Card Shop Guys Podcast

Winds and Waves is right around the corner, and we expect a release date for the video game to be announced during the Pokemon TCG World Championships. With the upcoming release of Gen 10, there will be a whole new host of Pokemon cards released to kick off a new era in the TCG. Historically, these new generation sets have not performed well. A lot of disinterest as people still learn about the new Pokemon and figure out their favorites. It'll be interesting to see where the TCG lands once the Mega block comes to a close and we kick off a new chapter in Pokemon with Winds and Waves.

Anyone getting shell shocked by Delta Reign pull rates after coming off the highs from the 30th should look no further than previous main series sets to see the play. Don’t FOMO! I know we preach this every set drop, but if you’re new to the space and your pulls aren’t going as planned, be patient. You will more than likely be able to pick up any card from this set for much less than you would spend trying to pull it if you wait things out. Pick up some packs where you can, enjoy opening the set, and if you don’t snipe your target just know you won’t have much difficulty picking it up down the road 🫡 happy release weekend everyone!

So many applications 🤣 this one was not on my bingo card. It’s only a matter of time. The new currency of Pokemon cards is on the brink of fruition. Start stacking those bottle caps folks. When shit hits the fan, we all know how this goes… 🤣

No episode this week unfortunately 😢 we're on hiatus for the drop of Delta Reign and 30th UPCs in the shop. We'll be back next week though with all the fallout from release weekend, so stay tuned!

The pieces are coming together now with the ex star series dropping after the Mega sets. With Gen 10 being originally scheduled for November 2026 Pokemon likely planned to release Winds and Waves immediately after the Mega series to mirror what we saw with Scarlet and Violet base dropping in March 2023 after the video game’s release in November 2022. A last minute audible for a bridge series before Winds and Waves enters the TCG in early 2028 makes sense now

A lot of buzz in recent weeks about cards selling for ridiculously high amounts on auction sites, but now it appears that most of these auctions still haven't been paid... We've spoken recently about the pumping of vintage cards on paper and how a card's value is really only determined by what someone is ACTUALLY willing to pay for it, and it looks like a lot of these numbers have been exaggerated. And it's not an isolated incident. Fanatics and Goldin appear to have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar as well. Shoutout to @mrholo93 🫡 a lot of interesting information over there you should check out

We've been talking a lot lately about the recent spikes in vintage cards, but not so much about the current meltdown of modern 👀 As is usually the case in the Pokemon space, modern is currently on the down cycle of its all time highs. Cards like the Mega Gengar from Ascended and even the Mega Charizard X from Phantasmal have taken a sharp nose dive. Could there be more to this story than natural selection though? It's possible that there is a direct correlation from PSA delayed submissions to the state of the current market. As more and more PSA 10 Mega Gengars are finally delivered to their owners, the increase in supply causes the race to the bottom on the secondary market to accelerate. When this happens, the floor begins to fall out on some of these modern PSA tens. As the PSA ten version of card begins to plummet, the raw version of the card is impacted as well. If a PSA ten Mega Gengar that was once $3.5k is now $1.4k, it stands to reason that the raw card should no longer maintain the value it once held at $1.2k itself. While Coinbase and other factors may be directing all eyes to vintage, it's interesting to see what's happening on the modern front as well.

It's gonna be just like back in the day... only Pokemon instead of Flat Screen TVs. I'm going just for the Black Friday nostalgia.

Usually Pokemon releases cards related to the latest video game into the TCG AFTER a new game is released. Knowing this, we can kind of gauge when we will see Winds and Waves enter the arena once we know the release date for the game itself. Looking back, there is usually a direct correlation to the TCG space with the video games and mechanics that are revealed. A good example of this is vintage Mega cards seeing a bump once Pokemon announced they were bringing back Megas for Pokemon Legends Z-A. With new regional variants, could older Hisuian and Alolan cards be on the radar? (unlikely, but this is just an example of application) It's not always a sure thing, but is it possible to predict the next hottest ticket item on the market by simply paying attention to the video games and how they relate to the TCG... 🤔

So it looks like we're going to have UPCs for the 30th release without a Pokemon Center drop... (unless there's a last minute drop sometime this week 👀) I wonder if Pokemon Center knew their site would just completely implode if they did a drop for the UPCs. I also wonder if this means they will have one at a later date, or they just shipped everything out to Big Box stores so they could deal with the mass pandemonium. Either way, be safe out there this weekend guys 🫡

A lot of talk has been swirling the space about the trademarked ex star sets from last week about whether we're getting a new Era with the release of these cards or if it's going to be an end of Era gimmick to close out the Mega block. Personally, I think these remind me a lot of the VStars Pokemon released to close out SWSH and pay homage to Legends Arceus. What's interesting to me about this whole thing is that the trade marked sets SEEM to be hinting at an individual set for each of three legendary beasts from Gen 2. When SWSH came to an end we got four VStar sets to end the block (Astral Radiance, Brilliant Stars, Lost Origin, and Silver Tempest). While three legendary Beast sets isn't four VStar sets obviously, they do share a common theme... each set features one Legendary Pokemon. Historically, new generation sets begin at the start of the year, as well. We got SWSH base in February of 2020 and Scarlet Violet Base in March of 2023. It would seem to add up that we close out 2027 with these sets and then move in to Winds and Waves at the start of 2028. Having said that, it doesn't rule out that the ex stars series could be it's own stand alone mini block bridging the Mega Era to Winds and Waves as well...

I've been wondering how differently the community would have received Perfect Order, Chaos Rising, and Pitch Black if they hadn't been released as 1:1 sets with their Japanese counterparts. Think about it. If those three sets had been combined like Pokemon did for sets like Paradox Rift and Paldea Evolved, the set would have included Mega Darkrai, Mega Greninja and the Meowth EX as chases all in one set. This would have been very reminiscent of Twilight Masquerade, the last Greninja set we received. This also would have gave the set 18 SIRs... that would have been a very large pool to fish from. While it's just a thought, I can't help but lean into the idea of Pokemon bringing back larger sets on the English side and slowing things down a bit so collectors can have a chance to truly enjoy the chase of a new set.

If you could choose, would you rather Pokemon remain in the 2 month, 1:1 set release cadence we've had for the Mega Evolution block, or would you prefer the 2:1 cadence we saw in SWSH and SV? While smaller sets give us newer sets at a greater velocity, the chase cards take a hit in value due to the smaller pool of SIRs in the set. Personally, I don't mind the smaller sets. With less SIRs to potentially hit, the odds of getting the one you're after greatly increase when you have a 1 in 6 chance to pull a Mega Darkrai from Pitch Black versus a 1 in 11 chance to snipe Team Rocket's Mewtwo from Destined Rivals.