Some Pokémon TCG Illustration Rare are FAR Too Expensive? WHY!? (Pokémon TCG News)

[@Xonoriuss]

I think for some reason people are ignoring the line between IRs and SIRs and just forget about the rarity and consider it like an alt art and pick which art deserves to be expensive ignoring all its traits

[@thehungrymonk17]

I agree . Also it seems like that new gen Pokémon are getting more sir love than older Pokémons and since people like older Pokémon more it makes since that the irs have more demand that some sir despot rarity

[@FlickSwitchGo]

That's how it should be. The fact it has texture or not shouldnt change what people deem it's worth. It's all about Pokemon popularity and how good it the artwork.

[@Xonoriuss]

@@FlickSwitchGo I disagree I think that the rarer cards should be more expensive no matter what because its rare and hard to get so people will pay more to get it and the common art rares should be cheap and possible to get some good artworks without breaking the bank

[@FlickSwitchGo]

@@Xonoriuss wether it's hard to get or not won't change the demand for a card, I think that's the biggest misconception when people speculate on cards that have just dropped. The only rare card from twilight masquerade that will be worth anything is the greninja and Lana's care, popular Pokemon and good artwork. I think Eevee, pinsir, dipplin and infernape will be worth more than what people are predicting.

[@ganjjabarsmedium2347]

I think you are underestimating the collector market who purely focuses on the artists and the art of the cards, collecting like a fine art collector purely for the art

[@ObstagoonGuy]

Exactly, there's a reason why almost every Shinji Kanda card is so expensive.

[@skylerwheeler3974]

Why do you think there should be a correlation between Japanese and English cards?These are non producing assests. They are only litteraly worth what someone will pay. No more no less. Why are trainer cards worth so much more in japan than america? Because culture. Rarity, pull rates non of it means anything. Demand is the only thing that determines price of shiny cardboard.

[@monkey39128]

"These are non producing assets". Shame more people don't understand that.

[@thehungrymonk17]

I agree with a lot of your points . I do think though , there is a correlation between international and Japanese cards BUT it’s not a definitive correlation and it’s not an exact correlation hence the difference in prices lolol . I agree with you saying Demand beats rarity 100% , I think the answer to the price discrepancy is the demand for certain cards are different from America to Japan

[@chasingchases6678]

Glad you said it lol...I paid 50 for magikarp but wouldn't pay 5 for a Japanese one because I don't like Japanese Cards. Spot on with the cultures differences as well.

[@TheKingQazbatt]

Rarity plays a part but is not the end all be all.

[@MJHokage]

I enjoy your content a lot 😎 and here are some points I’d like to suggest imo of course. English cards have a bigger market. Demand for English cards are currently higher than Japanese. English Sets tend to be quite larger making it more difficult to pull the most popular illustration rare. Print quality is better for Japanese cards thus, English cards are tough to grade for those seeking a PSA 10. Pokémon is printing slightly less English cards than they have in the past and Paldea hasn’t seen a reprint yet (that Magikarp gem rate is low in PSA 10’s). And finally, Japanese boxes are so much cheaper than English so the illustration Rares are seen as less valuable , as of right now. The market perception of Japanese cards can certainly change. 😎🧐

[@somesteak6100]

Could you imagine the people decide the prices of cards, stocks, crypto, realestate etc. what a world 😂

[@K3rriganZerg]

We love the art, if the art is good, we pay more for it.

[@blizzliftie]

From what I heard, the difficulty to grade the card is what caused the surge in price. This might be setting a precedence to a very new trend!!!

[@GG98765]

Personally I can see why the Magikarp is up that high. It is a beautiful card and Magikarp holds a special case for many as it's the underdog of the Pokemon world. When you find out then it evolves into an absolute behemoth, it becomes even more attractive. Definitely a collector object rather than player but that's where the money comes from.

[@siveshseevnarain8363]

Why not? Its nearly just as hard to pull a specific art rare as it is to pull a sar. Imo the art rares look even better. In Japanese it is alot easier to pull art rares as there's always 3 in a box and the sets are smaller. Imo it makes sense They are basically art rares

[@siveshseevnarain8363]

With regards to the iono vs karp. It makes sense as well. In english the characters never do well. In english people like pokemon. Thats just how its been.

[@horatiocaine9241]

I think magikarp is popular because the similarity in art to the Giratina

[@sketchuptutorial101]

I think so, but still make no sense since Giratina is champion in many Tournament.

[@lilde7003]

@@sketchuptutorial101bc not everyone plays the game, i do. But all my friends who collect don’t play, only collect

[@ObstagoonGuy]

The Magikarp makes the most sense to me. It is my favorite card of the SV era. The artwork is just amazing. Just look at the other Shinji Kanda cards. Giratina V is also one of the most expensive cards of SwSh. The artist is just SO talented. The new Magneton in Surging Sparks is also made by the same artist.

