Hi everyone,
New releases of booster boxes and ETBs continue to be gobbled up and released at a significant premium to MSRP with seemingly no end in sight. When do you think we return to a market where preorders / new releases are available at or below retail price?
Cheers
At the next trough in the boom/bust cycle.
2026
The return will appear at the apex of the juxtapositioning of the ninth alignment.
After first contact with an alien race.
Scientists around the world work tirelessly for months to decrypt the mesaage, which simply reads “Can i buy your collection for 8000 smorgelborks bro, look at recent sales, will pay 80% comps”
So March 4th, 2062.
I don’t know if we ever will, because the market quickly absorbs or rejects the product and then the prices adjust accordingly to the demand seemingly way more than ever before. What is interesting though is that even the stuff that does get rejected and driven to or below MRSP may eventually become favored by the market.
For example, during the SWSH era I recall Fusion Strike being one of the ‘worst’ sets on release and then as SWSH has been phased out it became very valuable because of Gengar mainly and due to the demand being so low in the earlier days of it’s release it quickly blew up once the market saw the opportunity.
Anyway, about all you can do is buy it today if you can afford it. There’s lots of product I’ve bought over the past 5 years where I was hoping for a price decline or some type of sale, but almost all of it stayed higher or went higher over time with very few exceptions.
Through my LGS I am part of a ‘loyalty’ program and I get up to 10% discounts this way. This is the only I can basically get any type of deal on new or old releases, almost everywhere else I shop is inflated in comparison. I’m talking specifically sealed and/or new release products.
So all you can really do is shop around, look for deals, and if it fits your budget and love Pokemon, don’t hesitate to buy it would be my advice. You’ll likely thank yourself later.
When Pokemon decides to actually print enough?
I’m consistently seeing product in shops now. It’s often above MSRP and/or limited qty per customer but at least it’s a sign that supply is starting to catch up to demand. I’m hopeful that things will be back to normal by this time next year but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t
My efforts to spite the market by buying only non-tcg are finally paying off /s
I’ve noticed some of this too with products on shelves even a few days after restocks.
This is somewhat encouraging. It is difficult for me to remain patient and stay focused on my long term goals in this market even if that means staying out of the market for months or years. If this continues until 2027 I will have to re-evaluate.
In 6 months can we have a new thread about wanting below msrp products