We as collectors and some of us sellers need to stop selling/giving away intact booster packaging. It will only hurt us down the line with more sophisticated scammers.
I personally just keep all my opened booster wraps and frame them but I will never give them to somebody else. Or if you are giving them to somebody that wants the art then cut off the top seal and nobody will be able to reseal it.
We need to protect authenticity. What are you guys thoughts on this?
Quite some years ago there was a guy with a few rolls of uncut foil wrapping for the unlimited base set packs, I remember umming and ahhing about whether to buy some or not. He sold them in 3 cut sheets, 1 of each art and sold quite a few of them for people to frame. However I remember one day suddenly all of his stock was taken off his ebay page without notice. I have sometimes wondered if someone bought all his rolls, and what has become of them.
Makes sense and at the same time, I am thinking Pokemon obviously did not have this kind of attention until it blew up like other TCG’s or Sports cards. With good things comes with increased scammers, alterations, and the like. With everyone on here, TCA Gaming, and Scott’s videos can help newer collector’s distinguish fake/non-fakes etc… The problem is, most people are not informed. Unfortunately, it is a nature of the beast and some parents/grand-parents/etc will continue to be conned or buy cheap fake Chinese GX Cards.
I think scammers will be scammers and it doesn’t matter whether empty packs/boxes are sold. I actually enjoy collecting empty packs/boxes myself. It allows me to enjoy the art/nostalgia without the temptation of opening it.
Your hearts in the right place but I couldn’t disagree more. My reasoning is:
Should you not sell shadowless cards cause someone may put a 1st Ed stamp on it.
Should you not sell Raichu’s because someone may put a prerelease stamp on it.
Should you not sell uncut card sheets cause someone may cut it up.
Should you not sell sealed booster packs cause someone may open the packs and reseal them?
If you have something of value (that’s legal) no one should tell you that you can’t or shouldn’t do what you like with it.
TCA gaming has sold a bunch of them it seems, maybe it was him
I think knowledge is power. It’s one of the reasons why this forum exists: to provide useful and beneficial information to the community.
Instead of barring the ability to sell these things, have it so we inform others on how to avoid being scammed and what to watch out for.
I agree 100% otherwise we are enabling fraud. The damage it can do both emotionally and financially to unfortunate buyers, is unprecedented.
Are the people who make knives enabling murder? Should we shut down the knife industry next?
This is why I feel like there’s less risk buying sealed Japanese booster packs.
Terrible analogy, what has that got to do with collectibles and protecting your hobby from fraud?
No they are not enabling murder. They make necessary functional tools that have been used for several hundred thousands of years.
However, if you sell empty booster wraps for a quick buck and they’re resealed and sold on, then YOU are partly responsible for that.
We need to stop allowing packaging to exist all together. That goes for even packaging currently sealed around unopened product. Just look at TCA gaming’s recent video. Any sealed product can be fake and we can only verify it by opening it.
Sealed product was made to be opened. If you sell it or even collect it you are doing yourself and the hobby at large a disservice. The buyer can easily open it as you should have and then they are left with the nasty contraband we are discussing in OP. Packing materials are the devil and will be the end of this hobby unless we all do our part to open all sealed product we own and burn all the packaging materials. This goes from original era 1995 to current and future.
I’m marching into my local card shop right now and tearing off that wicked wrapping off of every single pack and shredding it and burning it until every last plastic molecule is cleansed from existence. These sealed abominations are a scourge upon the hobby and must be purged from the planet so we may collect our Pokemon cards in peace once more.
I don’t think you realize that many people enjoy collecting the packaging for vintage product. The analogy makes sense because we’re not going to stop selling knives just because some people use them to harm others–because knives are useful. We collect Pokemon cards because they too have a benefit: they’re fun to collect. So we’re not going to not stop collecting/buying/selling vintage product packaging just because some people use it nefariously–because people enjoy collecting the packaging.
