The Pokémon Market Just Changed For The Foreseeable Future

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Well guys, the Pokemon hobby looks like it is about to take a very sharp turn here. What does that mean? Where are we going? Why is this happening? We're going to be talking about the whole entire thing. I finally have enough information to share with you guys to be able to give you guys a real glimpse of what I think is happening and where things are going to be headed. My name is Steve. This is Still City Stacks.

[00:00:19]Thank you guys for watching this video.

[00:00:20]I will not lie to you guys. This might be a little bit of a yap session. So, sit back, relax, just hear what I have to say. I promise it is going to be worth it. Now, what is the main kind of thesis here? What is the whole point?

[00:00:32]I'm going to bury the lead here. For quite a while now here on YouTube, I have been trying to figure out why these single card prices have been reacting the way that they have. And honestly, some of it was kind of obvious, and you're probably going to say it's the grading aspect. A lot more people are buying singles. There's more people in the hobby because of Ascended Heroes.

[00:00:50]All of that is true. I very much agree with that. But I wanted to go further. I wanted to find a legitimate reason why things are the way that they are. and make sense of what's happening and what is going to happen here. And just today, we got more information from both PSA, TAG, and CGC about some grading stuff.

[00:01:08]And it's just it's a lot. So, we're going to go through the whole thing. I'm going to give you guys a whole flowchart of ideas here. I took a bunch of notes.

[00:01:15]If I look away from the camera, I'm looking at that just trying to make sure I get all the information to you guys.

[00:01:19]And what we're going to do is we're going to back up everything that I'm saying with my own data that I have been constructing for you guys since like I don't I don't even know like before 2026. So again, sit back, relax. We're going to get straight into it. So with number one, we are going to start at the very tippy top of this. We're going to start back in the past. We are going to work our way through and see what the hell is going on. Botters, scalpers are at the core of this. They are the number one point the the main thing the main issue in the hobby right now in my personal opinion are scalpers in person and all the bots online stealing the product right you can't find anything on the shelves and if you do there are limits in place like at your big box stores I can't get anything of quantity myself I'm able to at least find product now but I cannot find anything you know of like actual quantity and if I go online I'm just out of luck because they can't find the actual stuff online because it's get getting sold out because people are using bots to buy the product before anyone else can. That's a problem. Which leads us to number two.

[00:02:18]Pokemon is very much hot. Duh. Why is that? Well, it's anniversary year.

[00:02:24]They're making ads. They're doing things. They're collabing a lot with a lot of different brands. Obviously, that's a thing. It's, you know, it's it's the whole 10 billion cards printed thing. It's a lot of publicity. And I want to touch on that really quickly for for point number two because that is just it's it's such an important thing here. There were 10 billion cards printed last year in 2025. worldwide straight up whatever 16 or 17 languages I think we're up to now 10 billion cards that's 2% less than last year or the previous year 2024 that was 10.2 2 billion. So, I did some rough math here.

[00:02:56]I'm just going to I'm I'm going to like lay it out here for you guys. So, we had 2% less across all languages. Let's just assume that English cards take up 40% of the 10 billion that were printed. Okay?

[00:03:08]So, of that, 40% of that small 2% is about 200 million cards or excuse me, 200 million cards is the total that amount that that were less printed from this year. So it's8% in total or about 80 million cards in English that were not printed compared to 2024. Now that is roughly 11.4 million less for each set or 1.1 million less packs per set.

[00:03:36]Now that is based off of 2025 where we had seven sets technically with black bolt and white flare being two separate sets. Uh but still it's not as much as you guys think. 1 million packs honestly is not that much and we are going to get into that because you know there's there's the whole lead time aspect of this as well. Okay, they're printing 6 to9 months ahead of time when they're saying they're printing 10 billion cards. Is that actually you know what was last year? Prismatic Journey, Destin, Blackbolt, White Flare, Mega Base, and Fantasmal or was that quite literally them printing ahead of time?

