TCG Price Shenanigans (3/15/16)

TheUltimateAbsol

Truth or Ideals? It's all Black and White to me
Member
So I've been going through the prices of BREAKpoint and Generations on TCGplayer as of late, and I can't help to point out:
  • Leafeon EX, one of the most unplayable EX's of Generations, is worth 10 dollars. That's as much as the Full art Zapdos and Articuno, and even then it doesn't boast that collector's value. Is it because it's an eeveelution it's expensive? Well, similarily, vaporeon is 8 dollars, but still, there is no reason for even this 2 dollar difference
  • Revitalizer has recieved little to no hype at all. Although it is the most playable new trainer from Generations, it's consistency boost it adds to the clunky Vileplume decks should have attracted higher prices. Isn't Vileplume generally regarded as very difficult to defeat if they pull a t1 Vileplume? I was able to get a playset for less than 2 dollars, and it just doesn't feel right.
  • Darkrai EX Full art is starting to see a sudden price decline, from 12 dollars to 10, without much reason. This is not true at all for the regular art
  • Gyrados-EX secret Rare is by far becoming devalued. You would think after the gold and silver games, it might hold some collector's value to snag it up by a little, but nope. It started at 15, and now is at 7.50 -- a dollar more than the regular full art. Though I must admit Mega Gyrados has been underwhelming to merit any value.
  • Garbodor is dropping to 1.50. There isn't any reason for this rather than the fact that it hasn't seen any results so far, and it wouldn't provide concrete results in the first place. Unlike the visible power of Garchomp, Garbodor can wreck havoc (paired with M-Man) only on a increasingly ability reliant meta (Trevenant, Gallade/Octillery, Milotic, Shaymin-EX, Bats, Hypno, etc...). It's never going to be a "stale card", so it seems more than worth it to invest at this time
  • SR VS seeker is approaching 30 dollars now. For all of you that got on the bandwagon when they were priced at 15, good job.
  • Professor Sycamore is at 50 cents again. This was a problem pre-BREAKpoint when buying playsets for a new deck (they were 2 bucks a piece!). If you don't have a sufficient supply, now's the time.
  • Double Colorless Energy is still 1.50 a piece. Ugh... It must be that despite being a reprint, the rarity of Generations boosters only meagerly boosts it's supply. Hopefully this will change later throughout the year due to Generations' Full Year Print.
 

ToToLaw

Aspiring Trainer
Member
great analysis, if you write about other eeveelution EX, as well as other EX or meta rareI would definitely continue reading it.
 

TheUltimateAbsol

Truth or Ideals? It's all Black and White to me
Member
great analysis, if you write about other eeveelution EX, as well as other EX or meta rareI would definitely continue reading it.
Well It's not exactly supposed to be an anaylysis of anything, rather just an outburst over some of the changing prices. :p
Even so, I feel like you missed the entire point after the first bullet point; Most Eeveelution EX's are sub-par in terms of playability, yet they received irregularly high pricing due to some collector's value behind them that has not been apparent before
 

crystal_pidgeot

Bird Trainer *Vaporeon on PokeGym*
Member
I feel the same way but its because of how Generations is being distributed. If it had a set you can buy 4 dollar packs from, The eeveelution would be about 2 to 3 bucks max and the Full art birds would no more than 4 to 5. TPC/i needs to address this.
 

TheUltimateAbsol

Truth or Ideals? It's all Black and White to me
Member
I feel the same way but its because of how Generations is being distributed. If it had a set you can buy 4 dollar packs from, The eeveelution would be about 2 to 3 bucks max and the Full art birds would no more than 4 to 5. TPC/i needs to address this.
Hopefully "Generations Elite Trainer Boxes" will help.
But still, the "limited supply" logic doesn't seem to apply much to revitalizer (which really deserves a bit more attention)
 

crystal_pidgeot

Bird Trainer *Vaporeon on PokeGym*
Member
Hopefully "Generations Elite Trainer Boxes" will help.
But still, the "limited supply" logic doesn't seem to apply much to revitalizer (which really deserves a bit more attention)
I hope so as well because I want that full art zapdos and articuno and don't want to trade meta cards for them but I feel trainers always get shafted in some way. The second market doesn't really know what to do with them and only increase the price if they are being bought.

