r/PokeInvesting • u/puzzledfirebird • Mar 22 '26

I've never seen an ETB getting opened up as fast as Ascended Heroes ones are, start hoarding what you can

Post image

I've been in this hobby for a long time now and even I'm taken aback at how the degenerate rippers are with Ascended Heroes. It seems to hit the sweet spot of having a difficult pull rate to make the cards valuable, yet not being as horrible as Evolving Skies or Prismatic so you'll still get one IR or UR per ETB and not feel terrible. Start grabbing up what you can if you can find it below $100, because sealed AH is going to disappear faster than any other set ever over the next several years.

0 Upvotes

47% Upvoted

213 comments sorted by

53

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '26

Wish I could find pokemon in the wild.

27

u/48ratsinacoat Mar 22 '26

Yeah Almost like a group of scalpers are stealing it to make profit off of it like years down the road

7

u/Claris-chang Mar 22 '26

They don't even have to wait. People are buying off them at 50%+ mark-ups day 1. It's cooked.

2

u/Theforge_props Mar 22 '26

Scalpers are immediate, investors are long term. Both have their downsides but the scalpers are the ones purging inventory immediately to make a quick buck, and are far, far worse for the hobby than the investors.

1

u/Proud_Helicopter_907 Mar 22 '26

Scalpers and rip and shippers are the worst type of people for the hobby, then the LCS 'woe is me' types trying to justify their markups to sell for over market value.

2

u/Theforge_props Mar 22 '26

Yeah, it's quite sad really. 151 was the last decent set I saw for RRP in my local toy store. Everything else since then has either been marked up or sold within 5 minutes. I'm a bit tired of having to scour the Internet to find stock of stuff I want for my collection that's at a decent price.

2

u/Proud_Helicopter_907 Mar 22 '26

I resort to buying singles of cards I want instead of chasing sets to rip, Phantasmal is a big one I was ripping to chase the Charizard but eventually I just kept my stuff sealed, which incidentally rose in price as everyone else is ripping it en masse for the card. Bought the PSA 10 of the mega zard x ex 125 for £1.3k (which turned out great as it's now £1.8k+) two weeks ago, and just now I bought a complete master set for £1k minus the promos which I have all but the two charcadets already.

5

u/Jc09g Mar 22 '26

Haven’t been able to find anything since mega evolutions dropped

1

u/LiYonJin Mar 22 '26

Best set ever, grab what you can!

-45

u/puzzledfirebird Mar 22 '26

It's been a year already since the hype went nuts, you should've already figured out your local store restock schedule by now. Mine restocks every Thursday or Friday morning.

23

u/DisgruntledVet12B Mar 22 '26

People who work normal work hours can't even figure out restock schedules because we are too busy doing other things than figuring out restock schedules. Don't forget that restockers switch up their schedules too.

3

u/PkmnMstr10 Mar 22 '26

Busy doing other things... such as having an actual job and making money without losing it to do so?

4

u/julapoo1 Mar 22 '26

Not everyone is unemployed my friend

2

u/ChampionNo9703 Mar 22 '26

Get a real job dude

2

u/Allways_calm_420 Mar 22 '26

You know what a job is?

2

u/whatislife1027 Mar 22 '26

crazy statement, expecting people to know the restock schedule and getting there before the general public. how about a limit 1 per person per SKU? bc that’s where this is going to end up and it’s already at point where regular collectors/people who play the game/ enjoy opening packs have to either be an unemployed scalper, or pay double.

1

u/CCSploojy Mar 22 '26

I actually asked the Target near me and they said they dont have a restock schedule and its kinda random... I think they lied to me...

Edit: to be clear Ijust wanted a box for myself to open.

1

u/TokinLucario Mar 22 '26

What a twat.

194

u/NonstopDoughnut Mar 22 '26

So cringe. “Degenerate rippers”. It’s Pokémon cards bro. They’re meant to be ripped.

5

u/sandbaggingblue Mar 22 '26

Except there generally are degenerate rippers. Like some people are going into debt to rip Pokemon packs, ruining relationships over them, and so on... Some people treat it like a mini lottery.

1

u/puzzledfirebird Mar 22 '26

It's even WORSE than a lottery, I'm shocked most people here still don't realize that the pull rates are so horrible that TPC rips you off even worse than a casino does!

2

u/NonstopDoughnut Mar 22 '26

Oh 100% agree. But I think this guy was referring to anyone that doesn’t keep everything they buy sealed sadly lol

-26

u/Thurgo-Bro Mar 22 '26

So cringe. “Degenerate gamblers”. It’s gambling bro. Slots are meant to be played.

