Some have rightfully pointed out that I could've gone more in-depth on the card game cultural difference between the west and Japan, so I will copy-paste what I previously replied to someone else: I can only speak for what I personally experienced and heard at locals in the Tokyo area and districts around it, as I've travelled to many of them with their subway system, but essentially it's a big combination of factors: - Local game stores tend to be packed far more frequently than western game stores. It is pretty normal for someone to go to their job, get off work, grab some food from a local mart and instantly go to a local game store. You've got locals firing virtually every evening (not necessarily at every card shop, but there's also so many more card shops that if you want, you can easily visit one each and every night, as many players do...). This is in stark contrast to a majority of game stores in the west, being mostly focused on 1-2 game nights, the weekends... This means you have a far more sturdy ecosystem of local game stores than the west, that don't tend to live and die by just a single new set release. - This constant local attendance also leads to buying booster boxes and packs... which then leads to selling back your singles for store credit... which then leads to being more inclined to spend at the store again. - Perhaps this is too anecdotal, but from what I saw, people were far more keen to open product just for funsies. It felt like hanging out at your locals and just opening a box after a long day of work, was a nice way to let off steam, in a way that seems far more rare in the west (This kind of interest in the occasional casual gacha can also be seen in their mobile game loot box sales being so much higher and gachapon machines all-over the place. This is not the case for everyone living in JP ofc... but just as a broad general trend). Now I'm aware some will argue that it's exactly because their pull rates are easier that people will be more inclined to open product, but that makes very little sense when there's still such negative EV when doing this. - The cost of goods in general is far lower in Japan than in many western countries. If you just compare figures: Consumer Prices in United States are 48.1% higher than in Japan (without rent) Consumer Prices Including Rent in United States are 81.5% higher than in Japan Rent Prices in United States are 205.6% higher than in Japan Restaurant Prices in United States are 119.9% higher than in Japan Groceries Prices in United States are 35.3% higher than in Japan This is also reflected in prices for leisure. So it's easy to say "look, OCG pricing is X% cheaper" not taking into account that a part of that is their overall cost of living being so much lower than the west. Now I won't pretend like I have the exact answers, of course. I do not live in Japan. I do not own a game store in Japan. I can only speak from what I experienced there and what I heard from others living there. It's just that it's far too short-sighted to just assume you can copy-paste a complete model from one very different place in the world onto another place in the world and get the exact same results. At the end of the day, Konami's policies will affect thousands, if not tens of thousands of businesses and so it's probably wise to push for gradual improvements, rather than market-shattering overhauls.

@invertbrid

6 ай бұрын

Full art indeed genius. Tho not sure on YGO where text is so long. If full art dont make text hard to see / text doesnt make the full art looks less attractive, then im all for it. Also yea even if not 1:1 i hope TCG will make it better and closer to OCG counterpart, unless they find better solution to make cards more affordable.

@vitorapollinario9335

6 ай бұрын

But they print cards on lower rarity, they don't have fear to reprint a card just released. For example bonfire was released as super rare, or transaction rollback as parallel normal, basically a buff common. Every one of which contains 18 normal parallel and 8 super rare on 61 cards, which gives 29% of getting one rollback, and 13% of getting one bonfire. Now in TCG 85 cards per set, 18 sr, 11 ur, what gives 13% of getting both the bonfire and the rollback. S:P little even worse, it was released as a super not a secret like in tcg, so in the ocg 13% of getting one on a set, in the tcg 9%! Don't look crazy different but it is. It's always getting robbed by Konami thinking that western have more money. Also our stores don't give a shit, they just put the price they want, no one regulates and fuck.

@arilenn3293

6 ай бұрын

I'm currently living in japan on a study abroad program with a university, so i've been playing OCG since last August. All of your points here are true. I've seen it first hand and even engaged in it myself. I've been playing yugioh since 2014 and before coming to japan, i've NEVER just casually opened a box of a new set before buying singles. But now do that in OCG because it's worth it to do so. In OCG they even have a points system in Neuron in which you can get bonus rewards for buying product such as exclusive playmats and sleeves.

@invertbrid

6 ай бұрын

​​​@@arilenn3293yea their product is less expensive than TCG, partly coz less cards in there too. While TCG box gas more cards but more junks. And different rarity stuff make opening the box worthwhile too and lot of times chase card only rares and supers I do think TCG can get closer to that tho, maybe not copy 1:1 but at very least make every staples as multiple rarities, either super tor rare, while also giving secret rare or QCR ver. TCG can keep more expensive box (with more junks lol), but if staples available in at least super, while having secret ver. I doubt cards like SP, thrust, wanted and bonfire will go like $100. Tho prob wont be like OCG $7 SP or $2 wanted, but if every one of those in super at least, prob they most they will cost is around $10-20, which is still pretty cool. While secret and QCR ver can be ablve $50 or even hundreds of dollar.

