Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

POP got cheap?

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I know that most venues may be free if they are held in stores but also know that there are some stores that charge and most tourneys are not held in stores. Some of the smaller ones such as battle roads and a few cities may be. What about states and regionals or any of the big tourneys. They are held in hotels and such and they have to rent the rooms that they play in.

I said nothing about judges expending money on travel did i? Who do you think pays for hotel rooms for the big three or four day tourneys? POP? PUI? I don't know for sure either but know i do not pay for them. All though i gladly would pay myself if i could afford it.

Just and example but i am sure those that work for POP or PUI are paid wages for running those tourneys as that is most likely part of their job.

And who here can tell me if anyone is forced to buy the products, go to tourneys or have any involvement in the game? That is a choice that each individual player makes and part of that choice is can they afford it or is it worth it to them. Is just the chance of wining the prizes worth the expense to play? That is also the players choice to make.
 
"more people playing" does not = more people BUYING cards: how many of the new players were collectors before attending their first league or tourney?

from my experience as a gym leader, practically all new OP participants were already purchasing cards before they even heard of such a thing as a league or OP.

'mom
 
say what you want about pop, they have messed up a LOT this year and i mean a LOT LOLZ But say what you want they are great with prizes, 75 buxs of prizes for a low level event like cities is wonderful!! Being a bit greedy there huh guy lolz Pop does it right in that department, in others its a different story though
 
DRMARIO: Please reread my post. You do owe PUI and apology bc you called them out, saying they are "cheap" by cutting the prizes at CCs. Sorry, but the original prize package was exactly the same as last year, even though EVERYTHING costs MORE this year! Look at gas prices, shipping and delivery costs.......:nonono:

Just bc a manufacturer screws up and doesnt get the bags to PUI (as originally planned....said that 3 times now!), it is PUI's fault! Good gravy, you dont understand business then. Again, PUI cannot "up" or substitute more packs into the prizes at the last instant. These things are planned into the budget. Ever consider why the packs are broken up the way they are in each age group? Look at CCs, T4, 18, 10, 4 and 4 = 36. 36 packs in a booster box! Wow....amazing how that works out. :rolleyes: PUI musta gotten lucky with that one.

Venues are not free. Look at my sig.....I am a PTO. My league is at a BAM, they dont have space for a premier event, so I book outside that store = rental fee for ME. Some venues you pay per hour, others for the whole day. Just depends. Do you as the customer pay for that?? Nope.

Everyone ought to THANK their PTOs and TOs for doing what they do. In turn, we all should thank PUI for giving us a great OP. If you dont believe me.....look at the other TCGs out there and compare. Especially when you factor in the free entry.

Keith
 
He doesn't have to apologize to anyone if he doesn't want to. This is not a board run by POP and he can say whatever he wants to on a public board. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and his opinion is that POP is getting cheaper. He's speaking his mind and doesn't need you, Lawman, to tell him what to do.
 
UPS's fuel surcharges for ground packages rose by at least 7% and air rose about 18%. I know this because my dad owns a few UPS stores. So things are definitely more expensive nowadays.

I mean, how could POP possibly get cheap? They don't decide their budget. It's not like they have taken lavish vacations instead of giving us prize support.

SO, you can't gripe about a loss of money being spent, but rather a mis-allocation. So, you must now ask yourself: have funds been mis-allocated? Maybe. I think it's really just an issue of greater distribution of funds. We have an entire new tournament series this year with spring battle roads. Money has to come from somewhere.

I think a gripe post about POP mis-allocating funds would make a lot more sense than a thread about POP getting cheap. They don't keep the leftover money, so whatever money they get goes to us. They didn't get cheap at all. That doesn't make much sense. They may have mismanaged, but that's not your argument at all.

As for owning POP an apology? Eh. Let him speak his mind.
 
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All of the Premier rated events are free. For the most part, the number of these events has increased dramatically every year. I'm not sure how much the OP budget has changed in the last couple of years. But, even if the OP budged HAS increased, there are still a LOT more events now than there were even two years ago. More events = more prizes. More prizes = more money.

As far as venues go, you can't place a blanket statement on the cost of the venue. Some people are lucky and their local store is large enough to hold a large event. Others (like Keith) are not so lucky, and have to spend some of their own money to use a larger space. There are still others (like Camille) who have Leagues at fairly large stores, but have traveling player bases that force them to get larger venues, again out of their own pockets. I know that at least one of my next Premier events will be run outside of my local store, just so that I can work an event by myself. I'm going to be paying for that space out of my own pocket, and I'll be grateful for the opportunity.

