We haven’t written about Pokémon recently. Schedules have been busy and unfortunately very little time to play Pokémon cards (Tears of the Kingdom has taken a lot of our time). After the depreciation and tough pull rates seen in Paldea Evolved, we stayed away from Obsidian Flames. Most likely, I’ll get the Dragonite and related cards as singles for themandalorian. You can tell it wasn’t a popular set, because Pokémon Center has Obsidian Flames readily available. A Build & Battle box goes for $14.99 on TCGPlayer, when the price on Pokémon Center is $21.99. That said, we are excited about Scarlet and Violet 151.
Why Scarlet and Violet 151?
The original 151 Pokémon discovered in Kanto are back, with a Scarlet & Violet twist. This will allow popular characters to be featured as EX cards. It brings back Alakazam as a new EX. Card 151 is a Mew EX. The secret rares look amazing. Popular cards have their own Full Art version. You can see the released Japanese cards here on justinbasil. Pokémon Center is sold out of everything related to this set.
Will Nintendo print the heck out of these cards? Most likely. Is there a decent chance some of these cards retain value? We’re betting yes. Game Nerdz only has the Binder Collection available for pre-order. Here too everything is sold out.
On tcgplayer, the 151 Elite Trainer Box is at $52 for 9 backs, about $6 a pack. The booster bundle is $54 for 6 packs, or $9 a pack. Not a great deal. The poster collection is $24 for 3 packs. I’m curious how the poster looks. The big hitter is the 151 Ultra-Premium Collection. tcgplayer has it for $160 for 16 packs, a metallic coin, playmat and a metal Mew Ex. I would not recommend individual packs. We bought some Evolving Skies for $7 a pack and it was a dud. People will weigh them out and open the heavier packs. That should not be an issue with the new foil cards and new packs.
We’ll probably get 1 Elite Trainer Box and 1 poster set. Our business to sell individual Pokémon cards is currently a bust. We need a bit more to send to PSA in bulk for grading. One of the Landorus EX cards we sent to Beckett was deemed not authentic, and it sucks to spend $15 grading a card to get that result. Only authentic cards to grade for us! Lesson learned. Game Nerdz is buying back Pokémon cards for store credit, and that might be a good option to consider to get rid of duped and cards we don’t want.
Is the set a gamble? Sure. Is it more satisfying than a Mega Millions or PowerBall ticket? Absolutely. We’ll post what we get here and if we got any gradable or great art work cards.
Update: tcgplayer goes through the Top 10 Japanese cards from this set. We’ll get Poké Ball and Master Ball special variant foils for many cards in the set. Any one of these Top 10 cards would make our small purchase worth it. That’s the thrill of the chase. https://infinite.tcgplayer.com/article/The-10-Most-Valuable-Cards-from-Japan-s-Pokémon-Card-151
Sincerely yours,
smilingdad
Copyright © 2017-2023 smilingdad. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by and do not necessarily represent the views of smilingdad, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.
smilingdad 