@beatsbyash

6 ай бұрын

I see your point about how the culture is different and how “pack openings can be more fun”. I just don’t see how no one ever points out though that it’s not a fair comparison when the experience you are receiving from purchasing their packs are completely different. I for one would purchase packs for fun more regularly if the experience I was receiving was even 50% similar to the OCG or even the rarity collection. Because for me pulling a chase card would be nice for sure. But the bigger thing that would drive me towards buying a couples packs for fun would be having a good chance of pulling anything remotely useable. It’s not just the short printing of certain powerful cards that stops me from buying packs. It’s the fact there is a 2% I could potentially pull something even remotely usable and the vast amount of filler that are in every sealed product. If anything they need to slow down on how many sets the release in a single damn month. If they didn’t keep making a new item every three weeks then the value of even the lesser products would be better on average and have a longer use span.

Yeaa im retired this format cause there is no way im paying these extreme prices… rent high, groceries high, and the last thing i need is for a simple game i like to be high.

Yea I stopped playing yugioh with physical cards bc the market is so unpredictable and expensive so now I just play master duel.

@sefasefa8650

6 ай бұрын

I had to give up the game because i couldnt keep up with the meta

@logant6700

6 ай бұрын

dude i bought bystial lubellion at 70 just for the reprint to cost 10

@TidalBlade

6 ай бұрын

​@@logant6700 Not as drastic, but I bought accesscode talker for $40 and days later saw it was getting a reprint 🫠

Only problem is that some people even try to justify the prices, and just call people poor as an insult when you accurately address the scummy business practices. OCG doesnt have this problem, Konami has the power to change this, but they won't because money. People prefer to argue amongst themselves to simp for companies they love, it's pathetic.

@TheOfficialRandomGuy

6 ай бұрын

The people who call you poor over not affording YGO cards are most certainly neck deep in debt.

@RawrItsJuul

6 ай бұрын

@@TheOfficialRandomGuy I could see that. It could be projection to make themselves feel better about their own situation, or it's a shaming tactics to shut down criticisms. Either way is bad. It's all too common for people to live beyond their means, but that makes it all the more sad if they're defending big corporations like Konami against their own self interest. It's good to stay critical and think if you get your money's worth (especially with the poor quality control as of late). That's why it doesn't matter if you're poor or not, the argument exists independent of your net worth. I think it's safe to say that Konami tcg practices are objectively more exploitative and worse for the general consumer compared to the ocg. You don't need to be poor to acknowledge that.

People who justify why cards should/are expensive I feel are the same people who complain about diverse formats

@MaliEndz

6 ай бұрын

Nobody wants to play against 20 different decks in a 9-12 round day one

@FlyGuyLaFlare

6 ай бұрын

@@MaliEndzwhy not? I’m tired of playing against 4 Fire King decks back to back

@kingvelard

6 ай бұрын

we don't like expensive products either don't lump us into that lol

@TheHollowBoy

6 ай бұрын

@@MaliEndz yeah. God forbid people be given a wide verity of choices of decks to play for a format that could possibly best suit there preferred play styles.

@apertureb2247

6 ай бұрын

​@@MaliEndz I do. Tier 0 formats and triangle formats are the sign of a badly balanced game.

As someone who wants to get back into the game and compete, it's hard to want to buy into a game with insane prices when I know there's a huge chance that the deck dominates so hard that they get banned and I lose all of my money anyway. Feels like a lose-lose for returning/newer players.

@lazydesmond8240

6 ай бұрын

I had the same problem last year. I invested *some* money into yugioh (as in I bought decks I thought were fun to play not the best cards) but my best deck is a pretty cheap Gren Maju deck that can actually take on the meta, even then that was about 50 bucks. But my deck from high school totalling around 300 bucks, which won best of 3s pretty consistently, got so utterly obliterated that it came as a sick wake up call about the game. Yugioh is extremely frustrating to play. You might not want to come back, depending on when you left. Some of the 'staple' cards are pretty outrageously priced

@sofaking9404

6 ай бұрын

Same here, I came back during the tri-zoo format for a bit. Learned to play a couple of decks online (dogmatika, adamancipator, tri-zoo, mermail) and ended up wanting to play Zoodiac so I bought the core and shit. Boom drident ban ;-;

Honestly was super invested in master duel from release up until “full power” kash. I just noticed I was spending $100 a month buying a newly released pack that power crept the old ones. I never got into physical competitive yugioh (just collected as a kid) because of the price barrier to entry. Shame because I really do enjoy the game even if it is convoluted, just can’t justify the cost. The barrier to entry in terms of mechanics is tough enough to convince new players to join, the price is just the nail in the coffin.

