Can pack art influence sales?

Pack art always influences me the packs with the *coolest* artwork always makes me buy them. The only reason I bought the Zekrom Box was because of the Zekrom BW pack art on the card.
 
I used to try to buy only Mewtwo and Reshiram packs for ND but never got a Mewtwo or Reshiram EX. Then I just got random packs and Zekrom EX, Zekrom EX FA and Reshiram EX FA, shiny Chandelure came outta Zekrom packs... so I started buying more Zekrom packs... nothing... and then I got random packs again and a Mewtwo EX came outta Mewtwo pack...tried it again and nothing good. Went to a comic shop and got the last 7 packs. Very last Mewtwo pack had a Mewtwo EX FA in it...

I have bought 100 packs and spent over 400$ using this method... it's not fun and it's not smart. Although I did get more FA's than I would ever in boxes. I pulled like... 10, and you only get 4 per box. ...however adding up the value of the 10 cards, it'd be significantly cheaper to just buy the singles...

So after that I didn't buy packs for awhile... but tried boxes and learned the horrible ratio of boxes. I don't remember what rare cards came outta what packs but I do remember my Wal-mart packs.

I went for random packs this time: At first I was like "I want all Darkrai packs!" ..."I didn't get anything good!!! I'll buy 4 more. Hey there's the packs that I put away because I wanted Darkrai packs. Well might as well buy them to see if I was right or wrong about putting them away."

... ... ... those four contained a shiny Gardevoir and Darkrai EX. WTF If I put those down and walked outta the store... oh man... so glad I went back for them. They came out of a Excadrill and Venusaur pack. Then I did the same thing at Target. Just picked 6 packs indiscriminately. Pulled Entei and Raikou FA's. Wow. Would have been better if it were Darkrai and Groudon instead but hey cool beans.

So they lesson is...

Buy at least 6 lined up. You're more likely to fail if you buy the blisters based on your favorite pack. Unless you're reeeeally lucky and can somehow just pick off the good stuff.. you'd be wicked if you can pick out the shiny and EX's in all 6 packs...
 
Come on, guys. You don't actually believe that good cards come in specific pack arts, do you? From the Pokemon Company's standpoint as a business, what would they stand to gain from doing so? It would be pointless. If you're going to buy packs (which probably isn't a great idea if you're a competitive player since you can just buy singles for cheaper), just buy random packs and hope for the best.
 
Well this is why Charizard base set packs are worth more than Venusaur and Blastoise packs. Though I believe it is the case for every set everyone goes for their favourite pokemon. The thing that annoys me is they never make packs with my favourite pokemon on.

Pikachu
Scizor
Togetic
Steelix
Pichu

So yeah there have been arts with some of these on but PICHU art please nintendo
 
ThatPokemonCollector said:
Well this is why Charizard base set packs are worth more than Venusaur and Blastoise packs. Though I believe it is the case for every set everyone goes for their favourite pokemon. The thing that annoys me is they never make packs with my favourite pokemon on.

Pikachu
Scizor
Togetic
Steelix
Pichu

So yeah there have been arts with some of these on but PICHU art please nintendo

I don't even think they even put a baby pokemon as pack art.
 
For me, no. I'm going to throw away the foil covers as soon as I can, it's the cards inside that matter.

However, for my kid niece and nephew I knew it would matter. When I got them their base sets I made sure I got the cutest one for my niece and the coolest one for my nephew because I know what they like. However I didn't hand it to them, I let them chose which of the two they wanted (although it wasn't that much of a real choice, I admit).
 
ThatPokemonCollector said:
Well this is why Charizard base set packs are worth more than Venusaur and Blastoise packs.

That is affecting price, not sales. To affect sales, stores would have to be able to order by cover art.
 
ThatPokemonCollector said:
I know but people want the charizard art more . If you buy packs online you can order by artwork

I am not arguing that, but the question is "Can pack art influence sales?". The answer is no. If it was "Can pack art influence price?", I would say YES.
 
Pack Art can influence sales on a small scale, for example someone buying a pack with their favorite Pokemon on it. On a larger scale, such as how many overall packs the Pokemon Company sells as a whole, no, because stores order packs by the box/case and they don't order new ones until they run out.
 
hunter994x said:
This may seem a bit odd but I always wondered if pack art can influence sales. The reason is that most other games tend to have only one or two. Pokemon has four. Who knows the reason why. However, I don't think Pokemon on the pack are picked at random(it seems that way sometimes though :p). Could it have an influence on sales?

EX: Would you buy a pack with a Charizard on it or would you prefer one with Blastoise? Would more people buy a pack with more well known legendary like Mewtwo or Lugia? Would you prefer a pack with Reshiram or Zekrom?

That's what I've been wondering. What do you guys think?

Yes, the pack art DOES influence sales. Also, it influences what cards you receive when buying booster packs.

For example, long ago, I bought 2 Scrafty packs and 2 Excadrill packs from Dark Explorers, I pulled 2 Holo Volcaronas, Holo Blissey, and Holo Haxorus. All holos pulled in all 4 packs.

Few weeks later, I tried my luck at buying a Darkrai pack and Venusaur pack and guess what? I pulled a plain Bisharp and Escavalier rare. Stick to the non-rare Pokemon pack arts and you'll have better luck.
 
I also just want to put in here that there is a thing called coincidence. Many people are putting examples. How many packs have you guys ever gotten? And it just happens to be that in that one time one pack with some art had better cards than another pack with a different art. Think about all the other times when that situation may have been reversed, how ever slight it may have been.
 
They definetly are not put in on purpose how can they ? The cards are put in at random so It's just a coincidence as stated above
 
hunter994x said:
This may seem a bit odd but I always wondered if pack art can influence sales. The reason is that most other games tend to have only one or two. Pokemon has four. Who knows the reason why. However, I don't think Pokemon on the pack are picked at random(it seems that way sometimes though :p). Could it have an influence on sales?

EX: Would you buy a pack with a Charizard on it or would you prefer one with Blastoise? Would more people buy a pack with more well known legendary like Mewtwo or Lugia? Would you prefer a pack with Reshiram or Zekrom?

That's what I've been wondering. What do you guys think?


I also think so.
 
Before I became a competitive TCG player, I would look at the packs and freak out if they had a 'legendary' on them. If they did, I would always buy them with my allowance, no doubt. After I became a competitive player, I didn't (and still don't) buy packs based on the pack art.
 
ThatPokemonCollector said:
I have found you get better pulls in tins than collection boxes

That is not too hard. The boxes have been terrible for me.
 
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