Dealing with the Expenses of PTCG

thood

Konohagakure Shinobi
Member
I've been collecting pokemon cards since the Base Sets, when I was three. Around the age of eight I quit collecting and buying Pokemon cards, as I had other things I would rather buy, and my parents were sick of shelling out $10 every time we went to a Walmart/Target. About 3 years ago, I got back into Pokemon through Play! Pokemon Online. It was different at first because I wasn't accustomed to battling with Pokemon cards. However, I having been using PTCGO the last 2 years and I am quite an experienced player, having played every archetype from ReshiPhlosion/Magnerock all the way up current with Trev-Gor, Fairybox, Yveltal (Still trying to get some Charizards and Pyroars). Anyways, all of this has only been online, which is fun and all, but it doesn't really give me the proper skills I need to play in tournaments. So this January, I decided to start playing competitively IRL. I figured I would start with RayBoar since it seemed fairly popular, plus had decent matches across the board. First I needed to aquire the basic staple supporters.... and "HOLY CRAP!" is what I said when I saw it was going to be $45 for 4 Junipers, N, Skyla, and Colress! Next I had to buy the items like ultra ball, supperior energy retrieval, and the Pokemon themselves. This deck Totaled at $128. Next I was going to get the card everyone said I needed for the deck. Trop Beach. "Meh" I said as I typed it into Ebay, expecting the card to go for around $15-25 tops. I mean, it's a stadium for goodness sakes. I nearly shit my pants when I saw the price. One Hundred and fifty big ones. and I needed four. Nope nope nope. I opted for Electrode PS for a lesser draw power. This brings me to the topic: how do you guys deal with how expensive this game is? All the good decks are around $200 if you have nothing to start with. Any specific places to buy my singles? I've heard serious players go to Target for their packs/tins because Target price matches Amazon, so you're sometimes able to get packs for as cheap as $1.50 a piece. Also, I've seen countless people stealing cards. I'll admit, I am tempted to steal, but I'm too virtuous (I think...) . Anyways, what do you all recommend/do to deal with this insane prices. I mean, a reg priced pack is $4.17, and you hardly ever get the cards you need. Maybe singles online is the way to go? Any help/discussion is appreciated.
Thanks! :D


QUICK EDIT: I forgot to mention, I don't even use that expensive RayBoar deck anymore -.-
Plus, I have like no leagues that I know near me. Any way to find some online maybe? I'd love to enter one. Also, if anyone lives in my area and is in a league, I'd greatly appreciate it if you invite me and introduce me! I'm dying to find people like me who enjoy the Pokemon TCG. I live in St. Charles, MO. (zipcode might be easier: 63303).
Anyways, thanks!
 
The good thing is once you get the staples decks seem to be so much cheaper. Tropical beach is a good card but in my opinnion it is overated. There is no gurentee you will get all of the cards you need to get that turn two blastoise or emboar out with the beach. I buy alot of my cards online as singles. The promo tins are very nice as well because you get the EX card as well as 4 packs.
 
Ironman131 said:
The good thing is once you get the staples decks seem to be so much cheaper. Tropical beach is a good card but in my opinnion it is overated. There is no gurentee you will get all of the cards you need to get that turn two blastoise or emboar out with the beach. I buy alot of my cards online as singles. The promo tins are very nice as well because you get the EX card as well as 4 packs.

Speaking of tins, I'v heard that people will buy these tins, keep the promos, then weigh the packs inside, open the good ones, then sell the junk ones. Is this behavior frowned upon or.... ?
 
I dont do it, but to me that seems frowned upon. It seems like cheating the system. Not every pack you open should be a great pack. There are the packs that just have awful pulls which makes you so much happier when you pull that full art EX card.
 
thood said:
Speaking of tins, I'v heard that people will buy these tins, keep the promos, then weigh the packs inside, open the good ones, then sell the junk ones. Is this behavior frowned upon or.... ?

Would you wanna buy a pack of cards with completely bad pulls xD? seems a bit like a self explanatory question.
 
DevinTheWelf said:
thood said:
Speaking of tins, I'v heard that people will buy these tins, keep the promos, then weigh the packs inside, open the good ones, then sell the junk ones. Is this behavior frowned upon or.... ?

Would you wanna buy a pack of cards with completely bad pulls xD? seems a bit like a self explanatory question.
Of course not, but that's part of the system. It's no fun if you get a great pull every pack, it's like RNGing in the video games, it makes that great pull (or shiny) that much more special when you finally get it.
 
I guess, I wanna say that when I get $200 to blow on Pokemon cards, I will have the willpower to buy only singles, but the temptation of buying packs is too strong. The rush you get when buying/opening a pack is like no other on earth - it's the eighth wonder of the world.
From thee 100+ packs I've opened, I've pulled about 9 EXs, 1 Ace Spec, 0 FAs, and 0 SRs, so it's obviously not the most effective way of obtaining the cards I need, but man is it fun!
 
