I think the point that is missed in this video is someone wanting a product but not being able to afford 8 of it, or 10 of it. Those people buying 10 or 20 single packs appear to be few and far between. Someone wants to open Dragon Majesty, or invest in Dragon Majesty, and maybe they don't have $400, but they have $50 so they can buy a pack. That's what I can contribute to this phenomenon. This is the reason why I have multiple ETBs of certain sets. At the time I did not have the capital to buy a booster box of a set - but I had some money to be able to buy an ETB to gain that exposure.
Exactly what's happening. This dude's a joke. Buying bulk in anything is always cheaper than buying individually. From food to Pokemon cards. I know per item a barrel of mt dew is cheaper per ounce than a bottle of it. But a barrel costs a grand and a bottle costs 2 bucks.
Keep in mind that's what's happening right now. But keep sealed until you're ready to sell. Absolutely do not open them until it's time to sell. Markets change. Keep yourself protected. There is really no sense to open other than to save space and your taking a risk on loosing out on money. KEEP SEALED KEEP SEALED KEEP SEALED!!!!
Interesting. For the older more expensive sets I reckon the reason for this is people not wanting to pay $200-300 for an etb and instead they add a single sealed pack to their collection. But with the newer sets I’m scratching my head on why this is. Crown zenith is especially a weird one. I guess the good news is you don’t have to store all that extra crap in an etb for speciality sets now and shipping will be cheaper which also increases profits. I HATE etbs so I’ve been buying Japanese booster boxes for the speciality sets (vstar universe instead of crown zenith, 151 JP vs English ETB’s, etc) but this might make the English speciality sets more appealing to me for an investment.
Me as a mediocre investor & collector only buy a etb when my fav pokémon is on it, or when it has a killer promo but then i open them or i just buy the promo. (i have 3 atm) They take up alot of space and i rather fill the space with boosters, checklanes, blisters & cards. May sound stupid but thats also the reason i started to invest sleeved boosters, because alot of people are in my situation. I can store more value with less space. We don't have unlimited space or hangars to store our stuff. 45eur buys us one ETB (one set) or 2 artsets (possible more sets) and takes up less space. People forget about the practical stuff when investing, only $$$
My guess would be that they don't want to rip open a sealed product like an ETB from those special sets, but still want to rip packs. But still not sure what the logic is there when the sealed ETB is cheaper. Obviously these shops are seeing that and ripping the ETBs themselves and selling off the packs/promos separately.
Thanks Alex. Great advice. Think I have to adapt. Have like 20 plus Lance’s Charizard & Dark Sylveon Celebration Box and it is not selling. Each box have 4 celebration packs, 1 ES and 1 FS. Have a great day Alex.
Be patient please. I have maybe 30 plus of them and I've sold a lot after holding them for a year. I've even sold by breaking the box and separating the celebrations and the evo&fusion. Just have to find that person that finds interest in them. There will always be newcomers and they would want it.
Even battle styles went up per pack. Keep it sealed. My nest egg was going all in on the 25th I’m seeing gains on all products from ETBs,tins,collection boxes
one thing to consider is people might want to keep an etb sealed so they buy a few loose packs to open. idk anyone picking up 10 packs at a time, but i can see someone buying 1 or 2 just to open for a one pack magic or pack vs. i agree it makes more sense to just buy the etb then sell the extras to recoup some of the money spent, but hey not everyone is smart lol. also one last thing these could be tcg local shops. because my local shop is selling celebrations packs for 10 bucks each. im sure these hobby shops are buying up the loose stuff to sell behind the counter and marking it up to make profilt.
Good video! Example would be Eli, who has been doing this for the longest time, hence his massive collection of battle academies, stadiums, and tins that he cracks for the packs!
This is the same as to why booster boxes will be selling $30 over msrp when Pokemon Center still has them in stock. I think there is a huge turnover for consumers right now, so the majority don’t full understand product availability and which one is best for their wallet.
I would say this people want the sealed product bit it may be too expensive. My few recent videos i talk about cheaper products to invest in. But i agree.
