Pokémon's 30th-Anniversary Card Set Sees Resale Prices Plunge
A new Pokémon card set released for the franchise's 30th anniversary is the largest print in its history, and resale prices for many cards have fallen sharply as supply rolls out and full-art cards become easier to pull, according to NPR News.
The decline is tied to supply. Videogame website Kotaku reported that the set is the largest print of any Pokémon set to date. The stock is not being released all at once; it is a rollout. The set also makes the most valuable full-art cards much easier to obtain. Normally, a full-art card appears in about one out of every 100 packs, but in this set it appears in about one out of every 18 packs, according to NPR News. As a result, cards such as Mew ex that might have been pricey in a different set have dropped in value by about 96% since pre-release.
The price drop has hit resellers who had hoped to profit from the new set. NPR News reported that resellers, also called scalpers, mobbed retail locations to clear shelves in search of valuable cards to resell. People raced to get in line, and one person allegedly pulled a knife over a disagreement about jumping the line.
Corey Bridges, a producer, wrote in Slack that it had only been a week and a bunch of cards were down 90% in value, according to NPR News. He added that by December, buyers could probably purchase all the cards from the set for not a lot of money.
The broader Pokémon resale market appears to be holding up, however. A single 2004 Torchic card sold for $2.7 million at an auction a few weeks ago, NPR News reported. Vintage cards seem to be maintaining value, while modern cards are less sticky.
Editor's Summary
A 30th-anniversary Pokémon card set is seeing steep resale price declines because it is the largest print in the franchise's history and full-art cards are easier to pull. Resellers initially rushed stores, but many cards have lost most of their value, even as the vintage card market remains strong.