[00:04:08]So was that in reality probably Destin, Blackbolt, White Flare, Mega, Fantasmal, Perfect Order, and Ascended Heroes? We don't know. We're not going to have the answer to that. I think it is important to note here because it is relatively important. But let's get back to the scalpers and the amount of product that is actually out there. So, point number three, what is going on with all of the product that the scalpers and the botters are all getting here? They're selling it primarily on Facebook marketplaces in the form of like, you know, your smalltime people. They get like a few boxes here and there. Maybe they go to their local Walmart or Target, GameStop or something. They get something, they go and flip it or Best Buy. they go and flip it in person on Facebook Marketplace or something like that. Maybe you go and sell on eBay.

[00:04:48]Maybe you're going on TCG Player and you're listing your stuff. Sure, maybe this is all like small time stuff, but the big the big scalpers, the big botting communities and stuff like that.

[00:04:57]They are giving their products to live streamers. The rip and ship community.

[00:05:01]Now, I've said it before, the rip and ship community is all good in my book.

[00:05:05]As long as you're not a scumbag and you're actually going and giving people what they paid for and you're not ripping their faces off with a pack price, I don't really care. I don't mind it. It's a part of this. It's a business whether you like it or not. I don't really care for it myself, but I respect it as a business in this space and it is what it is. But the fact remains the bulk of that like the amount of cards and packs are going to your live streamers. And yes, I do want to throw in maybe some stores are buying some just off the market, off TC, like whatever by by some proxy through through like a scalper or something like that. I don't really know. I don't have a brick-andmortar store. I couldn't tell you, but I know that that does exist to some capacity, right? It more or less kind of has to. But a lot of it has to do with the live streams. And what does that do? It increases availability. It increases popularity, visibility, sentiment, all of that stuff. And you guys very well know that these are very, very popular. You have people like Logan Paul started his own live rip rip what what is it called? Rip rip it or something like I don't even know. Uh but regardless I mean Logan Paul is a very big figure in this space and whether you like him or you don't like him. I don't really care what side of the fence you're on there. You cannot deny that someone of that kind of presence draws in a crowd. And you're seeing it with with you know athletes. You're seeing it with famous people opening uh Pokemon packs. Kim Kardashian having a Pokemon themed uh uh birthday party for for her son. You're seeing uh the the Brewers pitcher, Misarowski, I think is how you say his name. Uh he's big into Pokemon.

[00:06:30]Miles Garrett big into Pokemon. Couple of the Eagles players big into Pokemon.

[00:06:34]Uh etc., etc. Just all over increasing availability. So, I guess that's that's number four here. So, the more attention that you get, the more demand that's going to exist, the the the more exposure that you get equals more buyers, which equals less supply and more of a squeeze. And that is kind of like the main point of what the hell is really kind of starting this snowball effect, right? This really started with prismatic evolutions. Like you can say surging sparks. Maybe maybe I didn't see it as much whenever I reentered the hobby at that point. It was really prismatic whenever I saw whatnot really kind of take off and they were really pushing those advertisements on YouTube and just every other platform that I that I saw. And that leads me to point number five, which I'm going to say this word once. I'm going to try not to say it again, but number five is all about gambling. Again, if you like it, if you hate it, it's a part of this. Every time you open a pack, you are rolling the dice. It is fun. I do it all the time myself, but it is that action. It is.

[00:07:30]And it is becoming quite a problem. And that is very addicting, especially for younger people. Like, no offense, but you know, the younger you are, the more impressionable that you just are. It's just part of being a human being as far as I'm concerned. Um, and and once it's established, right, like once that type of culture is established, more ideas start to pop into place. You start getting ideas for other businesses involving that G-Word. Which leads me to number six, digital riffs and the online mystery slab boxes and packs and all this other stuff. The GameStop power packs, all of this stuff, the rise of grading singles. This is your big thing.