I ain't selling anything right now so this doesn't mean anything to me. Let's see how things are in another year or two. Sealed product is much better long term.
you have to consider that more people are buying ultra modern to open, while-i would assume- there would be more people buying older stuff to keep sealed. It makes sense there is more demand for single packs now, but in the future when these are out of print it will be different. I would not consider opening sealed just to sit on packs becuase things will likely change as less people are buying to rip.
Hey. Just wanted to add one thing Alex. When you do your math for price per pack. When you buy multiple packs or cards from someone. You only pay shipping once. So if packs are say 3.99 plus 99 shipping. Only ONE pack would cost 4.98 the rest would all be 3.99
9:38 He might have missed this. While the price says $4.10 per pack the people who bought 68 and 25 packs paid $3 per pack. So the sold listing was lower than the current price.
So the message is keep sealed and see what the market does over time. If the packs are bringing in more individually than the etb product they came out of, you can always just open the product and sell the packs.
Still better of just buying sealed. Packs may just be inflated. It's always more for sealed because it's unweighed and not tempered with. Also for the more expensive products it's more people with an extra 50 to spend than 500. So that might differ but I still can command more money sealed.
I think people don't do their research or are not really into the information about ETB. People might think special sets ETB only have 8 packs instead of 10 packs. people should be educated on each products
There’s is a value in a booster boxes bc your kinda guaranteed a X amount of hits IE secret rares.. but you don’t know what box you got out of that case of booster boxes.. Sealed will always Rule
Haha. 😂 You just go ahead and do that. Nothing will compare to sealed long term. The more etbs that are ripped and sold by peace is better for the patient sealed collectors. 😎
Do you think this has anything to do with pack opening? At the end of the day, people want to open packs. If I want to open a few packs of Dragon Majesty for my TH-cam, TikTok channel, or just for fun, I may not want to buy 10 packs for $400. Sure you get the promos and such but I can afford two packs for $90 vs shelling out $400. Pricing dynamics has more to do with cash availability when prices get higher. And most folks can't afford $400 boxes on the regular. Just a thought. Good video
I agree it makes sense to pay that convenience fee when buying only a pack or 2 of those expensive sets but it doesnt make sense when you see people buying 10 and 20 packs of the newer sets for more than the ETBs cost per pack.
Love it dude, keep it real, keep us grounded. Good lesson today, the market doesn't care about logic sometimes. There's some other logic they know that we don't.
I think I try do that with crown zenith ultra premium collection get 11 packs instead of 10 with promo figure etc sleeves worked out a better deal than the ETB for me! Can’t argue with what the people want because there the ones opening it we are ones trying to make the best judgment calls!
Just keep it sealed. Time is the multiplier and you cant predict that one day this wont change again when supply drops. Your strat works for min maxing in current market
What do you mean by counterintuitive? This isn't saying anything negative about modern. It's just showing with specialty sets the value is in the packs less than the sealed product becuase there are no booster boxes.
I wonder how much of it is just the customer not knowing or not caring how many packs are in an etb. I wouldn’t blame them Pokémon keeps changing the pack count on etbs all the time it seems. It’s almost like the customer is paying to not keep the “bulk” lol
I mean those ppl are probably just dumb/lazy. I’d imagine the volume of those type of sales is lower than etb sales. Like on the hidden fates example, the 10 pack sale was from the 13th. But there was probably a few recent sales of the etb.
Once you’ve bought and opened one ETB I absolutely see no point in buying them again unless the per pack value is fair value because no one wants the extras you’re talking about.
It’s because the actual money moving in this market is in cards people wanna pull the ultra rares they don’t care about all of the extras they wanna rip packs and get that hopefully feeling and the nostalgia rush from finally pulling the card it’s that simple people in this hobby want one thing TO RIP PACKS so it’s not surprising the money flows into packs and not bundles no one cares about the extras
Maybe it's people on more of a budget. They don't have enough money for a full sealed product investment/rip. Not everyone wants to or can dump half a grand on pokemon. But hey they can afford an over priced booster pack.
Once Pokemon boxes go over around $250-300 demand drastically falls. Hell even with hidden fates we go 2-4 days between sales. There does seem to be quite a lot of retail/wholesalers with decent quantities availble to effect that. Splitting up sealed products for a premium makes sense for those that can't afford it. Though I will say all of those orders of 1-2 packs of hidden fates is a punch in the dick with the fees and $5 shipping. There are some purchases of 5-50 packs which would be much more worth it for sellers.