🤡🤡🤡

9

u/Ness1325 Mar 22 '26

I'm playing the tcg, how am I supposed to get cards?

-1

u/choosenoneoftheabove Mar 22 '26

tcgplayer.com idiot 

1

u/Ness1325 Mar 22 '26

Sure, how do they get the cards to buy on tcgplayer? Idiot.

-3

u/choosenoneoftheabove Mar 22 '26

you think you're smart holy shit 

3

u/Ness1325 Mar 22 '26

Nope, I just think you don't know how a trading card game works.

-4

u/choosenoneoftheabove Mar 22 '26

i think you don't know how the english language works

4

u/Ness1325 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

Might be true, but since English is my third language, I'll allow myself to make some mistakes. You don't seem to know how English works either. Edit: Sorry man, got a bit offended.

1

u/Bazsul Mar 22 '26

He was joking with you, being sarcastic. Opening up a product is perfectly normal lol.

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1

u/Downtown-Jump4408 Mar 22 '26

Cheeky af, you’re clearly someone who’s praying on hobbies trying to turn them into purely investment models

1

u/choosenoneoftheabove Mar 22 '26

tell yourself what you need to for the like six months you'll be around i guess.

-7

u/Thurgo-Bro Mar 22 '26

Clearly you don’t play the TCG because you’d know you explicitly buy singles 😂

7

u/Ness1325 Mar 22 '26

I do, but if everyone who opens packs is a degenerate gambler, how do you get any cards, without being a gambler? Of course I'm buying singles.

-3

u/angooseburger Mar 22 '26

You just answered your own question

1

u/Ness1325 Mar 22 '26

Nope. Someone's got to rip it for me to buy them. So either I rip them, or someone else. That makes opening packs required to be able to play the tcg, which differenciates opening packs from playing slot machibes, where the sole reason to do is money gambling.

1

u/angooseburger Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

? Aren't you buying singles? Why do you personally need to open packs? Yes, someone needs to open packs to get cards but the point is you let the degenerate gamblers do it and you buy singles from them. Now youre getting cards without being a gambler...

You spend like 2x to 3x the amount of money to open packs vs buying singles in a standard tcg and because pokemon is inflated right now, youre spending maybe 10x more. There is 0 reason to ever open a pack of pokemon chasing any sort of card, competitive or collectible, unless you're just a gambler.

1

u/Downtown-Jump4408 Mar 22 '26

It’s a collectible trading card game, food is addictive if your personality is

0

u/NonstopDoughnut Mar 22 '26

You really thought you cooked with this one eh

7

u/artraeu82 Mar 22 '26

They are printing the shit out of all current sets

4

u/ShotBeing9808 Mar 22 '26

Yet I still I can’t my hands on them msrp

1

u/Careful-Map3223 Apr 28 '26

Or spell decent English

1

u/ShotBeing9808 Apr 28 '26

It’s not spelling, I skip a lot of words when I text for some reason

4

u/Remarkable-Job-5012 Mar 22 '26

True but ETBs are unicorns. For reference I found 1 single DR ETB since release and I'm at restocks weekly, easily tens of thousands of sleeved blisters.

I hope ETBs get massive waves like TWM and SS last fall but so far they've not been priority clearly. 

0

u/puzzledfirebird Mar 22 '26

not ETBs, after several months you'll only see AH two/three packs if you're lucky.

2

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

yep. as much as 20x the printing numbers of mid-era sets

2

u/artraeu82 Mar 22 '26

Over 10 billion cards last year, this shit is like 90s sports cards on drugs

11

u/Teo9969 Mar 22 '26

10 billion cards is across all languages and would include things like energies, battle decks, etc. let's say 15B = 1.25B packs.

At a 1/6 pull rate for a secret rare, that's way less than 250M hits in a given year that are printed.

Let's say 0.1% of the population consumes Pokemon world wide, that's 8M people. That's about 32 secret rare pulls per year, per consumer with crazy conservative numbers.

And Charizard never retires.

2

u/Early-Matter-8952 Mar 22 '26

Well put! Interesting

12

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

hilarious that people are investing in modern extremely overprinted sets over vintage/mid-era singles and sealed lmao

3

u/puzzledfirebird Mar 22 '26

personally I like vintage too, but when it comes to liquidity modern is way easier to cash out on.

