Ultra PRO Releasing New Booster Box Displays!

$40 as well? That's ridiculous. Wish they would make one of these for ETB's with a more appropriate price.
 
So that I can protect my booster box and all of its triple-sleeved cards.
Do booster boxes really get valuable enough that you'd buy a case for them?
 
This is pretty tone deaf. What's the market for this, the scalpers?? Who else would think this is a good idea?
 
Do booster boxes really get valuable enough that you'd buy a case for them?

unfortunately, yes.

In fact, just this morning, I saw an EMPTY box of base set for 7000sek on the local marketplace.

This is purely for sitting on product in the hopes that it appreciates in value. What the hell else could be the point of a box of sealed products being put into a case? I'm so salty about this. Disgusting behavior to encourage.
 
It's just as bad as the outer sleeves.

Yo dawg, I heard you like sleeves, so I am going to sleeve up your sleeves so it can protect while it protects.
 
I'm so salty about this. Disgusting behavior to encourage.

I don't get what one would find so disgusting about this?

I've never encountered such a shortage of physical product that I think this could be considered scalping. Nor are classic boxes sold in a short enough time for it to be considered scalping.

Also personally I think it's great that people have saved sealed product all the way back to the inception of the ptcg. What a great thing to be able to experience from your childhood decades later.

I'm eternally grateful to those who treat their collection with care up until they pass it along. There might be a lot of people seeing ptcg as an avenue to make some cash recently, but there are equally those who preserve these things out of love...

So I'd also strongly disagree that it's 'purely' for resale in the first place. It's a display case as much as it is a storage case. If I had a classic box I was gonna display, I wouldn't wanna mess around and end up damaging it, these things can be fragile.

And speaking from experience, I love collecting sealed boosters, but I have no plans to sell them even though I know I could. Sometimes people just wanna collect sealed product the same way other people collect opened product.
 
This is completely aside from this product itself, it's just in response to this sentiment I'm seeing around here.

I don't really see any issue with wanting to collect sealed products as well as protecting them. I feel like there's this weird misconception around these comments that this exclusively for "resale" purposes. Some people just want to collect sealed Pokémon things. Whether it be packs, ETBs, booster boxes, etc. I have friends who are like this, collecting them just for the sake of collecting them. Even I collect a small handful of sealed products, namely with Empoleon on them, because it is a unique item with my favorite Pokémon on it, that is beyond just cards.

I also think it's perfectly fine wanting to preserve these types of things, given that they're a part of Pokémon history in a way- especially if they're scarce, such as things like older booster boxes. If I had a sealed Skyridge box, for instance, I wouldn't open it, as tempting as it would be. The cards in the box are much more common than the box itself.

This is purely for sitting on product in the hopes that it appreciates in value. What the hell else could be the point of a box of sealed products being put into a case? I'm so salty about this. Disgusting behavior to encourage.

These sealed products can have a collectible appeal to people, and thus, they can be considered collectibles. And if something is collectible, isn't it only sensible to want to protect the thing you're collecting? Especially if it's something like a booster box which can be easily damaged? There are tens of thousands of people out there who keep things sealed just to keep them as such, to keep that specific product as its own collectible. Wanting to protect a box isn't solely for value appreciation... And even if it was, It's just like keeping your cards in some sleeves and toploaders. It's so they stay in good shape. And much like @Citrus said, it helps with displaying a box instead of just leaving it on a shelf or whatever.

I don't see what makes this encouraging "disgusting" behavior.
 
what exactly is that appeal?
It's almost certainly a personal thing. I still have a bunch of sealed packs from Fairy Rise purely because of how much I love the art in that set. @AshCo likes Empoleon, hence the appeal of owning sealed products featuring Empoleon. If they ever made a Trapinch box, I would definitely keep a sealed one forever.
 
what exactly is that appeal?

I'm a collector, and I enjoy having sealed things on my shelf. There's something about it. I don't know why, but I can say with certainty that I enjoy it, as much as you like having an anime girl as your avatar.
 
And speaking from experience, I love collecting sealed boosters, but I have no plans to sell them even though I know I could. Sometimes people just wanna collect sealed product the same way other people collect opened product.

But why?

Like, I'm not calling you out specifically. I also have sealed product for ptcg and mtg that I save for various reasons. In the case of pokemon, its fun to open them on stream or with friends; I love smeargle so having a sealed neo discovery pack is part of my collection of that specific character. In mtg, opening packs is reserved for limited generally speaking so there is a gameplay reason as to why sealed product should remain sealed. I get that, and I get that people's tastes are hard to generalize.

Wanting to protect a box isn't solely for value appreciation... And even if it was, It's just like keeping your cards in some sleeves and toploaders. It's so they stay in good shape.

I keep cards in sleeves, sometimes 2x sleeves, because I handle my cards. Same with comics. I don't play with as many of them as often as I used to, but I'm glad I've used sleeves for many years and have cards from across the game's life in great--or rather, consistent--condition. Protection of game pieces (cause, lest we forget, that's what they are) makes sense regardless of the value of the card, for longevity as well as consistency.

This is not that. This is very clearly a product designed to preserve value for the secondary market. There is no game here, no value from a gameplay perspective, to be preserved. There is no reason to handle a box repeatedly. They aren't that fragile and they come wrapped in plastic. Protecting a sealed box of randomly distributed trading cards is protecting the potential value of the objects inside that box. I understand some people do that for fun, for collecting, whatever. I don't have a problem with them doing that, I do it too.

It is the monetization of this kind of behavior that disgusts me. This is a company that regularly interacts with tpci. They distribute cross-brand merchandise with them all the time. Now they are releasing something that encourages the consumer to put a sealed box on a shelf and call it a collectors item. Again, I'm fine with individuals deciding to do that, and I'm fine with them spending their money on whatever they feel best protects or displays that kind of thing. But this is designed to hold pokemon boxes specifically. This is designed to encourage sitting on product, to encourage consumers to protect that product not because it has gameplay value, or artistic value, or value as a card or cards to be traded, but because...? I can think of no other reason to encourage this specific kind of consumer behavior than an implicit promise of increased secondary market value with time.

And not only that, this has tpci's implicit seal of approval.

I'm shocked that anyone could be positive, or even neutral, about this product.

but I can say with certainty that I enjoy it, as much as you like having an anime girl as your avatar.
:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Back
Top