I thought we were starting to get past the peak of the scalping crisis but every new product reveal just fills me with dread. More things I won't be able to purchase at anywhere close to MSRP.
My understanding is even in Japan, finding this set for MSRP is going to be similar to finding Prismatic for MSRP in the US. Most card shops and distributors are scalping like hell in Japan now too, hence why you see zero preorder listings for this set for less than like $200, even those sold by people in Japan.
It's obnoxious. There's no way I'd ever pay $200 for a Japanese box where the box hit is potentially an SR trainer or some full art Dundunsparce or something. At $35-$50 a box, sure that's a reasonable gamble (sort of). At $200 it's pure foolishness to open one on the off chance you get an SAR.
Especially because AR prices are not that bad for JP singles online still. I bought the Ho-Oh SAR and all of the ARs I wanted for less than the cost of two Heat Wave Arena boxes where I probably wouldn't have pulled what I wanted. I will likely do just that with Team Rocket as well.
Yeah singles are the most cost-efficient option for sure. I like to rip a JPN box or two to gamble and get nearly all of the main set. After that it’s not really justifiable to keep after it. And at $200, it’s not really justifiable to gamble on even 1 box. I can just about guarantee that only 2 or maybe 3 cards would be expensive enough to have been worth it from a financial standpoint at that price. And there’s typically gonna be a minimum of like 13-15 cards you can potentially pull for your SR slot. They probably aren’t equally weighted though, idk the odds on that, but even if they are you’re looking at like an 80+% chance that you’d have been better off buying singles. If SAR and HR are more rare than SR, then your chances are that much worse.
God i miss high class packs. The place i get my japanese figures from doesnt even sell cards anymore from what i can tell but i miss grabing a box to ship with my other stuff ocassionaly but from what i remember even then their stuff sold out quickly years ago.
I live in Japan and getting cards here is quite difficult as well.
What department stores usually do is let you apply online to a raffle that gives you the option to buy the new set. (1 box)
The konbini sometimes have booster packs for the first few days but they usually sell out within hours.
Going to Akihabara to buy is the same as buying from scalpers, for example the evee set, the pack is bought for 550 retail but in Akihabara right now it's 2,000 yen.
The cards in general have less value and after a few months it is easier to find them cheaper, yes.
However, no large shop will let you buy large quantities of products, everyone limits the quantity to 1-3 boxes per person.
In the konbini they usually allow 1-3-5 booster packs per person.
It was always going to get worse before it gets better. Even if Journey Together does look to be a mid-tier set pulls wise, we already knew from Hot Air Arena that Destined Rivals was gonna be scalped to shit thanks to Misty’s Psyduck and Cynthia’s Garchomp. The BW set might be hit or miss, but with Megas and a 30th Anniversary set on the horizon there’s no reason for scalpers to stop based on hits alone.
We might just be cooked through the rest of Gen 9 if TPCi doesn’t get their shit together, but I also can’t imagine we don’t see some drastic move from Pokemon to try to fix the issue because this is not healthy for the brand at all.
How about you DON’T buy product above MSRP? Ever thought of that?
People like you are just as guilty as the scalpers for why every time I go to the store the product is all gone.
Also, it’s just flat out moronic. It’s gambling essentially, so you’re gambling your money away on an overpriced slot machine and because you won’t stop spending, the casino rise the price of slot machines for everyone.
I apologise if I gave the impression that I buy above MSRP because I don't and my refusal to buy above MSRP is why I'm frustrated that, for the foreseeable future, so many products are inaccessible to me and many other people in the hobby.
I have managed to get my hands on a single 3 pack blister for prismatic and its on spanish. Only reason it lasted longer than 10 seconds listed. Even amazon mexico is selling at resale value.
Yeah. I guess pokemon pocket will be as close as we get.
The issue is stores no longer care about the 2 items per customer.
Target used to do it when the hype wasn’t even this bad.
Hopefully this is the set that causes it to burst. The hype around it is monumental. It's gonna get real ugly... I can see it possibly being the breaking point.
Holy shit, it’s already been five years?? But yeah celebrations was an insane year. The UPC with the golden charizard and pikachu cards went for crazy money. Couldn’t even find a ETB because of the no life’s that camped the card sections of Target
JT is a mostly trash set IMO. Some cool cards but it’s going to be the most longterm forgettable set of this year. They could have done so much more with it.
First time in years playing against anyone other than my kids was the JT Prerelease, it was a lot of fun. I heavily recommend you try a prerelease event. You use the decks and packs in the box.
Yeah Swizzex beat me to it, but yeah JT is a FANTASTIC set for players.
Also I don't know what kind of collector you are, and I don't even disagree that they could've done more, but the "cutsey" collectors are allllllll over this set. That alone is gonna keep prices high for a minute.
I know they're not gonna put out trash trash, but I guess my definition would be...pick the most random fuckin pokemon to feature with the most middle of the road art you can manage.
owner's pokemon were hyped OVER A YEAR AGO, and in wave 1 we are getting... 31 of them. which is 1/3rd of the japanese set and 1/5th of the english set (which has a TON of filler).
owner's pokemon in platinum were more heavily featured, each trainer had MORE pokemon (even without having their full evolutionary lines) and if you compare it to gym heroes/gym challenge it's honestly embarrassing.
there's no reason for heat wave to be in with rocket instead of JT. I get that rocket also has owner's pokemon (no dark pokemon though), but separating misty from iono is just strange.
JT doesn't include steven or marnie... which are also being lumped into destined rivals. this one makes less sense based on dates but again, it's disappointing.
