Yes, you’re right about too much about which is good and bad and I’m guilty of that sometimes. I’ve tried to get into modern but I just don’t have enough time or energy to be anything but a casual observer and appreciator from a distance. I think it just hasn’t been around long enough for me to find it collectible too. I also think there is a problem with the hobby and I can’t stand this what not/influencer culture and that exists in the whole hobby. I’ve considered just selling everything and moving to something with idk how to say this “more mature adults” because of it. Unfortunately modern is full with those individuals. And I’m someone who tries hard to not indulge in content like that. It still bugs me.
Don’t let someone else’s enjoyment of the hobby ruin your experience. The wonderful thing about social media is that you can always turn it off and ignore it. 
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To some degree this is true. I watch no YouTube for Pokemon or tcg despite it being my number 1 passion and occupying a huge chunk of my time. I spent no time on whatnot either but you can’t quite ignore every aspect. Unless you literally just buy stuff and never sell.
Even here on e4 there is immaturity from time to time, though it’s not common. But if you want to participate in this hobby, that means you pretty much have to sell some stuff in order to buy more. And when doing that it becomes blatantly obvious how mature the avg buyer is and what their motives are. High end or low end it does not matter. Especially if you sell via platforms that require some communication between buyers and sellers beforehand.
I love Pokemon and want it to succeed and have a massive chunk of my time and money in it, but when every box buyer is asking so that they can immediately rip it on whatnot to make that sweet 5% premium and gain some clout it honestly makes me wonder how sustainable any of these prices are
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How are people still buying from whatnot sellers…
There’s ignorant and there’s that.
These people are lighting their money on fire, probably pulling nothing and their endgame is?
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I know a few sellers who have massive success but tbh that success on their end is 100% at the cost of their buyers getting ripped off. But I’ve come to the conclusion that the market is fine with being ripped off if it is flashy enough.
It’s just not a platform for me, I could never summon the energy no matter how much fun I have opening stuff and talking Pokemon with people
It preys on people with addiction (is my belief), or at the very least – people with more money than sense. There are some good sellers but even they will tell you it’s a cesspool.
The constant WhatNot ads on youtube made me buy YouTube Premium lol
People said the same thing about YouTube box breaks during the pandemic boom. People would pay more than market value to buy a slot to have their pack opened on a YouTube live stream just to hear their name mentioned during the broadcast.
In a nutshell, people do people things.
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Let’s be honest: this is about 95 percent of the population.
Outside of Pokemon, don’t people pay streamers just to say their name? I think that is the answer.
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Yup. This is people. I don’t know why everyone has to act so differently when something happens in Pokemon that also occurs in pretty much every other arena.
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People paying for streamers to say their name have no other option. Pokemon buyers paying 40$ for a 20$ modern card have 10000 options
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If you ever livestreamed, I would pay you to say my name.
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I did the one time when chloe was over. Maybe if she comes over again I can do another live! 
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I think people view it the same way as paying for Patreon or something: the premium just supports the channel.
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I know but fundamentally they are not the same. Whatnot is a selling platform and generally streaming on twitch or yt is not for selling things to viewers it is for entertaining viewers. With Patreon, generally it’s closer to tipping a streamer than whatnot because you are buying something that is specific to that person, maybe knowledge or a special product, whatnot streamers are dead ass selling stuff they got from Walmart earlier that day
I have no horse in the race, or much experience with box breaks anywhere, but surely the argument is that the ‘stream experience’ is what counts as unique to that person. It’s not how I choose to spend my money, but I think a lot of people come to Pokemon (or any hobby) for a community as much as the cards themselves, and I think that’s the right angle to view this from.
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Oh absolutely but my problem is whatnot communities are there to sell you stuff, that’s the only reason. Whereas you can at least make an argument that the other methods and communities have some other reason
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Isn’t that filling a niche that buyers clearly want? WhatNot/Drip/etc. wouldn’t be so popular if people didn’t want to spend money. It serves a real desire in the community, which is window shopping + interaction with “influencers.” It’s not my cup of tea, but I completely understand why it exists and believe that it is serving a real purpose.
Maybe if they were influencers but they’re just Pokemon resellers. No issue with Pokemon resellers at all but they’re not influencers or celebrities at all and a shiny flashy app does not make them so
*Should say most are, there’s probably a few that could be considered influencers as gross as it sounds
Also the fact that many sellers take advantage of the lack of regulation to add bounties and prizes to prop up lesser items values to people who lack a basic understanding of stats or have gambling issues is disgusting imo. So maybe whatnot isn’t the problem, just the some of the people it attracts to sell on there
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