Staff Promos for Prereleases Officially Discontinued After 'Vivid Voltage'

[coolcorsola]

Exactly, all of the promos should be of the same card and each should have an alternate artwork. This way, every person is equally compensated.

These cards are (were?) sent to the address participating in the pre-release, and are meant to be distributed by the TO to everyone they deem to be "staffing" the tournament (including themselves). If your TO hasn't distributed these, despite you feeling like you're owed one, you can either report the situation, or stop supporting such TO. If these cards are outright stolen by somebody they don't belong to, that's a crime and Pokemon cannot control these instances.

But it's not. Investing is only bad if it affects regular players, making it unable for them to play the game, purchase regular product, or access cards they need for their decks. As long as all the pieces of high collectible value remain "collectibles" and nothing else, nobody's affected negatively. The only reason you'd buy any of these cards is to have them. As long as that's the case, no price is unreasonable. You cannot have something that's rare, desirable and "cool to own", but also cheap.
I feel like some people see the recent boom and, instead of laughing at it or awaiting the inevitable crash, get their own version of FOMO and get annoyed that they haven't bought them when they were underpriced.

Very true. I think I’m more so annoyed with the over-reliance on Charizard as of late and speaking from that perspective. I’m a bit let down with how certain things have been going lately in terms of being able to find actual products, but perhaps this staff card issue isn’t necessarily part of the reason.

 

[treeckonation]

scalpers should scalp other things and not a child's card game (that almost everyone plays but it was based around children)

 

[Bill Boyden]

There is a few points I am going to bring up here perhaps I am a little biased but as a Store Owner/Tournament Organizer/ Player and Collector. The prerelease staff promo cards were a great perk for those working the event High value or not but having the stamp is a collectors piece perhaps one could argue also an investor piece but their value is purely market driven. How can you Scalp a market driven price? There is NO normal price for these items.

More and more companies are discontinuing their "staff" support but still expect companies to continue to support their products and furthermore their organized play events while offering no compensation for the stores to supply to the volunteers that are helping run these events. Therefore increasing costs of the stores that are running them.

There is one of two things perhaps both that is going to happen, Cost of these events are going to increase and prizing is going to decrease. Who does that hurt? The players.

Small events can be managed with small staff but larger events require more staff / more compensation

 

[Whitefinch]

I find it hard to believe that TPCi would be doing this to discourage scalpers, that doesn't make much sense to me.

The staff promos are distributed to a very limited group of people (in comparison to regular set cards) and aren't exactly... scalp-able? It's not like they're being ripped from store shelves and out of the hands of others then immediately being re-sold at a higher price. I'm unaware of the rules given to Event/Tournament Organisers by TPCi, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't mention anywhere that you aren't allowed to sell your staff promos. Surely anyone who is given a promo card can do with it what they wish? Who's being hurt here?

I'd be willing to bet that the staff promo cards, for whatever reason, are being dumped to make way for a different kind of reward/incentive for organisers, whatever that may be.

 

[fleshrum]

games suffer when they are subject to strong market forces, blah blah, the usual. sucks that I won't get these anymore but whatever. expect massive inflations in the near future if mtg player rewards is anything to go by.

 

[The Binder Guy]

I find it hard to believe that TPCi would be doing this to discourage scalpers, that doesn't make much sense to me.

The staff promos are distributed to a very limited group of people (in comparison to regular set cards) and aren't exactly... scalp-able? It's not like they're being ripped from store shelves and out of the hands of others then immediately being re-sold at a higher price. I'm unaware of the rules given to Event/Tournament Organisers by TPCi, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't mention anywhere that you aren't allowed to sell your staff promos. Surely anyone who is given a promo card can do with it what they wish? Who's being hurt here?

I'd be willing to bet that the staff promo cards, for whatever reason, are being dumped to make way for a different kind of reward/incentive for organisers, whatever that may be.

I have a feeling that it’s TPCi reacting to the COVID situation and not wanting to spend money on a promotional item that won’t even be available to anyone until things settle down, scalping may be a secondary reason but I’m not optimistic on that.

But if I’m being honest I started to hate prerelease promos when TPCi got the “great” idea of boosting them from one to four when they made prerelease kits/B&B boxes a thing, I liked the simple single prerelease promo that pre-FCO prereleases had.

 

[Whitefinch]

I have a feeling that it’s TPCi reacting to the COVID situation and not wanting to spend money on a promotional item that won’t even be available to anyone until things settle down, scalping may be a secondary reason but I’m not optimistic on that.

But if I’m being honest I started to hate prerelease promos when TPCi got the “great” idea of boosting them from one to four when they made prerelease kits/B&B boxes a thing, I liked the simple single prerelease promo that pre-FCO prereleases had.

I think you're absolutely right. It doesn't make sense to continue printing staff promos when events aren't being held.

I don't think scalping factored into this decision at all, TPCi have never shown any interest in the secondary market and I can't see how ceasing staff promos would make any difference to the scalper's market.

 

[Pone]

I find it hard to believe that TPCi would be doing this to discourage scalpers, that doesn't make much sense to me.

The staff promos are distributed to a very limited group of people (in comparison to regular set cards) and aren't exactly... scalp-able? It's not like they're being ripped from store shelves and out of the hands of others then immediately being re-sold at a higher price. I'm unaware of the rules given to Event/Tournament Organisers by TPCi, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't mention anywhere that you aren't allowed to sell your staff promos. Surely anyone who is given a promo card can do with it what they wish? Who's being hurt here?