A few tips:

  • Buying packs is not very cost effective when it comes to getting cards you need for decks*. If you're looking for specific cards, you're better off buying singles and/or trading for what you need. If you really want to open packs instead of getting singles, buying booster boxes is usually your best bet, especially ones that come with a lot of good trainers, etc. and/or good trade-able cards.
  • Speaking of trade-able cards, trading can also be a good way to get the cards you need. We do offer trading by mail here at PokéBeach in the Trading Forum, and we also have a Selling Forum where you may be able to get better deals on singles than websites or Ebay, since buying and selling here does not require website fees.
  • The Play! Pokémon Event Locator is a great way to find Pokémon events. Using the information you gave us in the OP, I was able to find 3 different leagues within 10 miles of your zip: one is St. Charles, one in St. Peters, and one in O 'Fallon.

* - Unless you are weighing, but we do not allow in-depth discussion of weighing here at PokéBeach.
 
Rayboar specifically (and blastoise) is one of the most expensive decks in the format. You'll find that, especially if you are a bit patient, you can build many high-tier decks for less than $150USD. Tropical beach is, unfortunately, the most expensive card in the format due to its scarcity (only distributed for two consecutive years as a worlds promo) and exceedingly high demand. I would not recommend purchasing it at all at this point, as it will almost definitely go out of format in the next rotation (after worlds in August).

The tins are an effective means of getting many strong and useful EXs, but it's typically more cost effective to just buy the tin promo as a single.

Buying an opening packs, as said before, is not an effective means of building a competitive deck (the average cost of the packs it would take to pull a single, say, Rayquaza-EX is far greater than the cost of simply buying the card alone). However, keep in mind that the whole point of the game is to have fun anyways. Many people, primarily collectors, find it to be a whole lot more enjoyable to open packs than to simply buy the cards they're looking for. For them, it's completely worth it to spend the extra money on packs. This is a decision you will have to make.

In my mind, it's probably best to do a little of both. Open a few packs every once an a while (moderation is key) just for fun, and progressively build your deck as funds allow. Before beginning to build a deck, always keep in mind the average total cost (being conservative) and look at your other options. Whenever you get the chance, play-test your decks online before you build them, just to make sure you actually enjoy playing them.
 
Buy singles, they will be the best decision you will ever make.
Lets say you buy 2 boxes (roughly 200 dollars), that may have about 30 of the cards you will want for your deck, but not all.
Most decks today consist of cards ranging from Next Destinies to Flashfire...which is 10 total sets.
With all of the range of cards, buying boxes and trading for what you will need is not a good investment. You will have a ton of useless commons, uncommons, rares that barely sell (besides for bulk).

On the other side, I love opening packs too. Whenever I place in a tournament I almost never trade away my packs or sell them afterwards because I'd feel silly selling away a secret rare or something cool.
Bringing that up, I do not endorse scaling...to buy. When I bought my booster box of Flashfire I had checked to see how many holos and EXs and Full Arts I had gotten in my box prior to opening because I like to save the best things for last :). I opened all 36 packs, so it doesn't matter to me if I had bought and used all of the product and had still weighed them. And stealing is probably even worst because it can give you a bad rep in the community and you wouldn't want to be banned from a tournament for taking some cards.

If you want to buy singles, there are cards that cost 2-3 dollars each and may need a playset of them, but in the long run buying 4 N/Juniper now is great because both have some sort of future reprint that will last for another season. There are some inexpensive decks out right now, like Darkrai Yveltal decks. That deck will probably make you the most happy because you can buy Darkrai and Yveltal EX's from tins and can probably get some of the card staples you need (not all) from the packs inside.
Hope this helped ~Elbow
 
So I found a league near me, that also sells packs and theme decks! No single though :(
I think I'll check it out tonight or Monday afternoon. For some reason, Pokemon TCG just isn't as popular as other TCGs like MTG or Yugioh. Makes me sad
 
Singles are better to buy online anyways. Generally they are in good condition if you buy it from the right places.
Collector's cache, Top Cut Central, Troll and Toad, Ebay, and Amazon are all good starting places to find singles. Usually, Ebay will be the cheapest, but then again it isn't the most reliable.

Even though Pokemon's fanbase (at least in your area) might not be as large, it has to be the best TCG base. It has so many friendly people, most of which who do not steal, cheat or smoke unlike Yugioh or Magic players.
 
Yeah, cards shops will usually have extremely over-priced or old prices for cards (one of the card shops I go to for league still didn't get the memo that Pokemon Catcher is worth maybe $2, no $14 which he has it listed as), but that's just because they need to make more of a profit since they're not a huge chain.