This is basic retail math. Customers will spend $20-30 dollars without the slightest hesitation...but when half of the USA has zero or less than $1k in savings...spending $300 dollars or more is a major life decision for them. And I hate to say it, but most of the Pokémon collectors I have met...are not financially stable. The other point, is trash...ETBs have so much trash in them for collectors, who do not want to do the work to try and sell off poor quality sleeves, a promo, and dice, etc..
This doesn't account for the people buying 10 and 20 packs are a time of the sets where the etbs are cheaper. They are spending the same amount, actually more, and getting less. I understand buying a pack or 2 when you can't afford the full ETB but for the newer stuff it doesn't make sense.
The only issue is these booster packs or anything related that you are selling for let’s say 20$… you have the cost you paid for the product.. shipping will be a minimum 3.66$ if it’s not just a single…and then the 10-13% from eBay/tcgplayer.. basically you lose 6-7$ right off the bat. It’s slow and just enough to make A little side cash.. but with shipping costs and material being so high. It easier to buy forever stamps from eBay.. and ship in PWE. You also avoid BS claims Of packs being resealed or weighed etc etc.. sitting there trying to get those reviews taken down etc. for a side gig this is way too much work for the low return sadly
For each item, you showed around one case as an example of someone buying more single packs...and not wanting the trash as I explained above does account for why we do not do it, I will pay extra, so I do not have more trash to deal with. Also 1, even 100 does not really create a statistical poll of reliable data...so this needs a lot more analysis to work out. @@NostalgiaNomics
I'm not following u here at the end here. How are u going to get the packs if u aren't buying booster bundles and etbs? Are u talking about just buying loose packs on eBay and then sitting on those? I'm not following how I will get the loose packs if u aren't buying sealed items
Sorry. I meant i will be going after any item that has the lowest cost per pack no matter what that item is because the packs are clearly the value and the sealed items other than the BB's dont seem to hold an additional premium.
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I think the point that is missed in this video is someone wanting a product but not being able to afford 8 of it, or 10 of it. Those people buying 10 or 20 single packs appear to be few and far between. Someone wants to open Dragon Majesty, or invest in Dragon Majesty, and maybe they don't have $400, but they have $50 so they can buy a pack. That's what I can contribute to this phenomenon. This is the reason why I have multiple ETBs of certain sets. At the time I did not have the capital to buy a booster box of a set - but I had some money to be able to buy an ETB to gain that exposure.
Exactly what's happening. This dude's a joke. Buying bulk in anything is always cheaper than buying individually. From food to Pokemon cards. I know per item a barrel of mt dew is cheaper per ounce than a bottle of it. But a barrel costs a grand and a bottle costs 2 bucks.
Keep in mind that's what's happening right now. But keep sealed until you're ready to sell. Absolutely do not open them until it's time to sell. Markets change. Keep yourself protected. There is really no sense to open other than to save space and your taking a risk on loosing out on money. KEEP SEALED KEEP SEALED KEEP SEALED!!!!
Interesting. For the older more expensive sets I reckon the reason for this is people not wanting to pay $200-300 for an etb and instead they add a single sealed pack to their collection. But with the newer sets I’m scratching my head on why this is. Crown zenith is especially a weird one. I guess the good news is you don’t have to store all that extra crap in an etb for speciality sets now and shipping will be cheaper which also increases profits. I HATE etbs so I’ve been buying Japanese booster boxes for the speciality sets (vstar universe instead of crown zenith, 151 JP vs English ETB’s, etc) but this might make the English speciality sets more appealing to me for an investment.
Me as a mediocre investor & collector only buy a etb when my fav pokémon is on it, or when it has a killer promo but then i open them or i just buy the promo.
(i have 3 atm)
They take up alot of space and i rather fill the space with boosters, checklanes, blisters & cards.
May sound stupid but thats also the reason i started to invest sleeved boosters, because alot of people are in my situation.
I can store more value with less space.
We don't have unlimited space or hangars to store our stuff.