So the bags were delayed this year. Big deal! Don't go punishing PUI for something that was not their fault. Instead, praise them for the fact that they are still running these events for FREE. They are giving out over $400 (MSRP) worth of product for FREE at Cities. Don't bemoan them because some other company couldn't deliver on some $5 piece of hardware. Be glad that you're competing for your share of over $400 in prizes, and you haven't paid a red cent for the opportunity.
 
Cause: Complaints about not enough events this year

Effect: More events this year but prize support cannot be raised and should not be raised


So far in this year there has been more events than last year with the same prize support.

Would this say that there has been more money put into these events and still having them free of charge for the United States.

To further raise this game there needs to be more money put into the international OP. A seperate market needs to be developed in every country/continent.
 
More Players, each year + More Events, each year + Limited Budget = Less Prizes for Winners, but More Winners getting Prizes.

Think about that for awhile.
 
Wow

Seems that people assume that PUI's OP department is running in the black. Maybe they are not. Maybe the budgets have gotten smaller. Maybe the budget has not increased but costs of production and distribution have. Then the staff still needs to put together an OP season.......


Every year there is this greedy thread. BAh Humbug!


Enjoy the tournaments that are free to attend. Enjoy what you get. If you don't enjoy it, go get something else.
 
These threads always end up highlighting the changes in perspective that age and experience produce.
 
Nothing I have said in this thread was against any TO. Most of them do a great job. I'll say it again, there were less prizes for cities even if you don' t count the bag. Locally none of the places charge for tournies. Libraries and places like that do not charge either.

And more people playing can mean an increase in card sales. I have doubts that all of the new players are collectors. I started a little over a yalear ago and gave bought far more cards than I used to.
I've said this before, travel costs count for NOTHING, otherwise every tournament I play in has an $ 18 entry fee since round trip is 120 miles.

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

NoPoke said:
These threads always end up highlighting the changes in perspective that age and experience produce.
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Funny how people resort to age to try to discredit an argument.
 
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No I wasn't trying to discredit either argument. You just assumed I was. I was mearly highlighting that perspectives change. Greek I'm told is a language that naturally lends itself to discussing both sides of an argument. English is not as effective, I think in English, and experience has taught me that I have to take care to see both sides because it doesn't come naturally.

Our Library charges, as does the church hall, and so do the games shops around here. I'm glad that your venues are free, but that isn't universally true.
 
The purpose of our boards is to give people a place to express their thoughts and opinions of the Pokemon TCG game. That's what Drmario did. That's what we're here for.

While we try to keep bashing of individuals off the board, to a certain extent, POP is a bit more "fair game" for this kind of thing.

Sort of like political expression.

Counter arguments and disagreement are welcome. But there is no need to discuss whether he can express such opinions to start with, He can.
 
POP/PUI used to give alot more in terms of prize support. When they first took over, we used to get a box of cards for winning a prerelease. Now, we get a ten cent pin for winning. More recently, they cut schalarships at regionals. Over the past few years, POP has grown a lot and as that has happened, prize support went down a lot. Remember when they used to spring for 300+ trips to worlds in florida and cali. Then they reduced the number of invites to worlds for hawaii. Now we're back to florida and the number of trips is way down. It seems like the budget for OP prize support has gone down over the past few years. Relative to the past seasons, POP has gradually gotten cheaper.
 
Reality! I will make it quick.

All big business in this country and the world only care about profits and don't want to spend when it is a cost and share the wealth with a majority of their employees. They are all cheap and greedy and it will never change.

Now the positive! We have tournaments and prizes, they can always disappear and they still will make profits.
 
Yes business is all about making money by if businesses stop offer competetive prices and products than people will stop buying the products
 
I never said drmario or others couldnt say their opinion. I only asked him for an apology to PUI for calling them out as cheap when a manufacturer failed on their end to get the bags to PUI on time. He was venting w/o all the facts.

Most people seem to get the fact that a budget is a set number (unless your name is Bush and you have a war to defend). PUI only has so many dollars to use. They have increased lower level tourneys bc that is where the majority of the OP players get the benefit. Nats 2007 had, what, almost 700 total players in all 3 age groups play, plus the staff. On the SRs rankings for the USA only (using this example since my oldest is in that age group), I checked his ranking the other day, after he won his only CC to date. He was 33rd in the USA, pg 4 (10 kids to a page come up). There were 121 pages of players in his age group = 1210 players in the USA in SRs only! (Just looked....it is up to 125 pgs and 1249 players). How many were at Nats in his age group? 140 or so? That should tell you that most players play at the BR and CC level. We now have more players and tourneys to fund for PUI. $400 worth of prizes for each CC x ____ # CCs = a whole lotta money for just CCs. Add in the delivery charges for each kit to the PTOs and TOs. Hmmmmm.

