Chase cards come out. Prices are high. Serious players have to buy them to be competitive. Big tournaments happen. Same cards are released in a tin. The value on the cards drop. Other players buy cards at the lower price.
Do you guys really not see how this is good for casual players and bad for serious players?
Serious players are forced to buy cards at high value before a big event, only for the value in their cards to plummet when tins are released. Serious players are already taking a hit, because card value tends to drop after big events anyway, but this exacerbates the problem. I might have phrased things a little differently than FunnyBear, and a lot of you guys have a point, but he's not as off base as you're suggesting.
Better, perhaps, would be to release the tins before big events. Stores make money off the tins. Players get the cards they need for a better price.
This seems to me to be the best possible financial decision, though....
First, the so-called 'serious' players spend lots of money on chase cards because they need them to maximize their shot at winning. Great. Lots of money spent on pack sales.
Once this 'serious' player base has been milked for all it'll give, the cards are already floating around and primarily obtained via the secondary market.
Now, casual players will not pay some deflated post-worlds price for a Darkrai ex, because it'll still be more than $20 for a single card. But POP can still get these people to pay the most they're willing to pay by tinning the chase cards with booster packs, making a deal that attracts pokeparents, thus maximizing their profit.
I think it's outrageous that so-called 'serious' players expect to use chase cards at big events and then have them retain a decent resale value post-tournament. The reason you bought the card was to use it at the event. After that's over, the value's been expended. Why not tin it to scrape out the 'casual' $$?
POP has given you the opportunity to obtain these cards at a greatly reduced price; but then again, you want to use them at worlds, right? You've already benefitted by using them at states and regionals, right? Then you got the value you paid for. You paid to use them at certain events. Every 'serious' player knows that most of the value of a card is determined by when you own the card. Or do you want to buy my Luxray Lv.X? If you want the card during states, regionals, nationals, and worlds, you've gotten what you paid for. Don't expect to recoup your money when you're done.
It's a financially wise decision and one that's fair to both extremes of the player base, and I wouldn't do any different.
