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As an adolescent in the late 90’s, my friend group played the Star Wars version of this, Star Wars CCG. At the time I had cards worth $40-50 and thought if I he

As an adolescent in the late 90’s, my friend group played the Star Wars version of this, Star Wars CCG. At the time I had cards worth $40-50 and thought if I held onto them for decades they’d be worth thousands. Looked them up recently and they’re going for... $20-30. Oh well. Interestingly, unopened packs seem to fetch a fair amount, certainly more than their “expected value”, which aligns with my experience trading loot boxes on Steam.

hsndmoose 5y ago
> Interestingly, unopened packs seem to fetch a fair amount, certainly more than their “expected value” Yeah it's a phenomenon seen in a few different CCG markets actually. Roughly 2 years after a set's release the Sealed box price and the EV start to drift apart.
alisonkisk 5y ago
That has to be true because all sealed packs that are worth less than EV will be opened and then no longer be sealed packs.
- ivanbakel 5y ago
  Why would all the packs worth less than EV have to be opened?
  - IanCal 5y ago
    On a large scale that should make sense. If you have an EV of £20 for the contents of a random pack and can buy them for £10, it makes sense to buy as many as you can to open and sell on the contents. They don't have to be opened, but if the difference is large it would make sense for people whose only interest is in getting a return to buy & open them.
    - ivanbakel 5y ago
      That explanation only makes sense if you take alisonkisk's use of "worth" to mean "price", which makes it a very different comment. That all packs with price less than their EV get opened makes sense. At the same time, packs with price more than their EV don't really make sense - it's better to just buy singles in that case. But to me, the comment meant that packs with worth (total value of their contents) less than their EV i.e. underperforming packs were guaranteed to be opened, so the EV of remaining packs would rise, justifying the price increase.
bobf 5y ago
I missed getting into Pokemon by a couple years, since it wasn't out until 1998. I was already playing MTG and Star Wars: CCG for a while by then, and didn't continue playing after ~2000. I similarly expected SW:CCG cards to grow in value more than MTG, especially with the prequels - but I think the production runs were significantly greater from the beginning and people had a long association with Star Wars figurines/toys/cards as collectibles being valuable before that. One interesting thing for SW:CCG is that the newer print runs can often now be more valuable than the older ones for SW:CCG, since each run saw fewer cards printed as the popularity dwindled. Before the prequels, it was relatively easy to meet many of the Star Wars actors. I met Peter Mayhew and had him sign my Star Wars: CCG Chewbacca card at a comic convention. A lot of people seem to comment on what a nice person he was to meet, and I completely agree. David Prowse was less obviously likeable, but was also interesting to meet.

hsndmoose 5y ago

> Interestingly, unopened packs seem to fetch a fair amount, certainly more than their “expected value” Yeah it's a phenomenon seen in a few different CCG markets actually. Roughly 2 years after a set's release the Sealed box price and the EV start to drift apart.

alisonkisk 5y ago

That has to be true because all sealed packs that are worth less than EV will be opened and then no longer be sealed packs.

ivanbakel 5y ago
Why would all the packs worth less than EV have to be opened?
- IanCal 5y ago
  On a large scale that should make sense. If you have an EV of £20 for the contents of a random pack and can buy them for £10, it makes sense to buy as many as you can to open and sell on the contents. They don't have to be opened, but if the difference is large it would make sense for people whose only interest is in getting a return to buy & open them.
  - ivanbakel 5y ago
    That explanation only makes sense if you take alisonkisk's use of "worth" to mean "price", which makes it a very different comment. That all packs with price less than their EV get opened makes sense. At the same time, packs with price more than their EV don't really make sense - it's better to just buy singles in that case. But to me, the comment meant that packs with worth (total value of their contents) less than their EV i.e. underperforming packs were guaranteed to be opened, so the EV of remaining packs would rise, justifying the price increase.

bobf 5y ago

I missed getting into Pokemon by a couple years, since it wasn't out until 1998. I was already playing MTG and Star Wars: CCG for a while by then, and didn't continue playing after ~2000. I similarly expected SW:CCG cards to grow in value more than MTG, especially with the prequels - but I think the production runs were significantly greater from the beginning and people had a long association with Star Wars figurines/toys/cards as collectibles being valuable before that. One interesting thing for SW:CCG is that the newer print runs can often now be more valuable than the older ones for SW:CCG, since each run saw fewer cards printed as the popularity dwindled. Before the prequels, it was relatively easy to meet many of the Star Wars actors. I met Peter Mayhew and had him sign my Star Wars: CCG Chewbacca card at a comic convention. A lot of people seem to comment on what a nice person he was to meet, and I completely agree. David Prowse was less obviously likeable, but was also interesting to meet.