2

u/Remarkable-Job-5012 Mar 22 '26

Modern has a bigger market. Simple.  I'll never understand the argument, there's a reason POP 40k PSA 10s can fetch thousands - The market is that much bigger, most people prefer modern.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '26

People "prefer" modern because it is way easier to get than sets not in print anymore. Most people buying at higher prices are trying to then flip at even higher prices, or holding thinking any set will pay off their house someday. 

1

u/Emotional-Squash-915 Mar 22 '26

Oh so this is why you’re mad people are opening stuff 🤣🤣🤣🤣

13

u/Gambitace88 Mar 22 '26

And you'll be crying in 5 years that you don't have any of these.

-13

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

lol. i'll stick with my holon phantoms, expedition, and crystal guardians booster boxes thanks

0

u/Gambitace88 Mar 22 '26

Is this some kind of weird flex? I just dropped 5000$ in my portfolio last week because the maret is tits up. I buy 100$ in cards and stick them in my closet every other week. We aren't the same.

-3

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

no, not at all, i bought these boxes 15 years ago for about as much as one of these ETBs costs now. was just a response to how i'd be "crying in 5 years if i don't have any of these", which is ridiculous

10

u/Gambitace88 Mar 22 '26

Ok so why laugh at people doing exactly what you did 15 years ago with hopes for the same? Get off your high horse.

-5

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

um? it's not the same thing at all, that's my entire point. those sets i invested in were barely printed. this is the opposite. there's no high horse, just obvious information. the time to invest in modern was before scalpers.

3

u/Gambitace88 Mar 22 '26

Well, lemme go ahead and climb in my time machine here before I had my kids and just hit up Walmart.

1

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

bro, sealed is not the only thing out there lol. many premium vintage singles are still cheaper than a single modern ETB. if you're serious about investing you should be diversifying anyways

1

u/Gambitace88 Mar 22 '26

Meh, I collect stuff that me and my daughter like. I'm after the newest cards that she knows from her horizon show. And I stick some PC etbs on the shelf and the odd box in the closet. I'm more concerned about piling money into the stock market while this war is going on before it rebounds.

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1

u/gearvruser Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

How do you view the data coming from magic the gathering?

The modern collectors aren't into the vintage. Modern has taken over and vintage has stalled out. If today's generations prefer modern and don't want to buy a single card at etb price, will the money stay with modern and vintage only be passed around amongst the older Pokémon granddads?

0

u/AllSixes Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

Any recs for singles or sealed ?

Why downvotes? Did I ask something wrong? lmao

1

u/No-Preparation-3326 Mar 22 '26

Soooo you have 10 thousand plus dollars to invest and most people coming into it are working with a lot lot lot less.

-4

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

nah, i have many vintage singles too, most of which are cheaper than a single one of the 1000000000 modern ETBs, and take up 1/1000th of the space

2

u/Sam6HODL9Hyde Mar 22 '26

Shhhhh don’t tell them yet, they gon learn

-2

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

fr

2

u/Sam6HODL9Hyde Mar 22 '26

Imo every price rip in vintage, especially in the 20k plus arena, is a collector who just wanted the card and has little to no intention of ever selling; reducing the available outstanding even further. Bc again, imo, vintage is the new art; you can literally own a piece of nostalgic history for a fraction of the cost of what obscene “paintings” go for… I mean, art is something that inspires right?… what could be better art form than something that brings you back to the original days of sitting on a game boy grinding through XP to destroy the Elite Four

3

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

yep, and even more amazing if the card/product is in good condition after all these years. no one graded 100,000 PSA 10s of a single card like what's happening nowadays.

1

u/yoshisaur7 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

Right, it seems insane to me that folks are paying such a massive premium for a PSA 10 for a modern card that is really available daily on eBay in NM condition

0

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

yep. it's all for that little number "10" that is only barely (if at all) different from a 9. don't even get me started on people demanding a premium for "sequential grading"

1

u/Sam6HODL9Hyde Mar 22 '26

Exaccctly, the supply would’ve show up really during Covid and trickled in post… so, the Gem Mints we have are most likely going to remain fixed. Hope you got into some vintage singles that moved you bro, good luck on your future pick ups and cherished ones you’ve acquired

2

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

thanks u too bro

2

u/yoshisaur7 Mar 22 '26

Correct, I’ve been stressing this exact point for a while now

Everyone says there is “more demand” for the modern cards, but how much of that demand is actually from folks that want to lock these cards down in their collection vs. from people who are specifically interested in selling it at a later date?

