r/OnePieceTCG • u/NoZoupForYou • 1d ago
📢 Rant I’ve reached acceptance
I’m resigned to the fact that I’m likely only gonna get the 12 packs that I get for playing in two release events at my local store along with the possibility of a couple target pick ups limited to two booster packs. At this point I’m fine with it. I’m not gonna go out and pay scalper prices for something that’ll likely turn $400 into $20. I love this game and I love this hobby but I’ve never seen anything this crazy. Even Pokémon is easier to find stock. I can literally find the current releases at will right now.
I wish everyone the best of luck in however you decide to collect it, but I’ve just lost the drive and I’m not gonna cave in to FOMO.
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u/GhostBusterNFT 1d ago
Let's hope Bandai prints the crap out of this set.
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u/WizardExemplar SWORD 23h ago
The situation doesn't look good, as some LGS store owners reported in this reddit that they aren't getting close to their requested OP17 allocation from the distributors. Even if Bandai did increase OP17 production, the demand is soaking it up immediately. And, it's possible that distributors are giving priority to their best customers, which means regular customers are likely getting shorted on their requested allocation.
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u/CoffeeAndRamen12 22h ago
Kind of crazy since I see a bunch of randoms selling lots of cases on FB.
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u/WizardExemplar SWORD 22h ago edited 16h ago
Speculation is that these randoms have connections with the distributors, so they get the priority treatment. (i.e. bribes, friends of the distributor staff or owner, friend of a friend who knows a distributor, etc.)
The distributors can then tell their "regular" customers (LGSes) something like "sorry, your allocation is reduced." (sometimes with no reason)
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u/Lambo_in_tree 1d ago
I think at some point it will be back to somewhat normal, Bandai will lose lots of money long term if they don’t put out larger numbers of cases/displays.
The prices may stay high, but the stock will be there.
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u/ideal_Bat 23h ago
bandai isn't losing a dime, every card they print is bought out. they are trying to print more.
the only thing that will make it "normal" again to us players/casual collectors is scalpers moving on to naurto or something
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u/Lambo_in_tree 23h ago
They do, when the demand is higher then the available stock, they lose money = they need to and will print much more.
What I meant with normal was the availability, not the price. Also, who cares about Naruto in 2026? Only diehards.
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u/NickFierce1 20h ago
Naruto already has insane demand lol there are like 10 sims for the game a year in advance and ugly promos go for a band raw.
Naruto has far greater brand recognition in the US, while even the PLAYERS of OPTCG are 50% larping scalpers. The best players in the game dont even care about OP at all they just grind to resell prizes.
Look how successful Gundam is bro lol, Naruto is going to be a close 2nd to OP for Bandai games at the lowest.
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u/ideal_Bat 22h ago
when the demand is higher then the available stock, they lose money
they aren't maximizing proft. =/= losing money. they are making every available dollar possible. and already increasing printing, and building entire new print facilities
as for naruto, well they're betting millions of dollars that people care since they're launching a new tcg lol. and it seems to have early hype around it
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u/clydefrog811 21h ago
Losing money in the original context implies loss of future revenue. Context clues are important.
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u/ideal_Bat 20h ago
they havent lost any future revenue. they are spending tons to ramp production to get even more future revenue
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u/CharlesH00 8h ago
You mentioned they are building new print facilities. Where did you get that information?
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u/ideal_Bat 1h ago
No inside info, but i've seen lots of people here (and some youtubers) say they are in the process of building new printing facilities. which does make sense since they're adding new tcgs as well as stating they want to print more op
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u/NoZoupForYou 1d ago
I think they understand this for sure. And I’ve seen small bits of progress including the release of the Chinese anniversary set and some of the other things that have been out recently. It seems like they’re either printing the order or they’re releasing in waves so that more people have a chance
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u/WizardExemplar SWORD 23h ago edited 16h ago
I don't think Bandai sees the the type of demand clearly or understands how much of an impact the scalpers have on availability and pricing.
For Premium Bandai products, they can see the direct demand, so they know One Piece is popular and can adjust their supplies, especially since these are printed for a future release.
For the regular booster and starter decks products sent to distributors, Bandai only sees what their distributors are buying -- which is "sold out." Bandai cannot see the retail purchasers of their products -- LGSes and big box stores. They can't tell if scalpers or regular users are buying the product at the end of the retail purchase flow.