45eur buys us one ETB (one set) or 2 artsets (possible more sets) and takes up less space.
People forget about the practical stuff when investing, only $$$
My guess would be that they don't want to rip open a sealed product like an ETB from those special sets, but still want to rip packs. But still not sure what the logic is there when the sealed ETB is cheaper. Obviously these shops are seeing that and ripping the ETBs themselves and selling off the packs/promos separately.
Thanks Alex. Great advice. Think I have to adapt. Have like 20 plus Lance’s Charizard & Dark Sylveon Celebration Box and it is not selling. Each box have 4 celebration packs, 1 ES and 1 FS. Have a great day Alex.
Be patient please. I have maybe 30 plus of them and I've sold a lot after holding them for a year. I've even sold by breaking the box and separating the celebrations and the evo&fusion.
Just have to find that person that finds interest in them. There will always be newcomers and they would want it.
Nobody is capitalizing on buying sealed in bulk, then breakdown sell make money, rinse..repeat!
Crazy. I would never buy loose packs that can be weighed. I only buy sealed boxes. I don’t get some people 😅
I'm the same way. It make 0 sense.
Couldn't people just weigh the boxes?
Even battle styles went up per pack. Keep it sealed. My nest egg was going all in on the 25th I’m seeing gains on all products from ETBs,tins,collection boxes
Ya celebrations was a great play for sure!
one thing to consider is people might want to keep an etb sealed so they buy a few loose packs to open. idk anyone picking up 10 packs at a time, but i can see someone buying 1 or 2 just to open for a one pack magic or pack vs. i agree it makes more sense to just buy the etb then sell the extras to recoup some of the money spent, but hey not everyone is smart lol. also one last thing these could be tcg local shops. because my local shop is selling celebrations packs for 10 bucks each. im sure these hobby shops are buying up the loose stuff to sell behind the counter and marking it up to make profilt.
Good video! Example would be Eli, who has been doing this for the longest time, hence his massive collection of battle academies, stadiums, and tins that he cracks for the packs!
This is the same as to why booster boxes will be selling $30 over msrp when Pokemon Center still has them in stock. I think there is a huge turnover for consumers right now, so the majority don’t full understand product availability and which one is best for their wallet.
I would say this people want the sealed product bit it may be too expensive. My few recent videos i talk about cheaper products to invest in. But i agree.
I ain't selling anything right now so this doesn't mean anything to me. Let's see how things are in another year or two. Sealed product is much better long term.
It’s streamers and sellers mass buying dead packs to sell , people will realise and sealed increases even more
you have to consider that more people are buying ultra modern to open, while-i would assume- there would be more people buying older stuff to keep sealed. It makes sense there is more demand for single packs now, but in the future when these are out of print it will be different. I would not consider opening sealed just to sit on packs becuase things will likely change as less people are buying to rip.
Hey. Just wanted to add one thing Alex. When you do your math for price per pack. When you buy multiple packs or cards from someone. You only pay shipping once. So if packs are say 3.99 plus 99 shipping. Only ONE pack would cost 4.98 the rest would all be 3.99
That's true.
9:38 He might have missed this.
While the price says $4.10 per pack the people who bought 68 and 25 packs paid $3 per pack.
So the sold listing was lower than the current price.
Ya i did see that one afterwards... my bad.
So the message is keep sealed and see what the market does over time.
If the packs are bringing in more individually than the etb product they came out of, you can always just open the product and sell the packs.
Could it be because buying individual packs they plan to open for pulls? Where the boosters are looked at as more long term?
Still better of just buying sealed. Packs may just be inflated. It's always more for sealed because it's unweighed and not tempered with. Also for the more expensive products it's more people with an extra 50 to spend than 500. So that might differ but I still can command more money sealed.
I think people don't do their research or are not really into the information about ETB. People might think special sets ETB only have 8 packs instead of 10 packs. people should be educated on each products
There’s is a value in a booster boxes bc your kinda guaranteed a X amount of hits IE secret rares.. but you don’t know what box you got out of that case of booster boxes..