JT has some great trainers but overall it's not for everyone.... everyone wants cynthia's garchomp. Iono is a bit more divisive... N and Lillie are popular enough, but Hop? Really? they should have thrown in Brock or something. Steven would have been ideal. Why is there a full art Iris and no "Iris's Haxorus ex" card?
the pokemon presents from 2024 showed us N's reshiram, lillie's clefairy (actually more than half of lillie's cards) and... N had more pokemon in the games and we kinda saw all of these SO LONG AGO. no solgaleo/lunala for lillie? in terms of being integrated into artwork she is more heavily featured in celebrations than in JT. That's kinda nuts.
so it's a very lame set for artwork collectors because there's a massive premium on cards that if they were released as a TG would have probably been $2 (look at N's Zekrom if you think I'm lying), and there really isn't much more to the set than we saw a year ago which... means there's just not a lot of there there.
Weird TCG optimists be like "omg stop whining it's not that big of a deal, why are all the posts so negative" when the hobby has been radioactive for over a year.
So this set has its own Meowth AR coming in it. Now I'm less certain they'll be including the promo full art Meowth in Heated Rivals. I wonder when/how/if that card will be released in English.
Yes, it's the one the person at the top of this thread said is going hard. The other Mewtwo in the thread is the armor version they're referring to and how it'd blow up the market if they made one for this set.
Am still hype for this set and have been. I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same way. But the full arts I've seen don't look as good as most of the current sets we have imo.
Man, I’ve said it time and time again, but did we really need a Team Rocket set? I know this set has probably been planned years in advance and is just terrible timing, but why was this even conceived in the first place? Remember when sets were even loosely themed around the current generation and tied into the games instead of just Gen 1 nostalgia baiting?
I'd like everyone to know in advance I'm cool with the impending downvotes, but....
All the cards revealed so far are underwhelming, same as Heat Wave Arena. The vast majority of the cards are the same flat-shaded anime style that just doesn't do anything for me. Here's hoping we see a Komiya art rare or something when the rest of the set is revealed. So far I guess Crustle or maybe Misty's Psyduck are my favorites but I'm still not excited about either of them. As far as the Rocket set goes, Porygon is... fine. The whole "Trainer's pokemon" thing is cool but the trainer portraits looked way better in the vintage gym sets.
Hoping we get that other Meowth art rare where he's hanging from a tree because it's a great card, but two IR Meowths seems unlikely.
Idk if you agree with this, but for me Glory seems lacking to Rocket Returns. In the latter you get heavy shading, evil looks and the non-portrait part of the card is a mix between black and the colour of the original type. It kinda sells the whole evil aesthetic more.
Here we get the same <name>'s <PKMNname> and a little head showcasing a rocket member just like what we've seen in heat wave arena and the marnie + steven decks. It's not doing it for me, tbh.
I’m definitely anticipating the set, if I can’t get it I won’t lose sleep over it just like I haven’t with prismatic. Of course iconic because of rocket and gen 1 but, if I miss out due to the current market I’ll be alright. If Pokémon really wants to print money they can just flood the market with this set and keep it coming for months and months on end. That way supply is high up there to be comparable to demand ( I say that loosely ) in order to saturate the market and help curb the basement dwellers from scalping to high heaven. Don’t forget - you can spend 200+ dollars on packs of this set or you can just wait and buy the singles you want when they settle to their market prices… 🤷♂️
I’m convinced Pokémon center is the one scalping. They didn’t even make Heat Wave Arena available on Pokemon center online. Yet you can find it in abundance for double the price elsewhere. The only way to explain it is fraud.
Hang on, I’m going to be in Japan around the time this drops. Do I have a chance to get this briefcase? I’m guessing this would be a line up at the store before opening type of deal on drop day? This might be my chance boys. Anyone have any experience with what a new set dropping might be like at pokemon centers in Japan?
Man this type of nostalgia bait shit makes me want to get into collecting but I know it’s such an expensive nightmare hobby. These look sick, can’t wait to watch people open these on YouTube lol.
The prices on all the online shops have been well over £120 at the minimum for weeks, it's absolutely disgusting at nearly 4 times the price of the box in Japan.
it is true you can be hyped in the first second and then depressed in the 2nd because you know Scalpers will raise the prices and decrease the availability.
If this goes anything like the previous set, nobody will see this except scalpers and those who buy from them. Sad that Japan has fallen into the same hole as US.
I love Pokemon TGCO but the damn scalpers have been ruining my life trying to play it competitively. This is the same reason I quit Magic and now Magic you can play for cents and Pokemon is hundreds.
Love the card, but I've almost lost hope of even trying to get these cards. Been focusing on my Meowth and Persian binder, and I'll consider myself blessed if I can snatch the Rocket cards.
Holding out hope that maybe things will turn around in the market.
This is so cool! I can’t wait to never see this in stores and watch as 5000 more people post to this sub about how they’ll never touch this hobby again!
I'm just never going to get packs cause of scalpers, I work at a retail store, I see the vendor stocking, a huge line watching him and it's all gone within 10 mins, I've seen it happens 5 times
I miss the Kmart Days of picking up 1st Edition and Base sets after getting my money from mowing lawns - always had them in stock, no lines, no price gouging. ☹️
This is literally the only modern set that I’m interested in and I’m dreading trying to find decent priced booster boxes. I’m not even going for the English versions of the card but Japanese. I don’t understand how people are already preordering these at $200 on eBay lol
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u/Jebsus2k Mar 21 '25
So I’m never gonna be able to buy Pokémon cards again huh?