Destined Rivals is $600 now. Even the “cheap” in print sets are close to $300 per box. Everyone on Instagram is peddling card-related financial advice. Even the New York Post has been talking. Is this hobby heading to the point where only rich people will be able to participate in a few years? It genuinely feels like we’re heading into fine art/luxury watch territory, and I’m not sure whether to be excited or terrified.
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There will always be a level of PTCG that allows for people to play. The fancy cards for sure are going to mostly be for fancy people.
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TPC and TPCi’s current print capacity doesn’t accommodate the habit of buying up everything people find at retail, and the secondary market reflects that
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I agree, It’s just hard to justify cracking packs at these prices.
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Even if they printed more, wouldn’t people still buy up the supply?
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Yes as long as they can afford it
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I doubt it unfortunately
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welcome to the forum.
My own opinions on what i exepct to happen aside, I’ll tell you historically what HAS happened in similar circumstances.
Vivid Voltage booster boxes were all giga expensive for ages. Then they got print nuked so hard that you could buy infinite of them from the pokemon center website for years.
At one point they reprinted so much sword and shield, that you could get evolving skies for $90 a box, chilling reign for $80, Battle Styles for $70(and it still didn’t sell at that price).
And then they reprinted them all more in the future.
But, this all took time to get under control. It didn’t happen right away. I think the reprint of ETBs and booster boxes for darkness ablaze and vivid voltage that tanked those prices came near the end of the sword and shield block, and those were the third and fourth sets.
So take that history lesson under advisement. I haven’t bought a pack in over a year now. Its not very exciting. But I won’t contribute to the problem.
In the meantime, ignore the hype, the stress, the drama, and come vibe about some goofy card art, or the question of the day or just find something else to do entirely.
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I am not one bit into the financial side of Pokémon. It goes against the spirit of collecting and reflects a strategic, financial mindset. If you are into making money, I believe speculating can be a lot of fun and a field in which you can acquire great knowledge and make lots of cash—but it just doesn’t have anything to do with enjoying the franchise per se. It could be any other franchise if it were in the same position Pokémon is in right now.
In the end, most of us came to love Pokémon for the playing cards back in the day, as well as for the super-cool art, the anime, and the fictional world surrounding Ash and Pikachu. I still value this and feel at home in those memories. I like to buy non-TCG items for my favorite Pokémon and a cool card here and there when I love the artwork. Non-TCG is such a wide and amazing field to truly enjoy collecting, aside from this crazy—and somewhat silly—way Pokémon investors push or exploit the current printing situation.
Long story short: sign in at buyee.jp and rediscover the fun of collecting by buying non-TCG. 
Best,
orannge
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Every new set is worth so much money because of a mismatch in supply and demand. Demand is currently exceeding supply. This can’t sustain forever. At some point, demand will wane or supply will increase or both. Modern TCG boxes are not supposed to be worth $300-$600 at release or within one year of printing. Navigating a boom requires patience.
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No good reason. As Dyl said, supply is not meeting demand, BUT that doesn’t mean that demand has staying power. I think it’s following the trend of hype investing, and “big risk. Big Reward!” mentality. THe number of times I’ve heard that phrase recently is noticeably and disturbingly high. 11 B-b-b-billion cards printed last year?! 
The trend has to come down at some point, and when it does, the “big reward” crew may be in big hurry to dump their risk. Or demand will slow for some other reason. At that time, things will level out, maybe drop. What will be the trigger? Will the bigger risks like crypto and NFT be the things to crash first and trigger others? Domestic politics? IR? Cybersecurity calamity? WWiii? 1st Ed Kabuto? Who knows.
edited for completeness
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It feels like every new set is expensive, but it’s not just one single factor — it’s a combination of several things all happening at once.
First, demand is much higher than it used to be. Pokémon isn’t only a kids’ card game anymore; it’s a global collectible market with players, collectors, investors, and content creators all competing for the same product. That alone puts constant upward pressure on prices.
Second, modern sets are designed to be chase-heavy. Secret rares, alternate arts, ultra-low pull rates, and popular Pokémon packed into the same sets mean people open more product trying to hit specific cards. When supply is opened aggressively but the hits are still rare, sealed product and singles both stay expensive.
Third, print runs are big, but distribution isn’t equal. Some regions and stores get limited allocations, especially at release. That creates early scarcity, which scalpers and resellers take advantage of, pushing prices up before the market has time to stabilize.
Fourth, the secondary market now prices everything instantly. The moment a set releases, prices are shaped by online hype, social media, and early sales — not by long-term playability or actual rarity. This leads to inflated launch prices that often cool down months later.
Fifth — and probably the most uncomfortable point — a lot of the blame is on us as buyers. As long as people keep paying above MSRP, whether out of FOMO, hype, or fear of missing out later, the market has no reason to correct itself. Sellers price based on what actually sells, not on what should sell. I include myself in this group — we complain about prices, but many of us still accept and reinforce them by buying anyway.
In short: modern Pokémon sets aren’t necessarily “worth” more by default — they’re priced higher because demand is intense, hype is immediate, chase cards are extreme, and buyers (again, myself included) are willing to pay the premium. Over time, many of these sets do settle, but the days of cheap releases at launch are probably gone.
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Theres just so many people that wanna open packs. No one can keep up and the result is higher prices. Even singles are in this weird area where some modern chases less than a year old are hundreds of dollars. It used to never be that way, but alas, here we are. Buying singles is one way to go about the hobby, but it still sucks that your chances of findng any product is 0. New sets and products shouldnt be selling out in an hour(s), but they are. Modern feels like you have to always be on your toes, always on the lookout for restocks. It gets tiring fast
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This. Probably 2027.
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Demand 
Supply 
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The market hasn’t crashed yet
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Booster boxes are usually the first thing the investor heads sink their teeth into. 600 for a DR booster box is asinine though. That’d be 17 dollars per pack, right?
You can easily find DR sleeves/bundles/promos that have the packs averaging around 6-8 bucks, which isn’t great but it is 17 per lol.
The Mega Zard UPC is particular is really good value buy if you can find it at 120-140 dollars which I have been able to. It contains 18 packs, including a few DR, along with the beautiful orocorio ex promo and Mega Zard MUR.
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well, another factor is that pokemon hasn’t reprinted booster boxes since sword/shield. I have some paldea evolved I was holding onto to compare with reprints which I “knew” were coming because I wanted to compare print quality(IR cards were absolute dog water quality) and potentially pull rates(I hoped they increase IR rates), I’m still waiting to do this experiment…
If they reprinted products people actually cared about instead of trying to sell boxes of air and plastic with a boring jumbo nobody wants, then I think it would look different. Just one of many reasons that all come together to create the absolute S-show we are seeing right now. And at this point, its pretty clear that it is on purpose. Its too profitable.
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