There is no doubt that a black market will exist for PTCGO cards and it already does exist, though demand for virtual cards has sharply fallen due to the failures of the game and the lack of information regarding the development of the game. The policy of PTCGO to not allow the selling of singles hinders the growth of the game. Part of the reason Magic Online does so well are that cards can be bought & sold in a free market. This gives players more incentive to play- afterall, they can win cards that are actually worth something.
One very scary element of PUI's policy is that even trading online cards for anything other than other online cards is forbidden! What does that mean? It means that if you trade your friend your virtual Emboar for a real Emboar, you've broken the rules. Punishment for doing so?
Suspension or banning of your account. That's right: you are not allowed to trade your online Pokemon
Trading Cards for real Pokemon
Trading Cards.
When this policy was posted on the PTCGO Support boards, players (including myself) made it clear that we did not like it. PUI's Moderators (anonymous strangers from an undisclosed location) gave two reasons for this policy:
1) Players could scam others by simply not sending the cards. (This was very professionally titled as "People can suck.")
The Moderator explained that PUI would have no way to get involved in these disputes. Of course, this argument holds no water. It's 2012. We all know we choose who we buy from. Feedback on sites like eBay allow us to be confident we will receive the item we paid for.
2) The gem program.
It was announced that in
November 2011, a new system of gems would be unveiled. How would gems work? Well, you could buy gems, which could then be redeemed for digital items to decorate your avatar with. But not just that, you were allowed to trade the gems too! What's PUI's brilliant plan? That people buy gems to trade for single cards, further increasing their profits as they now control the secondary market as well.
Of course, there's a big problem with this. Who wants gems? No one is going to spend money on silly items to decorate their avatar. Those of you that have played played PTCGO know that you sometimes get a code card in certain tins/packages of cards that redeems avatar items. These code cards are worth nothing. If you don't believe me, try trading your Liepard hat on PTCGO and see what you can get for it.
Of course, it's now February 2012, and we still haven't even seen gems.
For those still interested in reading the original thread, it is available here.
Though it was not written that gems could be, I speculated that gems might also be redeemable as tournament entry fees. If that were the case, PTCGO would be on the right track. Say you could buy gems for $1 each. Tournaments run daily, with buyins ranging from 1-5 gems. These tournaments award virtual booster packs to the winners. The higher buy-in tournaments would award more virtual boosters. Would that be a good system? Would PTCGO prosper under this system?
The answer is no. Sure, tournaments would be fun at first - just like the initial boom of the PTCGO was fun, but what would ultimately end up happening is that people would grow tired of spending money on gems to win more and more online cards that have no value. Afterall, what the heck are you going to do when you acquire a 15th Typhlosion Prime?
So what does PTCGO need to draw interest and to get people to spend money? The answer is
give real prizes, things that have monetary value. PTCGO Boosters & digital singles have no value because they cannot be sold. If there were real prizes, things like real boosters, invites to exclusive tournaments, playmats, etc. players would be eager to spend money playing in online tournaments.
Another simple solution? Remove the ban on the sale of online cards. If you remove this ban, virtual boosters can be given as legitimate prizes in tournaments. If the sale of these virtual cards was allowed in the free market, PTCGO could host tournaments for real money, yet give no
real prizes. Players would be content earning digital prizes as those cards could be sold for cash. The buyer is happy because he can play PTCGO with his newly purchased cards. PUI is happy because those digital prizes cost them nothing - the tournament entry fees are pure profit!
This is not a difficult system to fix. It takes a very basic understanding of economics. I hope those of you that agree with me will let your voices be heard so that we can eventually enjoy what is a game with nearly limitless potential.