Why paying 'market price' for rare Pokémon card collections has become somewhat normal

Market prices for Pokémon TCG often exceed MSRP, but they can help collectors avoid the worst prices set by scalpers. That is why fans still trust them.

Even for the biggest and most popular games, getting products at MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) should actually be the norm. However, for the likes of the Pokémon TCG, "market value" has become a benchmark for many collectors for a large reason.

Depending on your perspective as a Pokemon fan, it's perfectly valid to refer to this concept as a gateway to "inflated" or "rip-off" pricing.

That said, when we actually mean getting a box of new Pokemon cards at today's MSRP, "market price" is, well, the market—it's been the answer to a growing problem in the entire collectibles market, and it's still a legitimate way to enjoy the Pokemon TCG (within reason).

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It's almost impossible to buy at MSRP right now

First off, before we get into the nitty-gritty, paying "market price" for Pokémon cards over MSRP ultimately boils down to a classic concept: supply vs. demand.

Over the past few years, in particular, the demand for the latest Pokemon card boxes from new sets and special sets has been so high that the supply has increased, and as a result, they have not been able to keep up with the demand.

What started it all, of course, was the discovery of the mainstream of valuable "chase cards"—cards that command astronomical value because of their rarity, such as Prismatic Evolutions' once famous $1,300 Umbreon.

Since then, in a sort of snowball effect, the market has been diluted by many buyers buying up as much stock as possible, hoping to pull the rarest and most expensive cards for a profit — rogue scalpers or thronging retail stores like Costco to physically hoard any stock, or using bots to sweep up any stock drops online.

Even if you're online regularly as a full-time telecommuter or something, any site that sells Pokemon stock either has massive crashes or you're immediately sold out with long lines with everything at MSRP by the time you can get in and buy.

With all that said, you usually either have to camp out in front of retail stores before business hours, or regularly check online stores—like Best Buy and Target—hoping to get lucky when a site runs out of stock. In contrast, the other option is to simply give in to the scalpers and refuse the extortionate prices they are willing to pay.

For many, "market price" is a tolerable alternative

In response to the dire need for some sort of regulation in the trading card market, market pricing is essentially a slightly happier middle ground option.

Calculated by dedicated online marketplaces like TCGplayer, market price is a fair way to estimate a product while MSRP is not an option - weighing factors about a card or product such as overall rarity, artwork, content, and any impact it might have on the card game meta.

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Applicable to basically any other card game such as Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, or the One Piece card game, the market price has become the new yardstick that allows Pokémon collectors to know if a price above MSRP is fair in terms of demand versus supply, or if a price that might be highly questionable in comparison is fair.

For example, there are some eBay sellers who charge upwards of $350 for one of the Pokemon TCG Ascended Champions training boxes. While, on TCGplayer, the market price is estimated to be much lower at $153.54 – at the time of writing, the listings there were at a low of $148.

While paying a tamer market price is certainly better than anything an uncontrolled scalper would think it deserves, it's perfectly fair to be upset with the current state of the Pokemon TCG, where buying at market price is still not possible.

After all, if the company that makes the actual product declares that it should only be worth USD or GBP, it's fair to believe that you should only pay that price, not a penny more.

The next thought for anyone new to the TCG is that the Pokemon Company needs to print enough cards to make enough for everyone and eliminate the scalper market altogether.

However, this is exactly what the Pokemon Company has done. Last year alone, over 10 billion Pokemon cards were printed. For context, that's out of the 85 billion that have been around since the card game's inception - meaning 11% of the output of a 30-year-old card game has been played in just 12 months.

Additionally, when it comes to the CM expansion, greatly improved pull rates for high-demand cards have hit scalper operations hard, with sellers lamenting that it's not "profitable enough" as more people pulling out their chase cards have driven down their market prices as a result.

Despite those big wins for true fans aside, they aren't enough — at least not yet. If something is popular enough, tickets, products, merchandise, etc. will continue to sell despite the controversy surrounding it. In this case, the overall demand for Pokemon TCG cards is still so astronomically high that it's still not enough for now to eliminate the need to buy at market price and restore MSRP as the default.

Those hoarding products just for resale have certainly lost their profit motive, but not enough to stop them from wanting to spend their time raiding physical and digital shelves right now. Like the aforementioned snowball effect that started the lucrative Pokemon market in the first place, it should steadily decline in the same way - as more scalpers slowly exit, leaving the product for pure fans.

Unfortunately, this takes a long time, and many Pokemon lovers do not want to spend an indefinite amount of time away from their favorite hobby. That's why the "market price" method of buying Pokemon cards is still the go-to method for now: for those who just want the best possible price for a product that's readily available—if they don't want to spend their time fighting scalpers for MSRP—and can make an informed decision about whether it's right for them.

For those who can currently only purchase Pokemon cards at MSRP, retail initiatives like Amazon's invite-only listings are a great way to score product at the price they want. On the other hand, those required reserves are still spread among more eager customers - making actual invitations difficult.

Buying at market price still might not be the right resolution for those who just want to buy at MSRP, but for buyers who want to buy Pokemon cards. A reasonable rate via the safest method available - in most cases, it's the best thing to do until things get better.