Pokemon TCG Sales Increased Over Twofold During the Pandemic!

While the sales of Pokemon cards have definitely increased, remember that cards shipped =/= cards sold.
Also, they should print more.
 
Wouldn't it be neat if we could have an Earth Day expansion where the profits go to planting trees to make up for how many cards have been printed?

As for the cards themselves, they could print a bunch of iconic cards from throughout the game's history and make them a tiny bit better, like Japan's Champion Road expansion. Or, include just a bunch of staple cards for Standard or even Expanded. Or even reprint existing cards with nature-themed artwork.
 
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"How many trees had to die for our enjoyment? :p"

What enjoyment? A ton of these sure haven't gone to fans that's for sure.
 
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I was just thinking earlier today about this. Endless paper cards, the company at one point will have to stop right? I think it would be cool to see some type of sustainable card printing, for example on metal (Aluminum is 100% recyclable for example). I wonder what their solution years down the line will be, and where all these printed cards are?

*Edit: When I say Aluminum is recyclable, I am not insinuating recycling the cards but using the recycled material to make the cards (just a random thought if anyone else wants to think about it)

Edit#2: Yes paper is recyclable, however, they are not making cards out of recycled material (from what I've looked into at least), but from new raw material. It would be cool to see where they go from here with their product sustainability. (ie packaging methods)
 
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Yaginku said:
While the sales of Pokemon cards have definitely increased, remember that cards shipped =/= cards sold.
Also, they should print more.
Click to expand...

When companies release sold figures, it's always what they have sold to retailers, you don't need to point it out. It doesn't matter how much the sell-through is to consumer (especially on a product that is flying off the shelves anyway).
 
Um, I'm sure you guys have already read the article (*meaningful looks from me and WPM.*) but let me explain the significance of this article.
1. The Pokémon Company has printed more cards over the pandemic than they ever have before.
2. It still hasn't been enough to keep scalpers from getting them.
3. But at least they're trying!
4. So now that they've proved that they're frantically increasing productivity and not just sitting on the cash of scalpers, please don't be too impatient, harsh, and/or snarky (not necessarily implying that any of the above comments are any of those things, just wanted to point it out)
5. Yes, this is using a lot of paper, and yes there ARE ways of making it more sustainable, but that's an entirely different can of worms. Is is true that the issue of sustainability can and WILL catch up to us sooner or later (some say sooner, some say later), but right now TPCI is just focusing on trying to catch up with production. Besides, paper is recyclable as well. Not 100% recyclable perhaps, but still recyclable.
6. If you think sustainability is a problem, maybe you should recycle your unused bulk more often. (DISCLAIMER: DO NOT RECYCLE YOUR UNUSED BULK.)
7. I think the Pokémon Company would probably make a better use of its time making the product PACKAGING more sustainable than making the PRODUCT more sustainable. The Marnie collection box certainly could have been bigger (though it also certainly could have been a lot smaller), which is a small step in the right direction...
8. And that's what I think Pokémon has been making more and more often recently, small steps in the right direction. First introducing the Trainer's Toolkit, then putting out a survey, then changing Theme Decks into V battle decks, then adding extra measures to combat scalper bots, and now bringing back the Dragon type, plus others that I probably haven't noticed yet... perhaps things aren't exactly the way we want them to be, but TPCI is making improvements for the better, and I hope that more of us will come to realize that TPCI isn't a heartless capitalist trap with no interest in putting smiles on the faces of children and grownups alive. And remember, there are humans behind every enterprise. Of course the FRANCHISE doesn't care, its not a living entity, but the PEOPLE behind it... well, maybe not ALL of them care, that would be too much of a blanket statement, but there are definitely many, many people at Gamefreak and TPCI who care.
Sorry, I know that's a lot to read.
 
MilesEX said:
When companies release sold figures, it's always what they have sold to retailers, you don't need to point it out. It doesn't matter how much the sell-through is to consumer (especially on a product that is flying off the shelves anyway).
Click to expand...
The original title of this article was "Pokemon TCG Sales Increased Over Twofold During the Pandemic!" (it's still the name of the topic on the forums). It was changed, probably because of my comment.
Companies can absolutely release numbers sold (to LGSes, for instance). Releasing the "numbers printed" instead was a tactic that Magic used during its slump around Amonkhet, where they overprinted the crap out of everything, nobody wanted to buy it, but they can proudly display it was a "year they printed the most cards to date" to their shareholders.
 
Yaginku said:
While the sales of Pokemon cards have definitely increased, remember that cards shipped =/= cards sold.
Also, they should print more.
Click to expand...
For TPC shipped definitely = sold. It's a common misconception that companies use "shipped" figures to inflate numbers, but really it's just because that's when they make their money. Also, shops and distributors don't tend to buy products that they don't think will sell, and especially now with the shortages you can be sure that the vast majority of those cards ended up in consumer(/scalper) hands.
 
The title is a bit sensationalist. Production hasn't "increased over twofold during the pandemic". Production has gone from 1.5 billion in 2018 to 3.2 billion in 2019 to 3.7 billion in 2020 - that's a 0.5 billion or 15% increase during the pandemic.

I'd say that the main cause for the doubling of production in 2019-20 was more due to increased demand for the Pokémon TCG in general in China. I doubt that production has increased all that much in Japanese and even less so in English.

If anything I'd argue that the pandemic has actually had a negative impact on the number of cards produced as lockdowns would have inevitably lead to factory closures for significant lengths of time. We'll probably not know the true extent to how supply has changed during the pandemic until the next set of figures are revealed.
 
PichuCollector said:
The title is a bit sensationalist. Production hasn't "increased over twofold during the pandemic". Production has gone from 1.5 billion in 2018 to 3.2 billion in 2019 to 3.7 billion in 2020 - that's a 0.5 billion or 15% increase during the pandemic.

I'd say that the main cause for the doubling of production in 2019-20 was more due to increased demand for the Pokémon TCG in general in China. I doubt that production has increased all that much in Japanese and even less so in English.

If anything I'd argue that the pandemic has actually had a negative impact on the number of cards produced as lockdowns would have inevitably lead to factory closures for significant lengths of time. We'll probably not know the true extent to how supply has changed during the pandemic until the next set of figures are revealed.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I fixed the title again. Math isn't my strong suit. :x
 
How many trees had to die for our enjoyment?

What ever it is, toilet paper would still beat it out

Plus I think MtG beats out Pokemon in that category anyways
 
BTW the proprietary formula to make these cards involve almost 30% plastic, so less tree death but more... well... of everything else. lol
 
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