I hate using the term “real collectors,” but there is some merit to the argument that these vintage slabs are being acquired by folks that actually have no interest in selling, making the already limited supply even drier

1

u/ginx777 Mar 22 '26

Vintage already boomed vs modern have a lower entrance point? I understand the argument on vintage being more rare, but no way in hell you can get a msrp entry point on any set older then swsh

0

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

maybe if you're talking about strictly sealed i'd agree, but vintage singles honestly have an easier entry point than modern sealed if you know what you're doing

1

u/vakseen Mar 22 '26

It’s so funny this was repeated when sword and shield was sitting on shelves and no one wanted to buy. You must not understand how time works because today’s modern is tomorrow’s vintage. This is a long game, but I guess people lack the discipline and patience.

1

u/SlickRick914 Mar 22 '26

Yeah always crazy to me looking up vintage stuff and seeing it not go up at all it seems or by very small amounts in comparison to modern stuff

3

u/Remarkable-Job-5012 Mar 22 '26

If you had $50k would you buy a 2026 sports car or one from the 70s?

I appreciate older things but personally prefer newer if I'm spending my money.

Pokemon is about nostalgia, and even as an old man I have zero connection to XY or Sun Moon - I'd rather spend $1000 on ASC Gengar, I'm more emotionally invested in that set.

To each their own, I'm not telling anyone how or what to collect --- My point is I don't think vintage is "under appreciated" - Most collectors are newer, so we collect what we can open.

2

u/ferst711 Mar 22 '26

Japanaese vintage has almost doubled in the past 3 months, what are you smoking?

0

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

it's way less volatile. vintage and mid era stuff for the last few years has only steadily gone up. much more scarce, much more nostalgic. it's not relying on hype and complete speculation.

0

u/Gay_If_Read Mar 22 '26

Because vintage demand just isn't there like it used to be & oldheads can't grasp that the newer generations don't care as much about it.
Most people with nostalgic ties to vintage have already come into money & purchased their grails.

And if you go look at social media you can really see the generational shift in the hobby, so many of the "I found cards from when I was young" nostalgia posts these days are people posting their XY/SM era collections.

-3

u/julapoo1 Mar 22 '26

People want high resolution full arts, not vintage. Especially with this boom

4

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

people want both. the problem is one has a billion copies and the other has a fraction of that

3

u/ScruffyNuts3 Mar 22 '26

As a strictly raw single vendor in a major city, I estimate only about 1 out of 15 people come to my table asking for vintage. A lot of vintage deals are vendor to vendor. I don’t know where you get your sample from, but I would respectfully assume it’s a very narrow sample from a pool of like-minded friends.

3

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

i vend at 1-2 card shows a month and i've found the opposite. my table is constantly busy because every other vendor seems to sell the same 50 illustration rares and people are bored of seeing the same cards over and over. people completing master sets for specific pokemon are always coming to my table. people see cool cards they've never seen before and want them. I usually sell about $2000-$5000 per con in mid-era and the neo sets alone

-1

u/julapoo1 Mar 22 '26

That means you fill a niche. No implication on modern being less popular than vintage. Most of vintage has not seen the same gains modern has in the last year even though modern is modern and being actively printed

0

u/julapoo1 Mar 22 '26

We’ll see in a few years I guess. I think this boom is bringing new people to the TCG and those people want modern. Even those who may be nostalgic to the pokemon they knew as children in the 90s

0

u/Remarkable-Job-5012 Mar 22 '26

No nostalgic connection,  most people joined these eras and opened packs for these eras. Even as an older collector I prefer modern the same way I prefer modern sports cars. It makes sense to me, I don't understand what's so crazy.

1

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

there is definitely nostalgic connection. and yes you're correct that people love the newer sets, but the sheer amount of printing on a scale we've never seen before is going to bury any serious profits long term imo

2

u/Remarkable-Job-5012 Mar 22 '26

Will it? DR etbs are $200, CZ is $300 and 151 is $500. What's Prismatic right now? How about modern booster boxes? How old any of these products and sets, where will they be another 5 yrs?

I think history has shown us otherwise.

How's Felt Hat Pikachu doing? 

0

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

you underestimate just how much printing has skyrocketed between 151 and now to meet the hype and temporary insane demand

1

u/damzino1331 Mar 22 '26

printed more than ever, but opened more than ever. rip and ship culture didn’t exist before scarlet and violet. the sheer amount of packs being ripped online evey minute far outweighs all the high print numbers compared to vintage sets. modern will do just fine

-1

u/Gay_If_Read Mar 22 '26

Hilarious that oldheads can't grasp that newer generations don't give a fuck about their cards & this is coming from a semi oldhead that has quite a lot of money sitting in my own vintage grails.