[00:08:08]This is the number one thing that I have noticed over the last two and a half months in particular that we are seeing a large large large large number of cards being thrown at PSA Becket CGC SGC whatever the names are all the acronyms TAG even PCG with with Rudy even he's saying oh yes I am seeing more people actually go and grade with me like good for Rudy honestly that's pretty great um but regardless this has become a staple in the economy and really one of the main driving forces behind me like just presenting this information and these thoughts to you guys. So number seven, they do not care. These groups, companies, whoever they are, they do not care what grades the cards get. If they get PSA 10s, awesome. They're probably going to pocket some of them and sell them online and flip them. And that just the whole thing just keeps on going. They're hoping for nines. They're hoping for eights to throw them in these mystery packs so that you could sit there and go like this like a drone, like the little meme with the old people at the slot machines, right? Just being like, "Yes, I'll buy another GameStop power pack.

[00:09:11]Absolutely. Maybe I'll get that bubble mu and a PSA 10 if I spend $1,000 on this slab box." Like, no. No, you're going to get a PSA 9 if you get anything. And that's just the way that it's going to go. Your odds are just like heavily stacked against you because once again, it is the G-word. You're not guaranteed, that's another G-word, to get anything. That's the whole point of this. And the companies do not care.

[00:09:33]They're going and they're rushing to go and grade. They're doing anything. And this is where I want to bring up all the information about PSA, TAG, CGC as of it is 7:00 my time here, Eastern time.

[00:09:45]Three separate announcements today from all of those accounts. I just I just mentioned PSA shutting down all their value tiers for the foreseeable future.

[00:09:54]tag closing most of their tiers and their express tier, their uh express tier and then CGC doing something as well where they're not they're they're limiting the amount of submissions that they can get in. And it just shows you how many cards are actually getting graded right now. And at first I'm like, okay, maybe maybe it's just people grading their cards. Maybe we're just in this era.

[00:10:18]Maybe people are realizing that grading cards is actually probably a good way to go and make money in the space very very quickly, especially if you rush it. You know, Earn collects is a great channel to learn from. Absolutely go and watch his channel if you want to learn about all the grading plays, the grading information, news, stuff like that. He's fantastic with it. Way better than me.

[00:10:35]But regardless, you are seeing so many people right now go and grade in mass.

[00:10:40]And it could be it could be me, could be you, could be anybody. But it in reality, it's these groups. It's these businesses that are making money on mystery packs and mystery slab packs and all this other crap. It's it's just what it is. And I'm so convinced of it because you had the king Dingling himself of Florida, popped out of the basement, finally went outside, sniffed some fresh air, went to Collecticon, and was like, "Huh, there are a lot of people grading cards and doing flips and everything else." And it's like, "No duh, bud. Where have you been? Where have you actually been?" But I'm gonna go and listen to a guy and and and you know, take take reference from a guy that has been doing this, you know, extremely longer than I have, has way more of a footprint, way more of everything than I ever do, has way more pulse on how things actually go in the graded market than I ever will. And over here, he's saying like, yes, it's about it's about the G-word, it's about flipping. It's about grading. It's about doing everything as fast as you can, making a quick buck and whatever. Go watch the video. It's an hour and 20 minutes. I'm not going to talk about it.

[00:11:38]But regardless, it brings me to um to to point number eight here. That is the backlog of PSA pausing the value tiers, doing all that stuff like I mentioned, and what that's going to mean because that is going to create an insane squeeze on your cards. I'm telling you guys, this is going to be a popular thing on on YouTube. I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to follow it. I'm going to chart it. I'm going to do whatever I can. I will be watching all of these grading like uh grading sources to see how many cards they're pulling in, what the gem rates are, and how this goes for a lot of SV stuff and especially the mega era because now you have people that can't grade as easily all of their Chaos Rising stuff, the Pitch Black stuff coming, anything that they find right now. Maybe they go and they finally opening sealed product and they're like, "Yeah, this is this is great. Oh my god, I pulled a PS or excuse me, pulled a Team Rockets uh Mewtwo from from Destin Rivals. I want to grade it. Oh wait, I can't. It's going to cost me 80 bucks to go and grade it and then I'm not going to see it for 6 months. What's the point of grading it? There's probably not one right now. It's creating a squeeze on the market and and and how's this going to shake out? I just I I don't think it will. I think the mystery slab packs are just they're just going to rush it and they're going to say, "F it." They like the wheels of their machine have to keep turning, right? and it's going to create a squeeze for you and me and you're going to see increased slab prices across the board and that's just the way that it's going to go because there's no other way of doing it. It's not just PSA, it's also TAG, it's also CGC, it's the entire slab market has come to a grinding halt right now. So, where does this put the sealed items, right? How do we tie this all together? Point number nine, cue a nonTCG's video. This is the same one. I know a lot of you guys tagged me in it. I appreciate that.