I did an interesting thing checking my son's rankings. To see the growth in the game in the last 2 1/2 yrs, I checked the 2005-07 numbers of registered players. 2 yrs ago, there were 581 players in SRs. Last yr, 797 registered players in Srs. This year already....1249 in SRs! WOWOWOWOWOW!!!

Just a few things to think about.

Keith
 
Lawman said:
I never said drmario or others couldnt say their opinion. I only asked him for an apology to PUI for calling them out as cheap when a manufacturer failed on their end to get the bags to PUI on time. He was venting w/o all the facts.

Most people seem to get the fact that a budget is a set number (unless your name is Bush and you have a war to defend). PUI only has so many dollars to use. They have increased lower level tourneys bc that is where the majority of the OP players get the benefit. Nats 2007 had, what, almost 700 total players in all 3 age groups play, plus the staff. On the SRs rankings for the USA only (using this example since my oldest is in that age group), I checked his ranking the other day, after he won his only CC to date. He was 33rd in the USA, pg 4 (10 kids to a page come up). There were 121 pages of players in his age group = 1210 players in the USA in SRs only! (Just looked....it is up to 125 pgs and 1249 players). How many were at Nats in his age group? 140 or so? That should tell you that most players play at the BR and CC level. We now have more players and tourneys to fund for PUI. $400 worth of prizes for each CC x ____ # CCs = a whole lotta money for just CCs. Add in the delivery charges for each kit to the PTOs and TOs. Hmmmmm.

I did an interesting thing checking my son's rankings. To see the growth in the game in the last 2 1/2 yrs, I checked the 2005-07 numbers of registered players. 2 yrs ago, there were 581 players in SRs. Last yr, 797 registered players in Srs. This year already....1249 in SRs! WOWOWOWOWOW!!!

Just a few things to think about.

Keith
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I did not call out PUI just for not having bags. Plus remember that in the world of business (actually most of the world) it is results that count. There was no hat either, and last I heard prizes at regionals are being cut too.

Yes a small relatively small number of senoirs went to nats, but over 400 masters where there. The masters are the ones who will buy the most cards since the spending won't be restricted much (or at all if they are adults) by parents. Yes PUI only has so many dollars to spend, however the person(s) responsible for creating the budget should try (maybe they have) to get more money for OP.

BTW I emailed POP and am awaiting their response. I will probably post it here when I get it.

Last year (06-07A) in masters there were 1771 this year there are already 1801 masters.
 
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Lawman said:
I never said drmario or others couldnt say their opinion. I only asked him for an apology to PUI for calling them out as cheap when a manufacturer failed on their end to get the bags to PUI on time. He was venting w/o all the facts.

Most people seem to get the fact that a budget is a set number (unless your name is Bush and you have a war to defend). PUI only has so many dollars to use. They have increased lower level tourneys bc that is where the majority of the OP players get the benefit. Nats 2007 had, what, almost 700 total players in all 3 age groups play, plus the staff. On the SRs rankings for the USA only (using this example since my oldest is in that age group), I checked his ranking the other day, after he won his only CC to date. He was 33rd in the USA, pg 4 (10 kids to a page come up). There were 121 pages of players in his age group = 1210 players in the USA in SRs only! (Just looked....it is up to 125 pgs and 1249 players). How many were at Nats in his age group? 140 or so? That should tell you that most players play at the BR and CC level. We now have more players and tourneys to fund for PUI. $400 worth of prizes for each CC x ____ # CCs = a whole lotta money for just CCs. Add in the delivery charges for each kit to the PTOs and TOs. Hmmmmm.

I did an interesting thing checking my son's rankings. To see the growth in the game in the last 2 1/2 yrs, I checked the 2005-07 numbers of registered players. 2 yrs ago, there were 581 players in SRs. Last yr, 797 registered players in Srs. This year already....1249 in SRs! WOWOWOWOWOW!!!

Just a few things to think about.

Keith
Click to expand...

Except you didn't ask him to do it. You said that he owed them one, twice.
 
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