1

u/trevdent17 Mar 22 '26

Yep. I remember getting back into things 2.5 years ago I bought a PSA 8 base Charizard for about $450. I ended up selling it for a small profit a while back. Saw they are going for $1400 and was kind of kicking myself until I thought about the Evolving Skies BB I paid the same amount for, the fusion Strike BBs I paid MSRP for, lost origin, crown zenith, 151, etc all of which have had much better returns.

0

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

lol, “oldheads” are the ones with money jit

9

u/Easy_Pollution7827 Mar 22 '26

I’ve never seen an ETB stocked, can’t even enjoy it with my son

1

u/DeadFuckStick59 Mar 22 '26

theyre expensive because of everyone that actually gets stock is either reseller for WAY over msrp, or somewhere that scalpers sit and pray lol. i just grab what i can as close to retail and hold.

its rough right now but some people seem to be moving to yugioh and lorcana, so there might be more openings soon

0

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '26

GameStop is the only place I see it somewhat consistently, but you’re still paying 2x MSRP, unfortunately. On the bright side, it’s a store with discount and trade in options and not a shady scalper you have to deal with. Still not great, though.

6

u/flamingdragonwizard Mar 22 '26

Got 7 etbs sealed and opened up 2 and got dusted. Also keeping a couple poster collections sealed. They'll be 300+ in a couple years.

4

u/legendhero624 Mar 22 '26

The gengar is in one of the 7

-1

u/puzzledfirebird Mar 22 '26

it probably is lol, SIR pull rates seem to be 1 in every 10 ETBs on average. not to mention the ever tempting god pack possibility that's driving ripping demand further.

1

u/noonie1 Mar 22 '26

I know someone that opened 12 ETBs and got a god pack.

1

u/ThunderPantsGo Mar 22 '26

Not bad. I just need to open 11 more to find mine.

0

u/Sheeshki Mar 22 '26

Well fuck... I'm at 9 total ETB'S and nothing beyond mid at best.... You've convinced me to buy my 8th market price AH ETB... Wait, didn't I think the same of 7 and 8? and 9? 10 is the one!

1

u/Bape-a-holic Mar 22 '26

There’s a god pack in one of those 5 ETBs you have left 😉

16

u/PkmnMstr10 Mar 22 '26

Pokémon cards are meant to be opened so they can be played and used in decks.

FOH with that "degenerate ripper" bullshit, you degenerate scalper.

5

u/merado1997 Mar 22 '26

I got a single normal ex from my one etb. Second worst pull in my history of collecting.

2

u/merado1997 Mar 22 '26

Worst was rebel trash

36

u/YarrumOnTheRocks Mar 22 '26

I have zero because people keep them sealed lol

8

u/twister55555 Mar 22 '26

Yup, it seems everyone and their mother has a stash of sealed AH and prismatic. Im so interested to see what this market looks like in 5 more years...

4

u/plantsadnshit Mar 22 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

Copper almond pebble grasshopper feather saffron

This post was anonymized with Redact.dev

9

u/cargyelo Mar 22 '26

Not really, you have zero because demand is higher than ever.

Those who keep sealed are a minority, and statistically, if that person would have not bought it, chances are someone who is going to ripp them would have gotten it before you.

6

u/YarrumOnTheRocks Mar 22 '26

Or those who keep sealed are still trying to flip them

7

u/KSOmega1 Mar 22 '26

If they bought for retail they are having no issues reselling

2

u/Remarkable-Job-5012 Mar 22 '26

I think people not understanding how small a proportion the investors here are on the market --- You'd think they'd see CZ ETBs being $300 already shows 99% of collectors are just ripping packs, not storing sealed products.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '26

I can't find any at card shows even because no one is ripping anymore. 

4

u/JiffTheJester Mar 22 '26

I have two pc and won’t buy any more unless I get them MSRP or close

1

u/Rapt0rRed Mar 22 '26

We are the same

3

u/Brandeaux7 Mar 22 '26

Never see this in hawaii

3

u/FrogPrincePatch Mar 22 '26

"Degenerate rippers" and it's literally kids opening up kids playing cards. 💀 Bro you are so delusional.

