WOTC has announced a new line of 7 very playable Magic cards that will be selling for $30. The “product” is a single card and a coin. Personally I am not a fan of this. They have realized that if they know people only want this specific card for a deck/collection, they can simply sell the single card for a very high price with a coin to make people feel like it is an actual product. The tone seems to have changed in the behavior of the company. Rudy made a very interesting video on it so I definitely recommend checking it out.
Not saying it will happen, but what do you think would be the outcome if the Pokémon Company decided to do the same? I feel like it would disrupt the modern market way more than it already is, and modern cards would stagnate even more due to a fear of it being released as a single direct from the distributors. Having the company decide the price of modern cards and releasing them in whatever quantity meets demand seems to take all of the fun out of pulling/obtaining chase cards.
I’m interested to hear peoples thoughts on this. Do you like where WOTC is going? Are you against it?
Rudy hasn’t actually discussed the details of the product well. Doesn’t mention the distribution, contents outside of the Bitterblossom one and didn’t even mention the tokens.
They’re fine. They’ve already done this before in the form of Spellbooks, From the Vault, etc. There’s nothing terribly expensive in here and the scalpers can’t really go crazy on them because they’re printing more.
This product is direct to consumer which means local game stores miss out again but that’s the only negative. Is this a “dangerous trend”? From a business standpoint it’s an innovative, smart thing to do.
Pokemon already does this, what were the Rocket brief case and the anime character products which came out a few weeks ago? Pokemon can’t really disrupt the market either because there’s not many people who play expanded/older formats and the cards for those formats are already super cheap.
I had a lot of different thoughts on how this would apply to Pokemon, and I’m not completely convinced that this hasn’t already happened at least a little bit. Rudy mentions that it starts with essentially printing the same cards but with a foil version, a variant version, a promo version, a secret version, ect. When I hear this, I think about cards like Charizard/Reshiram GX. It had the original release + FA + Hyper Rare variant, and then the alternative full art singled out to be released in a box set, and then this week re-released again with the Championship deck. I really just wanted the alternative artwork version released with the box, and I knew that in advance. I didn’t buy any Unbroken Bonds to open, I just waited for the box and then picked it up, and that was it. The end result was that I didn’t buy as much product or pay the second market to provide me with the card I wanted.
For me personally, I already put near zero stock in anything released pretty much since XY to retain higher values. I have more faith with Black and White, but I’m biased for nostalgic reasons. Just let me believe! Anyways, the shadow of the Roaring Skies reprint was a huge red flag that I don’t think it will ever really go away moving forward. I guess what I mean to say is that I’m not really all that sure that it matters much either way because there are only a handful of cards at higher values. Most modern product is printed to oblivion anyways (or now reprinted), and it crushes the value of those initial sought after cards drastically within months of release. The only thing I think they could really do at this point to make an impact is put something like a Shiny Hyper Rare Charizard into a box with some packs and send it out. With the tidal waves of product coming more and more, the prices of these tippy top cards have really come down a lot from their initial release prices. It seems like if you wait long enough, you can get almost any modern set card at a fraction of the initial cost for pure collecting purposes as there will always be enough to go around.
In choosing to collect Pokemon cards and wondering what to collect we like to ask each other “How would you feel if your cards were suddenly worth zero.” That’s modern, at least right now and probably for a while. What I really want to know is if all of this will eventually lead us to the next lull in Pokemon cards. Will people stop being impressed with flashy reprinted cards/variants, constantly declining value, and decide to take a step back?
Anyways, it’s super late here so I hope some of this makes sense! I think it’s a really interesting topic with a lot of different ways to look at it depending on the type of collector you are.
It won’t change a single fucking thing for Pokémon.
Pokémon doesn’t have the play formats like Magic the Gathering. There is no use for Pokemon to reprint an old staple card just to monetize it. Nobody is playing anything that isn’t in Standard. Expanded is build around basically second turn win due to just redrawing VS Seeker, Sycamore and all the other Supporters and Trainers.