[@Azumarill29]

Not saying that the prices aren’t inflated too far because they are, but the Japanese ARs are mapped out 3 per booster box with cheaper boxes, also due to combining sets there are way more English IR per set to pull, so pulling tyranitar in English is wayyyyy harder than Japanese. But yeah magikarp should be more like $30 realistically

[@monkey39128]

Might have to buy some Japanese ones. All three of the Baxcalibur art cards in a PSA 10 for under £100 is insane.

[@Azumarill29]

Oh yeah def go for it, I collect only English but I didn’t want the magikarp at $20 so I’m fine lol

[@Hitmon_mike]

Hey Wossy, I think it has to do with how difficult it is to grade it in a PSA 10. For a modern card, it is extremely tough to get that graded 10. This what I think is driving the demand for Magikarp

[@JosephTramm]

It is surprising that the amount of IR's out there that the demand can keep outpacing the supply and keep the price up compared to SIR's that have a much lower hit rate.

[@MrPrestiges]

How does this not make sense? Its literally supply and demand. The market determine the price. The reason why they are expensive is because less people want to open the sets to pull them. 1/20 box to pull 1 card is rough you wont even make your money back at 100$. The question i ask you is why dont you just open your own cases then to pull them and sell them for 20$? Bet you wont. Also pokemon 99% fersure short print cards with out telling people. Moon bron is not same pull rate as other alt arts with the same rarity. Too many people want these cards not enough people want to open packs.

[@jonunciate7018]

Supply and demand isn't that simple, especially if someone has the money to create artificial scarcity. We get screwed over by corpos all the time in real life that way. It can happen on a smaller scale with collectibles.

[@samhsu1271]

Take the tyranitar for example. 1 in 32 for any sir and 1/480 pull rate to guarentee tyranitar. So minimum 64$ worth of packs to get a chance and 17$ is too much? Not to mention japanese boxes guarentee a secret and are cheaper than american boxes.

[@chest2904]

I think it's multiple factors: - english displays are expensive and people try to get as much money back as they can with selling their hits after not pulling a chase card - way more people collect english than japanese so they know some people will definitely pay the price you set on a card just to have it (even if they could just get the card in japanese for way cheaper) I personally started to collect normal ARs in japanese and SARs in english bc it's the cheapest for both "categories"🤓

[@mnite2001]

That is clever.. Unless somebody decides to flex their max rarity deck/album to the community hehe

[@Daunter_Collects]

but aren't art rares in japanese 3 in 1 box? So the japanese full arts would of course be more expensive since there's only 1 per box as to the 3 per box of the art rares, plus, in paldea evolved, there are 30 whatever art rares in the set so it would be way harder to get the one that you wanted in english, and the demand is definately there, so the prices aren't completely crazy, in my opinion.

[@robertf4157]

Besides based on popularity you also have to consider accessibility of the product. In this case, the JP booster box is under $50 w/30pks 150 cards buying 3 of those equals a retail US booster Box in price. Now you have 90 packs to work with and the ratio in each box guarantees to outpace what you get in a single US box. Case in point it is easier to pull the desired card in JP.

[@monkey39128]

A collectible can never be over or underpriced because there are no underlying cash flows. The terms under and overpriced are often misused in Pokémon.

[@mnite2001]

What does it mean by no underlying cash flow? Sorry not really familiar with all these "accounting/ business" side of things... Do you mind explaining a little? 🙏

[@shadowmasstitan344]

no, the reason why it's so high is because a small group of people are buying the cards in bulk. so, what happens is they target a card. then mass buys a specific card and fill binders full of them then start selling those cards to each other. creating the illusion of a highly sought out card. tcgplayer needs to crack down on these individuals because from where I am standing, I will not collect master sets of pokemon cards. because of this.

[@VintedCardfair]

Look PSA 10 pop and there is the answer

[@monkey39128]

Yeah the Magikarp was in the 500's last time I checked and the Tyranitar was in the 150's. That's insane for a modern card.

[@monkey39128]

Paldea Evolved makes sense because it's insanely hard to grade. I'd be wary about buying at these prices though as print quality could improve with a reprint.

[@Germydabrave]

I pivoted into graded vintage recently. So many deals...still love SIR

[@monkey39128]

Yeah same. Vintage is so cheap and being completely ignored. No idea if it'll ever go up but at these prices who cares.

[@JosephTramm]

It seems completely reasonable that cards in different languages would have different customer bases. I don't see why prices should always line up between English and Japanese sets. An example we have always seen is in the Full Art Trainers (and later SIR Trainers).

