Pokemon Pokemon is expensive!

[DNA]

By the way, are some people also putting in the price of hotel rooms and whatnot if they go to a tournament that's particularly far away? That's the main deterrent for me: I'm not going to pay $80+ to play the card game with a bunch of people for one more day. (And, of course, getting up at 3 AM to go drive there, then drive back is out of the question.)

2012 is actually the first year I have had to venture so far beyond my house for Pokemon tournaments - I used to stay local, but then I found a friend who would be willing to carpool to various faraway places (this also helps me a lot as I still don't have my license yet).

For Arizona States I had to pay about $300 for both hotel and gas, and for NorCal Regionals I paid $90 for gas (I was staying with my friend's family). I'm not sure if this is going to be a regular thing for me, but it'd probably only be twice a year at most (March and April). I'm already worn out from it.

 

[Incinermyn]

Currently, around $70 a year to get both versions of released games. If I were a TCG guy, you could probably add $180, not including gas to and from events.

I spend about $50 to $200 a year on Pokemon related stuff. I don't play the TCG, so most of that goes just to the videogames (both the main ones and side titles, if one of the latter sounds interesting to me) and the occasional plushie. Otherwise, I may buy a movie if I find one on DVD, which is rare in my area nowadays. However, I'm not too into collecting merchandise beside the stuff I mentioned, but I take a lot of pride in the things that I do own because I'm aware of how pricey stuff gets after a while.

 

[Alan]

Since I don't do much with the TCG at all anymore, I don't spend too much on Pokemon. But If I find something cool like say a AWESOME Pokemon Plushie or something I will take it. I've gotten pretty lucky at Goodwill with stuff. (I got a bunch of cards for about 4 dollars. I got 3 Shining Pokemon cards and a ton of other rarities like a Charizard [But its base set 2, still cool though])

 

[Shiningmilotic]

The cards can be expensive, but it kinda depends of the value of the card and where you buy from. Especially japanese exclusive promo cards and the famous mewtwo card everyone wants to play right now, those prices can be crazy! @_@ As far as pokemon cards I live out all on my own and have always bought my own stuff. Hmm since I recently started playing the tcg at leagues rather than collecting, my personal spendings have actually only slightly increased. I have been buying a lot more cards than before, yes, but I have recently started buying boosters and single cards only online which has saved me quite a bit ( in the past I totally got some super good bargains on ebay like lugia legend+groudon/kyogre legend for $10!!!) Some sites have special pre-prder sales and coupons which help a little. Its hard having a card addiction and trying not to buy stuff at like walmart I would say I spend about and average of $70-$180 on just cards a year. My ebay account its says I have $109 so far this year-just from purchased pokemon cards! <-- thats gradual orders though, not all at once! I now try to spread out spendings to about every few weeks. Pokemon cards however are waaaaay cheaper than yu-gi-oh and magic-my local walmart they are like $8 a single pack! 0.0

hmm the game prices I think are fair. About $40 a game isnt too bad. Im putting like $5 a paycheck into my savings that way I can gradually save up for it ^-^

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I used to get about a pack a week when I was younger for a couple of books when they were cheap. Now, I rarely spend money on packs (unless it's singles) because I am NOT paying $4.19 for packs.

You always can buy cards online! I paid only $2.89 each for my REAL single DE booster packs I buy in bulks ( like 16+) and shipping isnt bad either like $2.50. EDIT: I also wanna point out that I havnt been ripped off from online stores who weigh loose packs-one time I bought 17 BW2 and pulled 2 full arts and lots of the holos! =)

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Is that what you're seeing? Around here, most parents I'm seeing just let their kids do whatever they want. If a kid wants something, the parents buy it. If a kid wants to go somewhere, the parents take them there. I've noticed it for the past several years--the trend around here is that parents cannot bear to see their kids display negative emotions at all, so the kid gets everything he or she wants. Heck, I remember a parent-teacher conference where the mother of this girl spent the whole conference yelling at the teacher defending her "little angel" who can do no wrong, when the girl was obviously a troublemaker.

The worst part is that these kids think it's perfectly normal. So when they encounter a kid who DOESN'T have at least a thousand cards per set, they get confused and encourage the other kids to yell and scream until their parents buy them.

+1000000
Amen.

LOL you dont happen to live in Frisco, TX do you!? That place is over-polluted with horribly spoiled kids. X'D omg parents like that make me sooooo mad because they need to teach their kids to understand they dont always get what you want in life and the things you "want" you have to WORK for. ^-^

 

[Sprinklepock]

I used to spend a lot on Pokemon related merchandise, pretty much all of the money I got for doing chores around the house when I was younger. Now that I've sort of died out of everything but the occasional Gameboy game, probably about as much as one version of the game costs.

