Pokemon has done it again! pushing another “premium” product into the market to drive collectors and fans to bankruptcy.
Let’s start by what you have inside the actual suitcase box:
- Black and white clean and minimalistic game board.
- Storage space for new damage counters in the shape of cones.
- 3 sets of card sleeves
- 3 quality branded deck boxes (fire, water, grass)
- 3 pre-constructed decks with the big trio (charizard, blastoise, venusaur)
- 180 holo cards in total (all the cards inside are supposed to be shiny)
The actual product looks really cool with iconic cards and luxury feeling to it.
Pokemon Classic is planned to be released around November 17 2023.
Most Expensive Release of a Pokemon TCG Product
Since the new pokemon hype of 2021 we started to see more and more expensive and premium products releasing to us fans.
We had metal pokemon cards, premium tournament collections and even price jumps affecting every single pokemon product and pack.
The pokemon classic suitcase will mark the Most Expensive new pokemon product to be released. But is this a good thing?
We will see how far the pokemon company can stretch the nostalgic aspect of pokemon card collecting.
Should You Pay 400$ for Pokemon Classic?
If you have extra 400$ laying around and you want to get some premium pokemon set on how to play with 3 constructed decks then go ahead.
Other than that i think that the pokemon company is really pushing their luck with this one.
I am a long time pokemon collector and fan, but when i heard this product was going to sell for 400$ i thought to myself. This is a hobby and they are trying to run it with greed.
For comparison the japanese version of pokemon classic costs around 270$-280$.
We are seeing an increase of 120$ for the same product, simply translated into english.
Alternative for Buying the Pokemon Classic
When you look at this product it can resemble an actual board game.
You have 3 pre-constructed decks meant to be played only in this format and board (the cards cannot be used in actual pokemon tournaments).
And most importantly this is an expensive “learn how to play” collection that is definitely too big to carry (and too valuable).
In terms of alternatives you can get the card lists and get the single cards on the secondary TCG market to save the price tag.
Another option is to get one of the pokemon academy sets that comes with 3 decks, playmat and have the same usage as the pokemon classic For 20$-30$. You can use the extra 370$ to get so many other pokemon TCG products and actually enjoy the aspect of collecting.
Conclusion
This is very sad and hard for me to recommend and even think about supporting this greedy move by pokemon.
This is a hobby that is meant for everyone to enjoy, and by creating premium and rising prices to the roof. It is simply doing the opposite
The cards are not going to be tournament legal and this product will be preserved by high-end pokemon card collectors that will definitely not use it for play.
This Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic price point is one of the reasons pokemon card collecting is declining during 2023. Let’s just hope new pokemon fans will be able to afford, play and enjoy this game in the near future.