Collecting graded cards is more enjoyable than collecting cards and sticking them in a binder.
I 100% agree with your conclusion re: the medium/long-term outlook of modern cards.
But why should TPCi do anything differently? IMO, they should print to demand. And if a lot of that demand is inorganic, then so be it. They shouldn’t be intentionally making sets scarce to make them collectible in the future.
In fact, intentionally limiting print runs is actually bad for long-term collectability. it’s not a coincidence that arguably the most desirable sets (outside of 1st Base) are those that came immediately after TPCi stopped doing 1st edition print runs for English sets (late 2002 to 2007). e-Series and EX Series print runs weren’t artificially small–lower amounts were printed because demand was lower. These sets were readily available at MSRP for years; the print runs were only small because demand was small.
What makes e-Series and EX Series as collectible as they are is that TPCi totally gave the cold shoulder to speculators. Because speculators exited the hobby en masse in 2002/03, two essential things (in addition to lower print runs) happened:
- Much less product was kept sealed. It turns out that speculators love to hoard sealed product and kids love to open sealed product. Without speculators, not that much product is left sealed. Voila–EX Series boxes. Less sealed product → lower availability of mint cards
- Cards weren’t preserved. The exodus of speculators was also an exodus of adults. And kids suck at preserving cards well.
You don’t need artificially limited print runs. You just need less product kept sealed + fewer cards preserved well. Both of these are matters of consumer behavior totally out of TPCi’s control.
Basically, it’s not TPCI’s fault that we’re in a junk wax era. There’s nothing they need to do differently. It’s all about is consumer behavior.
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Great unpopular opinion. I would fight you on it but considering who you are I choose not to.
Cheers!
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Dragonite has the type advantage
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Ice Punch gives me a fighting chance
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You can just hyper beam me into oblivion. Go ahead.
Nah, bubblebeam is the attack to be used
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dont underestime mr bubbles movepool.
He may not be adamant nature but it wont matter because he uses no guard hurricane
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Them be some fighting words @Fighting_Type !
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I was told this was a safe space for unpopular opinions 
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Each time the word “grail” is used, Ken Sugimori postpones his next autograph signing by an additional day
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I’m guessing these have both been said before but
- Expedition Charizard holo is one of the worst Charizard arts, and the worst art for its cost in high grades. Nishida art is way better.
- Call of Legends shiny art style is bland and the EX border looks like a bad rip-off of the earlier EX sets
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Fixed it for you
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Your experience at a Pokémon card show will be a lot better if you do in fact judge a book by its cover and avoid all vendors wearing gold chains.
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Here is one I’ve thought about lately, there is more than one way to have fun with pokemon besides collecting. You can speculate on cards and have fun. You can participate in streams or live openings and have fun. Even within collecting, there is more than one way to collect. I think too much of the new demand is reduced to a speculator boogeyman. Maybe I’m just therapizing how I’ve come to peace with the new market. 
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Evolving Skies, toe for toe, alt for alt, pound for pound, can go up against any set in Pokemon history and come out on top.
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Until you open it
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It’s generally pretty easy to tell if it’s worth buying from a certain vendor or not. If their listed prices are no where near market, then skip them.
I saw a ex blister in a case at about 2 times higher than what it sold for multiple times on ebay. After a bit of talking back and forth I just asked “Can we get anywhere near market on this thing?” and the seller said “nah have a good day” and put it back in his case.
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You should not be surprised when a crossed card upgrades, you should be surprised when it does not.
Crossed cards are generally
- done by people who understand the grading standards of multiple companies and how they may not overlap
- Done by people who have a lot of grading experience
- cherry picked out of thousands of cards to find ones that are obviously misgraded
If you are halfway decent at assessing card condition, and understand grading, crossing cards is not very complicated.
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