Pokemon always sell better and reserve value. I think it also may be because of Leafeon Lv X, which is a card with value for no real reason and this Leafeon has value because of that. I don't know.
 

TrainerMa'am

Aspiring Trainer
Advanced Member
Member
Can we assume then that toward the end of the year as the market is flooded by further monthly mythical box releases prices will come down?
 

TheUltimateAbsol

Truth or Ideals? It's all Black and White to me
Member
Can we assume then that toward the end of the year as the market is flooded by further monthly mythical box releases prices will come down?
It is a likely assumption, as it is an ALL YEAR SET.

But remember, "Consumption" still eats up a few key cards like Jolteon-EX. In this way, cards like Shaymin-EX can take forever to drop down in value. No one is going to be unwanting of a good card, unless that card is proven to not work.

Meanwhile, the unneeded cards will only multiply and grow in supply intensively. Take for example Golem-EX -- It's probably going to just keep falling as no one wants it, but the mythical collection unboxers will have an inevitably growing stock in back of them

I figure the most noticeable change from this fact will be in the price of the set's exclusive Basic Energy.
 
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Serperior

~
Advanced Member
Member
I pulled two Vaporeon-EX last night. Pls help with prices pls

I also pulled three Pikachu FA in eight packs - craziness. Thanks for being the dude on card costs.
 

TheUltimateAbsol

Truth or Ideals? It's all Black and White to me
Member
I pulled two Vaporeon-EX last night. Pls help with prices pls

I also pulled three Pikachu FA in eight packs - craziness. Thanks for being the dude on card costs.

(Im just keeping track of TCG player prices here - they are the cheapest and most reliable on the market anyways :p)
Vaporeon-EX has dropped from 8 to 5.50 in the past few weeks, though I imagine it will likely drop even more at this rate.

Pikachu FA is awesome though. It will be a real collector item in the distant future (but for now and this year, it's a seven dollar card)
 

Serperior

~
Advanced Member
Member
Poo. I'll just hold onto em and maybe make an Eeveelution set out of em who knows.

Haha, I plan on keeping those sleeved and mint if I can - hoping that they jump up in price as Generations gets more and more scarce.
 

TheUltimateAbsol

Truth or Ideals? It's all Black and White to me
Member
Poo. I'll just hold onto em and maybe make an Eeveelution set out of em who knows.

Haha, I plan on keeping those sleeved and mint if I can - hoping that they jump up in price as Generations gets more and more scarce.

I think that the Charizard-EX boxes released recently are really going to further dropping the prices as it gives actual incentive to buy Generations packs.
Maybe we'll get to a point where Jolteon might drop below 40!
 

Serperior

~
Advanced Member
Member
You're on Virbank right? People can get rid of two for 70. Seeing how States is going, Jolteon's not doing as well as the hype says it should be yo. I'm thinking it'll rise again for Regionals though.
 

TheUltimateAbsol

Truth or Ideals? It's all Black and White to me
Member
You're on Virbank right? People can get rid of two for 70. Seeing how States is going, Jolteon's not doing as well as the hype says it should be yo. I'm thinking it'll rise again for Regionals though.
I'm on virbank, but I'm giving up facebook for Lent :p

At VA States Yesterday, Jolteon EX was making it to the top tables, but it was still beatable thanks to the massive amount of Hoopa and Shaymin. People also didn't want to AZ their M-Manectrics for some stubborn reason
 

Serperior

~
Advanced Member
Member
Ah, gotcha gotcha. Couldn't do that, found something else instead haha.

I saw Jolteon-EX with Vileplume floating around. I can't make it to any States but just from reading around there are outs of course.
 

ToToLaw

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I pulled two Vaporeon-EX last night. Pls help with prices pls

I also pulled three Pikachu FA in eight packs - craziness. Thanks for being the dude on card costs.

lol. If you are willing to do foreign trade, i do interest to have the vaporeon EX, for collection purpose of course.

Seems you are good luck in opening though, keep it up:)
 

sagen888

Shine on you Crazy Diamond
Member
My jaw dropped when I saw generations M Charizard go above 50$ for a while there. Seems these days that you slap the word 'charizard' on anything and people instantly go insane.
 
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