I have a hard time believing that Alt Arts could be considered a Veblen Good. Veblen Goods are items that retain their value and are generally countercyclical. For example, a poor economy does not necessarily destroy the value of Rolex watches or pieces of art. In fact, downturns in the economy can have an opposite (countercyclical) effect on high-end luxury goods because demand is momentarily increased as conventional holdings that align with the stockmarket (e.g., stocks, bonds, etc.) are removed and reinvested. Some may suggest that the Illustrator or Trophy Cards are Veblen Goods in this way. Alt Arts do not retain their value as high-end luxury goods. They are influenced by general market trends in the hobby.
I think I will also stand by my original statement that generally, it’s a young person thing. But not because of their age - because of their inexperience in the market and their source of knowledge (i.e. social media influencers).
WotC and old Pokemon in general just has a different feeling/ vibe/ style. I dont think its necessarily about whether a card is full-art or sparkly and textured or not. I didnt grow up opening WotC, but discovering these cards as an adult felt so special. Discovering old Japanese promos that came out before I was even alive (i know) feels special. I think it just comes down to a genuine love for this stuff. One thing isnt better than the other, theyre almost like different adaptations of the same idea. Vintage and modern are great in different ways imo.
I dont really know about what younger people value or dont, and i wouldnt rly feel comfortable generalizing them either which way
In light of the apparent ongoing strength of the Japanese market, particularly for Sun & Moon, and early Sword & Shield sets I’ve been recording the prices for several booster boxes each month since mid October 2022.
I used a single source for my data - Plaza Japan - and whilst I understand prices can vary from site to site, I have presumed that any significant price movement here is a broadly accurate indication of market demand.
The Sun & Moon data follows:
The list is not comprehensive, but I hope is still of some interest.
The boxes that had the largest percentage increase are Forbidden Light, Dream League, Double Blaze, Fairy Rise, Dark Order, Tag Team All Stars, and Miracle Twins.
Presumably there will be a market correction at some point, as it is hard to believe that demand for the full art trainer cards, which is predominantly responsible for driving up many of these prices, can continue indefinitely.
While this is true, I think it still may be worth noting just how far disconnected the numbers here are from the “general market”. Looking at ebay sold prices over the same time period has Dream League, for instance, moving up by about 10%. The other boxes you have listed with meteoric rises are pretty similar in that regard. I’d imagine some of the Plaza Japan pricing is “we don’t actually have this in stock, but if you want to pay us 80% over market price then we’ll be happy to dropship it for you.”
Still a pretty significant move considering that prices were mostly stagnant for the preceding year, but the time period also coincides with a significant move up in JPY/USD after a long downtrend.
Yea plaza japan isn’t a good metric to use to gauge prices of japanese sealed… I too happened to notice their Remix Bout price maybe a couple weeks back and was like wow wtf this has really rocketed!? But on eBay was still selling around $150 a booster box
I find a lot of these online shops and sellers match the price of brick and mortar shops in Japan and vice versa. For example, a shop near me is selling Tag All Stars for 50,000 yen (it’s been sitting there a while too,) and that’s the price Amazon sellers are also putting it up for. However last time I went on eBay most sold listings were between 30,000 and 35,000.
I agree with what has been said about Plaza Japan, but would add that I have observed many increases in asking prices on other sites, such as Miyabihobby, Meccha Japan, and ToysOne Japan.
I assumed that some of the smaller price increases were related to exchange rate changes, but did not analyze this in any depth.
My reticence about using Ebay as a reference is I do not have enough knowledge about which Ebay sellers are honest and reliable, and which are more questionable. I see a lot of sellers based in Japan with mediocre feedback, which causes me concern.
Sold listings does seem like a good way to go to gather more up to date information about what stuff is actually selling for, so if I keep collecting data I’ll try to include that too.
This is how I feel about pretty much every v alt art compared to their vmax version. All the v alt arts look way better but are way cheaper. Obviously pull rates are a factor as well but I still feel like that doesnt justify the v alt art being like a 6th of the price of the vmax.
Cards with no condition on them are the A/Mint condition ones. Sometimes they dont have them though, for new sets they can sometimes run out especially if its a popular card but they restock quickly.
From Bulbapedia " The Full Art print features artwork by Naoki Saito and was awarded to winners of Shining Legends Sealed Game events, held at participating stores between July 15 and 30, 2017 and at select Pokémon Centers between August 1 and 29, 2017. An invitation-only prerelease event was also held at the Dwango Hanzomon Studio, Tokyo on July 2, 2017. The application period for the prerelease ran from June 23 until June 25, 2017; successful applicants were selected by lottery. A final event was held as part of the 2018 Yokohama Champion’s League, held at the Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama on September 3, 2017. The Sealed Game events operated much in the same way as Limited format tournaments outside Japan: participants would receive 10 Shining Legends booster packs and a number of basic Energy cards (for free at the prerelease event) and play using a 40-card deck and four Prize cards. The Full Art print was limited to 100 copies."
It was an invitation-only event will be held on July 2nd 2017, few days before the official release of the Japanese version of Shining Legends. It was called the “100 Royal Mask Contest”
Besides the invited players, they also had a lottery system where anyone had a chance to participate.
Participants will be provided with 10 packs of pre-release enhancement expansion packs “Shining Legends” that are necessary for event participation free of charge (you can take them home after the event). One top prize winner will receive a special card limited to 100 in the world, The Royal Mask.
Sorry replied to the wrong thread at first @hermit :
My copy was ungraded so not sure it is really a good comparison, but I got it for $15k USD in December last year, it is a really clean copy though, not sure what it would grade as (I am a binder collector). @quuador might be a better source of pricing since I know his is graded (I think a 10? Might be a 9 though).
@hermit My copy is indeed PSA-10. But I bought it (for 3.4k USD) back in 2017, so it’s not a good indication of the current market price.
I’ve searched back on the Discord/forum/eBay for sold listings, but not sure when the last The Masked Royal PSA-10 was confirmed sold for, since it doesn’t sell too often.
I did find some price points for how much they were available, although that doesn’t say too much since anyone could for example ask 10 millions, doesn’t mean it will or would sell for that amount…
May 5th, 2022 on Mercari: 5.8-6M Jp. Yen (not sure if this is even a PSA-10 copy, but iirc it was ):
Jan. 17th, 2022 on eBay: 59.8k USD:
July 17th, 2021: 83.66k USD:
But again, these are just advertisement prices, not actual sold prices, so it doesn’t say much.
The last confirmed sale I could find was: June 21st, 2021 for 14k USD:
(which was originally posted for 50k USD Buyout with Best Offer enabled, to again state that the prices above doesn’t say too much):
Anyway, 4M Jp. Yen is roughly 30.8k USD in the current exchange rate, so not too bad of an offer to be completely honest. Although it also wouldn’t surprise me if you’re able to get more with some patience, considering the amount of FA Supporter and Rare Card collectors out there, especially for a PSA-10.
PS: cash on delivery sounds dangerous unless you meet in person, so make sure to not get scammed if you do end up selling it…
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