 

[Ophie]

+1000000
Amen.

LOL you don't happen to live in Frisco, TX do you!? That place is over-polluted with horribly spoiled kids. X'D omg parents like that make me sooooo mad because they need to teach their kids to understand they don't always get what you want in life and the things you "want" you have to WORK for. ^-^

No, I live in Los Angeles, CA. I'm pretty sure this parenting style is nationwide, though I have no idea how it got started.

2012 is actually the first year I have had to venture so far beyond my house for Pokemon tournaments - I used to stay local, but then I found a friend who would be willing to carpool to various faraway places (this also helps me a lot as I still don't have my license yet).

For Arizona States I had to pay about $300 for both hotel and gas, and for NorCal Regionals I paid $90 for gas (I was staying with my friend's family). I'm not sure if this is going to be a regular thing for me, but it'd probably only be twice a year at most (March and April). I'm already worn out from it.

All right. I hear about how a lot of people here would travel across their whole corner of the world and just stay places for the night. I personally would not sink more money into the Pokémon TCG than I have to. Parking fees annoy me enough--can't there be more venues with free parking?

 

[PumpedAaron]

Hmm, between single cards on E-bay, and 1 main series game and a spinoff, and an occasional bi-weekly booster, and every prerelease, I GUESS that would ammount to, $200-$300? Pff, I'm only thinking off the top of my head. I'll probably edit this post with a better answer later.

 

[Red Monkeys In A Forest]

The only thing I buy any more are the games :/ I used to get all kinds of plushies, cards, figures and all that So the amount I spend really depends on the amount of games they release.

 

[Avegaille]

How much I spend for Pokemon?

Let's see... Pokemon Special/Adventures manga (Chuang-yi ones) costs around 310 pesos (around 7 USD) and comes out every 3 to 6 months for the latest volume here. As of now, I have 38 Volumes of Pokemon Adventures, a complete set of D/P Adventures, and some other Pokemon manga...

TCG wise, I spend around 1500 pesos (around 35 USD) for sealed tournaments of the latest set (but I did have my first prerelease for DE so yay) but as for boosters, I either wait for me to acquire some money so I can buy a box of a set of my choice and that costs 5200 pesos (around 122 USD) (used to be 4500 but they increased it to 5200 starting with Next Destinies). So far, the sets I've bought booster boxes from are B/W and Next Destinies.

And then if there are tins or those boxes with figures or promo cards I like, I would buy it also... like the Reshi and Zekrom boxes and Emboar tin... (bah I originally wanted to buy Emerging Powers booster box that time )

For video games, I only bought Pokemon White and Platinum, each costing around 1500 (around 35 USD) but I get cash discounts from the store I buy it from, making it 1400. I am planning to buy Pokemon Conquest, so that's more money down the drain.

So yeah, I've spent a lot in Pokemon ever since I got a job... *bricked* Not gonna bother computing, but yeah it is one of those expensive things that you cannot just stop yourself from buying.

 

[Aoki]

I spend around $120-$200 dollars a year, most of them spent on prereleases and other TCG merchandise. I would spend more if only my area held a lot more tournaments instead of leagues...

 

[Chimecho3000]

Yup...Pokemon cards are expensive. I ended the TCG with EX Crystal Guardians (well technicially I ended after buying 2 packs of Dragon Frontiers). Yup long time ago...I wish I had ended at EX Power Keepers though; end of the EX series and 3rd gen. I didn't have a job back then and I never got pocket money, so I always wonder how I was able to spend so much money on Pokemon cards...

I'd always dream of buying a whole box of booster packs...but it never happened. Couldn't afford that much. I'm able to buy truck loads of them now though lol.

 

[Buizel]

I used to spend around $150 a year back when I played TCG, but then I made the mistake of giving in to all the pressure about still liking Pokemon and got rid of EVERYTHING, including my DS!

 

[TheTPCProductionz]

Well probably about £500 every year though in 2007 I spent £1800. It was my birthday I got money off my dad after my parents divorced. He gave me £1500. So I spent it all on cards naturally btw I was only 12. I bought all the packs My town had at the time aswell as ordering 2 cases of the Diamond and Pearl Tins. I also bought games and magazines.

This year so far I have spent £140. I am not rich or spoilt if anyone comments I did have a job that I was earning £100 a week. Not anymore though

I spend most of my money on going out etc.

What I spend majority of my money on is football equipment or soccer for you americans.

I bought £229.99 Football boots for my birthday last year