[@leewilliams5559]

I have only seen in person only 2 of the Magikarps, 0 Groudons, 1 Tyranitar and 2 Gastly illustration rares. but the others I've seen plenty of times, it'd say its to do with how rare those ones actually are. I've opened a case from each set and when I go to my locals or do some trades, there are yet still some Illustration rares we've never actually seen in person.

[@JITSE_YT]

These cards are the prettiest cards and have the biggest nostalgia factors. I think the market is just very different than Japan. Look at the Waifu's in the english sets, so much cheaper over here. It makes perfect sense in my opinion

[@Icantthinkofanameman]

Cool artwork/nostalgia will always dictate the price. The next factor will probably be playability. Sometimes prices of cards just dont make sense.

[@Fred86m]

Besides the fact that these cards are being bought out, another reason these card is going up is the poor print quality of the illustration rares in the SV era. For example, Magikarp has a 22% chance to hit a psa 10 (only 603 psa 10s as of now compared to 2682 graded) and the price of the psa 10 is like 650 dollars. So people are buying up the card to trying to grade it.

[@37setvo]

I dont play the game but i collect the illustration rares because i love the art . And there you go .

[@shawnmoore3969]

i have that magikarp that i pulled at prerelease, been in my binder ever since and i had no idea of the price hike and definitely considering selling lol. its a cool card but I'm not crazy into alt art cards (unless they are dragon cards, my one guilty pleasure of collecting), id rather sell them to get the cards that i do want to play the game with. I'm not investing in Pokemon I'm here to play the game. i see that magikarp and go oh look i can sell it for 4-5 prime catchers 😅(not that you really need that many just kinda crazy to imagine its value). Scalpers are still a problem especially in my area, most of the LGS put a limit on buying packs/boxes unless your a frequent player in events at the store, and its not just with Pokemon.

[@Treinador_de_Sombras_094]

Drapult Ex what the pricing expectation?

[@jasonlpap]

As someone who pulled 3 of the paldea evolved magikarp, I am perfectly fine with this.

[@JoshZ802]

I think for me it’s the decisions pokemon is making to highlight less desirable designs as SIRs and people are gravitating towards the IRs instead and also the quantity of SIRs vs IRs. Like in paldea evolved I’ve pulled a set each starters final evolution but only one magikarp, and no tyranitar. Because there are only a few SIRs but a ton of IRs it’s harder to pull specific IRs. Also for me a lot of them are just more appealing designs, similarly to how I felt about alt art v vs vmax, some of them just look better 🤷‍♂️

[@Thomas-ho4rs]

I think the emergence of whatnot (and TikTok before) really affected the hobby now you got live auctions where people pretend to panic about cards going too cheap to get people to buy cards for inflated prices

[@capitalp6577]

They are going higher. They are hard to pull and look great wossy. Buy now

[@flookaraz]

I didnt realize the English was so expensive. I got the tyranitar from a pack last year

[@jonunciate7018]

I always wondered about these. I have a Groudon I pulled from a pack too. Cool looking card but I'm not a huge fan of the pokemon. I should probably trade it or something before the price goes down.

[@bscu0493]

The reason is gem rate… the English card does not grade…. It grades around 30%. Look at the PSA 10 value.

[@thehungrymonk17]

Love the channel!!! You said the explanation is “ a bunch of people went hey yah that magikarp is cool and started pushing the price up” . I feel like that’s literally the reason why the price is high yah? It’s not this weird mystery. You answered the question yourself . I’ve heard you say and believe you when you say rarity dosnt mean more than demand . If a card is a 1 of 1 but no one wants it then it’s not going to be expensive. I don’t think this card is super rare it’s just super in demand currently. Love your uploads btw , all love , just making discussion. Cheers!

[@Guyu]

Can you do some TerraFyte contact?

[@marcelvinke736]

I agree with you that the card is over priced (though being an iconic card), but I do not fully agree with the Japan argument, because pull rates for illustration rares in Japanese (3 per box) are way better than the pull rates for English ETB’s or BB’s.

[@nolanhock8888]

The illustration rares in america are much harder to pull, since the sets over here are far more bloated, it is far more harder to pull one in english over Japanese since the sets are a 3rd of the size so its much easier to hunt for a card you want

[@og8403]

I bought the Magikarp from tcgplayer when it was around 62 USD. I was lucky and got a great card bcuz it graded a psa 10.

[@rebornstudios2511]

Hi, just my two cents... But isn't because it's artwork done by the same person who did the Giratina V artwork. ( regarding the Magikarp) Also I love your videos and your voice. You honestly make me feel relaxed!

[@hiddenmosaic]

Market manipulation, if a card is more money, more people want it, more people buy it, value goes up, and the cycle repeats.