[00:13:24]Seriously, you do talking about the decay rate, all of that stuff, the pack price, literally everything. Okay?

[00:13:32]He's saying pretty much, if you didn't watch the video, he's saying that what you're seeing right now are the large large large large large large accounts that have thousands upon thousands, like tens of thousands of booster boxes per allocation of each set are holding back their product because they are seeing the squeeze that is being put into the market for booster boxes, for ETBs, for bundles, for anything. It's pure artificial scarcity and it's how this is going. you are seeing all of the prices for the booster boxes get wiped out faster and faster and faster and faster.

[00:14:05]And this is what I was talking about when I was like, "Hey guys, you need to understand that you like we used to have like, you know, half a year to decide.

[00:14:12]Do we want to go in on this booster box to like now you have 3 months to now you have about 2 months to like, oh, now I have like 3 weeks into Chaos Rising. It looks like you might have about a week and a half before this thing takes off because the the the wheels of of of this whole entire machine have to keep moving. And people are just straight up buying all of the cheap product, all of the cheap booster boxes because that is the cheapest way to get packs because cue the scalpers and the botters again.

[00:14:40]They're getting this product for, you know, MSRP. They're selling it for under market under secondary market. They're undercutting one another. And who benefits? The live streamers. the ripen shippers, they are going and getting their boxes cheaper. They're getting like chaos rising like $200 is what Anan's talking about. And then they can sell it for the same exact pack price and they're just going to wipe the market out and then queue in the bigger accounts again that actually can move the needle and can actually change how the market's flowing. And they're just like, hm, no, I'm not going to do that.

[00:15:11]I'm going to sit on my boxes because why would I sell at 250 when you idiots are just going to go and rip these packs online and just sh send them off to literally anybody or grade them or do whatever, right? Until there's nothing left on the market and you're going to create artificial scarcity by yourselves. We're just going to sit back here like this. We're going to wait for the prices to hit 300, 350, 325, whatever it's going to be. Then we'll start to let it trickle out a little bit and then we'll still hold some in reserve because we built up that capital. We built it up last year and the year before and the year before and the year before because we bought whenever no one else wanted to when the market was crappy. So we built up the allocations. We have the capital. We control the market. That's what Anon's saying. That's the whole point. That is such a huge emphasis on what is actually happening right now. It's pure artificial scarcity just across the board. And I just don't know how else to say it. So, I guess I I guess I I blended in point number 10, which is your your sellers, your ripen shippers can buy at the like the lower lower prices, causing the initial prices of these new booster boxes like Chaos Rising to go up faster and faster and faster than we've ever seen before. And I'm going to show you guys once again what that looks like on a graph, and you're going to be like, "Oh my god, I can't believe that. That's crazy." So, point number 11, no resupply that comes from the big stores that matter that can actually move the market because artificial scarcity already exists. See, I'm getting ahead of myself here, guys.

[00:16:32]I'm sorry. Which is is is like, why would they bail them out, right? Once again, why can they bail them out? Or why would they bail them out if they can just go and make more money later?

[00:16:41]Because that's what this is all about is just making money, right? Think about it. Like, not for me. I'm not in it solely for the money. I'm here also to enjoy it and to to rip packs and collect and do everything. But from the business side of it, they exist to make money, right? Like, shout out Pokey. I love the guy. Love his content. He exists to make money. He's not here to be your friend.

[00:17:01]He's not like DJ's Poke Center. Great guy. Love him. Love his content. He's not here to be friends with you guys.

[00:17:07]He's here to make money. He has a business. He's trying to do it. These guys don't owe you absolutely anything.

[00:17:13]And I hope everyone realizes that. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it is what it is. Doesn't mean they're bad people, of course. Not to just single out DJ and and and Brian, but you know, just the first few people that came to my mind.