@PartyMarty321

6 ай бұрын

Bro don’t spend money on MD, it’s literally a waste when the game is F2P friendly

@TemporalDelusion

6 ай бұрын

Yeah if you want to keep your current decks, and have variety MD can cost an arm and a leg as well. The pull rates are rather predatory when 80€ can get you 2.5 random UR guarantees if you are unlucky...

@A-M-F-A

6 ай бұрын

I wasted 20 bucks on MD since release and I have more than 10 good decks. Just need to grind everyday and every event.

@rendy1222

6 ай бұрын

I basically able to get every new meta deck without spending But i grind gem everyday and many people don't have time or want to do that everyday

@SupaSneech

6 ай бұрын

It's like 30min a day to get the daily gems ​@@rendy1222

This is a very well constructed video and i agree with everything. It's a really sad situation for me because i've been a fan of yugioh since i can remember, though i've never had the possibility to buy the products. A year ago i decided to start playing yugioh in my local area because i got a job and i could afford to buy some rogue deck for fun, but the situation was FAR WORSE than i expected.. litterally EVERYONE played meta, everyone. i'm from a small town in Italy and there are like 10/15 people playing yugi and there's not a single person i could compete. It started becoming annoying because i was spending a lot of money every week to participate to the locals, and losing them straight away. I've never even won more than 1 match in a YEAR. (i played TrapTrix at first, then i switched to Swordsoul) So i sadly decided to quit the game and went back to simulators.. this is so sad for me giving the love that i have for this game. Btw great video, i feel very well represented by what you said.

@cphus197

6 ай бұрын

depression

@CardGamesTV1

6 ай бұрын

He's 99% wrong. No surprise you agree with it 😅😅😅😅

@CardGamesTV1

6 ай бұрын

You don't love the game. You love netdecking and hate you can'tafford to do so. And riding the c0cks of decks that aren't actually good. 😅😅😅😅I beat meta decks daily with timelords. 😅😅😅😅 they these new decks suck. Y'all waste money on inferior yugioh cards that are shinny. 😅😅😅😅 Gen z is funny

@giodicapua3948

6 ай бұрын

@@CardGamesTV1 what do you mean? you think the game is not expensive?

@CardGamesTV1

6 ай бұрын

@giodicapua3948 obviously it's not expensive. Y'all make it expensive to Yourselves. Nobody needs any of the expensive cards. They are expensive because y'all make them expensive by wanting them.

I'm a pretty frugal guy in general but I'd still pay extra to get higher rarity versions of cards even if everything was available at common, especially if I could build and try out a deck for cheaper first, then bling it out once I'm happy with all the ratios

@isidoreaerys8745

6 ай бұрын

Yes! Yugioh players don’t even experiment with half the cards released because there’s simply no way to even play the cards and access them without dumping a huge amount of cash. And people like me who have never played paper in person ever because it’s simply way too expensive.

I like the idea of an "alternate" higher rarity, especially if it was a "full-art". It doesn't even necessarily have to be a full-art, though, just simply make a really dope alternate art version and make it incredibly hard to pull. Most of Yu-Gi-Oh's basic monster cards are just simple characters on a background anyways, so making an incredible alternate art where the character looks amazing would be a cost, but it would add a ton of value while also alleviating the pressure on these "WANTED" cards.

@Chucklefu-ckle

6 ай бұрын

So as a magic player who just likes to observe yugioh from afar and grumble about how good six samurais used to be I can tell you right now from our card games history alternate art cards are a slippery slope, we have an excess of alts now to the point that the original art versions of certain cards are worth more then their fancy alternates, it's not always the case but it's not uncommon to pull the alternate 2 or 3 times in a box and not see the original bordered card at all. We started out with just a couple at very low percentage rates but our printer wizards of the coast took the love for alts and said " print more alts = more customers buying boxes and Konami would 100% do the same eventually because it worked, I pulled four copies of the same card I needed to run my engine for a deck I built and ended up buying another box because my smooth card game brain was like if you're gonna have a playset you might as well have four identical arts

