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Pokemon Sun & Moon card packs are mapped, get the good cards guaranteed

A

Aruarian Reflection

Chauffeur de la gdlk
Dunno if anybody buys Pokemon cards anymore, but in case you or your kids do, protect yourself from getting scammed. Basically, every consecutive 3rd pack in the box is a good pack with either a rare hologram or ultra rare.
This video nicely demonstrates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiHUlrMtFa4

Chances are if you are buying individual packs from a store, the store employees will already have taken all the good packs and are just selling you garbage
 
I

iFirez

Member
This shit is crazy. Can't say I've ever bought single boosters when I collected though, only ever bought the boxes.
 
R

Regiruler

Member
Aruarian Reflection said:
Dunno if anybody buys Pokemon cards anymore, but in case you or your kids do, protect yourself from getting scammed. Basically, every consecutive 3rd pack in the box is a good pack with either a rare hologram or ultra rare.
This video nicely demonstrates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiHUlrMtFa4

Chances are if you are buying individual packs from a store, the store employees will already have taken all the good packs and are just selling you garbage
Click to expand...
Any hobby store owner knows they'll get found out easily and lose if there aren't any foils. It's in their interest to not fuck with ratios.

In any case you're more likely to see fuckery from other customers than employees. But retail stores sell as blisters anyway so this is kind of moot.
 
N

N.Domixis

Banned
I just buy the 3 packs or booster boxes. I used to hear about people weighing them don't know if still possible. Also for my booster box it was every multiple of 3 that contained something good.
 
Sealtest

Sealtest

Member
saw this a few days ago when alphainvestments made a video about it.

Locally I don't think any of my LGS's open packs for singles so this shouldn't be a problem but i'm guessing in the states where Pokemon TCG is bigger it could be a problem.
 
A

Ashodin

Member
This has happened recently with Magic The Gathering as well. Eldritch Moon booster packs were mapped out in the initial print run.
 
L

Linkstrikesback

Member
Didn't realise this was a thing. I do remember people weighing yugioh packs way back when because hologram cards weighed slight amounts more and so you could tell if one was in a pack without opening.
 
R

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Linkstrikesback said:
Didn't realise this was a thing. I do remember people weighing yugioh packs way back when because hologram cards weighed slight amounts more and so you could tell if one was in a pack without opening.
Click to expand...

When naruto cards were a thing. I could tell which packs had rares just by looking at them
 
lindseybp

lindseybp

Member
That is some bullshit right there. I've bought a ton of single expansions and have barely gotten shit. I had no idea the better idea was to buy by the box.
 
NOLA_Gaffer

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
While I don't play any trading card games, that video was super entertaining.

Edit: I'm seeing some packs he's opening has two foil cards...why is he ignoring one of the two?
 
R

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Leafhopper said:
I remember those Naruto cards in stores... how could you tell that from boosters though? Were the packs see through?
Click to expand...

ljaxa4W.jpg


See where you tear it open? Packs with rarer cards would have a slightly bigger tear. Packs with no rares had a smaller tear.

Yea, it was that simple.
 
P

pseudocaesar

Member
My local comic book shop put a post on their facebook page about this, saying that they would be shuffling the boosters to stop people from taking advantage like this. I used to collect these when i was like 12, wish I could have done something like this back then lol
 
Z

ZeroX03

Banned
Rookie move, they've been doing this for years, how do you fuck up this badly? New printers?

I'd trust my local store because I've known the guy for fifteen years but wouldn't touch anything else. Fortunately I'm either boxes or singles at this point but still.
 
S

SalvaPot

Member
Retailers like me usually don't care about this since people who really want rares would rather buy the whole (sealed) box, and no one buys the individual card unless its stupid stupid good (And again, the people who really want it would rather buy the box).

In our case we shuffle the case beforehand and if we see the costumers are counting them we just let them, we usually tell them first that its random so no one would do this. Its been working fine so far, no one complains.
 
V

Valkerionseven

Member
TehGoomba said:
Has this been going on for years? Or just specific to this set of cards?
Click to expand...

Sounds like this is the first major set to have it happen.

I doubt this is the first time, I think its the first time multiple people noticed, and confirmed it.

Just ordered a box of Sun, Moon, boxes here in Japan and will see if its true as well. It's pretty impossible to do this with off the shelf packs here though simply because the cards are removed from the box and put on pin racks in most if not all stores. No real way of knowing if they were placed in order or not unless you watch the person put them on. Most smaller shops do not put the boxes out there for people to openly grab a pack to purchase either if there is not rack.
 
