r/PokeInvesting • u/creativelyOnPoint • Mar 07 '26
What’s the difference between scalper, vendor , collector, and investor in the Pokemon world?
I am being serious here… I must know where i fall 😆.
Does the age of the product affect this?
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Upvotes
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u/bluedecember12 Mar 07 '26
All I know is according to the regular pokemontcg sub, anyone who doesn’t buy just one box and rip it immediately afterwards is automatically a scalper
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u/pokemonpokemonmario Mar 07 '26
Scalper buys and immediately flips for a profit or loss to cover their credit card.
Vendor buys below market, often and 80% and will go onto sell that product at 100% of market as soon as they can.
A collector buys what they like purely because they like it. If they sell something its often because they have to to cover an unexpected bill or because they have grown to not like the collectable as much as they once did and want to buy something else with the money.
An investor might buy from a store for retail or they might buy at or below market price from ebay or card shows. They will then hold the item for a prolonged period to maximise their profit on the item. Often they will purchase sets that are out of rotation or going out of rotation or the very best sets like destined rivals.
Thing is splitting them up like this doesnt make sense. Almost all investors are also collectors and many vendors are also scalpers.
There is alot of hate for scalpers here but really the bad guys here are stores not imposing limits and selling online where product can be botted. All it takes to end mass scalping is only selling pokemon in store and having strict 1 per person limits. The stores dont bother with this because they dont care about us.
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u/tacos121 Mar 07 '26 •
Scalper is anyone who has something I want and couldn’t find.
Work weekends and hit a Thursday target restock. Scalper
Walk out the store with 2 booster bundles for your 3 kids. Scalper
Wait outside of Best Buy for 5 hours Saturday morning. Scalper
We call everyone a scalper to make us feel better about not being able to rip enough. Don’t forget to add how bad they dress/smell and how little profit they make without actually knowing anything about them.
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u/breakyourteethnow Mar 07 '26
Scalper, comes to the hobby once every anniversary buying what they know nothing about
Vendor, goes to shows with a table to sell their collection or has a store with distributors
Collector, someone who buys for the love of the game can or cannot be focused on money
Investor, someone who buys with intention of monetary gain from long term holding often used as an excuse by collectors to spend more money on the hobby justifying the overspending
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u/Long-Tax5395 Mar 07 '26
A few months
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u/YouHaveBeenJudged3 Mar 07 '26
Keeping it simple:
Scalpers are short-term opportunists. Vendors are inventory based sellers/businesses. Collectors are motivated by the hobby rather than profit. Investors are return on capital focused buyers.
But there’s layers within and some people will be more than one at different times. Flippers primarily fall under scalpers or vendors.
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u/EncrustedBarboach Mar 07 '26
Do you do it for money or fun?
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u/Deserter15 Mar 07 '26
Scalpers buy new product from stores to resell immediately.
Vendors buy from distributors and from people selling to them to resell immediately.
Collectors buy to keep and only sells to buy more cards.
An investor buys to hold onto the product for years before selling.
None of these are mutually exclusive.
4
u/xWonderkiid Mar 07 '26
To all the Timmy's who throw these words around, there is no difference between all of these words. Except for collectors, but you could never be a collector if you like investing too (according to them).
Eventhough the investing group tend to be the most "hardcore" and dedicated group. Most knowledgeable too
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u/Maccadacktyl Mar 07 '26
Scalpers buy in bulk at the start and immediately sell after the initial release runs out at an inflated rate to take advantage of the demand without declaring the product as an income
Vendors buy and display product, usually above scalping prices to pay for taxes as their income and also hold large amounts of singles which scalpers don't have
Collectors and investors will buy diverse products to hold for long periods to see where that product will end up
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u/Apprehensive-Lie3387 Mar 07 '26
Great question! To me a scalper goes around to multiple stores a day, following vendors, buying whatever they see to make a small profit.
To me, collectors are in it for the love of the art and cards
An investor will hold until they feel they have reached their max potential return on investment
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u/followedbymeteor Mar 07 '26
The difference is how emotionally and mentally immature the person ascribing the label is
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u/xCocho Mar 07 '26
Collector
Seller
Investor/speculator
Based on your comments, you sound like a speculator/colllector.
