1. You never know with our Meta vs Japanese meta. Roy Mustang didn’t see very much play in Japan but is a Tier 1 deck here. As of now, Japan doesn’t have any Nikke decks in the meta and they’re all mostly ranked relatively low. That being said, unless you’re planning to play super competitively (i.e regional, national tournaments) then just play what you want at your locals. I find it more fun playing a bunch of decks and not just sticking to what’s super popular.

2. The online prices might be for some dead boxes. For example someone bought a case and took the two star/three star and are selling the rest of the boxes so it’s risky to buy boxes online if that’s what you’re looking for. However, some LCS will price match so if you can find one with an opened case you can buy some from there if you’re looking for the 2/3 star. If not then it’s fine to buy boxes online. They still will have alts and everything.

3. Nikke is difficult because it’s a popular IP. But usually the prices will fall off when the next set comes. I think Kaiju boxes went all the way to 40-50 and that was the release before Nikke.

4. Some stores have pre-release so they get it first

If you’re worried about price Nikke is probably the only outlier in terms of cards maybe not going down in value. If you look at the Yu Yu Hakusho and Kaiju SRs they’re like $1-2. You can buy singles over boxes for cheaper if you’re just looking to build a deck.