[00:17:25]But still, as long as people understand that, that's that's really where it counts. So, number 12, an immediate squeeze on the sealed market equals less time for you guys to all react, causing FOMO and fear. And then we just start the cycle all over again. And then there's more content made about it, and then we're going back and forth, and we're trying to figure out the answers whenever it's actually a lot more simple than we want to make it be. So point number 13, the relationship between the settling price, the box prices, and the singles, the singles price or what will be the set value when I flip this camera around and show you guys. So that was a very, very long- winded way of trying to explain what is happening. Okay, let me show you guys why this all makes sense here with my own information that I've been building here for well over six plus months now. So, I'm not going to lie here, guys. I get really fired up on topics like this because I care and I just want you guys to understand exactly what I'm seeing. I just I'm just being honest here. So, what I'm about to show you is very cut and dry and I don't want this to go on too long. So, let's just let's just go through it here. We're going to zoom in here. Your orange line is your set value or the sum of all the singles in a set. You guys are going to see these lines down here, your different colored lines. Dark blue is going to be your booster box. You have your four ETB and your bundles. all that fun stuff per 36 pack basis here.

[00:18:46]Realistically, I guess we should show this one here so you guys can see booster boxes versus your actual actual set value. What we've seen the rise of the slab packs the beginning of the year, that's when things happened.

[00:19:00]Started to see more and more of this and in March full swing power packs from GameStop, everything else we have seen across the board. That was Lost Origin.

[00:19:10]Here's Silver Tempest. Pay attention to the cursor. This is going to be the first of the year pretty much on every one of these graphs. Same general point here. We're just going to it's going to move around and stuff like that cuz these are new newer sets. But the orange line going up on every single one of these. Every single one of them. And what's fascinating is that they have not gone up this rapidly before this. Like look at the previous look at let's go back actually to uh Paradox or excuse me um Paul day evolved. You will see Paul day evolved. Maybe it had like one or two months where it was like, yeah, okay, it's like having a good month. And by the third month, it's like kind of tailing off here a little bit. And then you get to like this current cycle where things are going crazy and it's like 1 2 3 4 all pretty much at the same velocity. And things look like they are slowing down here just a little tiny bit. These are updated with the current prices and everything as of May 28th. So this is what it is. But still, every single one of these, you're seeing a longer upstream of the singles going up in price. Paradox Rift going stupid.

[00:20:08]$1,200 plus dollar set value. Look at look at Temporal Forces. Insane.

[00:20:13]Twilight Masquerade finally slowing down here a little bit, but rapid rapid growth here for for uh uh uh gez Twilight Masquerade. Stellar Crown even.

[00:20:22]Take a look at Stellar Crown. Massive gains here over the last couple months.

[00:20:26]Surging Sparks, not as much as some of the other sets, but like that's fine.

[00:20:29]There's still a bunch of product out there. Journey Together's a quote unquote bad set. Destin Rivals has been doing pretty well. Mega base has been increasing here very slow. But like again, this is where we get into this other point here of what I've been trying to say. You guys have a very limited time before things actually start to go back up. Look at the price.

[00:20:48]Look at the lines. They they just they dip down for a second and then they're off to the races again. Singles prices going through the roof. Booster boxes here started off 266 down to about or that's 266 down to 242 and then back up 267. You're at $300 there. We're at 375, etc., etc., 400, and now we're off to the races. Perfect order. Even Perfect Order is actually starting to level off already. Perfect freaking order. The set that you guys hate the most. Still pretty flat off of its release. Not even a tick of it going down. And so far, Chaos Rising does not look very good all things considered, looks like it is actually going to do something really stupid. And I'm very nervous about Chaos Rising because it just seems like you had literally the initial weekend to do something about this. And it just looks the same on every single freaking graph.

[00:21:39]Like look at this. Look at Obsidian Flames. The orange line, the set value going stupid. But the big relationship, why aren't the sealed boxes moving?

[00:21:51]It's because they're all tapped out.

