 1-2) year ish, in Japan they always were super expensive.
For sure, but as @needszeebs mentions there has been a lot of seemingly arbitrary price inflation coming from the big buylist makers out of Japan.
What sucks about is that Japanese collectors will not plus back on some of these prices and will expect them as the standard. It really makes me wonder where does the line draw when it comes to the price. but then again; Japanese Pokémon card are luxury items and who ever can get these items are the ones with deep pockets. I don’t think VSTAR Universe will come to that since that set will be in print for a year and plus, anyone buying that set at +$100, will be burned by the 2nd wave or if supplies meets demand on release (we will see lol).
Blue Sky Stream (and Towering Perfection) 1000000% agree, the only set that never got a re-print . I wouldn’t be surprise if price of those boxes double. Alt Arts have been creeping up in price in the last few months.
Quick question as I am unfamiliar with this particular area: Are unlimited versions of split earth/mysterious mountains cards more valuable than 1st ed?
They are more rare, but also more niche. I would not say unlimiteds are more valuable than 1st edition, solely due to demand.