Be careful making so much sense. That paragraph you wrote makes so much sense you could almost use it to justify selling weighed packs (with disclosure), yet loads of people still take issue with that.
It should be clear by now that there is nothing wrong with selling stated weighed packs.
I think it’s different when we talk about the plastic wrap off a booster box, for example, than the original wrapper/box as @jimijames64 had suggested. I agree the plastic wrap should not be sold as I don’t even see that as a collective valuable and any attempts to get a hold of it would be immediately suspect.
However, when it comes to pack wrappers, boxes, etc, that’s different. They’re pieces of art, their original packaging that has inherent value. I had to purchase a few empty wrappers years ago to put in my Gyarados collection instead of paying for the ridiculous price of a WOTC pack JUST so I could have the pack art.
Has there been a guide made on how to spot faulty packaging or resealed product? I know we’ve had to touch on the subject several times over the past year alone.
The same “enabling murder” analogy could be made with bricks, candle holders, rolling pins…
The analogy is bad because one is a functional tool with a multitude of purposes, the other is disposable packaging.
Okay…If you want to sell used packaging then trim it so it can’t be resealed, agreed?
If people don’t do this then they’re part of the problem
Yes there is. Weighed packs are one of the easiest flips in the world because you don’t have to do anything to make money except not put a word in the listing title. Anyone who is selling weighed packs is directly responsible for what happens with them down the road, because they’re the ones who did the initial weighing, which in itself is unethical.
There are levels to it, obviously. Weighing packs from a box and opening the holo ones while keeping the non-holos for a collection or sending them to be graded is one thing. Selling a weighed pack or two to a trusted friend who wants it for a collection isn’t too bad either. But if you throw up 24 non-holo WOTC packs on eBay I can virtually guarantee you that whoever buys them is going to have single-pack listings up in a week. With values for older packs climbing weighing is becoming more accepted unfortunately, but to me you are morally and ethically in the wrong when you weigh packs unless you plan to personally account for every weighed pack. And most often you can’t unless you’re keeping them all, which is why weighing is still an unethical activity.
As for the whole product wrapping thing, I think it’s a different monster as there’s so much effort that needs to go into making a repackaged box. Should we be selling Wizards logo seals? Probably not. But I don’t think anyone is doing that in the first place. Should we be selling empty 1st ed. base boxes to people we don’t know? Might be good to check and see if they have an established reputation in the community. We don’t have to stop selling this stuff, but maybe be a little more cautious on who we sell it to.
On the contrary, I think it’s a perfect analogy (I may be a bit biased). You probably don’t like it because if you agree that the analogy is valid then you naturally have to reconsider your initial position - which is the sign of a great analogy.
The argument discussed here is the moral dilemma between utility and negative consequence. A knife is extremely useful, but it can and is also used to kill people. Should societies ban knives because they can potentially be used as murder weapons? Most people would say no since the utility of the knife outweighs the risk of the negative consequences.
In the world of trading cards, selling the wrapper from a booster pack may result in negative consequences. But as shown by people who posted here and sold listings of opened packs and boxes, there’s a utility to collectors. Some people enjoy collecting these items as a cheap alternative to the sealed versions. Although this utility is not as useful as a knife, it still has utility.
So yes, I argue that my analogy is valid. You could argue that the negative consequences of selling opened packs outweighs the utility, in which case guns may be a better comparison than knives - but the general principle of the analogy is still relevant. Something like the cellophane from booster boxes, for instance, is an example of something where I would agree the negative consequences of selling outweighs the utility to collectors.
Also, the idea that the seller of a wrapper is somehow responsible for scammers resealing is also ludicrous. Should we prosecute the knifemaker every time someone stabs another person? Absolutely not, you only punish the person who actually committed the crime. The exception would be if the seller/knifemaker was suspicious of the buyer or knew of their sinister intentions but still went through with the sale. Then I would agree some of the responsibility falls on them.