Water Pokémon Master

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Pokemon has released its latest figures report, revealing a record 9.1 billion Pokemon cards were produced from March 2021 to March 2022! This is the second year in a row Pokemon has broken its annual record. 3.7 billion cards were produced the year before (during 2020’s pandemic), which means 2021 saw a 246% increase.
Last year I speculated the number of cards would have been higher were it not for printing shortages caused by the pandemic. Anecdotally it seems TPCi has now navigated some of those pandemic constraints. With their recent acquisition of Millennium Print Group, next year’s numbers...

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Scoop

Literally a sheep
Member
9.1 billion printed and you can still barely find any in stores. 😒
Can't vouch for you, but it's been pretty easy in my area to find cards. And I'm not just talking the same 5 things they always stock everywhere, I went hunting around last week and found plenty of new releases.

At least from my perspective, this is not nearly as bad as 2021 was. Both in actual stores and online.
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
Sure, stores around me get restocks. Then they're cleaned out again by the next day. Nothing lasts around me, not even shelf warming product like the Battle Academy boxes.
 

HershelLayton

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Honestly, I'm happy to see that and hope they print more. Some cards are ridiculously expensive, and seeing "investors" pulling their last punches by buying out cards like AA Machamp V gives me optimism that TPCI will soon kill off the opportunists trying to ruin an enjoyable hobby meant for children. I'd happily let my modern collection become worthless if it means kids can get that cool Umbreon Vmax or whatever other amazing art we've seen lately.
 

ZestyGan

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Gonna save this article in the back of my mind whenever simpletons use the 'pOkEmon iS thE hIgHesT gRosSing FranChiSe in The WoRld' argument to show them it's literally not all gamefreak 😭
 

taveryri

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Honestly, I'm happy to see that and hope they print more. Some cards are ridiculously expensive, and seeing "investors" pulling their last punches by buying out cards like AA Machamp V gives me optimism that TPCI will soon kill off the opportunists trying to ruin an enjoyable hobby meant for children. I'd happily let my modern collection become worthless if it means kids can get that cool Umbreon Vmax or whatever other amazing art we've seen lately.
It’s meant for children but it’s not a children game.
 

Yaginku

H-on Will Save Pokemon
Member
I mentioned this in last year's report, but printed =/= sold.
Now, as many have pointed out, it doesn't feel like the number has increased, so I am curious as to the split between languages.
 

Quuador

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Once again, TPC(i) don't even know how many different TCG languages they've printed themselves, since there are 14 instead of 13, lmao.. Japanese, English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Polish, Russian, Thai, and Indonesian.

It's defintely crazy to think ~20% of all Pokémon TCG cards in 27 years were printed in 2021 alone.
 

DMYSYS

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Once again, TPC(i) don't even know how many different TCG languages they've printed themselves, since there are 14 instead of 13, lmao.. Japanese, English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Polish, Russian, Thai, and Indonesian.

It's defintely crazy to think ~20% of all Pokémon TCG cards in 27 years were printed in 2021 alone.
They have not printed Russian language cards since the XY era.
 

Quuador

Aspiring Trainer
Member
They have not printed Russian language cards since the XY era.
I know that.. :rolleyes: They also haven't printed Polish cards since the DP era, nor Dutch cards since the WotC era..
That doesn't change the fact that they've only mentioned printing 13 total TCG languages on their own website, when they've actually printed 14 instead.
 

ArceusTrainer

Arceus Collector
Member
Me thinks this era of Pokemon cards will not increase much in price the following years like we have seen the past 10 years unless there is ~20% more people getting into collecting Pokemon cards just last year alone. But hey, what do I know? I have got tons of messages from distant people in my life asking me about collecting pokemon cards as they just recently got into the hobby, so it might be true.
 

Winkachu

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Can't vouch for you, but it's been pretty easy in my area to find cards. And I'm not just talking the same 5 things they always stock everywhere, I went hunting around last week and found plenty of new releases.

At least from my perspective, this is not nearly as bad as 2021 was. Both in actual stores and online.
Here in Latvia nearly impossible to find Pokemon TCG and if you do then it is 30-50% more expensive than buying in England and paying for the shipping cost.
 

RiverShock

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I know that.. :rolleyes: They also haven't printed Polish cards since the DP era, nor Dutch cards since the WotC era..
That doesn't change the fact that they've only mentioned printing 13 total TCG languages on their own website, when they've actually printed 14 instead.
Considering the date ranges mentioned, they're clearly not counting Dutch then. If you're right about them not printing Dutch since the Wizards era, then they stopped printing them before 2004, the earliest date with data listed. I would guess they just didn't track this data before then (at least in that much detail). (Granted, the dates listed are only what are known to Pokebeach, but still. It would not be surprising for the data to not be as detailed early on.)
 

LexGoyle

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Of course. First, you got YouTubers who overhyped the game by focusing so much on dollar value of "ultra rare" pulls. Then you got those who came back for the nostalgia factor but given the state of the game for the past 3 years alone since Hidden Fates and the hardcore scalping began... yeah it's people looking to make a quick buck; not to mention the card shops both online and offline scalping as well.

It's nothing more than the hype that the people can make a quick buck flipping cards.
 

PartTimeTCGCollector

Aspiring Trainer
The only ones that wins are TPC and retailer stores. The key to defeating scalpers is patience and the key to defeating TPCi's nonsense of cramming tons of cards in one set is also patience. Remember, big companies don't listen to customers when their product sells. If the sales plunged, then they will listen. Think about that. As for my area, there are ton of pokemon cards, literally tons. While I don't like living in South Florida, the people value money here, scalpers are dead.
 

The Binder Guy

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Yeah… I’m siding with Yangiku with the whole “produced≠sold” bit, similar wording was used to promote Kingdom Hearts 3 (specifically regarding the amount of copies shipped) a mere week after it came out but you could still find copies of the games in stores.
9.1 billion printed and you can still barely find any in stores. 😒
Can't vouch for you, but it's been pretty easy in my area to find cards. And I'm not just talking the same 5 things they always stock everywhere, I went hunting around last week and found plenty of new releases.

At least from my perspective, this is not nearly as bad as 2021 was. Both in actual stores and online.
A general rule of thumb for card-hunting is that rural big-box stores are often kept stocked due to low local demand whist more urban areas regularly sell out for obvious reasons.
The only ones that wins are TPC and retailer stores. The key to defeating scalpers is patience and the key to defeating TPCi's nonsense of cramming tons of cards in one set is also patience. Remember, big companies don't listen to customers when their product sells. If the sales plunged, then they will listen. Think about that. As for my area, there are ton of pokemon cards, literally tons. While I don't like living in South Florida, the people value money here, scalpers are dead.
I honestly wish that big-box stores would reassess their product limits and retool them to limit it To one SKU/DPCI-per-person-per-day on top of harshly enforcing those limits.

One thing i vaguely remember seeing somewhere outside of the states is some stores removing the plastic wrapping on some products that kills any sort of resale chances that the buyer may be plotting. I wish larger stores and some LGSs would do that, but sealed collectors (a portion of the TCG fandom that’s slowly moved its way to the near-bottom of my little black book) would complain and some LGSs are sadly “in” on the whole scalping issue.
 

Pokemon1982

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Gonna save this article in the back of my mind whenever simpletons use the 'pOkEmon iS thE hIgHesT gRosSing FranChiSe in The WoRld' argument to show them it's literally not all gamefreak 😭
Okay, but Pokemon software sales are STILL at the top of all video game franchises, simpleton.
 
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