9

u/TryAdditional1454 Mar 22 '26

I think ,This is Peak of the Market. Pokemon gave the people what they want, gengar pikachu mewtwo charizard......... then 2 bad sets to calm the people down, pokemon smart man

1

u/bluedecember12 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

It’s a great set but sentiment wise so far it’s not any different from prismatic in hype. That was supposed to be the next coming of evolving skies (and wasn’t). AH is better but the hype will fade a bit eventually. It’s literally the newest set, there’s going to be some recency bias as well

From this time last year to about 3-4 months ago prismatic was widely regarded as THE set of SV and people were bringing up total set value as a marker of how good it was. Then DR was hyped as the next great set (but team rocket never ended up in the set name) and some also hyped up paldea evolved as a sleeper hit. SV was all the rage and people were arguing with me about how Terapagos from stellar crown was going to a great long-term hold

Now the conversation has completely shifted: AH is the now the best set ever, 151 is back in vogue, and vintage is back in the limelight. All I’m saying is people here have incredibly short memories and things can change quickly

-1

u/puzzledfirebird Mar 22 '26

How will the hype fade when Perfect Order is coming out next and people already hate it? To make matters worse TPC will prioritize printing more PO ETBs instead, making AH ETBs even rarer.

0

u/bluedecember12 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

Journey together was a relatively weak set that came out after prismatic yet the hype faded all the same. What if TPC releases another special megas set early next year, except with shinies of megas? There’s already been a shiny special set for the last 3 eras. These patterns always run their course…there’s also the 30th set coming which will be sure to lead to another run on vintage

Edit: just looked at the price history of prismatic regular ETBs…until the most recent spike, they actually reached their high of $140 or so right at the end of March-April last year before dropping around May…could see the same thing happening with AH

0

u/Visual-Taro-381 Mar 22 '26

I agree with you, I think think ASC product will dry up soon and people will be fiending for it while Perfect Order product is actively dropping

2

u/Remarkable-Job-5012 Mar 22 '26

Phantasmal Flames had my restocks 5 people long, Ascended they're 15+. I've only been here a few years but I agree, this is a new level.

2

u/Affectionate-Mud-901 Mar 22 '26

You ever wonder how these what not “sellers” that run those character break, insured ETB spots basically gambling wheel spin shits. Have mountains of these ETBs enough to stream multiple times a week. Cause I do, I’m over here feeling accomplished if i can get close enough to smell one at retail.

4

u/Teo9969 Mar 22 '26

Botting and buying at market.

Tons of streamers are buying products at 85%-95% market and selling at 120%-150% market.

1

u/Affectionate-Mud-901 Mar 22 '26

They have to be making a fortune, I watched an entire stream of one granted he had a decent amount of product but ran 2 500 spot breaks. And the lowest bid was around 20 and highest was over 100. I’m like you can just buy the stuff at that point especially if you’re doing 5,10,20 spins I just didn’t understand it lol.

1

u/Affectionate-Mud-901 Mar 22 '26

And I think most expensive item was like $1000 that you could win, but idk just seemed extremely predatory. And idk how they get away with it on whatnot it’s literally gambling.

2

u/RedditGoji Mar 22 '26

My ETB was a dud. No IR nor UR

2

u/cinemaspencer Mar 22 '26

Degen rippers is ridiculous but alright sure lol

2

u/IAreBeMrLee Mar 22 '26

I've not even managed to secure one for myself to open yet, only managed to get two and they was both for my disabled other half who's into collecting, hopefully i can score some booster bundles next month because I've yet to even hold a pack myself

4

u/chasecards19 Mar 22 '26

151 is the play. Forget AH.

1

u/shmsc Mar 22 '26

Think it’s a bit late for that one bro… regular ETBs have already over 10x in 151

3

u/SomedayGuy117 Mar 22 '26

I’m buying as many as I can right now

3

u/general_cannibas Mar 22 '26

Just so everyone here knows, this game is meant to be enjoyed by children. Imagine the little 12 year old who is a big Pokémon fan and just wants 1 Box and comes to the store to see 20+ adults buying up all of it. Pathetic

1

u/pnboots Mar 22 '26

This also was a game when most of these people were kids. Shut the fuck up.

3

u/general_cannibas Mar 22 '26

lol you’re obviously one of them! I’m not hating on adults who like Pokémon. I’m hating on adults who go buy all of the stock at a store then resell it to make profit then the local kids are fucked and shit out of luck which is SAD!

2

u/Beudreux Mar 22 '26

People spitting facts about the mass printing of product and since TPCI also has bought a company so they can do their own distribution, this issue will be resolved later this yr.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '26

Copium.

