Adjust Your Expectations: Pokemon TCG Shortages Will Continue Into 2021

[Charmaster:)]

So it hit me today while trying in vain to pick up some of Shining Fates, but instead finding MTG cards where the Pokemon should be in multiple stores; why isn't Magic having this supply/stock problem?

Because MTG can print Plains 500 times without having the same problem that printing Charizard about 30 times creates.
There’s no money in scalping a TCG without Charizard.

 

[LexGoyle]

The problem with announcements like this is I think most of them react to them emotionally and don’t think long term big picture. What would be the point of someone spending money to get into playing this game (especially in standard) if they know the cards they have will never retain any kind of value because they can be reprinted at any time? We will have to wait and see how far back they truly go, if they start printing Team Up forward again then I would say the game is officially dead to collectors and a lot of people will not waste money starting to play it in the masters devision

If value is the deciding factor then those folks are in the game for the wrong reason. I mean I'm mainly a collector myself and I'll tell ya straight up..too many are in this for the money and not the sheer enjoyment of piecing together a master set and appreciating the cards as is, not to have some big pay day. That's how we've found ourselves in this mess in the first place with popular PokeTubers putting so much focus on the monetary value of a card including overly rich ones paying absurd amounts of money in auctions simply because they can and thus manipulate the market accordingly.

I don't fancy buying from the secondary market for things like reverse holos and your regular cards because more often than not they're stored improperly, marked as near mint in spite of obvious surface markings/scratches/scuffs that would not normally be there if stored properly. As far as collectors go we want the security of buying sealed product ourselves at MSRP, not 2-4 times above it.

Those who play the game I'm sure don't want to be paying the absurd markup either let alone with the current state of things where more often than not you can't even buy sealed cards since the shelves are often picked clean.

 

[LexGoyle]

I don't mind if people want their cards to retain value, but if people are complaining that cards don't retain value from the newest set, then that's a problem.

It's not like TPCi would want to decide to reprint some Black & White sets.

Would be nice if they did though. You look at the value of these older cards in general going back to that era they aren't really worth much. The real value is in the sealed product itself and of course chase cards. But yeah it'd be a stretch to even expect XY to be reprinted at this point. If people who sold cards didn't sell off cards as near mint that are clearly anything but I wouldn't have much of a need for reprints to piece together my master sets from older expansions.

 

[signofzeta]

I'm just glad that out of all the Pokemon TCG products out there, the scalpers aren't touching the only Pokemon TCG product I collect.

Theme decks.

Booster packs and box sets have risen in price at my local game store, but Theme Deck prices remained the same, unless you are talking about that Vivid Voltage Charizard one.

When I am too cheap to spend any money, I always prioritize Theme Decks, now V battle decks, when it comes to Pokemon TCG purchases. This is followed by the league battle decks. If the product has a preconstructed deck in it, I have to buy it. I sometimes buy loose booster packs here and there, and at one point I bought Elite Trainer Boxes from every set, but I stopped. Some people value the single card, or maybe they value the sealed products. For me, I don't value the sealed theme deck. I value the 60 card deck as a whole, and if a card is missing or a card is replaced with a different one, the deck is incomplete. I just have to open the theme decks I buy to make sure that all the cards are there, and none of them are replaced by another card or missing. I got mad when I bought a EX Power Keepers theme deck, the one with Mightyena in it, and it was missing a fire energy. Another situation was when I bought the Rampardos theme deck from Diamond & Pearl Mysterious Treasures, and it was missing one of the trainers. I forgot what it was though.

Although I value theme decks a lot, a 2nd or more of the same theme deck is worthless to me. At least if a kid wants to play the Pokemon TCG, the Theme Decks and V battle decks are still available. You don't need the best cards to be able to play the game.