ARE THE RUMORS TRUE? Pokemon Market Manipulation! (Market Analysis)

[@pokene_pokemon]

The Pokémon community: “PSA is the easiest to grade with a 10 - they hand them out” Also the Pokemon community: “they’re suppressing 10’s!!!” Great video

[@jasonfuller2734]

PSA is a joke chief. For the past decade they handed out 10s to get the market lead. Now? Well now they have started to grade and the only thing consistent about their grades are their inconsistent grades.

[@xileets]

@@jasonfuller2734 Isn't this a contradiction? Consistent == non consistent?

[@RonnieMarcusJr]

Hands down GameStop is about to come in and manipulate the market 👁️

[@MrMasterSet]

Man, every time I watch one of your vids I walk away so much more knowledgable about the hobby. It feels like I'm watching a non-biased independent news channel dedicated to my favorite hobby. You, sir... are a legend!

[@Chirs67]

Pop control: basically under grade so you can resubmit is the incentive. PSA’s reputation: why would they try to keep a reputation when they still stay as the top company even when they’re outed for grading fakes, damaged cards as 10’s, altered cards, or the issue some have had where their card is lost and the customer has to jump thru hoops to get refunded or in some way the card back.

[@sightfulmedia2629]

I submitted a pack that wasn’t in there system and it got rejected after it went passed grading on the label it said no specific info no grade voucher no holder do not holder I know if it says do not holder it means questionable authenticity and I also know no grade means that they could not grade because of certain reasons and that they don’t charge the full amount paid after they shipped it out the day before they didn’t say anything until the next day and they said they knew what it was I’m never going to submit anything that’s not in there system ever again

[@pokemon_classics]

Obviously, PSA is far from perfect; however, the examples you cited are the exception, not the norm. PSA grades over 1 million cards every month, mistakes are inevitable with that sort of volume and will gain much more exposure than the millions of submissions that run smoothly. Think about it . . . 60,000-70,000 cards are graded daily. They already have everything to lose and little to gain; why risk it? They don't need to rely on resubmissions and have been taking steps to make it harder to crack and resubmit.

[@sightfulmedia2629]

@@pokemon_classics the pack that I sent I know it was not tampered with because it is a see through foil pack did you not see there new terms and conditions if you submit a card or pack don’t risk it and send it if it’s not in there system they will charge you now because they said in there new terms and conditions that now if it was to reject they will not give a refund because of paying there graders ridiculous

[@sightfulmedia2629]

@@pokemon_classics the pack I sent was a Disney pack like Pokémon I don’t get why they would reject it if they do Disney packs it was in grading with in two months then they sent it back didn’t say anything until the next day why didn’t they say anything in research and ID

[@ShiningCardsandCollectibles]

Stop making sense

[@MetalBum]

Loved these. Never stop doing these bro❤❤❤❤😊

[@robertbenavente955]

I love the classics in the morning! Thank you brother!

[@PokeFangOfficial]

The upcharge for expansive cards is way too high. It’s like they are charging a premium for helping you make a ton of money on a flip even if you’re not grading it to sell. I have so many alt arts that I pulled myself that I can’t afford to grade because PSA wants to charge stupid amounts to give the same service as a $1 card.

[@pokemon_classics]

I'm not a fan of upcharges . . . I see why they are necessary, to maintain insurance for their grade guarantee. It still seems exploitative and a conflict of interest to me.

[@kristinmarquardt6851]

Love what you bring to the community. Keep it up

[@shuggnastee]

Love a good conspiracy video. 1. Pop control: like you said in one of your recent videos, grading companies have more incentive to grade easier when they’re are newer companies trying to grow their market share. Conversely, as the company becomes more established, they are incentivized to grade more consistently/accurately. I think people forget this and are instead attributing this change in grading as PSA and other well established grading companies controlling population. 2. The Cabal: For the safety of me and my family, I can not comment. 3. Price/ market manipulation: This probably happened in the past more-so than now. While attempts to manipulate the market are definitely made, Pokemon has grown to a size that would be difficult for an individual or group to effectively manipulate the market. I would say that liquidity has a played a big role in attracting more market participants and diversified the stakeholders of the market. Furthermore, arbitrage definitely plays a role in preventing market manipulation due to sellers buying products at much lower price and undercutting one another. There are so many points to talk on about this subject to put in a single comment. Great video PC!

[@Poketens]

It’s nice to hear a well thought out take on these rumours! Man you consistently put out great videos! Keep it up!

[@scottlloyd5324]

ive seen enough proof on reddit etc of people sending in good looking 1st edition charizard and getting back ridiculous grades. Like everyone was in agreement.

[@IneptCardCollector]

First time I've seen you on here, and you made a very good vid! Subbed

[@xileets]

IDK where I made this comment before, but conspiracy theories seem to proliferate today because of people's need and desire for special information. With the increased dopamine drive from the internet and socials, the lure of "secret information" and conspiracies are addicting and even more attractive to people today.

[@DamaCollectsCards]

I have singlehandedly made the Morty’s SIR and Gastly IR go up 200-300% by buying them out (with no intention of selling them for gain/profit). It costed me about 2k for each individual card, through it I proved any single individual can do it with minimal money, strictly by just buying a card. Manipulating the Modern English Market is much easier than people think, a single card usually ranges from $1k-$2k in order to buy it out, resulting in the community FOMO pushing it higher or retaining an artificially inflated price. I’m fine talking about this/admitting it due to the fact I never made profit, I strictly did it because I enjoyed the cards and wanted to give them away. Others may have a different agenda however.