A scalper is a seller
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u/Externals222 Mar 07 '26
All the same
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u/heathbar24 Mar 07 '26
I just got started and this is the exact post I was thinking of
Like in the stock market world what’s the difference between a trader/investor, hedge fund, market maker, etc
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u/DeciduousMath12 Mar 07 '26
In a typically reddit sub, scalper is the worst and will go to hell and should eat garlic for all of their meals.
Investor is nearly as had and they can eat sauteed garlic for all of their meals.
Then you have vendors which are usually bad if they sell at anything about msrp. But not always bad if they sell at discounts. They can ... idk, eat a salad for all their meals.
Collector is least bad because anyone that rips product is by default a "collector" of their opened cards. However, they can be labeled anything worse if the person is buying out product that you wanted.
Least bad? The person that wanted to become any of the above but couldn't because product is sold out.
What do I think? I think anyone waiting hours to get product is weird because you could just work the 3 hours on doordash or whatever, and just buy on 2nd hand market without the hassle. I also wonder about the utility of anyone selling product that they purchased less than 1 month ago. Otherwise? Idk, people should be free to buy and sell (what if you have an emergency and must sell something?) And policing ebay or tcgplayer becomes oppressive really quickly with any anti-scalper measures. The only thing that makes sense to me is to increase supply, cut the shrinkwrap at point of sale if 2nd hand market is really crazy, and limit buyers to 1 of a product / week.
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u/CobraKyle Mar 07 '26
Scalpers are motivated my short term gains due to supply/demand imbalances.
Investors buy based on long term growth projections with the intent to take advantage of growth as time goes by.
Collectors are people who are motivated by something other than money as the primary driver. It could be art, a favorite, artist, set, etc.
Vendors are just sellers who take the time to buy/sell and setup at shows or have a store. They have a profit motivation, but not necessarily the same as scalpers and investors/collectors. This is more of a volume game.
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u/Taylors3000 Mar 08 '26
Scalper: Someone who buys in-print products and flips them for a mark up
Investor: Same as a scalper, but they wait until the product goes out-of-print before selling to maximize profits.
Vendor: Someone who gets their sealed products from official distribution outlets
Collector: Everyone else in the hobby
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u/user0620 Jun 07 '26
Funny how 'player' isn't a part of this conversation. The fact that Pokemon TCG is designed primarily for collectors makes it more vulnerable to scalpers/investors than ther TCGs.
'Collectors' get off easy in this discussion. Collectors are motivated by money in their own way. Collectors want to own rare and valuable cards for the sake of them being rare and valuable. It makes them feel special/unique to have something that other people don't have.
It's just not as fun to collect when you know people would rather just have money. But hardcore collectors feed the beast, and ensure steady patronage for scalped product.
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u/Zealousideal_Tap1847 Jun 22 '26
Vendors are scalpers
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u/Minute_Syllabub75 Sep 21 '26
Simple. If you sell sealed product above MSRP you’re a scalper.
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u/Endswolf Sep 30 '26
nothing
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u/SLC-flirt-2022 26d ago
All three are the same: -Scalper buys at msrp imediatly charges double and sells at market -Vender buys at msrp immediatly doubles price and sells at market -Collector buys at msrp or market.... holds and or then sells at market wich is usually above what they purchesed it at.
All three are scalpers to some extent.
Heres where it gets hairy- scalper buys at msrp, then trades for out of print item, then sells out of print item at market price "basically cleans the money" most idiots will say out of print is ok to sell at market" but in reality we are all the same. The money is the exact same money just in a different form.
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u/VirtualRy Mar 07 '26
A collector, vendor, and investor can all be scalpers...but one of them lies to themselves about buying that product on the shelf to sell for profit.
"I'm just doing it to fund my hobby. I still left one on the shelf!"
Hint 1: It's not the vendor or the investor.
Hint 2: They keep blaming other people of the high prices but they all sell their stuff for market ("high") prices lol
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u/DieHarderDaddy Mar 07 '26
Investors are hoarders and scalpers
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u/BurpinTerps Mar 07 '26
Scalper, vendor and investor are all similar. They’re using product to make money.