Round 1 began in 1999 - two sons 11 and 13, they were already MTG players and they took to Pokemon. They played, I collected - we did this pretty solid from the base set through Team Rocket, they got a little older and the market seemed flooded so we moved on.
The formula was pretty simple back then - 1st Edition came out followed by Unlimited. Pull rates for holo rares were about 1 in 3 booster packs so somewhere around 60-70 packs (or two boxes) you would have around 20 holos - trade the dupes for whatever you were missing and voila! you got a set.
Fast forward to 2020, with pandemic free time I was able to complete my WOTC Black Star promo set. Now I have pre-school grandkids and I want to turn them on to pack cracking & bindering. So about 10 days ago I started my research of modern cards, to me that's everything post WOTC. OMG there's too much out there! And now cards come in tins, ETB, even 3 card packs at the Dollar Store! So I have some questions:
1. Where can booster packs for an initial release of a new expansion be found? Please don't say Ebay, I'm talking brick and mortar and paying retail.
2. Who is the market? Are kids busting packs or are Millennials reliving their childhood?
3. Are cards still used for deck building - game play? Online playing and Go weren't around 20 years ago.
4. Can packs be weighed for secret / V / VMAX cards? Or do all packs weigh the same now?
5. Can a modern expansion set be collected? With all the ultra special cards with tough pull rates, it must take a lot of packs and/or money to buy to by them to complete a set.
I'll stop for now & wait for you to chime in
The formula was pretty simple back then - 1st Edition came out followed by Unlimited. Pull rates for holo rares were about 1 in 3 booster packs so somewhere around 60-70 packs (or two boxes) you would have around 20 holos - trade the dupes for whatever you were missing and voila! you got a set.
Fast forward to 2020, with pandemic free time I was able to complete my WOTC Black Star promo set. Now I have pre-school grandkids and I want to turn them on to pack cracking & bindering. So about 10 days ago I started my research of modern cards, to me that's everything post WOTC. OMG there's too much out there! And now cards come in tins, ETB, even 3 card packs at the Dollar Store! So I have some questions:
1. Where can booster packs for an initial release of a new expansion be found? Please don't say Ebay, I'm talking brick and mortar and paying retail.
2. Who is the market? Are kids busting packs or are Millennials reliving their childhood?
3. Are cards still used for deck building - game play? Online playing and Go weren't around 20 years ago.
4. Can packs be weighed for secret / V / VMAX cards? Or do all packs weigh the same now?
5. Can a modern expansion set be collected? With all the ultra special cards with tough pull rates, it must take a lot of packs and/or money to buy to by them to complete a set.
I'll stop for now & wait for you to chime in