[00:21:54]Straight up. They are all tapped out. I don't know how else to say it. I want to showcase the specialty ETBs as well because they're a great example. Look at what is happening. This is per 36 pack basis. Again, don't make the comment about how many there are packs are in a crown at the ETB. I know it's 10.

[00:22:13]I whatever start of the year, things going crazy. Normal cycle, right? End of the year, we always have stuff going down. Extended run, hotter than ever.

[00:22:24]These cars crowns is going stupid. Look at the price of those cards. Like absolutely stupid. Almost $2,700 of set value right now. But look, you're not seeing the same velocity. Not seeing the same growth for the sealed items. Why is that? Why is that, guys? It's because stuff's already tapped out. It is tapped out because of the gains that have already been shown. People are are saying like, "No, enough is enough. I'm not doing this." And I just don't think people realize the relationship between the two the two situations here. Like you're seeing the four ETB value for Poly and Fates go to the moon because you're seeing the price of the singles go crazy for 151. Like it's not a coincidence here. We get into Crown Zenith. You don't care about Crown Zenith. You don't care about Sword and Shield. You care about 151 because you're here from the nostalgia from a gen one. You care about Paul and Fates because it's a shiny set and there's a Charizard in it and a bubble mw. You don't care about Shrouded Fable at all, which is just another thing, but you sure as care about Prismatic Evolution. Sorry, I just dropped the S bomb there. But again, fired up here.

[00:23:29]Black Bull and White Flare. Again, cards going crazy. Boxes aren't moving for some reason. They're in the vending machines. Like, we just talked about this in the comment sections of like all these recent videos. I get it. I get it.

[00:23:38]I get it. They're also really new. And then you start getting into that.

[00:23:42]But the fact remains, the fact remains, these singles are going up in price. The boxes are just they're not they're not it's why I'm pounding the table for Prismatic Evolutions. You don't get this type of set value.

[00:23:57]If the if the boxes aren't going to follow, I don't care how many boxes are printed. They're eventually going to wash out. The machine has to keep pumping. You guys just you have to understand this. There are people that start new live streams every single day, new mystery slab packs every single day.

[00:24:17]Pokemon is incredibly hot. You would think spikes like this from Crown Zenith would end, but they're not. They're not slowing down. Look at this. Look at the velocity. When is this going to stop? Is it 3,000 all the way over here? Are we going to get up to 3,200 before the set value finally stops? And what's that going to mean for the rest of of of the uh the sealed items? Well, they're going to lag behind because that's what they've been doing. Like again, it's no coincidence that that some of these boxes here like Shrouded Fable booster bundles making a move. ETBs again charts broken. It's fine. But Prismatic holding off here. Why? Because there's so much prismatic, right? But then we get back to to your main stats. These lines scarlet violet base booster boxes flat not following the line. Why? They have been following the line. Look at this huge upswing whenever this hot market started. You saw the price correct here even just a little bit here from what what was this $143 all the way up to 186 from this big big movement Paul day evolved similar type of story huge swing up in the card price not really doing much of anything because it was still in rotation at that point then we curl back down cards are going crazy again we finally get some movement and for whatever reason we're seeing the cards go crazy and the box is still hovering around $500 it's just a screaming value guys like I I don't know how else to say like any of this information that I've been building upon for so long at this point. We know what happens here. We know these lines converge, guys. We know it happens on every single freaking set. It's not difficult. I have this information. It's on YouTube. It is free. It's free.99.

[00:25:55]Educate yourselves. Look around. Ask questions. Figure out what's going on here. I could keep I could literally keep going with everything.

[00:26:04]And it's going to happen for Obsidian Flames, for Paradox Rift, even for Temporal Freaking Forces. I mean, look, temporal, like, what are we even talking about? What are we doing here? That's just silly. Booster Box just just inching its way forward. It's crazy.

[00:26:21]It's literally crazy talk. Twilight Masquerade. Crazy crazy stuff here. Just getting all fired up here. Look how overval Excuse me. Look how overvalued the ETBs are for for searching sparks.