Sealed will always Rule
So buy up the etbs and sell the packs put of them individually
just got 4 more 151 UPC yesterday because of the lowest pack price (401.28 after tax) ebay they are moving quick
Haha. 😂
You just go ahead and do that. Nothing will compare to sealed long term. The more etbs that are ripped and sold by peace is better for the patient sealed collectors. 😎
Do you think this has anything to do with pack opening? At the end of the day, people want to open packs. If I want to open a few packs of Dragon Majesty for my TH-cam, TikTok channel, or just for fun, I may not want to buy 10 packs for $400. Sure you get the promos and such but I can afford two packs for $90 vs shelling out $400. Pricing dynamics has more to do with cash availability when prices get higher. And most folks can't afford $400 boxes on the regular. Just a thought. Good video
I agree it makes sense to pay that convenience fee when buying only a pack or 2 of those expensive sets but it doesnt make sense when you see people buying 10 and 20 packs of the newer sets for more than the ETBs cost per pack.
Love it dude, keep it real, keep us grounded. Good lesson today, the market doesn't care about logic sometimes. There's some other logic they know that we don't.
I think I try do that with crown zenith ultra premium collection get 11 packs instead of 10 with promo figure etc sleeves worked out a better deal than the ETB for me!
Can’t argue with what the people want because there the ones opening it we are ones trying to make the best judgment calls!
Just keep it sealed. Time is the multiplier and you cant predict that one day this wont change again when supply drops. Your strat works for min maxing in current market
cost more to ship just single packs
Sounds like the play is buy the etb crack it for the promo and box and sell the loose packs
Can’t believe Dragons majesty is 45$ a pack?!? Amazing
Psa 10 graded boosters packs will be the next big thing IMO.
Is this counterintuitive to your last video?! Or is your more recent video specifically specifying modern v everything else?
What do you mean by counterintuitive? This isn't saying anything negative about modern. It's just showing with specialty sets the value is in the packs less than the sealed product becuase there are no booster boxes.
I wonder how much of it is just the customer not knowing or not caring how many packs are in an etb. I wouldn’t blame them Pokémon keeps changing the pack count on etbs all the time it seems.
It’s almost like the customer is paying to not keep the “bulk” lol
This is crazy..especially considering that they could be buying all light packs-_-
Hey great video, do u think the gold garatina psa 10 from crown zenith is a good buy?
I have no idea. If I knew the right time to buy singles I would be rich!
Terrible buy, just sell it to me for a few bucks and I’ll take it off your hands no prob.
🍿
Another card show at the wentzville flea market this weekend. I’ll be there 😎
O really. Ya I will try to make it!
Alexxxxxxx whats up great video like always.
Probably just due to pricing. Ppl might just want to open 1 or 2 $30 packs than pay a full BB premium.
i get that but that doesnt explain the newer sets that people buy 10 and 20 packs of instead of 1 or 2 etbs and pay more for less.
I mean those ppl are probably just dumb/lazy. I’d imagine the volume of those type of sales is lower than etb sales.
Like on the hidden fates example, the 10 pack sale was from the 13th. But there was probably a few recent sales of the etb.
Hey alex remember the upc brick no one wants , not referring to you bro i know you love it . That sealed item is doing well
I hear you! I am happy i picked some up when i did!
Great video bro! Couldn’t agree more. Sealed sealed sealed!
I'm a common sense, long term investor and for specialty sets sealed is still better than booster.
Good video though.
Does this make the packs overvalued or the ETBs undervalued?
That's the million dollar question!
Sealed will always be king, proved time and time again 😊
Once you’ve bought and opened one ETB I absolutely see no point in buying them again unless the per pack value is fair value because no one wants the extras you’re talking about.
Man, I just bought 2 CZ and 1 151 etb a couple days ago 😂
Yea thats not gonna last im still grabbing sealed.
Or are people maybe just buying 1-2 packs of Shining Legends because they can't afford to buy a sealed ETB?
That's possible but it doesn't explain buying 10 and 20 packs of the other ETBs and paying more than just buying the sealed ETB.
more ppl can afford a single booster packs den the whole box?
But that doesnt explain people buying 10 and 20 packs at higher costs than 1 or 2 etbs...
Your just seeing simple economics in action lower priced items sell faster.
Arbitrage is always fun! And what’s crazy is you’ve been saying this info for months and no one seems to notice or take the advice.
