I look forward to the day there is a luxury tax placed on graded cards due to their plastic use. I’d like to live in a world where that is reality and not the one we’re currently in where it’s drill, baby, drill until wet bulb temperatures make it unliveable.
And yes, every little counts even if obviously taxing industry and billionaires would be the most effective. As it stands, the hobby is already predicated on mass waste with bulk cards, plastic wrappers, plastic sleeves, toploaders, binders, packaging, dice etc.
We may be very much closer than we realize. Humans evolved 100,000 years ago in some of the coolest temps our planet has seen… Cave men with electricity. A few degrees hotter and a lot won’t make it.
I’m sure many have touched on this but I’m new to the community so I will post my take on the topic.
This era of Pokémon cards (2020-Current and foreseeable future) will have a similar outcome to the junk wax era of baseball due to the absurdly massive print runs.
Regardless of the demand the scarcity will never reach the level it has with the WOTC era and most sets pre covid. Just looking at the raw numbers in terms of what has been reported for print runs, and the pops we see for post covid printed and graded cards, the numbers are astronomical and borderline comical. Maybe I’m old school but I highly doubt I’m alone when I go to check a pop report on a card that’s a year old and see there is 10k PSA 10’s and gets turned off by it. At that point I see little value in terms of an investment or a collector. Obviously people like what they like and will acquire a card regardless of pop reports but that isn’t the norm or what is driving the industry.
Aside from heavy print runs and countless submissions for grading there is another factor playing a role in scarcity and that’s card care. Overall, in today’s day and age there are far more resources when it comes to preserving cards. When considering the general awareness and readily available information on how to protect cards or the slew of easily accessible card care products it becomes clear why more cards stay in pack fresh condition more often than ever before. And this isn’t just about keeping cards pristine. Countless cards are also saved from being destroyed every year from improper storage.
All in all I think the print runs need to be shortened regardless of demand especially considering the demand is largely superficially inflated from scalping. By printing to the moon you not only feed the scalpers more fuel but you also weaken the market for these cards in the future due to the sheer amount of them.
Is that not counterproductive? The whole point of mass produced sets is to be available to everyone at msrp and promote engagement with Pokémon, not to serve only those who want cards to go up. Short print runs in today’s climate will only result in product never reaching the front door, and no one who has never seen product will ever be interested in Pokémon. The only solution to scalping is either improving distribution or making supply unscalpable, or both
There’s merit in this question. I however, also wonder if there’s merit to just letting the hype burn itself out. How long can people invest in common readily available stuff before they look for rarer stuff?
Well I should have mentioned this. You’re right, just cutting the print runs alone likely won’t help anything. First order of business should be limiting scalping. This can be a little difficult but definitely achievable to a degree especially considering how much revenue Pokémon generates (they have the resources). At the end of the day, kids are the ones that lose out and that potentially impacts the future outlook of the hobby so it definitely should be something they are invested in.
I just saw a post here on E4 highlighting the huge month of June that tcg and sports cards had (record sales) on eBay. Now I’m sure sealed product did well too, and I know a lot of scalpers sell product off the books and other places but I think this indicates people are fighting back against the scalpers and seeking cards through other channels. Part of this is due to vintage making a come back but I think that’s probably because a lot of people feel the way I do about this era of cards.
So I believe, if you combine factors like limiting scalping at the distribution level and have smaller print runs, scalpers will have less to work with and be forced to find a new hustle.
Like @xileets mentioned, hype inevitably effects the market and would deter scalpers but unfortunately with how saturated the current market is with scalped product I think the last 5 years and until things are figured out are doomed regardless.
In a perfect world we drive out the scalpers and lower print runs at the same time. That would keep the market strong and keep costs for newcomers getting in the hobby relatively affordable and accessible.
