"Pack to Power" in Pokémon

PlinfaTheBest

PlinfaTheBest

Plinfa means Piplup in German!
Member
Hi everyone,

I have another question to ask you. Is something like "Pack to Power" possible in Pokémon? For those of you who never heard of it, it's a project where you buy one pack and try to trade the contents of this pack until you get a "Power 9" card, a card in Magic worth hundreds of dollars. First I thought it's possible, but then I realized that most Magic cards can be used in some way while our commons aren't really that much of a deal, much like most of the uncommons (except trainers). So what do you think? I would like to start such a project as well. Because I'm not so experienced with trading than others, I would go for "Pack to Shaymin" or something like this. Do you think it could be real?

Thank you for your answer
PlinfaTheBest
 
Moved from the TCG Help & Advice to TCG News & Discussion as the OP is not really looking for advice or help, but rather opinions and discussion.
 
Hypothetically possible, but how probable is it even in Magic: the Gathering? How much effort must go into trading to reach this end goal? If these questions seem needlessly picky, remember that time is money. Especially if you aren't particularly skilled at trading and/or don't find it particularly enjoyable or are an adult with a good paying job (especially a time consuming career).

I don't know if you have to pay taxes on cards acquired through trade, but there are a lot of hidden costs (some less so than others). Take a simple trade through the mail: you've got to pay for postage. Right now that's $0.49 USD in the United States of America, and an envelope means we'll round to $0.50 USD. So a common only worth $0.25 costs twice as much to trade by mail as it is worth; unless you have an odd situation where local price doesn't affect local availability or you're totally isolated from making local card purchases, just go buy it. ;) Even trading in person has a cost unless it is completely incidental and only enabled by a quick eye and mind when you've got otherwise completely wasted time or the details are worked out while multi-tasking. If you go anywhere primarily to trade, when calculating the net value gained from trading a lesser card for a more valuable one, deduct the time and travel expenses, and you probably should deduct how much you may have earned had you just picked up some extra time at work (assuming you have a job).

At least right now, Pokémon sets have a lot of cards that are best described as filler: even when needed, such as providing the Basic form for an Evolution that cannot be put into play effectively by another card effect, they almost exclusively serve as a stepping stone to said Evolution and have little strategic value in and of themselves. Still one could simply start with a "better than normal" pack, and those that claim they can start with any booster in M:tG are exaggerating, putting in so much time, effort and other resources they might have been better off just buying it outright in the first place. If you have a gift for this, where you're turning a $5 USD booster into a $900 USD card and doing so quickly, without it consuming your life, you might want to look into becoming a card dealer because you've got a gift.
 
Thank you for your answer, I already thought that this is not possible, especially with everyone researching the values of cards online. I had another idea based on "One Red Paperclip". The concept comes from the game "Bigger & Better", you start of with a simple thing, e.g. a paperclip, and then trade it with other persons to get something bigger and/or better. The guy who made this popular turned a red paperclip into a house! So my idea would be to start of with something like a paperclip and to trade it until it reaches the value of a Shaymin, then sell that thing and get a Shaymin. I know many of you will say: "Just buy the Shaymin and waste your time on playing with it!", but since I am low on money, I don't want to spend $35 for just a single card for a hobby. What do you think about that?
 
If someone has time but no money, than yes I encourage that person become skilled at trading. Actually I recommend trying to become at least competent at it no matter what as this is a "trading card game", but hopefully you get the idea. ;)
 
For what i have seen, at least in tcgo, it seems possible, if you create brand new account. grind your way in versus will you get lucky and get 4 tickets. you could enter a a tourney and trade 1 treasure for a card... which card, i wont tell but you can trade that card for a pack, and once you have that pack you could open it, but most likely you need to buy cards (trade your pack for them) which you could then resell.
 
The problem with Pokemon cards is that the value, let's say, of current packs and the contents does not reach over £25. MtG as stated can have low low prices to 600+.

It might be better to do it to a Secret Rare Ultra Ball as they're more expensive than Shaymin. I think it would work in real life not over mail, as the cost of sending items would be straight out of people's pockets
 
This is 100% possible in the Pokemon TCG.

Not in the monetary sense of somehow earning yourself $100s (because no "mainstream" card is really worth that much), but say trading a common card up to a Shaymin EX or golden VS Seeker is not out of the realm of possibility. I know this because one of my close friends (who, btw, ended up being a semi-famous Poke-tuber in the TCG community) used to do this to make all of his decks on PTCGO.

So in the purest, theoretical, sense: yes!

If you try this and are successful (I for one was never good at trading anything I didn't have doubles of) -- let us know!
 
I have actually done something similar to this.
In Pokemon it's called the 'Trade-Up' game. It's essentially the same thing: Start with a pack, bad EX, some uncommons/commons, energy, or in my case a broken sleeve and try to trade until you get cards worth more and more value. It's best to do this at a big all day tournament like Regionals, Nationals, or Worlds. I did it at Nationals two years ago and got a Full Art Deoxys (Worth probably 20 dollars at the time) from my original broken sleeve. You have to be willing to do it all day and ask basically anyone for cards (even for free). It's fun, but at the same time somewhat worthless. If you spend a whole day at an event, I think you should be playing games, hanging out, and buying/trading stuff. By trading, it shouldn't be trying to get the best value from the bottom, but for stuff you want, and that game takes that whole idea away as you look for value and not for interest.
 
So, I participated in a tournament just a short time ago and decided that I'd start a "Pack to Shaymin" quest with my pack I received upon participation. I pulled five Commons (not going to name them since Commons are mostly crap), three Pokémon Uncommons (also crap because they are no trainers), a foil Rainbow Energy, a BRT Marowak and of course the code.
Now I don't know how to start. My problem is that basically all players that come to the local League are players who already have a big collection and don't need any of those cards. I thought upon starting my quest that the first steps will be the hardest, but that's really frustrating and I don't know how to get out of that "binder crap" level. If you could help me, it would be very kind of you. Unfortunately, I live in Europe, so trading can't really happen with most of you. Anyone got any ideas?

As always, thank you for your input.
PlinfaTheBest
 
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