Discussion Last year's staples value

[Eltyr]

I started playing just after the most recent rotation.
As you all know, godd card used in standard decks coming from last year's batch are very expensive compared to their rarity, most common example is Brigette, being sold at 9€ on cardmarket (which should be the lowest prices aviable) despite being a uncommon card.
The examples continue with things like Octillery and Zoroark, both around 5€, and uncommon rarity items like Max Elixir, Fighting Fury belt and so on.
I was wondering how come these cards have such a high value. I could come up with only two explanations, and since i started this year I don't know wheter it's a seasonal thing (last year's card that are not riprinted gain value every time, and next year we'll pay 4€ for cards we get for much less now) or it's caused by switching from EX to GX pokemons, making last year's batch of cards less playable, raising the price for the good cards that need to have high enough value to justify cracking packs open.
Please enlighten me, mainly thinking about wheter or not stack two or three playset of staple cards now instead of after rotation.

 

[Salshred]

I started playing competitively right around the same time as you. It was right around last year's Worlds, and Tapu Lele had just dropped. I think the high cost of some of those cards you mentioned comes from the fact that they just weren't printed in many sets. I noticed some cards, like Ultra Ball and Double Colorless Energy, seem to be constantly reprinted every other set. I look at my binder and see 50 Ultra Balls I have pulled since I started. But cards like Max Elixir only got one run, so they seem to be harder to find. Plus it seems that whatever cards are being played in the most recent "Best Deck if the Month" shoot up to strangely high prices. I remember when Guardians Rising came out I pulled sooo many Dusk Form Lycanroc GX cards. I wanted to sell a few, but they were going for less that $2. Then all of a sudden, Zoro/Lycanroc becomes popular and the price of Lycanroc shoots up to $7.

They way Pokémon is reprinting certain cards over and over again with it's new sets (looking at you Lillie!) I feel like it will be easier to get the staples for cheaper going forward. Plus, now that I'm fully invested and obsessed with this card game, I buy all the sets as they come out. That way I usually don't have to track down older staple cards like I had to do last year for stuff like N and Brigitte. I have also learned that, as much as l love cracking open booster boxes of new sets, its way cheaper to just buy singles of the cards you want after the set drops.

 

[F4H_Jay]

Another reason is that the sets most of those cards are from are no longer printed. Take Guardians rising as an example, once that goes out of print Lele will shoot up in price for example.

 

[AuraJackle]

Well zoroark and octillery both got a deck they are used in so it makes sense they are are higher in price. You also have to consider viability in expanded keeping a price high. Last years rotated staples seemed to all but drop out of existence after guardians came out (thanks for that garb) in fact other than vs seeker I dont think very many decks played cards on the ancient trait era and the only decks from that era that maintained competitive viability were mega ray and vespiquen. As for your last statement the price of individual cards has no bearing on whether packs are bought or not at least from the pokemon company's point of view they dont make the price it's the aftermarket sellers that do that. If you want to get some cards b4 they go up in price you gotta look at cards that have possible increased play after the new sets as well as every card in the each set and see if they have the potential to be good. Then you can get ahead of the curve and get your playsets of cards b4 the price spike.

 

[Eltyr]

So the smart thing to do is get all the cards that could be good now before they spike, but not worrying about items and supporters that will be reprinted.
Really guess I should finish my Tapu Lele FA playset before guardian rising goes out of printing, and stack up on Cynthias since they will skyrocket after rotation and will problably not be reprinted anytime soon since now they do generational expansions and they already did DPPt.
Will probably get as many Malamar as I can too, before the results of the first tournament with forbidden light comes out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Would like to stack up on Charizards for my League's kids since it will be a decent non-gx deck like Garchomp, but being charizard it'll probably have an unreasonable price for the start.
Well then, I'm off to buy playsets of guzman and the like now.

 

[PokeMedic]

So the smart thing to do is get all the cards that could be good now before they spike

As Meowth would say: that's right!

 

[Latte1504]

Would like to stack up on Charizards for my League's kids since it will be a decent non-gx deck like Garchomp, but being charizard it'll probably have an unreasonable price for the start.

If you are looking to build something like this, I would just build straight Garchomp or Empoleon, because Charizard is Charizard after all... Also, both of the other 2 decks are theme decks.