Saitou is probably my least favorite artist for the very same reasons you mentioned. I find his art to be boring.
2 Likes
I’m getting constant mental damage seeing raw ray vmax alt going for as much as ray ex from ex dragon in psa 9
I guess my spicy take here is that the ray vmax alt is a pretty shitty art, it all kinds of blend in; but apparently the market disagrees.
7 Likes
Can a market judge art?
IMHO, No!
1 Like
sweating in NFT
6 Likes
More a Hot Take than an unpopular opinion? Purging open boxes from recent MtG and PkMn booster boxes and I realized, the current WotC booster box is superior. Booster box design has been lacking ever since they went to the upright display design.
Further, Are ETB collectors really just chasing a visual appeal that current Pokemon booster boxes - with giant holes in the side - lack?
4 Likes
Vintage pokemon ended with power keepers and so did the box design
12 Likes
YES! No gradual decline, just a quick and brutal death.
3 Likes
Buying PSA 10 cards is buying for financial gain… but that does not mean it is ONLY for financial gain.
2 Likes
imo etbs look infinitely better than nearly every modern booster box thats come out. They take up a similar amount of space as boxes and being 1/3 the cost is pretty attractive. Financially, its more complicated. Its a lot easier for me to buy an etb of each set than a booster box, although the box is the better “investment” play if you even wanna call it that.
The now guaranteed promo cards are a nice addition too
2 Likes
I think the yellow border looks way better than the new silver one. I will probably not collect much of the coming English sets, except maybe SV3.5. Nostalgia is what got me back into the hobby, and the silver border makes it feel like a different TCG than the cards I used to love. It’s just sad seeing an English Pikachu card with a silver border.
5 Likes
I honestly think Bruxish has a decent design
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Don’t get me wrong, he’s produced good artwork in the past and even now (such as the Meowscarada), but he’s also gunning for the world record in the any% Adobe Stock category with his Pikachus.
Some of the least dynamic stuff to ever come out of the TCG. Pose, framing, coloring all match the profile of souless corporate stock art. The full-art versions of the ponchos and Mario Pikas feel equally sterile.
4 Likes
This sums it up pretty well.
He still puts out some great stuff - Pawmot AR, Snorlax CHR, ADP alt art, but many/most of his normal artwork is exactly as you describe.
I also hate that most of the Pokemon have a white outline that further breaks immersion.
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You are not wrong, I agree. Most of his pika cards look like boring base set holos.
1 Like
Modern is actually good.
I keep collecting vintage like is some sort of holy grail, but for my personal taste, (at least some of) modern full artwork are really better.
The way on modern you see dynamic pokemons doing their pokemon stuff fluently fusing with the background is just astonishing compared to the Old Sugimori (all hail king sugimori) static sprite on a generic background took somewhere in the worst part of the internet.
Yeah sure thing I love Sugimori, and some of is artworks are too good to be real, but wait because:
The way full arts just take their space for themselves on the layout of the card spreading the image all over the place like it’s a trading painting game can’t even be compared to old school framed artworks from gen 1 and 2 (even worse on 2.5) that really restrain the glory of the art inside of it.
Not collecting modern, keep thinking “should I buy? Maybe later…”, keep waiting 'til I’ll regret it is a crime I commit against myself.
And I know I’m not alone.
4 Likes
If I became a professional wrestler I would wear this no questions asked. Heck I would wear this now as I play Pokémon emerald
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The full-art scenery cards that premiered in the SwSh era are some of the most gorgeous cards to collect. I don’t know how the market surrounding these cards is, but if you just look at the cards themselves, it’s probably the best the TCG has ever been.
1 Like
I really envy nowadays Kids that will look at those cards with the same nostalgic eyes that I use to look at vintage…
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Trends change rapidly in modern. Full arts, rainbow rares and then shiny full arts were the new must have cards and now rainbows are gone completely and nobody wants a 5ban full art.
The alt arts are top tier but once they move onto the next thing they will become readily available imo
10 Likes