[00:26:36]And no one wants to talk about it. Every time I say it, everyone's like, I think it's going to outperform the booster box. Be like, no, I don't think it's going to, but like sure, yeah, of course. You know, this this does follow it. One concept idea that someone mentioned uh in one of the videos is a whole ratio system for this, and I will be doing it. We will be talking about ratios and why that's important and all that fun stuff. So you can see how many of each item you could buy and what's a value and what is not a value. We'll we'll talk about that. But again guys, I don't know how else to say it other than just like this is the re it's just the reality of the situation we're living in. I'm sorry. Destin rivals ETBs completely overvalued versus the booster bundle. The booster or excuse me versus the the booster box and the booster bundle incredibly undervalued compared to the actual regular booster box.

[00:27:24]booster boxes are the main main, you know, item in a set. And for specialty sets, I'm telling you, it's as easy as prismatic as black bolt and white flare right now.

[00:27:34]Even ascended heroes, not a lot of time for ascended heroes, but like boy does this look good. Boy, does this look good. This line coming right back up here. I thought we were going to see the singles dip down a little bit and guess what? They did not, friends. They really, really did not go down. It's incredible to see. So, what does all this mean and where are we going to head? Let me tell you guys here to end the video. So, I hope you guys did learn something today. Actually, I really, really hope so because all this was really important and we're just putting some of the pieces together for you guys because it really just is simp as simple as and here's your TLDDR here.

[00:28:11]People scalp the product, sell it to ripen shippers, they buy the product at a cheaper cost, driving up everything and and just really kind of sucking out the supply. They drive a bunch of people to the hobby, new people enter, more people are curious, more people want stuff, they don't have it, and then they're, you know, kind of like, I got to go back to the rip and shipping and I got to participate in the mystery slabs and this and that because I can't get product. And then just creates this whole vicious cycle all over again and it's not going to stop.

[00:28:41]It's not because we have a solid set in Chaos Rising. Love it or hate it, it's selling and it's doing well. Pitch Black looks pretty solid as well. It's not good. It's not great. It's not bad in the, you know, I've I've heard positive sentiment over the Mega Dark Cry. And then after that, you have your Mega Rayquaza set, which pre-selling in Japan for quite a bit of money. And I don't know if it's because of the new system they have implemented in Japan right now or not, but you know, neither here nor there. That's a topic for a different day. Anyway, Mega Ray is going to go crazy. And then after that, well, guys, you know, now's a good time to tell you that we did get the official day, September 16th, for the 30th release of or the 30th anniversary set. We have we're going to have a Pikachu in every single pack. That's fantastic. There are six cards per pack. At least that's what it seems like. And they're all foil cards. Shocker. Who Who didn't see that one coming? If you're new here, maybe you didn't see that coming. It's whatever you then you wouldn't know.

[00:29:35]Cool. There's also going to be a new rarity. So, shocker. And guess what?

[00:29:39]Guess who's leading that that that new rarity, guys?

[00:29:44]Umbreon and Espeon, was that your guess?

[00:29:47]If it was, you're right. Of course it is. Of course, they're getting their own type of rarity or like part of the new rarity. Maybe the Mew and Mewtwo will be as well. Maybe they'll just throw in, you know, Charizard and, you know, maybe the legendary beasts and the legendary birds and like, you know, all the all the all the good hitters, right? will give them all like, you know, like good rarities for sure, just to drive up the price and the hype and the demand and the FOMO and everything else, right?

[00:30:09]Just to make the 30th really, really good. And then of course, oh wait, that's right, we're getting the Ascended Heroes uh heavy hitters packs as well, like Black Bolt and White Flare did. Oh man, that'll be great because I don't think Ascended Heroes is going to go away. And then, oh my god, did we already get announced another Japanese set for the end of the year? Or seeker with mega Lucario Z Pokemon? Oh my god, what is this? Dragon Ball Z. What is the Z fighters?

[00:30:35]I'm sorry. I'm sorry, guys. I don't I don't want to be Mr. Mr. Hype. Like, I don't I really don't. But if anything, I'm realistic and I'm honest.

[00:30:46]It sucks. It does. But like, this is where we're at and it's going to cause a squeeze in the market. Like this whole grading thing. Like, I'm sorry. How many people in this hobby are actually here for grading? and that like if that's your thing, what are you what are you gonna do? Are you gonna wait it out?

