Pokémon’s Newest Sets Will Continue To Dynamax Sales
Erich Francis
A successful new set launch starts with preparation and planning. The end of January is quickly approaching and the next two months are going to be packed with opportunities to profit big on the latest wave of PokeMania. The Pokémon Company will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in February, bringing some amazing sets with it. Shining Fates releases February 19th and is expected to be one of the biggest set releases in the last 5 years, containing over 120 Shiny Pokémon cards for collectors to get their hands on. Battle Styles follows this release, coming along in March with the new SingleStrike and RapidStrike Pokémon mechanic which will bring not only collectors, but also competitive TCG players looking to build up their lot of cards with a hoped-for return to in-person play during 2021. Newer sellers of Pokémon on the platform should be asking themselves, “How can I be successful and capitalize on this opportunity?” We’re here to share tips on how to profit off this powerhouse product line, ensuring you see value in these sets.
To prepare for these releases, first and foremost you need to have a plan for where you will source inventory –– you can’t sell what you don’t have, and you can’t ship without the right amount of materials. Smaller sellers generally do not have an established distributor pipeline to order and be allocated new Pokémon sets. You should always be smart and preorder what you can when it becomes available as these products are generally sold at close to retail price. Once the set is nearing release date it can be more difficult to bring in inventory; this is when you can leverage relationships with your own local gaming stores to purchase additional inventory at current market price. This will still allow the store to turn a profit on the sealed product but also give you more inventory in addition to what you were able to preorder.
Now that you have the product, how can you turn that into sales on the platform?
One of the most popular options is box breaks and selling the cards as singles on the marketplace. Some sellers even take the opportunity to live stream these openings on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook to build store awareness and to connect with fans of the trading card while simultaneously searching for higher value cards in the packs. Another successful and popular strategy specifically for Pokémon is selling the products as sealed. This allows the seller to move the risk of opening the product to the buyer and still profit on the sale.
Lastly, if you have products you are looking to open, but do not have the time or materials to ship these products individually, you should consider our TCGplayer Store Your Products program. A great pathway into Store Your Products is to send your cards in from box breaks. Open, alphabetize, and ship to TCGplayer and our team of experts takes care of the rest. You add your prices and get paid when the cards sell. Best of all, we just added over 10,000 legacy Pokémon cards to Direct, making it even better than before.
With new Pokémon releases right around the corner, and the addition of new cards in our Direct program, now is the best time to prepare for acquiring inventory and beginning your selling strategy planning. Since Pokémon is one of the most popular franchises in the world, listing cards directly on our Marketplace or through our Direct program is full of great potential.