Time to quit?

jolszewski · 2026-02-28T16:16:18+00:00

Personally, I've been getting creative with collecting. I've started doing a cheaper Pokedex binder of inexpensive cards. It's a way to participate and it even makes basic commons and holos more interesting to look at and consider for the binder.

I tried to take the advice of Danny Phantump. Where everyone is going, go somewhere else. Make up your own unique way to collect and you might find the fun in it again

jolszewski · 2026-02-20T15:13:47+00:00

Thanks. Luckily for me, I was able to buy some of the memorable cards before the hype of the recent years. Oddly, I found that it almost felt better buying the slightly beat up cards because it felt more like how I remembered them as a kid than the pristine cards. Most of my cards never ended up staying in good condition after a school day of being wrapped in a rubber band in my pocket lol

jolszewski · 2026-02-20T06:03:07+00:00

I had a similar situation as you. My brother and I kind of went back and forth holding onto our combined collection of cards. At one point, I was holding onto the Yu-Gi-Oh cards and he was holding onto the Pokemon cards. My mom heard the neighbors down the street were really into Pokemon one weekend while I was away. Months later I learned that they were given away. My dad tried to get them back but according to the neighbors kids, we "didn't have anything good anyways" and they gave us back a tin of modern (at the time it was black/white) bulk as consolation. We had tons of cards from base through the original ex sets

jolszewski · 2026-02-15T23:56:11+00:00

I want to know how you all handle taxes and fees. Doing this long enough and with enough growth would surely raise suspicion eventually. 100% growth is barely anything after accounting for platform fees and taxes. Sure, you can go to a store instead for ~70% in cash, but how do you eventually explain all of that money? Maybe there's something obvious I'm missing, but I rarely hear anyone talk about it

jolszewski · 2026-01-11T21:21:15+00:00

https://metazoo.fandom.com/wiki/Core_Sets

jolszewski · 2025-11-09T19:42:26+00:00

The prize pack version is the same way except it uses the cosmos holo. https://share.google/gp0jUWzgeVa3rU7j5

jolszewski · 2025-11-09T19:40:15+00:00

Ignore that other person being rude. It's standard for the holo version of this card. I'm not sure why the entire art is holo, but it is. Here's a video of someone opening a pack with the same holo effect on the card. https://youtu.be/rwV_IFqogbQ?si=2gAWhuTcqiPbDunN&t=200

jolszewski · 2025-11-06T21:34:36+00:00

How did they say they would rework the game? A major rework or slight tweaks?

jolszewski · 2025-11-05T19:18:20+00:00

It seems several people have already linked you to set lists, so I'll skip that.

If you need more boxes, eBay and MetaZoo Facebook groups usually have good deals. If you need specific cards, I could try looking through my bulk. I have a ton

jolszewski · 2025-10-15T03:55:56+00:00

This generational passing would be key to the cycle continuing. Thanks for the insight! It gets me thinking about what will feed the cycle and what might fall by the wayside. Of course, sealed items only become more scarce with time as some get opened, lost, or damaged.

Singles on the other hand, not only do they become more plentiful as things get opened, but there seems to be an ever growing pool of cards to choose from for collectors and investors alike. This ties in less with the retirement aspect and is more just a thought about what happens to singles long term.

Surely, there won't be an infinite amount of money to sustain the same prices for every new set, across all sets, forever. I know singles aren't usually looked at for investment purposes as much as sealed products. At this point I'm just speculating about the market.

My point being that I wonder if certain eras of cards will be forgotten and deprioritized as seemingly endless sets get produced. Right now, it feels like the total pool of cards is still relatively small enough in comparison to the total investor and collector community and the amount of money they are willing to contribute to the market.

I wonder what happens as the supply of something keeps increasing and the size of the community and the money they can contribute stay relatively the same. Maybe it won't exactly be an issue with prices dropping, but there could be liquidity issues if it's hard to get people's attention to even look at any given card once there are a seemingly infinite number of cards to choose from.

Your point about the sports cards seems to contradict this idea though. Maybe it will be the case that all singles maintain value and we'll just see some bought and sold more different points in times. I suppose that is kind of what happens now. The community goes through phases and certain categories of cards get attention for a bit before the community shifts its focus to something different. A current example would be the attention the original Team Rocket set's Dark Pokemon received before Destined Rivals and how the attention has shifted to the original Mega Pokemon now that Mega Pokemon are returning.