WotC finally, after years, discovered they have an enormous growing group of people buying their game but not playing Standard. They have a big base of their players screaming and demanding reprints for Modern, Legacy, Pioneer, EDH/Commander because certain commons go for 5-10$. They been getting into this market with the Modern Master sets, the upcoming Commander Legacy set, the Battlebond set, exclusive Brawl product. All product that isn’t Standard legal but still gets absorbed by the market and the players.
Pokémon doesn’t give a single ass about their secondary market, their collectors and anything that isn’t standard. They design every single set so the top cards in that set becomes the meta, making sure their packs sell. Pokémon just doesn’t have the market to absorb product that isn’t legal standard.
There is absolutely no reason for Pokémon to reprint a Trainer/Supporter or Pokemon from a specific set, and release it in a similar manner as WotC did for Magic the Gathering. Every single good Trainer/Supporter is being reprinted any way, because they can just copy the card effect and slap another character from the series on it.
It will not change a single thing for Pokémon because Pokémon does not have play formats other than Standard and Expanded. Staple cards get reprinted in every single set within a block or reprinted with same effect on different art work making the effect available in future expansions.
Don’t forget that Pokemon tends to tame out of control standard prices with later released promo versions. Tapu Lele GX promo and the tag team tin promos for example.
Short of revamped Evolutions type cards everything post-Standard and especially post-Expanded is unlikely to get reprinted. If energies and trainers are reprinted in Pokemon the older versions only become more desirable.
I’m actually really glad you brought this up because I almost put this in my original post. I believe when it released it was about $100 in-store. Now it sits on Ebay for about $80. I remember walking into one of my local stores periodically and seeing it still sitting on the shelf, and it’s probably still there today. I don’t know know much about what was considered playable, but I believe Shaymin EX could have still been in demand at the time. As a non-TCG player, I thought the artwork for some of the cards was really nice, but not enough for me to even consider buying it. To me, the assortment of Full Arts seemed so random too.
The modern market is already short term flip, long term dip. Adding more product will just expedite that process, if that is even possible.
Look at the most recent Hidden Fates hype. People swore it would be different, yet cards/product are still being released. Best time to sell was day 1 (short term flip), best time to buy is later on (long term dip).
At this point selling individual cards is negligible, because the overall product is already so saturated. The only losers are the stores.
I did not forget at all, just that box is full with cards that weren’t Standard legal any more at the time they releases it onto non-Japanese markets.
WotC releases stuff that is legal in Modern, Legacy, Pioneer, Vintage, EDH and that’s what is the big difference and that’s why there is ‘outcry’.
Why buy a $60 N, if you can use the one that is $0.01
WotC with their single card reprints like Bitterblossom is a $25 card at lowest. Even their reprints in the Master sets didn’t lower the price.
Pokemon won’t suddenly reprint a high valuable playable card. They tried, with Roaring Skies and Shaymin but they failed because the reprint came to late and boxes were hoarded. Cards never came to market.
This is a better breakdown. The Professor does a break down of each Secret Lair package, what original price would be if not buying the speciality product and what gain (or loss) you have from buying the Secret Lair or not. I think WotC did an amazing job on pricing them not to disturb the market to much.
Anyways, the shadow of the Roaring Skies reprint was a huge red flag that I don’t think it will ever really go away moving forward. I guess what I mean to say is that I’m not really all that sure that it matters much either way because there are only a handful of cards at higher values. Most modern product is printed to oblivion anyways (or now reprinted), and it crushes the value of those initial sought after cards drastically within months of release. The only thing I think they could really do at this point to make an impact is put something like a Shiny Hyper Rare Charizard into a box with some packs and send it out. With the tidal waves of product coming more and more, the prices of these tippy top cards have really come down a lot from their initial release prices. It seems like if you wait long enough, you can get almost any modern set card at a fraction of the initial cost for pure collecting purposes as there will always be enough to go around.