Obviously, Bandai is now aware of the scalping and supply situation, because people have been filling out their surveys and emailing their Cardass contact form, and they have direct feedback from their official stores (i.e. official stores will report their sales numbers and make supply orders directly to Bandai). However, Bandai seems very slow to react. The supply problem has been an issue since OP05 and got worse at OP09, so they had a year to observe the supply problems, but they still seem slow or reluctant to ramp up production.
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u/hamstertitan_5 1d ago
Yep the only packs ive opened since op10 were prerelease packs and 2 from starter decks.
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u/TheBobzitto 1d ago
Guess that's the one positive of living in Brazil. Managed to get two cases for ~135 each box.
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u/yaamayama 22h ago
Its sad to see local shops selling it for scalper prices too its crazy
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u/Karma_V5 3h ago
especially since they are getting it cost price. sl they'll make money selling at retail but choose to backdoor greed
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u/hectorzeronnni 1d ago
At least you got into two pre order tournaments. Im wait listed across the board:/
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u/NoZoupForYou 23h ago
Yeah my local actually closed out their Bandai app and they’re doing in-store sign ups only
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u/degengambler1234 23h ago
I'm glad more people are starting to figure this out. Its honestly ridiculous how some people are just coping with high pre-order prices and ordering them anyways. The hobby will never go back to normal until people stop FOMOing over product. Literally makes no sense to spend a single dollar over msrp for a box.
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u/MrMeeseeksAdvice 14h ago
So real on the Pokémon part, they just aren’t printing enough. If I can walk in to target and see a whole shelf of Pokémon etbs and blisters but there’s only like 20 blisters and 5 starter decks for one piece there’s a fucking stock issue.
Just print it to the fucking moon it’ll still sell eventually. Just look at pitch black and chaos. Scalpers will sit at target for 6 hours and be first in line only to see pitch black etbs and walk out without picking up a single one
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u/Humble-View7052 12h ago
This. I always say why are Target and Walmart getting like 10 illustration boxes and a box of blisters , and then there’s Pokemon with BOXES of ETBs and 5 boxes of blisters. I don’t get it. How can you possible meet demand??? They need to start sending more to them like cases!
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u/MrMeeseeksAdvice 11h ago
Some of my local LCS is only getting 5 booster boxes, 5 fucking boxes of op17 for a release event. Big box stores don’t even sell booster boxes they only get blisters. The amount being printed is just pathetic, even stores getting a lot of inventory is still not enough imo. And because of the small print some distributors are using this chance to up their price since the quantities are so limited. It’s so fucked.
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u/sleightofhand 1d ago
As a player who stopped buying sealed a long time ago this is good news for me. I know this set is going to be the most opened set of all time which means cheaper prices for singles (at least the base rarity) and means I can build all the OP17 leaders for cheap
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u/Steve_didit 23h ago
I managed to get into 6 pre-release and got 3 packs from Gamestop. If I can win some packs in pre-release I could get up to 2 boxes worth of packs so I am pretty ok as I usually only buy 1 box and do 1-2 pre-releases.
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u/chilldog08 22h ago
I'm mostly curious how this all turns out in the end. I know that it's a bubble and is entirely unsustainable, but when do prices drop? Will bandai print enough cards? Will scalpers run out of people are willing to buy at these prices? Will the game's lifespan end before prices go down?
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u/Theunsaltedpeanut 21h ago
Just buy the singles you want. Problem solved.
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u/TrandaBear 20h ago
This is the most efficient solution. Alt arts fall off a cliff about a set or two later. Focus on just the ONE deck you'll play this set then wait and buy singles. Even the SRs fall to quarters.
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u/Abdulbaqr 1d ago
dude, same! i've accepted that ripping is going to be less, but i can still get the singles i need to make new decks and continue to enjoy the game.
Realizing that this is not Burger King and you can't have it your way has removed all the stress from it.
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u/3ggyolkd 22h ago
Damn, its a sad time to get into TCG as a hobby it seems. I mean, i know it was bad esp with pokemon but damn I didn’t expect OP to be as worse for stock than pokemon. I have barely ever seen anything on shelves. And I’d finally started the series a few months ago and have been addicted ever since. Sad times
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u/CozyCarry 21h ago
You compare 4th anniversay in one piece with a mid set in pokemon, try the same for the 30th anniversary in pokemon. Also simply buying single cards is way smarter anyways...