I'd be willing to bet that the staff promo cards, for whatever reason, are being dumped to make way for a different kind of reward/incentive for organisers, whatever that may be.

During one of the SM sets they did send a notice out to event holders that they should tell their volunteers the Staff cards aren't to be sold. This was the same time they started taking measures to ensure the Staff promos would be packaged better so they wouldn't arrived bent or otherwise damaged so often. Evidently zero volunteers listened to that, so this may be Pokémon's response to so many Staff cards still being on the market instead of being kept as trophies by the volunteers. If that is the reason, I strongly disagree with it. As Yaginko said this is a way to compensate them without actually having do all that much, and it should be able to be sold for real money. It's their card; let them do what they want with it.
I don't really believe that's the primary reason, myself. That may have been part of it, but I find the argument that this is a response to Covid to be much more compelling.

But yeah, mainly I wanted to respond to say that there is mention at least at one time fairly recently that they don't want volunteers to sell or trade away their Staff promos.

 

[Whitefinch]

During one of the SM sets they did send a notice out to event holders that they should tell their volunteers the Staff cards aren't to be sold. This was the same time they started taking measures to ensure the Staff promos would be packaged better so they wouldn't arrived bent or otherwise damaged so often. Evidently zero volunteers listened to that, so this may be Pokémon's response to so many Staff cards still being on the market instead of being kept as trophies by the volunteers. If that is the reason, I strongly disagree with it. As Yaginko said this is a way to compensate them without actually having do all that much, and it should be able to be sold for real money. It's their card; let them do what they want with it.
I don't really believe that's the primary reason, myself. That may have been part of it, but I find the argument that this is a response to Covid to be much more compelling.

But yeah, mainly I wanted to respond to say that there is mention at least at one time fairly recently that they don't want volunteers to sell or trade away their Staff promos.

That's interesting - I did not know that! Thanks for the information.

I do find that bizarre though. Do TPCi really expect to control what people do with their cards after they've been given out? Why do they care?

 

[Pone]

That's interesting - I did not know that! Thanks for the information.

I do find that bizarre though. Do TPCi really expect to control what people do with their cards after they've been given out? Why do they care?

Yeah honestly I don't know. I don't think that's a reasonable expectation at all. I'm not sure if that request of theirs is something they do at every prerelease or if they just said it as a one-time thing, but either way I strongly disagree with them trying to control what people do with property that has been gifted to them.

 

[The Binder Guy]

During one of the SM sets they did send a notice out to event holders that they should tell their volunteers the Staff cards aren't to be sold. This was the same time they started taking measures to ensure the Staff promos would be packaged better so they wouldn't arrived bent or otherwise damaged so often. Evidently zero volunteers listened to that, so this may be Pokémon's response to so many Staff cards still being on the market instead of being kept as trophies by the volunteers. If that is the reason, I strongly disagree with it. As Yaginko said this is a way to compensate them without actually having do all that much, and it should be able to be sold for real money. It's their card; let them do what they want with it.
I don't really believe that's the primary reason, myself. That may have been part of it, but I find the argument that this is a response to Covid to be much more compelling.

But yeah, mainly I wanted to respond to say that there is mention at least at one time fairly recently that they don't want volunteers to sell or trade away their Staff promos.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that notice was sent out during Team Up’s prereleases. One of the promos you could get from that set’s B&B boxes was a Roaring Resolve Charizard and I’ve heard rumors that less-trustworthy TOs “hoarded” the *hoot* out of that card and the EVO Charizard Staff Promo when they were released.

 

[Pone]

I wouldn’t be surprised if that notice was sent out during Team Up’s prereleases. One of the promos you could get from that set’s B&B boxes was a Roaring Resolve Charizard and I’ve heard rumors that less-trustworthy TOs “hoarded” the *hoot* out of that card and the EVO Charizard Staff Promo when they were released.

It could all have been solved if they just went back to one promo per set instead of doing four when nobody asked for that. XP

Though I guess that wouldn't stop event hosts from *ahem* "losing" the staff cards or "not getting them shipped to them" so they didn't have to give them to staff. I guarantee without a doubt lots of places probably did that.

 

[Water Pokémon Master]

A new story has just been posted to PokéBeach's front page:

• TPCi Now Says All Staff Promos Temporarily Suspended, Unclear About Prereleases

Posts you make after this point will immediately appear on the front page and vice versa. Discuss!

 

[The Last Shaymin]

 

[Yaginku]

This e-mail sounded to me like a show of goodwill - I really hope they're working on an improved rewards program for professors and judges and genuinely want to replace it with a better option, rather than just stopping the promos.

Pokemon has genuinely been good to stores with promotional material and free playmats. I hope the promo side of things can be just as good, and we can get unique promos for STAFFers.

 

[The Binder Guy]

Hmm... well this is an interesting development.

Honestly, I still feel that prereleases are better off having a single prerelease promo with staff-stamped versions rather than making the four B&B promos as a substitute for them WHILST also having staff-stamped versions of those same four promos. I’d rather see this sort of structure for prereleases in the future...

• One unified prerelease promo with staff-stamped versions that are given out during the prerelease window.
• Four set logo-stamped promos for the B&B boxes during prereleases AND after set release with the Staff versions of these being discontinued.

That way prereleases retain (and, in my opinion, regain) the special nature of said events while not compromising on rewards for tournament staff or prerelease attendees.

 

[Bill Boyden]

I feel the move from 1 promo to 4 promo cards was to help in the sale of the build and battle boxes with players and collectors wanting a full set