[@pokemon_classics]

Two things: if you bought the cards because you wanted them and kept them, is that market manipulation or just supply and demand at work? Also, would a buy-out like this be sustainable over a long period of time or just temporary volatile spikes? I assume the market self-corrected on these as the short burst in demand subsided and additional supply was listed. Right?

[@DamaCollectsCards]

@@pokemon_classics The effects of it were an artificial 200-300% gain followed by a 100% correction over the next 2 months. So even though it semi “corrected” it still consolidated at over 100% higher than the original price, post the buy out. Proving these small buyouts with no intention of manipulation can still have long lasting effects on the consolidation price. If these cards were manipulated for financial gain, either the effects last longer or the consolidation price would be higher I assume. Also, in all technicality it is Supply and Demand, but clearly in my case it was semi used to prove a point regarding the market while also selectively choosing some Pokemon I like for said experiment.

[@DamaCollectsCards]

@@pokemon_classics Technically supply and demand, but an attempt to prove how easy manipulating a card is was the goal. In terms of the card values, they rose by 200-300% and followed that by consolidating to around 100% higher or 2x the original price before I purchased them.

[@warwickmilne3149]

i have done the same with base set booster packs on ebay at the start of the year they went up $200-$300 after i was done with my buying spree

[@stevehoff3837]

What site are you using to see data on specific cards? The one used on Blissey 4:24

[@pokemon_classics]

TCGFish . . . lots of data on there.

[@stevehoff3837]

@@pokemon_classics Thanks! Great video

[@HenDawg.206]

How do you only have 13k subs is what I wanna know, honestly

[@pokemon_classics]

I appreciate the kind words. I don't have time to post videos daily, but I'm content with the slower schedule and hopefully higher-quality . . . even if it's not as conducive to subscriber growth.

[@project1811]

Hello Korea poketmon market is down now days. Can you compare different between different country market prices with Erika's cards Thank you

[@robertbenavente955]

Question! Who and how do "they" decide which card is hot & what starting price should it start at? Thank you for your time.

[@pokemon_classics]

Sorry, I don't understand your question. Can you rephrase it for me?

[@Al_Dee]

Why do we even give the PSA the power. They already fired their only Pokemon expert employee

[@Sleepy4213]

Ya. So Beckett 100% population controls. I have sent them 3 cards with 100% perfect centering using digital measurements, 2 9.5 centering grades and 1 10.0. Then they proceeded to put 9.5 on corner or surface to bump it down. Cards all received PSA 10 because they were perfect cards

[@qalandaryar]

Anything that involves larges sums of money is going to inherit some type of manipulation.

[@DittoFaction]

Good job taking a moment to snip some red strings!

[@itsantonioparker]

Great more rare hunters to deal with np

[@JH-cb2zf]

I think it is partially true. I would say it is a combination of Fomo, hypetubers, and end of reprints for swsh. I am already seeing poketubers hyping up crown zenith as the next big spike, so it definitely is partially manipulative.

[@pokemon_classics]

Hype/FOMO is definitely real and can be manipulative (depending on extent and motive). Generally, I would consider price manipulation to require shill bidding, false sales, or some other sort of numerical deception.

[@7itemstone]

yes

[@_______6398]

“To see if there’s any validity to the conspiracy theories… through my opinions that are not backed by any data or documentation” 😂🤡 there’s no validation of any degree of validity in other words

[@pokemon_classics]

Logical soundness can be critiqued independent of factual/numeric accuracy. Most conspiracies exist because of anecdotal evidence and a lack of definitive data or documentation to prove or disprove them. I acknowledged this limitation and my intent: examine the logic of each, which parts have factual basis, and which parts are speculative or even fallacious. I welcome your counterarguments to any of the claims I offered.

[@tcgbuyersclub]

I am the cabal 😎

[@maxwellgonzalez8418]

🔥🔥🔥

[@jonbanker]

I think one incentive grading companies have with population control is the volume of submissions over time for that low pop card. There are a number of people who crack and resubmit a certain card which in turn the grading company is getting paid the grading fee each time they grade that card. Not to mention the single submissions for a card. I do believe your point on a grading company being more thorough on specific cards to protect them in terms of their guarantee is more likely the reason for what seems like “pop control” but I could see it plausible that they control to receive more volume. They know Pokémon collectors love the chase!

[@pokemon_classics]

Interesting point . . . I didn't consider that. I'm skeptical that PSA is intentionally hoping to capitalize on resubmissions of relatively low-value cards, but I suppose it's possible. They've actually taken steps to make it more difficult to crack and resubmit (thicker cases, scans, etc).

[@jonbanker]

@@pokemon_classics Very true. I think PSA (or some other grading company) logs the holo patterns if I’m not mistaken. I don’t think my statement is most likely but it could be a possibility. They have created a second chase after pack opening and they benefit immensely for things to feel like a true goal to hit so you continue to use there services. If everything graded a 10, people would loose interest. But I do agree, most likely they are concerned about their reputation and financial guarantee.

[@SDCISHERE]

Hit the like button