Xion_Stellar

Xion_Stellar

People should stop referencing data that makes me feel uncomfortable because games get ported to platforms I don't like
I bought a sealed Booster Box and an Elite Trainer Box on release Day and that's it everything else I bought concerning this set has been singles from tcgplayer.com

I got to say two things though:
- With the popularity of Pokémon I'm surprised to find out there isn't a Pokémon TCG OT
- Surprised to see TCG news making it on the site at all


For those of you in the unknown this particular problem started with this set and it doesn't apply to other sets so I suggest you buy blisters instead of singles.

Pack weighting was an issue but apparently TPCi got rid of that issue starting with the Breakpoint/Breakthrough Set.
 
E

Erv

Member
It's good that people will know this, but why is this guy so angry. Jesus christ. Take a chill pill.
 
M

magenta

Member
Xion_Stellar said:
I bought a sealed Booster Box and an Elite Trainer Box on release Day and that's it everything else I bought concerning this set has been singles from tcgplayer.com

I got to say two things though:
- With the popularity of Pokémon I'm surprised to find out there isn't a Pokémon TCG OT
- Surprised to see TCG news making it on the site at all


For those of you in the unknown this particular problem started with this set and it doesn't apply to other sets so I suggest you buy blisters instead of singles.

Pack weighting was an issue but apparently TPCi got rid of that issue starting with the Breakpoint/Breakthrough Set.
Click to expand...

There is one

If news spreads then I wonder how this will affect sales. I do collect this stuff and feel less inclined to buy booster packs if my chances for the more valuable cards are almost zero. Sad.
 
Xion_Stellar

Xion_Stellar

People should stop referencing data that makes me feel uncomfortable because games get ported to platforms I don't like
magenta said:

There is one

If news spreads then I wonder how this will affect sales. I do collect this stuff and feel less inclined to buy booster packs if my chances for the more valuable cards are almost zero. Sad.
Click to expand...
Wow thank you I didn't know there was one but was that always there? When I came back to the TCG back in February 2016 (20th Anniversary prompted me to do so) I could have sworn I look around and I didn't find one on the site.
 
V

veloxStrix

Banned
This has been done in Magic for forever - you can find threads about it dedicated to mapping certain booster boxes on mtgsalvation - and likely known in Pokemon before. This map looks particularly simple though. So just never buy opened boxes. I'm not sure why you would in the first place, honest.

Better advice is to just buy singles though.
 
V

Valkerionseven

Member
Koppai said:
So yall saying its not possible to get every card in a set if you buy a whole booster box?
Click to expand...

Generally no, thats true for every card game. Now if you buy a whole case of booster boxes... maybe?

There is only so many of a grade of card IE, common, uncommon, rare, special rare, blah blah blah in each set. This has always been known and something all card games do. So say there are 8-10 super rare cards in a given set, but the box will only have 4 in total of its various packs included. Your not gonna get everything in the set in one box.

For most card games that is. Some do things differently... the ones that make the most money ain't doing this haha.

You will likely get most of a set out of one box but there are multiple versions of some cards IE a normal one, and a special card that is all art+holofoil or all art+holo+special rainbow/white coloration. When regarding pokemon cards these days. (crazy)
 
K

Koppai

Member
Valkerionseven said:
Generally no, thats true for every card game. Now if you buy a whole case of booster boxes... maybe?

There is only so many of a grade of card IE, common, uncommon, rare, special rare, blah blah blah in each set. This has always been known and something all card games do. So say there are 8-10 super rare cards in a given set, but the box will only have 4 in total of its various packs included. Your not gonna get everything in the set in one box.

For most card games that is. Some do things differently... the ones that make the most money ain't doing this haha.

You will likely get most of a set out of one box but there are multiple versions of some cards IE a normal one, and a special card that is all art+holofoil or all art+holo+special rainbow/white coloration. When regarding pokemon cards these days. (crazy)
Click to expand...

I stopped buying them years ago and want to get back in but just sounds like a big scam now lol.
 
V

vgamer1

Member
This most likely doesn't apply to the blister packs/single packs that are packaged individually, right? At work so can't watch.
 
T

The Rizza

Member
Haven't bought boosters/boxes in a longgg time, but kinda have an itch to. Where's the best site to? I remember TrollandToad being a good place to go a few years back
 
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