It’s because the actual money moving in this market is in cards people wanna pull the ultra rares they don’t care about all of the extras they wanna rip packs and get that hopefully feeling and the nostalgia rush from finally pulling the card it’s that simple people in this hobby want one thing TO RIP PACKS so it’s not surprising the money flows into packs and not bundles no one cares about the extras
Maybe it's people on more of a budget. They don't have enough money for a full sealed product investment/rip. Not everyone wants to or can dump half a grand on pokemon. But hey they can afford an over priced booster pack.
I wrote that comment right before you said someone bought 10 packs 😂
All good. I know what you mean though.
Love the content Alex!
this will be arbitraged away quickly and should bring both items to parity
I need to start selling my booster packs of these sets. Lol.
Problem is you sell a sealed booster pack the person pulls nothing gets mad then tries to scam you.
Always Excellent content! Ty Alex!
Once Pokemon boxes go over around $250-300 demand drastically falls. Hell even with hidden fates we go 2-4 days between sales. There does seem to be quite a lot of retail/wholesalers with decent quantities availble to effect that. Splitting up sealed products for a premium makes sense for those that can't afford it. Though I will say all of those orders of 1-2 packs of hidden fates is a punch in the dick with the fees and $5 shipping. There are some purchases of 5-50 packs which would be much more worth it for sellers.
That's pretty interesting
I don’t want to die so I guess I’ll have to adapt
🤣
Great content brother!!
a butcher cuts his meat to make money
Not everybody can drop $400 but most people can drop $40
Cant fight the customer😅 loose packs it is, bet.
Folks 1-6
This is basic retail math. Customers will spend $20-30 dollars without the slightest hesitation...but when half of the USA has zero or less than $1k in savings...spending $300 dollars or more is a major life decision for them. And I hate to say it, but most of the Pokémon collectors I have met...are not financially stable. The other point, is trash...ETBs have so much trash in them for collectors, who do not want to do the work to try and sell off poor quality sleeves, a promo, and dice, etc..
This doesn't account for the people buying 10 and 20 packs are a time of the sets where the etbs are cheaper. They are spending the same amount, actually more, and getting less. I understand buying a pack or 2 when you can't afford the full ETB but for the newer stuff it doesn't make sense.
The only issue is these booster packs or anything related that you are selling for let’s say 20$… you have the cost you paid for the product.. shipping will be a minimum 3.66$ if it’s not just a single…and then the 10-13% from eBay/tcgplayer.. basically you lose 6-7$ right off the bat.
It’s slow and just enough to make
A little side cash.. but with shipping costs and material being so high. It easier to buy forever stamps from eBay.. and ship in PWE. You also avoid BS claims
Of packs being resealed or weighed etc etc.. sitting there trying to get those reviews taken down etc.
for a side gig this is way too much work for the low return sadly
For each item, you showed around one case as an example of someone buying more single packs...and not wanting the trash as I explained above does account for why we do not do it, I will pay extra, so I do not have more trash to deal with. Also 1, even 100 does not really create a statistical poll of reliable data...so this needs a lot more analysis to work out. @@NostalgiaNomics
I think only established/trusted sellers are getting all these sales, as everyone knows loose packs can be weighted out for hits
Actually, I am going to have a video soon proving you cannot weigh modern packs. It is all rumors. Stay tuned!
flipping is king not investing
Gotta invest somewhere unless you plan to flip until the day you die and never retire
This is so dumb cause ur risking getting resealed packs with loose packs vs sealed boxes. Make it make sense. 🥴
I can't make it make sense. It doesn't lol
buying in bulk is always going to be cheaper than buying singles. this video is stupid
You obviously missed the point. The point was its cheaper to buy an etb than to buy 10 loose packs or 9 loose packs on the new sets...
NN #1
I'm not following u here at the end here. How are u going to get the packs if u aren't buying booster bundles and etbs? Are u talking about just buying loose packs on eBay and then sitting on those? I'm not following how I will get the loose packs if u aren't buying sealed items
Sorry. I meant i will be going after any item that has the lowest cost per pack no matter what that item is because the packs are clearly the value and the sealed items other than the BB's dont seem to hold an additional premium.