[00:31:03]What? You can't even go to another alternative unless you're go to Rudy like PCG. Seriously, what are you going to do?

[00:31:12]I don't I don't know. I don't know. All I know is that the hype is going to be here for the rest of the year at an absolute minimum and probably well into 2027 because we're going to get winds and waves and like traditionally like people hate the new generation and it's always the worst starters and the worst new Pokemon and blah blah blah blah blah and then it turns out to be you know that it's really good and it's like oh I can't believe you didn't like it at first is actually pretty cool. The stupid duck isn't but you know that's that's what people say. I like the duck.

[00:31:40]Quaxley is his name or her. 87.5% chance they'll be pokey knowledge. Anyway, that's what's going to happen. I hate to tell you guys, but that's just the situation. I don't think things are going to slow down in the summer. If anything, I think you're going to see more single cards get scooped up and just that's it.

[00:32:03]That's it. I And again, I don't think these these people care, the mystery slap people, I don't think they care what grades they get. I really don't. I really really don't because they're going to make their money anyway because you guys are going to buy. Maybe not you like individually, but someone you know, someone watching this is going to buy it because they're going to be like, "Yes, I need those packs and those slaps."

[00:32:21]Yes. Let me go and let me go and just risk all of my money here on this $500 mystery bag for something that's not guaranteed at all. Couldn't be me. I'm I'd rather just rip Pokemon packs and just try and feel something and have fun, you know? Like not not to sound all dark, but like that's just how I see it.

[00:32:38]So singles are just going to still go banana land here. I just I don't see it stopping now, especially with all this information. I really really don't. And for all of these new sets, just all of the stuff that Anan was talking about is really really scary. I mean, it really really is. And I wouldn't say it unless I I felt pretty confident in sharing this information with you guys. I mean, I'm just being for real. Seriously, him and I have had had our own conversations and it just doesn't look solid. It doesn't.

[00:33:03]And I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer.

[00:33:05]Not trying to be Mr. FOMO, nothing like that, but like it does it does trouble me. It does and I hope things get better before they get worse. But I think we're in for a very long summer and Mega Ray is going to be right around the corner because once again, Mega Ray is coming out the same time uh Pitch Black is coming out in English. And it's just it's just this vicious cycle. So, I want you guys to do me a favor. I want you guys to go down in the comments below and I want you to tell me one thing that you plan on doing this summer that you're really looking forward to that's something that's not Pokemon related. I And I'm being serious. I want to know what you guys are doing outside in the real world. It could be a trip, could be a sporting event, maybe you're going to the World Cup.

[00:33:43]I don't know. Let me know down below.

[00:33:44]That's that's what I want you guys to go and comment. Seriously, and then comment stuff about this video, too, and all that and like your thoughts and opinions and stuff like that. But I I just I I want what's best for everybody at the end of the day, just like in the hobby as a whole. And I'm not trying to be Mr. Nice Guy either and just be like, "Oh, this white knight."

[00:34:03]But I see these numbers. I see the sentiment. to see the conversations and just the news that slaps you in the face every single day in this hobby and you're just like you got to call a spade a spade. You do. You do. So again, I hope you guys learned something today. I hope you found this entertaining and informative. Hopefully I didn't proud on too long here. It's just a very heavy topic. It's very important and it's finally able to be talked about like this for me just because I'm very confident in my own numbers and data and stuff and a lot of it backs up a lot of these thoughts, feelings, emotions, and everything else that I'm sure you guys are feeling as well. So again, please leave a comment, leave a like, hype the video, subscribe, join the free Discord, by the way, too. I'm going to say it again. Join the free Discord. Like, why aren't you guys in the Discord?

[00:34:42]Seriously, I don't know. It's weird. Uh, we're also on the road to 5,000 subscribers, too. So, thank you guys very much. Crazy. I can't believe it.

[00:34:47]Who would have thought? Uh, but anyway, I've been talking too long. Thank you guys again. I'll watch you or I'll see you in the next video.