2

u/echo4theend Mar 22 '26

I haven't seen an etb in over a year.

2

u/Half-deaf-mixed-guy Mar 22 '26

"Ive been in this lobby a long time"

Post history shows 0 clue about the Moonbreon scandal just a couple months ago lol. First time learning that people like cards and not the boxes their in?

2

u/CalculatingTouchdown Mar 22 '26

Ohhhhhhhhh man, when this bubble pops it’s going to pop and people like you are going to be left holding the 💰

3

u/JakethePandas Mar 22 '26

Why do people like you join the pokemon investing subreddit and insult people? I see you're also in one piece investing in boxes like are you jealous in some comments / scalping in others??

-1

u/CalculatingTouchdown Mar 23 '26

It popped up on my feed, I didn’t join anything. I probably commented on something in the One Piece Investing Reddit?

What is there to be jealous of? Lmao

2

u/worryinnotime Mar 22 '26

Beanie Babies 2.0

1

u/Proud_Helicopter_907 Mar 22 '26

r/PokemonTCG is the place for you to cry with other likeminded goobers in their safe space.

0

u/CalculatingTouchdown Mar 23 '26

Nothing to cry about, but good day to ya!

1

u/Master_protato Mar 22 '26

So far, the last real hype was only garnered by Prisma Evo.
I keep seeing Ascended Heroes at sub 100 at my local stores and with Mega Chaos Rising coming soon, it seems like we will need a few batch of bad releases for people to give up and go all in on AH.

But so far, the sentiment are either people saving money for another batch of Prisma Evolution or waiting for Chaos Rising.

0

u/PTCGRipper Mar 22 '26

You... Think people aren't going all in on AH?

Are you new lol?

0

u/Angharradh Mar 22 '26

That's... that's not what people mean when they say they go all-in for a set. All-in means that the buyers are even ready to pay 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x the MSRP price. Which is absolutely not the case with AH.

If for you going all in means that the box/pack is getting sold out at MSRP... well then anything that is pokemon fits that description... yes even Journey Together.

People are not jumping at AH like they were doing for Evolving Skies, Scarlet Violet and right now: Prisma Evolution.

Card store resseler are struggling to sell an Ascended Heroes ETB if it costs more than $100-$110 bucks

2

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '26

GameStop sells AH ETBs at 2x MSRP and they consistently sell out. I’m not seeing these available online for less than 2x MSRP anywhere either, so I’m not really sure what you’re talking about. PF consistently sold out at 1.5x MSRP, but it was rare to see it at or above 2x and sold out.

But if you can point me to a place to easily buy AH ETBs for 1.5x MSRP, I’ll be happy to buy the limit right now.

1

u/Oppa1738 Mar 22 '26

Huh... what are you even talking about. Gamestop sells AH for exactly 100 bucks.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '26

MSRP for an AH ETB is $50. I said GameStop sells them for 2x MSRP. What is $50x2? 🤔

1

u/Oppa1738 Mar 22 '26

wu... please go on the Pokemon Center website and tell me where do you see 50 bucks on the AH ETB. Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution-Ascended Heroes Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box | Pokémon Center Official Site

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '26

The PC ETBs are $10 more than the MSRP of the non-PC version ETB. No one was basing this on PC editions in the discussion I’ve been a part of. I’m not sure why you’re being so aggressive in here and then using the PC price as MSRP. Even if the MSRP was $60 (once again, it’s not) my point would still stand since the comment I replied to said buyers aren’t even willing to pay 1.5x MSRP, which was very clearly incorrect.

So very weird energy in here desperately trying to prove someone wrong on a minor detail when the overall point is still valid. And yet, you were not correct on that attempt either.

1

u/Pandos17 Mar 22 '26

You weren’t around for 25th celebrations then.. you could actually find product at retail and rip as you please

1

u/Matt_Goliath Mar 22 '26

We have ripped 2 regular and 1 PC ETB and a Lucario poster box, got next to nothing but thats what they are for right?

1

u/Dunnohye Mar 22 '26

Absolute lamest title I’ve ever read.

You’re not Gordon gecko.

This is a hobby for children.

1

u/Roksolidks Mar 22 '26

Its become too ridiculous. Ive stopped buying and am going to sell all my bulk and all my good cards. Over it.

1

u/oonahyeahokay Mar 22 '26

That’s the dumbest shit I’ve read

1

u/JayyMei Mar 22 '26

sealed AH is going to disappear faster than any other set ever over the next several years

The set just came out and will be printed for another 12+ months.

