prismatic evolutions logo from pokemon.com

Prismatic Evolutions is so Popular It Might Distort the Singles Market

Prismatic Evolutions is so popular it night distort the singles market. Prismatic Evolutions is just so ridiculously popular, I’d say even more popular than 151 was at this point in its rollout, that it may cause distortions in the market for singles.

Which distortion we don’t know yet… but for example if everyone choose to rip product instead of hoarding we may actually see prices for all singles depress. However if people choose to hoard sealed product instead of opening them we could see the prices of singles skyrocket.

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And people may very well choose to hold onto sealed product instead of opening simply because of the insane prices that Prismatic Evolutions products have right now.

prismatic evolutions illustration from pokemon.com

A single booster pack sells for almost $9 instead of the normal $5, an ETB sells for over $100 instead of the normal $50, a Surprise box sells for $65 instead of $23, a binder collection sells for $75 instead of the normal $30, a poster collection goes for $40 instead of $15, and a sticker collection goes for $32 instead of $15.

Do you see those crazy numbers? The prices of product has doubled if not almost tripling. That could definitely influence people to not open product and instead hoard it thinking that the price of Prismatic Evolutions products can only go up. And it might actually only go up. That’s how much hype there is for this special set.

If people hoard, if everyone is hoarding, the prices of singles can shoot up. The more restricted the supply of singles the more expensive they’ll ultimately be. And only when prices reach such a high point that it becomes more profitable for people to open product and sell the singles will we begin to see prices become a bit more rational. But considering the increases in price for sealed product that natural relief won’t come promptly.

So expect to see harsh prices for singles AND sealed initially. Only once people start opening product, whenever that may be, will we start to see how prices will behave. I would expect to see high prices for eevee’s evolutions regardless of whether or not people are opening sealed product. That’s just a given. And once we start seeing what other SIRs are in the set we can begin to gauge which other cards are going to be chase cards and ultimately have high prices.

So ultimately everything is probably going to be expensive and even if you just try waiting it out it might not end up mattering. The hype may be so great prices for both sealed and singles may skyrocket permanently. This may end up being the most expensive modern set to collect we’ve seen, surpassing 151 in price and hype.

This is going to suck for your average collector. I could be wrong and the Pokemon Company could have printed a ton of product for the release days! That could happen. If it does things might become more rational. But for some reason I have a bad feeling that they under printed relative to demand.

I guess we’re just going to have to see.