Why is Chimecho from Pop Series 4 so expensive? Is the card unusually rare in Pop Series 4? Is it a buyout/market manipulation?
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Don’t know why but i don’t believe it’s market manipulation since the price has been high for years according to cardmarket sales data too and the data includes all languages sold, which in europe matters a lot since other languages move somewhat lot and their prices usually are lower compared to english cards
There was a reddit post too wondering the same question without any real answers but i assume you already saw it
I saw one at a card store and my jaw dropped to the floor when the owner quoted the price to me. So I scoured the internet and only found that unhelpful Reddit post.
English ones in cardmarket are for sale for 200€ so a bit cheaper but still in line with the whole picture, interesting to see if someone knows something
The weird thing is, it’s not just NM, NM+ copies, like some very playable cards from that era. Interesting…
The flow of chi from yin to yang is constant. We are often ignorant of its subtlety.
The Sceptile is probably the closest comparison to this card and that is also listed/sold at comparatively high prices.
Also, I love this Chimecho! Shame it didn’t get the PK blister holo like Deoxys.
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Bulbapedia notes the Deoxys, Flygon and Mew all got holo versions in various products, while Sceptile and Chimecho didn’t. I’d guess the mass printing of the holo versions drove the price down on the first three, while the last two have (seemingly) higher prices since they were only available in the POP packs. I say seemingly since for all I know the nonholo versions of the first 3 could be on par pricewise with Sceptile/Chimecho.
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The Chimecho used to sell for around $20-$25. For example:
The market totally dried up though because it’s rare as hell. I listed a few for really high prices (like way higher than they had ever sold for before) and to my surprise they actually sold lol. Ever since those sales, the price has stuck.
It wasn’t intentional market manipulation or anything; I just happened to open like 400 POP Series 4 packs and sold my extras lol. I think people previously just didn’t even bother listing them for that much because they didn’t realize how rare they were. But when you open $10k worth of POP 4 packs and pull between 0 and 5 copies of each rare, you realize pretty quickly just how undervalued the cards are at $20 ea.
The Chimecho, btw, is still a huge outlier. The Sceptile used to sell for twice as much as the Chimecho. But even pretty recently, the Sceptile still only sells for like $50 ea (despite being equally rare + generally more desirable). For instance, this is from late last year:
Anyway, to more directly answer your question: the card is expensive because of a combination of price memory + it being genuinely rare.
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Thanks for the detailed response, @zorloth! RIP to the 1 or 2 Chimecho collectors in the world. 
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When a card is this rare, then the price is whatever a buyer is willing to pay. I guess that’s the same for any card at any time, but I mean, if you’re the only seller, then sell it for whatever you want. Doesn’t mean anyone will buy it and even if someone does, it doesn’t mean it’ll ever go for the same price again.
I guess the issue stems from the fact that if the transaction isn’t transparent - like TCGPlayer or MAGI, Clove, Mercari etc. - then the sales could be faked. Now eventually the price may go back down over time if there is enough supply, but the volatility stems from FOMO, stonkers, manipulators, chasers, ignorance etc.
As I have brought up many times re: TCGPlayer, you’ll see a trend where when a chase card is trending downward, there are suddenly ridiculously overpriced sales happening that attempt to drive the price back up. This is mainly for modern though. I don’t think there’s enough supply of vintage cards, even actually as recent as SM era to really be sure of what prices are like if there are so few listings. Anyone can set a price and have it stick and it would take awhile if ever for the card to fall back down.
Someone brought up once that the Ninetales FA from Rebel Clash (which is even more recent) went through either a buyout or some inflated sales and then it never really dropped from there when the price memory stuck. After all, if a card also doesn’t sell, then the price can’t fall much either.