Im having a bit of a ‘throw my toys out the pram’ kind of moment lol Basically I started collecting burning shadows as a set and I have all cards except most of the secret rares. What started off as a nice hobby to casually collect cards has turned into a professionals only if you want to own them all.
Reason being some secret rares like charizard and guzma got anywhere up to £70 for one card! Whilst this may seem like nothing to you guys who seriously collect psa cards for thousands of dollars, to me I cant seem to justify spending that much on one card which will go into a plastic wallet and never be looked at again. It makes the price of all secret rares at £700 actually seem reasonable based on how rare they are.
Its no longer a kids hobby if you want them all is my point, better be ready to part with some serious cash. I may as well buy 50 booster packs at £100 and pray i get any secret rares but I remember even then when i bought 40 packs, i only got like 3 secret rares. They’re TOO rare imo. Its causing the prices to skyrocket.
Were they always this hard to get as a child? I do remember with the base set as a kid only a few people were lucky to have a super rare holo card. Perhaps times have never changed and kids are never attempting to get them all. Its only as an adult I finally realise how serious a hobby it is.
With Base Set, you have just as many odds of pulling a Charizard than something like a Magneton or some low value holo.
I agree that Rainbow Charizard is more expensive than I’d like, but it is VERY hard to pull. You can open several booster boxes and not even pull one. It’s the same for every Ultra Rare tbh. This is why for a set like Shining Legends, I rather pay $25-30 on cards I’m looking for than open a dozen Elite Trainer Boxes to get the 1 or 2 cards I’m after. My best advice is just be patient as the prices are already starting to go down on the cards you mentioned.
I understand your frustration, but I think it’s good for the hobby to have some cards being much scarcer than others. I don’t want every card being so easy to obtain and be pretty much worthless.
this is how i cope with prices. try to take a different view, think of them as speculative investments rather than toys u dispose of after use.
when i buy a card for 70 and put it in my plastic wallet, i know that it’s still worth ~70 or probably at least 60 if i bought carefully and wanted to sell it. so my true cost is 10 bucks, not 70.
Yea I think I will, most people here know i’m VERY impatient and tend to make hasty decisions so this time i’m going to wait and ride it out lol So you would rather just buy the cards than pull them? There’s also the way of just buying all cards as a set instead of even touching a single booster pack if you just want to collect them however most people agree this isn’t fun.
Are you sure the odds of a shiny charizard is the same as any other card in the base set? I thought there was more commons/uncommons in each pack and only 1/2 holo cards which makes the holos rarer by default.
I think the fact that i’m studying ride now out of a job has also changed me. I was very materialistic when I had a job and now i’m not so much, I went shopping in the sales yesterday and just didn’t feel the need to buy anything which kinda shocked me tbh. I usually get home with a game guide and a new book at least. I’m sure when I get a job again i’ll start buying them because I can afford to.
Well after spending $400 opening Shining Legends packs and not a single Lab Mewtwo or Rainbow Mewtwo and about 80% of the actual good cards being off centered or have some condition issues, yes I’d rather pay to buy some cards I’m after.
I meant the holo pull ratio. In a booster box you have typically have 12 holos. There’s 16 total in the set so you have pretty good odds of pulling a Charizard. Some people actually pulled 2 Charizards in a box before.
If you compare to Burning Shadows you can spend $450-500 on a booster case(6 booster boxes = 216 packs) and not pull a single Guzmo or Charizard you’re after.
Omg there’s misprint error cards in shining legends? Those cards might be worth something down the line. Also I see now… Wonder why some cards are rarer than others. As a general rule are some ultra rares printed less than others?
I remember being in a shop and seeing 1st Edition Charizard for $150 when I was a kid and wanting it so bad. My parents never got it and I don’t blame them, probably the worst example for a card to not buy but $150 is a lot and especially for a kid. It sucks not being able to get a card cause it is really expensive but other people will buy it for that.
Maybe it’s just me here, or maybe I just took your comment to literally; but would anyone actually collect if there wasn’t a monetary aspect attached to the hobby? Where would we be today without the monetary aspect involved with the hobby? I believe the monetary aspect is a large part of what got the hobby to where it is today. Would Pokemon really be this popular today without those record-high prices these past few years (Pikachu Illustrator, 1st Ed. Base Set Box, PSA 10 1st Ed. Base Set Charizard…) And without the popularity, would we even have collectors? Sure, there might be a few die-hard collectors out there - as with any hobby, but how many?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that your not a true “collector” if your collection isn’t worth $X. But it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that people would still collect without a monetary aspect attached - sure, there’s cases where the money isn’t as important as the “personal value”, but that monetary aspect is still always at least there. This is taking things to the extreme, but would anyone actually enjoy collecting if you could purchase WotC-Era Sets, Gold Stars… for dirt-cheap - let’s go crazy and say $5.00 - $10.00!
Personally, I would have never gotten into collecting Pokemon without the monetary aspect. My “journey” into Pokemon actually start-out as an eBay Business - I was a re-seller before collector for many years back when I first started-out. Part of collecting for me is saving-up for whichever item I am trying to purchase - working hard and saving-up to purchase something. When I finally do “pull the trigger”; it’s a GREAT FEELING! And I also love the collecting aspect where I’m able to keep track of my collection’s value and kind of look at things as an “investment”.
I would yes. I wouldn’t care if the $10k I’ve spent on these cards so far today was worth nothing tomorrow, because I wanted the cards.
Them being worth money helps get the mint copies to market easier and has helped people keep their cards in good condition, but it wouldn’t affect my desire to obtain the cards. Maybe I wouldn’t be collecting graded cards, but since that option is available to me that’s the route I’ve taken.
I think I’ve seen Deriums open 3-4 RR Charizard GX in 4-5000 packs. With a conservitive estimate of $2 per pack the $100+ price point is very much justified imo…
If the value doesn’t matter, why not print out cards yourself or get customs/fakes?
If they are worthless, I don’t think there is any chase, or reason to collect in the first place. At that point it would only be about artwork, in which you could print.
Rarity brings value, and without any rarity, there is no collecting…
It is extreme, but I wouldn’t want a Hyper Rare Charizard if every person had a billion of them (literally worthless)
