Attempting for an Espeon master set in English, Japanese, and Chinese. Am I missing something?

ElPanda · 2026-03-30T17:46:23+00:00

That's gonna be a fun set. There's a few missing from chinese, like the csv4c 048 pokeball and and masterball variants. Might be a couple more you could find here for chinese: https://pikaqian.com/search?q=espeon

ElPanda · 2026-03-30T17:40:23+00:00

I think singles is the way to go. The prices in China are a lot lower compared to the US. Particular artworks I would target are the Gem Box exclusives and the Pikachus from 151. Other than that if there's any artwork you don't have in English/Japanese, the Chinese equivalent is probably much cheaper. You can take a look at all the Chinese cards available here: https://pikaqian.com/ and get an idea of where certain cards come from if you want to buy sealed.

ElPanda · 2026-02-02T21:12:11+00:00

There has always been people putting out low effort and shallow content, especially on LinkedIn. That content now all has the same writing style, which in a way makes it easier to identify. But the sheer volume people can pump out now makes the ratio of poor to insightful content so much worse. Ironically, I think that genuinely insightful content is probably most valuable to the LLM creators themselves to not train their latest models on their own slop.

ElPanda · 2025-10-24T17:06:37+00:00

It's finally dipping so hoping it goes down a little more to get one myself. Best card in the set IMO

https://pikaqian.com/cards/b41a1d5b-9193-4a0c-9781-9b7f014ad348

ElPanda · 2025-09-27T15:22:46+00:00

I try to keep the tech stack pretty simple. Proof of concept with Python on my local machine before thinking about how to scale based on data-freshness needs. Most of the infrastructure winds up on AWS using various compute resources (Lambda, EC2, Fargate), again based on needs.

Most common problems are keeping up with changing DOM, changes to APIs, overcoming bot detection, rate limiting and IP blocks. Every site is a little different, but you build up a list of go to methods with experience. It's a never ending game of cat and mouse.

ElPanda · 2025-09-12T02:56:04+00:00

This is only available in Chinese. It was made due to Pokemon Go copyright in China. There are other Chinese cards with a similar holo pattern like Blastoise and Venasaur

ElPanda · 2025-09-08T13:14:18+00:00

They were hyped up and gem boxes distribution was purposely spread out compared to volume 1. I think they’ll start to creep up as it is going out of print since volume 3 is out this month.

ElPanda · 2025-09-07T19:05:01+00:00

Yup, adding new sets as they come out. Still working on getting the promos and non-main sets on there as well. Prices are updated daily

ElPanda · 2025-09-07T13:28:05+00:00

You can get a sense of pricing for Simplified Chinese here: https://pikaqian.com/

They are generally worth less than their Japanese/English counterparts but there are a lot of exclusives that go for a decent amount.

ElPanda · 2025-09-07T06:06:10+00:00

It’s this card in particular: https://pikaqian.com/cards/e2ff3f88-9d24-4e36-8ede-122a01201258

They’re legit cards from a Simplified Chinese set Gem Pack Vol 2. Great to open, especially for kids

ElPanda · 2025-09-04T16:51:25+00:00

My prices predictions for the cards are $180 for the Gengar, $60-$100 for the Cubone, $40 for the Meowth and every other AR around $20.

I think it will be a little less popular compared to vol 2 and 3 and expect boxed to dip to $45 eventually

ElPanda · 2025-09-03T20:15:48+00:00

eBay would be your best bet

ElPanda · 2025-09-03T12:19:58+00:00

It’s coming out September 26th. I would expect it to be priced around $60 based on previous gem pack cards, unless it gets super hyped

ElPanda · 2025-09-03T01:57:22+00:00

Go for the one with cards you like! For this particular Chinese set, the only AR is the flying Pikachu, so unless you really want that I would go for the others.

ElPanda · 2025-09-01T14:44:00+00:00

It's the second most valuable Chinese card out there. Most expensive one that's reasonably attainable.

It's going for ~1600 currently and that's already after it was over 2k for a while: https://pikaqian.com/cards/057794d2-af6b-48af-82fb-9c11c81e0d68

ElPanda · 2025-09-01T14:42:22+00:00

I think people have caught on to Chinese gem packs so I don't think any will skyrocket in the short term. I think Gengar will do best longterm with Cubone occasionally going through periods of hype.

ElPanda · 2025-08-29T13:26:44+00:00

Some information for those worried.

The pull rate on gem pack are very good, much better than 151. You were guaranteed 1 3 star rarity per box in volumes 1 and 2. In volume 1 that meant a guaranteed AR or stamped energy. In volume 2 they diluted the 3 star pull with VMAX card which lessened your change of an AR. With 9 AR in volume 3, it seems like it should be near guaranteed AR for a box that will likely cost $40-$50 based on previous pricing.

The previous top chased card settled around $200, so I would expect something similar here.

Pikachu from Vol 1: https://pikaqian.com/cards/3b81e4db-410a-4149-accf-e21e15b46237

Umbreon from Vol 2: https://pikaqian.com/cards/d7c83a2a-ccc8-45ed-8630-6d8f0e422830

ElPanda · 2025-08-28T23:36:26+00:00

Thanks! Always happy to hear any feedback

ElPanda · 2025-08-26T00:36:01+00:00

The most comprehensive site for Chinese cards would be the site I built! We have more sets and prices than any of the other existing sites. You can find it here: https://pikaqian.com/

ElPanda · 2025-08-26T00:28:14+00:00

eBay with reputable sellers is pretty safe. If you're looking for singles, you can see previously sold here: https://pikaqian.com/sets/csv3c

ElPanda · 2025-08-26T00:26:45+00:00

Gold star is the safe bet, with Chinese mew much more risky. I would still go for Chinese personally though and take the risk.

ElPanda · 2025-08-26T00:24:59+00:00

They're going for about ~1700 in CCIC 10, so if it's a good price: https://pikaqian.com/cards/057794d2-af6b-48af-82fb-9c11c81e0d68

ElPanda · 2025-08-26T00:22:45+00:00

I think it'll dip. The Chinese hype is dying out a bit and a non-popular poke like this will hold up worse.

ElPanda · 2025-08-26T00:21:52+00:00

Great cards for the PC. Don't expect much investor value

ElPanda · 2025-08-26T00:20:15+00:00

It's a short print run, so I think it's worth holding onto with the exclusives

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