For me, personally, I frown upon pack weighing, but a few of my friends do, albeit rarely just because they're not drowning in money. I'm not a huge fan of it, I feel like it's cheating the system.
 
I guess what it going to suck to is having to deal with the rotations. Pokemon rotates around 3 sets every rotation, and this next rotation is going to be tough because we might lose cards like Skyla and Computer Search, which is going to lead to replacements being needed, hence more cash spent. I wish we were more like Yugioh in this sense, as every card in Yugioh is still playable in format, even the ones from the very beginning sets; just certain cards deemed to powerful are either banned or are limited (only 1-2 copies may be played instead of 4).
 
If you aren't a heavily competitive TCG player then don't go out and buy a bunch of staples that you think will go out soon.
Maybe a skyla or 2 at most, but if you are looking for a Comp. Search you can easily play dowsing machine instead and your deck will still probably be fine (and better going forward for next season anyways BTW).
 
thood said:
I guess what it going to suck to is having to deal with the rotations. Pokemon rotates around 3 sets every rotation, and this next rotation is going to be tough because we might lose cards like Skyla and Computer Search, which is going to lead to replacements being needed, hence more cash spent. I wish we were more like Yugioh in this sense, as every card in Yugioh is still playable in format, even the ones from the very beginning sets; just certain cards deemed to powerful are either banned or are limited (only 1-2 copies may be played instead of 4).

Except without a rotation system in place there would be no way to keep power creep in check although somehow TPCi has managed to get around that with the recent power gap between Big Basics and Stage 1 / Stage 2 Evolutions. Banned/Restricted lists can only do so much to keep power creep in check when it's usually handled better with rotations anyway.
 
Card Slinger J said:
thood said:
I guess what it going to suck to is having to deal with the rotations. Pokemon rotates around 3 sets every rotation, and this next rotation is going to be tough because we might lose cards like Skyla and Computer Search, which is going to lead to replacements being needed, hence more cash spent. I wish we were more like Yugioh in this sense, as every card in Yugioh is still playable in format, even the ones from the very beginning sets; just certain cards deemed to powerful are either banned or are limited (only 1-2 copies may be played instead of 4).

Except without a rotation system in place there would be no way to keep power creep in check although somehow TPCi has managed to get around that with the recent power gap between Big Basics and Stage 1 / Stage 2 Evolutions. Banned/Restricted lists can only do so much to keep power creep in check when it's usually handled better with rotations anyway.
I agree. We need this gap closed. As of now, there is hardly any benefit to playing stage 2 decks vs a deck that revolves around basics. In fact, the only deck I can think of that uses a stage 2 as a primary attacker is Empoleon! That means all the other stages 2's are used for their abilities. That's all that's keeping stage 2's in that game right now. Abilities. That's sad. In the DPP era, Stage 2's ruled the meta, and rightly so. Stage 2's require more effort to pull off, require more deck space, and are more inconsistent, so the payoff should be bigger. It's unfair that you can slap down a 180 HP basic and attack for 90 and 30 to two benched pokemon for (D)(D)( C), but for ( R)( R)( C)( C) you can only do a flat 80. Come on
 
If all other Stage 2's are mainly used for the abilities then Garbodor's Garbotoxin ability practically makes them almost unplayable but luckily we have Startling Megaphone, Tool Scrapper, and Lysandre to help get around that problem even If you're just stalling for a few turns before they shutdown your deck again. It doesn't help that Yveltal/Garbodor is the anti-meta deck of the format right now although how can that be when Raichu is a better tech against it than Pyroar? VirGen's not even afraid of Pyroar since they can Red Signal your bench or G-Booster Pyroar for a prize.

Back in DPP Era Stage 2's weren't that hard to pull off due to Broken-Time Space while you could still evolve on the first turn instead of waiting til next turn which nowadays give Basics a huge advantage against Stage 1 / Stage 2 Evolution decks. If we ever got a functional reprint of Broken-Time Space in the XY sets before next rotation then it would just get countered by Beach and Virbank. It still kind of surprises me that most decks nowadays don't run Hypnotoxic Laser with Virbank anymore when Muscle Band is the go to card to add extra damage to score prizes easier.
 
I think I just found the answer in regards with dealing with expenses. This is going to be such a boon for me! Apparently, TPC announced earlier this year, a second format to be implemented at the start of the 2015 season. This second format will be BW Baseset - Onwards. This means I don't have to toss all of my rotated cards! For more, Elbow has a good thread going, here : http://www.pokebeach.com/forums/thread-bw-on-format-discussion?pid=2630882#pid2630882
 
While it is going to be a supported format, it won't be the "main event" per se, and won't be the main focus of most competitive discussion, I'd assume. It still sounds fun though, maybe I'll turn my RayBoar deck into RayEels when Rayquaza EX goes out of format.
 
Back
Top