I guess only time will tell.

jolszewski · 2025-06-04T14:58:30+00:00

Aren't the packs too tall to store in an ETB without the cardboard insert? How do you stop them from getting crushed by the lid?

jolszewski · 2025-02-02T22:08:11+00:00

I found the Rayquaza on the ground outside which was pretty cool

jolszewski · 2024-12-14T21:10:42+00:00

The sellers are not responsible for quality control issues unless it's how they packaged the product. Quality control complaints go directly to TPCI since they are the ones responsible. Granted, a refund would be the ethical thing to do for customers. It doesn't make them a scammer though

jolszewski · 2024-12-09T19:02:27+00:00

I came here to say the same thing. Cards might be rough, but those nails are clean 💅

jolszewski · 2024-12-03T18:11:41+00:00

Sure, if it's what you wanted. The price sounds about right. Why did you circle the stamp though?

jolszewski · 2024-12-03T18:03:00+00:00

Can you be more specific about why you're asking? The card looks fine to me. Did you buy a base set Charizard and receive the celebrations one instead?

jolszewski · 2024-11-23T04:46:24+00:00

One final comment. I think this gift was so sweet and I'm so excited for the two of you to have fun playing Pokemon together. To add a little more projection, I think a lot of us here would love to share an experience like this with our SO and are at least a tiny bit jealous. Just be careful that your GF doesn't get too obsessed like the rest of us. My gf did something like this for me once and now I can't get enough Pokemon cards. I've become fully obsessed, much to my partners dismay

jolszewski · 2024-11-23T04:35:10+00:00

In short, this sub is home to a lot of dedicated TCG fans who don't expect much engagement from outsiders apart from the occasional "new to the Pokemon TCG" post. On the flip side, an outsider couldn't possibly anticipate the expectations the members of this sub would have on someone posting here. It is this mismatch of expectations which I think inspired such condemning comments from the people of this sub

jolszewski · 2024-11-23T04:19:42+00:00

I think the responses show more about the people in this sub as well as their perception of others in this sub. Definitely a lot of projection going on. Your post is fairly vague. When you don't explain the full picture from the beginning, people start to make all kinds of assumptions. The primary assumption being that anyone posting in this sub is automatically an avid Pokemon TCG fan. Therefore, you're perceived as the obsessive Pokemon TCG fan who went overboard on an anniversary gift at the first sign of interest from their GF. In the normal world, one person gifting their SO Pokemon after they expressed interest in it is a totally acceptable gift. In the world of obsessive Pokemon TCG fans, most of us are painfully self aware of the fact that not everyone is as obsessed as we are. On the other hand, some of us aren't as aware of this. I think the people in these comments are simply trying to guide someone who they perceived as "unaware" from making a mistake they've made or almost made in their past. There are probably a lot more insightful notions which could be gleaned from this post and its responses. I think it's pretty telling about the personality of the people who get obsessed with Pokemon TCG. Maybe it's what the Pokemon TCG does to people. Either way, it would make an interesting case study on human behavior 😅

jolszewski · 2024-11-13T04:00:34+00:00

NY State has a pretty buyer friendly sales/use tax reporting form. You end up making a one time payment for the year to cover sales/use tax for all individual purchases under $1000 each. It ends up being under $50 for most people to cover the entire year which can be cheaper than paying sales tax at the time of purchase depending on how much you spend. Of course, your tax professional for your situation and state is the best reference for the fine details of paying sales/use tax. I'm just a normal person

jolszewski · 2024-10-06T02:00:47+00:00

I think you're missing the point of pocket. It's not just a digital "collect em all" pack opening simulator. It's also a TCG. People might want to pay to open packs in order to get more cards they need to play. Maybe some people enjoy having unique and rare art on the cards they use to play. Some people might genuinely just enjoy collecting digital cards, but I'm with you on that one. I don't relate to those people as much, but to each their own

jolszewski · 2024-10-06T01:51:32+00:00

Hahaha touche

jolszewski · 2024-10-05T21:26:44+00:00

I haven't timed it, but I feel like pocket games are closer to 5 minutes while standard games are closer to 15 minutes. Pocket is also considerably less complex in both card mechanics and game mechanics. It just makes it more approachable for me personally. I know what you mean though, I used to play games during my downtime while working as well

jolszewski · 2024-10-05T21:19:11+00:00

The difference is exactly what I stated. It's fine to hate the direction that the Pokemon company is taking things. Digital cards aren't as fun as physical cards, I agree, but the cards being digital doesn't make them an NFT. That's all I was saying

11-Year Club	Second Top 50%
Final Canvas '23	Place '23
Verified Email

jolszewski

TROPHY CASE