It feels weird to me in that people are continuing to pay ridiculous premiums for modern graded set cards and nearly any card in a black label. The hype train certainly seems to be picking up tons of passengers with no designated destination on the ticket, just verbal promises of somewhere amazing.
To be fair though, I am completely fine with it as it is distracting away from other cards I am collecting at great prices 
u can distract the market with stuff like this and then pick up da rares for cheap 
imagine the actual good cards u can get for the same price or less as that moonbreon 
I graded the neo discovery umbreon recently cgc 10 and just for fun checked and its like 2.6k. what is that in terms of moonbreon now? Less than 2x I think. Not worth selling
moonbreon is pushing 2k in psa 10 now i believe, i sold a cgc perfect for almost 3k earlier this year maybe that was a mistake
Ok Logan Paul 
100+ Modern Junk slabs 
1 Trophy Card 
Lol xD correction, 5 figure*. I have to remember just because I count 7 numbers, doesn’t mean it’s a 7 figure price.
When is the vintage Japanese and English departure to the moon scheduled for? Want to make sure to get my ticket ahead of time
Literally picked up a Pop 20 double holo error psa 9 Shining Gyarados for this price … Theres many people right now who would take the moonbreon, and thats just crazy to me
Surging Sparks really got the Vivid Voltage popularity.
It’s interesting because both sets are relatively not much more interesting than other sets from each era. At least in my opinion.
Agreed. The power of a cute Pikachu SR cannot be understated I guess 
There’s been multiple “happenings” lately that have created a cocktail of attention, like stronger economic conditions, Pokémon Pocket, 151 hype doing the rounds on social media, the US election result increasing people’s sense of general financial confidence and therefore confidence in alternative assets, etc. Going off the back of pfm’s comment, it looks as though SS just happened to be the latest set with a couple of chase cards that has been released during a rising wave of renewed popularity and attention, very similar to the social/economic conditions during Vivid Voltage’s release. Either that, or the poke-luminati has a weird fascination with electricity. Considering how short modern attention spans are, SS will probably be overshadowed by subsequent releases like Prismatic Evolutions and whatever it is they’re doing with Team Rocket. Again, just as happened with Vivid Voltage. I don’t think the wave has reached its crest yet, either. There will be more events like PTCG’s pack ripping Guinness World Record attempt that’s scheduled for the end of this month that help spur on the momentum.
As I typed this I realized that this thread is about graded cards, meaning my points may not even be that applicable. Still, I felt it was relevant for the most recent discussion points. Could be broken off into a different topic about the “end” of SV themed SV sets and what that means, but w/e.
I think that many collectors are viewing Surging Sparks as the first BIG set to largely move away from SV themed pokemon and characters. Of all the IR/SIR (the cards people most care about), only 4 cards contain pokemon/characters from the SV games (Ceruledge IR, Cetitan IR, Archaludon ex SIR, Drayton SIR supporter). The rest feature a variety of popular or semi popular pokemon like Pikachu, Milotic, Latios/Latias, Hydreigon, and others. The etb promo is also a shockingly good Magneton (pun intended), by the great Shinji Kanda no less. The set feels unusually stacked, but that is my own opinion.
Now we can look at specific card totals and numbers to see if this set is truly the “first” big departure, but thats missing the point. People perceive Surging Sparks as the departure point from SV themed SV era sets. That is what is happening imo. The eeveelution set will be another big set in this direction, even if it does feature SV era mon/trainers IR/SIR (which is almost a certainty).
Now personally, I would argue that people wanting less SV themed sets should actually look at the card lists! They’d quickly realize that every SV set has had heaps of non SV pokemon/trainers with amazing IR/SIR artworks, making the argument somewhat mute. Regardless though, people perceive Paldea Evolved, Temporal Forces, Stellar Crown, etc. as Scarlet Violet themed sets, even if there are some dozens of IR/SIR that aren’t gen 9 related spread amongst them 
151 is about the only set that I feel is truly not SV themed in any way, but it came out during year 1 of SV, so any hope for non SV sets was quickly squashed for another year and a half.
I see some Vivid Voltage 2.0 discussions which are also fair I guess.
Yeah, it´s the same for me.
The thing is, that would mean that there will be a point at which these cards would have to come down. If everyone is in it for the money, then at some point they will sell.
This however isn´t happening. So I´m starting to wonder if I´m wrong and people just really like these cards.
The point I´m making, I guess, is that this forum may be a bubble that doesn´t reflect the actual market (anymore). Maybe the modern cards are actually this popular.
I’d say a decent chunk of the modern card market is taken up by people speculating on future value. Obviously it’s not all of the market, nor even the majority, but it’s definitely a solid portion. It’s why you see these crazy quick spikes in price (usually followed by a steady drop, but general trend of up). The market price for a lot of modern chase cards act like stocks.
FOMO and investing drive a lot in modern cards and is probably why modern graded is spiking (speculation that GameStop making PSA grading more accessible will increase interest in grading cards) while vintage is not, at least not to the same degree.
Surging Sparks is a lot more interesting than Vivid Voltage. It features a lot of beautiful artworks, popular rare cards ect. I don´t think that is a good comparison. It is also a lot more interesting than any earlier SV set (I think).
Vivid Voltage was only popular for a few months because Pokémon had gotten a big new influx of fans but the printing capacity wasn´t there.
I´m thinking the same. It´s just that cards like Moonbreon, Gengar from Fusion Strike, Giratina from Lost Origin ect. keep going up. It got me thinking recently, what if we´re wrong?
A portion will definitely be investors with no care for Pokémon, but these cards may well have a big enough base to keep a big price despite these high POP´s.
Will just note that this forum has never really represented the actual market. E4 speaking generally is interested in more niche areas of the hobby, and is big on “older, rarer, minter, better”. There are plenty who enjoy modern, but it’s sentiments don’t always align with the “market” as a whole.
Agreed. But I think this way of thinking is a broader thing. A lot of people who grew up with vintage (like me) value low POP´s and WotC a lot more than what the actual market does right now. But maybe this will turn again. I´m just not sure anymore.
