As the title says… What the Heatran is going on with japanese alt art cards prices? Why are prices of specific alt arts so expensive (Giratina V is a great example). Also now the Lugia alt art.
Not saying that these cards look bad, i personally love the artworks, but still why do these cards sell for hundreds and hundreds of dollars? I understand the concept of chasecards and stuff but outpricing really rare and hard to come by vintage cards within few month seems confusing to me.
Is this rapid price increase just a hype for these rare cards, due to Umbreon rising in value so much and people hope for the same thing to happen for these new alt arts?
Is demand so incredibly high and pullrates so incredibly low for these so people go crazy for them selling their cars & grandma? Will demand and prices even out? All these questions but i dont have the answer… Maybe someone in this forum knows.
I am usually not one to cry “market manipulation” or accuse cards of being in bubbles. But a lot of what I am seeing and hearing on newly-released Japanese alt arts gives me pause. The market prices for these cards are set in Japan. So you have to look there to the big sources of information for understanding what’s going on.
Two of the largest sources for card pricing information for Japanese collectors/sellers are mercari sold listings and buylist prices for large Japanese card stores. For mercari sold listings, it’s easy to see what cards have sold for, however it’s very challenging to see if the transaction was actually made. On mercari there are no repercussions for sellers cancelling orders, and feedback cannot be left for cancelled orders. So sellers can list their alt art card for a price, if it sells, they just cancel it and relist higher. This creates an upward pressure on prices.
Japanese card store buylists are another main driver of pricing information and by extension card cost. I have heard anecdotal reports of card stores posting high buylist prices, and constantly increasing these buylist prices, to justify the high prices which they themselves are charging. However, if you actually bring a card to them to sell, they will find a million things wrong with it and offer you a much lower price because it’s not in “mint condition.”
Alt arts are absolutely amazing cards. They are very challenging to pull and are some of the best chase cards we’ve ever gotten. However to see newly released alt arts going for $600, $1000, hell Umbreon VMAX is even $2000 now, is shocking to me. There is a massive amount of demand for these cards, but parts of it very much seems shady to me. Even if I’m completely wrong about some forms of manipulation increasing prices, to see modern alt arts immediately challenging vintage cards is nuts. A raw Umbreon VMAX costs more than almost every set-card PSA 10 Japanese Umbreon.
It seems ironic now that my reasons on why I chose to collect Japanese was that it was cheaper to get into and had the biggest bang for your buck. Can’t believe that you might have to sell vintage to buy modern. Its hard to see a lot of people who love collecting alt-arts get so heavily priced out like this.
Just to keep it positive, I personally am happy that I am sticking to my collection goals, even more so now. I don’t think I will ever have FOMO regarding not collecting alt-arts. Also, doing the 5USD challenge really reinforced the fact that there are so many older cards, very reasonably priced and just flying under the radar waiting to be picked up. Usually I feel like I am chasing these higher value cards to tick them off and ignore the cheaper cards which go unnoticed. There is still a lot of value in Japanese on a frugal budget.
Pull rate is definitly a Factor i guess. But fourth hast made a good Point i think. Just sad to See These high prices… i was debating to buy the Gira alt Art for 270 usd a Week ago… now it’s Up to 400 plus Just insane
Very anecdotal but FOMO is strong in Japan right now after Covid too. Just the other day people were queuing up for 3 hours to get into the Yokosuka Naval Base Friendship Day, It’s just a small part of the naval base opened for the general public with some food stalls and live music but the queue to get in stretched across town lol I noped the F out. Just my amateur psychologist speaking but I think people have been super frustrated for three years and are and putting a lot of their frustration into consumerism and the like and that is making things hyper competitive.
I think it’s a combination of the fact that a lot of people seem to be hoarding/speculating on modern English, and less on the Japanese side. So the supply factors are a bit out of whack when combined with the low pull rates for Alt Arts. At the same time, I think a lot of people are preferring Japanese cards more and more for a variety of reasons which is increasing the demand.
Personally, I like a lot of the Japanese reverse holo types and the silver borders compared to English in modern. In addition, the card stock quality as well as some of the Japanese exclusive cards really set a lot of the cards up for being collectible compared to English sets.
Recently, I’ve begun collecting more pre-2020 Japanese in particular. I think a lot of them are undervalued still, especially compared to the price of the sealed product & available supply. Some of the sets I’m collecting I can barely find any booster boxes for sale, and if they are for sale, people want a huge price.
Like fourth said, it is really baffling to see modern cards more expensive than some of the most expensive vintage set cards. I truly feel bad for collectors in japan and am even more thankful for being an english collector during these times.
Modern is providing something to the market that Vintage never did. Compare any Base Set art to Sightseer or Gengar VMAX Alt Art. Supply is just one factor into price.
It’s easy to cherry pick specific examples of a Vintage card being so much cheaper compared to a Modern card. But you are comparing apples with oranges.
Yes, secondary sellers of Japanese cards (whether individual sellers or big secondary sellers like Magi) can and do pump up prices to their advantage, but I don’t think these are the sole factors for high prices. Some alt arts are just pretty and people want them, simple as that.
If supply were the most significant factor, all of the Eevee Heroes alt arts should’ve dropped in price following three waves of prints. But not only did prices not drop following the last reprint, they shot up higher than ever.