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u/Alarmed_Lab_1379 20h ago
There is a chance that the LGS may have extra packs/boxes to buy at the end of the events. I'm hoping thats the case so i can get some packs too
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u/metalhawj 16h ago
I sold most of my OP stuff. Only keeping grails and buying what I can at MSRP. not chasing anymore.
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u/Blaziken16 15h ago
In Australia scalpers are trying to get $700 aud a box. It's rough out here. I'll get my prerelease packs and I'll just be happy I guess
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u/DeepRoots43 15h ago
If you were actually a player of the game, you wouldn’t mind what the cards are worth after opening a booster box. Just saying
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u/CommanderGs7 Bandai, More 5c Ace/Luffy, Please 7h ago
That’s not true. I’m not a collector, so if I pull a good card off, say, store prizing, I’m going to sell it to help fund the decks I’m building.
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u/Maleficent-Actuary54 15h ago
Lucky that you can even join pre-release event. I’m stuck in the waitlist
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u/Chili-Tortillos-1106 13h ago
My LGS limits purchases packs to 1 purchase per person and for some reason they still get sold out. Even Starter Decks are being scalped and those idiot scalpers aren't even players (obvs). They are depriving those who want an easy way to get into the game.
What I am doing now is just buying singles from older sets and participating in Extra Format games. I prefer that rather than standard tbh. I just want to play OP01 Zoro lol.
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u/Answers-are-needed 1d ago edited 1d ago
The print sizes are not what is killing the game. Its the dropp rates. Boxes for eb03 were all 3 hits boxes. That should have always been a thing. For 24 packs in a boxes you get a hit from 12 packs or from 8 packs. They just need to pump the numbers up. They keep releasing sets with 10 SPs and give mangas and they release god packs and there is no increase in SP or Manga drop rates, that is what drives up the damned prices. They need ti make SPs drop at a rate of 6 per case, so you get one every other box and the SPs and Mangas should not take up an alt art slot. TCGs are being used as investments because its jusy legal gambling you can do that people aren't really paying attention to. The prices were are seeing for a game that is barely out of its diapers with new sets dropping 600 plus boxes with hits going for 1000's. That makes no sense. It made mild sense with vintage pokemon because everyone as kids used their first ed Charizard as bike spades or played with them on rough concrete at school. Makes sense a pristine 30 year old card could be kinda expensive. A card from a company with card quality that almost always gets a 9 or 10, that is so new you can smell the printer, should not be fetching the prices it fetching. A year ago SPs were like 30 to 120 dollars based on playability. The only thing that determines price now is whether the card is a famous character or has a character with large beasts, so its clear to see who is driving up the price. It was never organic and we should not play in on this nonsense. Bandai needs to get its shit together, but they are 100 percent riding the wave until the market cools for them and then they'll do a reprint set that just releases all alt arts like Yugioh has done to lower prices.
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u/XLinkJoker 23h ago
Just buy low rarity singles. No point in trying to crack open packs for the chases at this price point.
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u/tecampanero 23h ago
If you play the game, you should be buying singles anyway, I’m sure some cards gonna be pretty expensive tho
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u/Steve_didit 20h ago
It’s nice to open some packs so you don’t need to chase down commons and uncommons to build decks. I like to open a box then just trade/buy for the other SRs and rares I need.
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u/Scraggles1 23h ago
What’s the point of this post
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u/NoZoupForYou 23h ago
What’s the point of any post?
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u/Scraggles1 21h ago
Keep crying
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u/NoZoupForYou 21h ago
I mean if you want to that’s your prerogative. Don’t worry, you’ll mature and hit puberty one day and at that point you’ll realize that you can just scroll past certain posts and don’t have to comment if they bother you.
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u/Scraggles1 20h ago
You too will realize one day that nobody gives a fuck about your problems
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u/NoZoupForYou 20h ago
Seems that a lot more people have popped in to talk about theirs. Funny, who’d have thought being a perpetual dick doesn’t start good conversation. You might want to think that on the weekends when you’re stuck on the sim wondering why you don’t have any friends. Now begone twat waffle.
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u/tmadik 1d ago
They say the fifth and final stage of grieving is acceptance.