Why it's OKAY if Prices Drop After the Virus

It’s OKAY if prices drop after the virus ends. I repeat, it is OKAY if prices drop after the virus ends. Too many people I’ve seen on E4 and elsewhere seem to be worried about the afterlife of Pokémon card collecting. And you gotta stop being pessimistic. Here’s my take: this “b u b b l e” is good for long term growth. That’s right, it’s GOOD for long term growth. Let’s break this down. With time on their hand, people are returning to their childhood memories and re-entering the realm of Pokémon card collecting as an adult. That would, almost by definition, would be an illustration of organic interest (hence why this isn’t really a b u b b l e and is instead a “b u b b l e"). A vast majority of people who are taking up Pokémon card collecting are building off of their childhood interest. Yes there’s monetary interest involved, but that doesn’t deny the personal connection a lot of these new buyers will have with their cards.

Now, fast forward a few weeks/months/whenever this is all over: all these buyers that now have extra time on their hand will return to their 9-5 job. Fast forward a few more months or years and these same individuals who were responsible for the “b u b b l e” will forget their buying spree during the coronavirus crisis. What better could we ask for as collectors? That leaves us with a NEW group of individuals in this hobby. These are individuals who have a personal connection to the game. These are individuals who have a big stash of cards they purchased during this crisis. And these are individuals who will inevitably ‘forget’ about their collection for a while, only to return after years to realize their cards have risen considerably in price (as is inevitable in this hobby, even if the degree to which this rise will occur is debatable).

And here’s why that’s good for people who both recently entered Pokémon card collecting recently and for those of us that have been here for a while now.

  1. Newer Virus Collector*:
  • fairly obvious by now, but they’ll be left with a worthwhile “investment” (hate making this too monetary, but for the sake argumentation let’s go with it).
  1. Older Collector:
  • can be sure that there won’t be a day where the market is entirely “dried up” because those under the category of “Newer Virus Collector” will liquidate their collection (in a staggered manner) over the next few years/decades
  • the ORGANIC interest being generated at this time of crisis will only create more current / future buyers for cards that you got to purchase at a discount
  • if prices drastically drop after this all ends, you’ll be getting a god damn discount just for not forgetting about the hobby after returning to your job LOL

*aka newer hobbyists collecting because they have some extra time on their hand

Simply put, everyone wins. :blush:

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I don’t know anyone who thinks all prices will hold.

I’ll love it if prices drop after the virus! I get to buy more cards!

I’ll love it if prices continue to rise! My collection is more valuable, and I’ll just adjust my goals accordingly!

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Finally came out of my shell :blush:

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YESSSSSSSS

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This is assuming prices are rising BECAUSE of the virus in the first place. I’ve seen booms much more significant than this for far less in the past. When X and Y was released on the 3DS, prices went up 120% almost overnight.

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Your a brave soul for venturing to hint at the subject line topic.

Either way, things in the hobby will be okay. Your points are not wrong.

As a collector, if prices go down, I will start buying again and I can’t have too many of what I like to collect.

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I agree with you on the points you made as it truly is a win/win and the future of the hobby is by no means in jeopardy if prices do go down. However, I think the apprehension regarding the term “bubble” is that some interpret this as prices will return to the way they were before this pandemic. Prices may very well decrease after the broad increase as they did after Pokémon GO, but they will still retain some if not most of their increased value and will continue in their upward trend in the future.

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I think we shouldn’t get flustered about the word “bubblebathbathbath”, it’s better to wait for events to play out and then hand out cute terms to describe the phenomenon.

It’s clear what has happened, leading up to COVID, prices started to rise and then when lockdown happened, all Pokemon prices have increased substantially (sometimes 1.5-3x) in short period of time.

The story is not written yet. If prices stabilize or continue to rise, then Pokemon cards are a magical asset that outside investors will soon pore into… I doubt this will happen (but I won’t mind if it does).

Let’s not ignore the numbers and the overall buzz in the hobby, it’s real and it’s exciting.

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Sssssmmmmmm…Pikachu???

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You know how nuts the smpratte fans are :relieved:

I was watching a video on Bitcoin the other day and it talked about the bull run that Bitcoin had. It almost reached $20k before crashing. Obviously no one here can manipulate the market like that but people were jumping in for FOMO. People were looking for something to put their money into besides traditional markets. There’s so many factors at play it’ll be hard to tell what will happen.

@fourthstartcg make a great point. The cards you have will go up in value if this price sticks. This will really help those who held onto cards to sell (outside of your collection). If prices drop I’m going to buy buy buy. Prices will eventually come back and supersede these levels. Pokemon can only go up!!!

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I see this as a great time to offload a bunch of cards I don’t want. I’m in this for the long haul and despite the high prices I just think “will this be worth more in 15-20 years” and I almost always think the answer is no.

There you go. Another positive even if prices fall in the future!

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This echo’s what I keep saying. It’s a win win who cares. I just hate the B word. It just has a annoying ring to it most of the cards we are talking about are over 20 years old or close to it depending on card. Yes things can always happen to take a temporary dip but I’m sure a ton of us would just buy more and that dip would be short lived. Who knows and really it doesn’t matter because history has shown prices always go up even if they dip temporary. Long game is what matters not these short term “flips”

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Every scenario has room for opportunity, you just have to know how and where to look :blush:

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I have a feeling they won’t drop, or at least not much. If I’m wrong, that’s great, because I’m of the same mindset as fourthstartcg. But so many people on this forum have shared their worries about cards becoming out of their budget that if they did start to drop people will probably be quick to snatch them up to avoid that FOMO feeling from happening again. It’s been amazing to watch someone like Jonandek, who has had experience and success in other hobbies, show so much confidence and enjoyment in Pokemon even though they only started collecting recently. It’s given me so much more confidence to buy, no matter the market. Because it’s obvious where Pokemon’s heading, so who cares about a little dip.

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In short, it is what it is and whatever happens, happens.

Ill collect and have fun regardless. :blush:

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Also Pop reports don’t matter at all. If a card is pop 100 is there ever 100 of that card on the market? Fuck no people hold what they like in their collection. A pop 100 card could really be more like a pop 1 or 2 if that’s all that’s available for sale. It’s not like you can contact the other 98 people and beg for a better deal

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It could go the other way to though. The card is not very popular so people won’t bother grading it until it drastically rises in price and then the pop. report rises too.