Most businesses are built on the idea of ‘supply and demand’. If you can supply something people demand, you can make money. In the middle of a city, you’ll see lots of bars and restaurants, because there’s a demand. If these hundreds of establishments set up shop in a sleepy village, there would be an oversupply of them, and many would be forced to close. Likewise, you demand piping hot gaming takes, and we supply them. But all too frequently, trading card companies don’t follow this principle, and I’m afraid that might happen withPokemonTCG Classic.
Announced at the recent Pokemon Presents,TCG Classic includes reprints of the original version of the trading card game, alongside some more recent cards. Even with the addition of things like Lugia ex (whatever that means), it should be less impenetrable than the current game, and won’t have constantly evolving rules with new packs and different card types, but will instead be frozen in time. It won’t be tournament legal for serious players, but it will serve two functions well. Firstly, it will allow collectors to get their hands on some rare cards (shiny Charizard, for example), while mostly preserving the value of the originals thanks to the lack of identifying tournament-legal marks and a non-standard card backing. Secondly, it will allow lapsed players like myself to get back into the TCG with a complete set that the game’s rules will never outgrow. Unfortunately, the first function might disrupt the second.
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Another classic idea in business is ‘artificial scarcity’. If you make something rare, more people want it. This is a fundamental principle inside trading card games; while some cards may be more powerful than others, they all cost the same nominal fee to produce. However, because some are produced much less, they become coveted, and thus their value increases. Until recently though, this didn’t extend to the games themselves - if you go to your local store, or look online, you can buy as many packs as you want of any given card game, even buying whole boxes in the hopes of landing a rare card in any given pack. Recently though, this hasn’t been the case.
Artificial rarity for the entire game, rather than an individual card, means that packs themselves become in high demand with no way to verify their value. This leads to the sorts of scenes we’ve seen in the past year or two where white men in cargo shorts and flip flops descend on a store (or McDonald’s) en masse when a new shipment comes in. These dorks aren’t looking to get the cards for themselves, they’re looking to buy up the whole supply so that they can charge a premium for them online. They are buying first just to be able to sell them for more.
They aren’t like local stores, who provide a service, a place to hang out, and offer knowledge insight for a small markup than you’d get buying wholesale.They’re vultureswho ruin the market then, when the game has been destroyed for everyone, get out of town and ruin something else.
Even if, like me, you’re a lapsed card player and have missed this story, at some point in your life you’ll have come face to face with these parasites. Whether it’s seeingSteam Decks,Switch OLEDs, orPS5son eBay for four times the price when stores sit empty, missing out on a limited sneaker drop so some nerd can flip 20 pairs, or finding the Taylor Swift concert sold out apart from thousands on the resale market going for tens of thousands, scalpers are everywhere, and they always suck. They’re like landlords of your hobbies - no value, just the financial freedom to invest heavily and then demanding to be paid for their part in making everything worse.
I have always loved the concept of Pokemon cards. We have TCG experts at the site who keep me informed of the major goings on and cool cards, but the rules seem so far beyond me now. I had Pokemon cards as a kid, the very first set, but we just made up the rules in the playground. Still, I felt like I understood how it all worked then. In my head at least, it was a simpler time. I’ve written aboutwhy Lorcana will be my first card game, and while part of that is being an embarrassing Disney Adult, mostly it’s because I know I can get in on the ground floor. Pokemon TCG Classic is a reset button for millions of us.
Because Pokemon TCG Classic feels like going back to my youth, even if there are some complicated rules I never bothered to learn as a kid, or introduced since then, I know the game itself is set in stone. I’m not going to need to buy more packs down the line or learn new mechanics as they’re added over time, or worry my set will be outdated in a few months if I don’t keep up with the new meta and save up for a new booster box in the hopes of landing the newest card that activates the newest mechanic. Like a board game, it will be a safe and stagnant set of rules that I can learn once and then slowly master.
At least, that’s the plan. The set will be available for $260, and while that’s quite a bit more than I would usually spend on a board game, the sleek look of the sets, the plethora of cards, and the priceless opportunity to relive my childhood will probably convince me to pull the trigger. However, I might not get the chance. If supplies are limited, either through artificial scarcity or some logistical issues, then scalpers will smell blood in the water and will circle with their sharp teeth, padded wallets, and empty lives.
If scalpers buy the sets by the crate and control the market, it will end up going for double, triple, maybe more. Scalpers will always go after Pokemon because the love we have for that chubby yellow mouse knows no bounds and it’s a market full of collectors who don’t want to play at all, they only want to own things. I don’t mind this philosophy too much in principle, but people who will pay anything just to have and not to enjoy further bump up the price for regular players who just want to run a Blastoise deck.
Everyone is going to want the Pokemon TCG Classic. Die-hards might be upset at the lack of tournament legality, but this will be an avenue in for a lot of new players or those like me who think they played as kids but actually just slammed down colourful cards at random. It’s a Pokemon set for the people. Don’t let scalpers ruin it like they ruin everything else.