[@ghostfacescrillaNG]

Luckily for me I don’t buy cards to flip. I buy artworks to display in my cabinet so I can buy cheap Japanese ARs in a PSA 10! Bought a Poliwhirl and Groudon AR in a PSA 10 for £75 lol. Same cards in English would cost probably around £250-£300. Kinda ridiculous. Also Japanese cards are a much higher quality.

[@jim2292]

Personally love the magicarp card one of my all time favorites I would pay 100$

[@emiwisp9277]

Be me, open about 15 packs of Temporal Forces. Pull 2 IR Gastly. Immediately see this video. Me: "Huh. Guess I'm being lucky again."

[@Nintixo]

Imagine if these cards were textured 😓😓

[@BadDays2050]

I don’t understand what you don’t understand about the art rates. All of them are from earlier generations, 1 from each new set..you’ve made a case for why there’s one in each set honestly 😂😂.

[@dannyvu6403]

Western people like collecting Pokemon, not as much trainers. They also don’t like brand new mons (which they get majority of sirs). So people want to buy their comfort mon in each set of the higher rarity. (Groudon, magikarp)

[@brandonborrayo5065]

This dosnt make sense because these artworks are the first of its kind in the pokemon world. No rainbows no golds no full arts. Actual artwork the magikarp is a work of art. Then you get into what kind of art is popular in each region. And this is all subjective. And the price is just supply and demand. In conclusion these prices ARE ridiculous but that's the nonsense behind it

[@matthewfix1344]

This is your 5th or 6th time posting your fixation on the Magikarp IR. Let it go.

[@EddieHearnTimestampsGuy]

clueless again

[@davidhayns9108]

It’s the psa low gem rate

[@FlickSwitchGo]

ALL THAT MATTERS IS POKEMON POPULARITY AND HOW GOOD DOES THE CARD LOOK? Artist, population, rareity, playability or what it is in japan MEANS NOTHING. I've been saying this for years

[@breloopharos1919]

Iron Boulder is less playable than ghastly. Just sayin but I understand one is an ex, which is harder to pull.

[@fsasguy87]

People can really be stupid. Magikarp is a beautiful card, but I will never pay $100 for it. I would pay around $30 for it because that’s what it should be worth.

[@dandok3996]

Ill ask the same question that I asked when you were streaming on whatnot. Who genuinely cares? If regular cards are increasingly more accessible for players, the price of "collectable" alt arts shouldnt be of any concern, if collectors want to spend stupid money on an alt art to stick in a binder forever more power to them

[@alphonse2234]

Demand for the art

[@bbq1040]

What is so confusing about the card being expensive? Why are charizard cards expensive? The card is cool looking and in high demand. What more of an explanation do you need? The price of cards are driven only by demand.

[@theDocDuerr92]

because we're sick of giraffe raikou and cheeky monkeys being the features of every set - especially when characters like dragonite, tyranitar and gengar have been in these SV sets. feature the obvious feature pokémon with SIRs. don't just throw in a random IR 1st stage evolution of a classic character and call it good. SV has been carried solely by its playability in the game and totally sucked the life out of the collecting side. so you have these classics that aren't even SIRs, just IRs, that accumulate all of this undue attention simply because everything around them sucks.

[@DonKlec60]

I collect 0 Japanese. I don’t want any Japanese card. I can’t read it. I want to be able to read my cards. I will pay more for English than for any Japanese card. They don’t have to match up and that’s the way it supposed to be

[@kirstybailey5590]

They have great art work duh!

[@ThelastAmericanpodcast]

Just to let anyone know, who plans on building a future deck. It’s a scam. Pokémon’s latest cash grab. Future hands will not top. You’re better off throwing your money in the trash.

[@seansmith2650]

These prices are ridiculous? Dont look at one piece cards

[@thehungrymonk17]

Og Pokémon with dope art , I get why their expensive

[@SDCISHERE]

Omg

[@randyhernandez5469]

Paldea evolved is a trash set, so no one wants to buy it. U might as well buy the hits and not get the set

[@Pokedad1212]

That's exactly what I did instead of trying to pull them

[@TrickyPanda65]

If its a trash set why buy the cards? 🤔

[@randyhernandez5469]

@@TrickyPanda65 personally not to many cards I want in that set. Let’s say I only 5 cards and not much else. I might as well just get those cards and call it day. While other sets are filled with many cards I want and maybe many valuable cards too

[@Azumarill29]

Personally it’s a top 5 set since XY the sheer amount of great cards is amazing

[@monkey39128]

I love that set! No set with Baxcalibur can be trash.

[@AnimeDynasty001]

First Ha!🎉

[@AceTrainerX]

Second O:

[@AnimeDynasty001]

First

[@GiuseppeDimarco-qm6bw]

Iono Boring 😴 magicarp 🔥🙊