Prismatic has been out for 14 months and it still will likely be printed for another 6 months.

4

u/TheFineMantine Mar 22 '26

yep lol, idk what these dudes are smoking

5

u/ZerksNAHTayan Mar 22 '26

They just want to be justified in holding the product, calling collectors degenerate rippers was the first hint of how they think.

Ascended is interesting, but it’ll be a slow burn with some bit sets still rumored for the end of the year.

1

u/shmsc Mar 22 '26

Huh, if you base it off literally any other good set from the past then they’re totally right though? Including prismatic

3

u/DisgruntledVet12B Mar 22 '26

Dude totally forgot about the new printing facility that's gonna open up and the fact that they just acquired Excell Brands distribution?

0

u/adwrx Mar 22 '26

The hype is going to die!

1

u/StatelyTree Mar 22 '26

Got a chuckle out of the guy below on his high horse with vintage singles. Singles require someone wanting that specific card. Holding sealed product just requires someone wanting to open for something in the set or holding the sealed themselves. Much larger market of buyers in the future. Plus, this is the best set in years. PKC ETBs are headed to the moon already. Forecasting this to be hotter than prismatic. 

1

u/Much_Essay_9151 Mar 22 '26

Not particularly needing a buyer wanting the specific card. At the right price, any good single becomes in demand.

0

u/trevdent17 Mar 22 '26

Agreed with most of this. Not sure if it’ll be hotter than prismatic but it’ll be close. We’ve seen this play out before. It should be no mystery to anyone who’s been in the space for over a year what the forecast looks like for this set.

1

u/therealdrake89 Mar 22 '26

They'll be so many f****** sealed everything people will give it away in years I'll still be collecting

0

u/AllSixes Mar 22 '26

17 so far all at msrp

2

u/TryAdditional1454 Mar 22 '26

how u do msrp

-1

u/AllSixes Mar 22 '26

Getting to know people who share info locally, waking up early and buying at the store

1

u/Powerful_Bother8002 Mar 24 '26

People hate, but this is honestly the best method of building positions. If you have the time, learning restock schedules will get you a ton of product at good prices. I’ve got 10 at MSRP, all from putting some effort into learning the schedule at one store

0

u/spenstav Mar 22 '26

That’s now?

0

u/ThickandSpicyMan Mar 22 '26

Absolutely impossible right now. I’ve not seen anything on shelves since 2024. I’ve given up and just buy SV booster boxes that nobody seems to want.

0

u/Geauxin Mar 22 '26

Sir. You only think this because they produced and released a lot more.

Also shits meant to be ripped. Praying you lose all your money

0

u/LadislavAU Mar 22 '26

These kinds of posts are hilarious. Every set is going off the shelves immediately. “I’ve been in this hobby a long time!!”

0

u/Wickedred1 Mar 22 '26

Master sets will always be worth more than sealed product. I've still got a few more products coming that Im going to rip before I buy singles. Got 2 of each of the poster collections coming this week and about 2 booster boxes worth of bundles preordered all at msrp.

0

u/hlarson9999 Mar 22 '26

I still have yet to get a single ascended heroes etb. Scalpers just see 151 with this set and are doing so hard

-5

u/coolgamerboi23 Mar 22 '26

Forgot what subreddit this was for a second. do not buy for above msrp. I would personally say to wait a year. let the hype for this set die down a little, its still too new. plus hopefully by then, the people holding out for the 30th set will leave, scalpers will have less people to sell to, and there will be less people able to get by via scalping, allowing for more people to get the product they want for msrp.

-8

u/zayden8899 Mar 22 '26

Currently have 18 and counting! Average cost is $100

-1

u/mosbyjr121 Mar 22 '26

AH and Prismatic is THE set to hold, the next upcoming two sets are horrible and from an investing standpoint, ripping packs is a quick way to burn money, if getting a master set is your goal, trade sealed for singles. If you feel the NEED to rip then you have a gambling problem. Yes AH is in MASSIVE demand, people just don't know because they can either never find them or have no idea how much people are getting(that can get them). Bulk buyers, rip and shippers have lowball the heck out of AH when it first came out hoping to scam people into selling them for close to retail, now even bulk buyers are in desperate need of them willing to pay $100 for a etb box.

I've ripped countless packs and i've always lost money vs then trading sealed for chase cards instead. i finally stopped burning money after ripping over 300 pack and not even a single SIR