@Pertruabo

6 ай бұрын

@@Chucklefu-cklethis, so much of this. Oh btw have you heard of X expansion remastered? Along with the secret lair version, the numbered version, the judge version, the pre-release version, the japan exclusive tournament participant version, and the walmart midwest only version 😂

@Chucklefu-ckle

6 ай бұрын

@@Pertruabo serial number cards have to be the dumbest thing we've ever had in card games ever like I'd take another 1000 proxy box honestly

I feel like the only solution to this dilemma at this point is to copy the OCG and release cards with different rarity levels. This way both players and stores can profit from them. Those with less money can at least play the deck and buy the staples at a lower price and shops can still profit by selling the higher rarity versions to collectors or people who just like to shine out their decks. Not to mention they'll have more people buying extra copies of cards that they get from cases. So they can either buy less cases or more depending on the return/loss ratio. And believe me i get it, i was running Cyber Dragons back when a single copy of Infinity was a 100$ or more. Just getting 2 copies at a minimum wage job was half my weeks salary. It's crazy because yugioh was originally a card game meant for kids and the OCG remembers this, but i feel as tbough at a certain point, the TCG just lost it's way with money hungry grubs.

@dudono1744

6 ай бұрын

In addition, even if you don't get the shiny card you want from buying, let's say, around 100 cards, you can still likely build a new deck out of your stuff (might require a bit of trading).

@Phantom-ZER0

6 ай бұрын

@@dudono1744 exactly, collector's will generate their own network and buy out everything local, which will also help stores get their money back, get rid of excess inventory and also make a viable profit from it too. More kids and broke students would probably also starr attending more locals and regionals if they had competetive decks.

@SnowCompanion

6 ай бұрын

We had all those old school staples like pot of greed and card destruction in the starter decks or as just rares in booster packs. Sad they went this way to take advantage of adults they hooked in. If you're a kid, how are you ever gonna get these bonfire/bellestar cards if you wanted to play. Reinforcement of the army came with the warrior starter deck 😂

@Phantom-ZER0

6 ай бұрын

@@SnowCompanion there's no way for children who don't have the wealth to acquire competitive decks. And it's sad because many of them have the potential to top at Regionals or Nationals and possibly even Worlds. I remember when i was 14, my friend (also 14) was possibly the best player under 16 in our Province but he sadly couldn't afford to make the deck he wanted (Infernity) because all the cards were too damn expensive and none of us wanted any of the cards from that pack to be able to help him out with box splits. It's sad to see such wasted potential. He would be topping locals every week too with Blackwings before they were even top-tier in the meta. I'm sure that even today there are kids who excel at the TCG but can't build their desired deck due to excessive cost. Konami seriously needs to do something about the TCG. Even i was so broke that i had to sell 2 Ghost Rare Black Rose Dragons for 60% of the actual price at my local store just to complete my synchro deck. Imagine pulling 2 of them from tins and having to sell both of them to complete your main deck.

@clubin_to5789

6 ай бұрын

15:14 answered in the vid….

This is why I like your videos... Someone has to say the hard things that most people doesn't want to hear... 👍🏻

@MrPipol-nm3cd

6 ай бұрын

Suuuure, Is not like every yugituber has made over 20 videos complaining about yu-gi-oh or something.

My main problem with the fight to print staples as commons is that at one time there were 13 common print options of Ash Blossom all varying in price from $8-15

@mateusrp1994

6 ай бұрын

Probably because they were all on structure decks, which while guaranteed were limited to 1 per deck, so they were still scarce. Its not the same thing as opening a box of boosters and getting 6-8 copies of the same common, if Ash or other staples were like that it would lower their price way more.

@stereotypicalemousername9507

6 ай бұрын

@@mateusrp1994the rarity collection was a step in the right direction but it’s still not enough

@jimtsap04

6 ай бұрын

Still *literally* 10 times better than $80-150 new staples like sp are going for

@SawyerJamesBurton

6 ай бұрын

@@jimtsap04 Completely agree with you. There just needs to be a true balance for it to work out moving forward

@EpicMTGMusic

5 ай бұрын

They are indeed expensive. But an 8$ expensive is great if we get that back in 2017, Ash Blossom was a 30$ card. Also, if it was printed as a common like OCG, its' price should have been 8$ all along.

As someone who cames from country where we was playing unofficial tcg format into official ocg format, yes we can change. If konami will, the shop won't die as long as the playerbase still exist.

@isidoreaerys8745

6 ай бұрын

Boosting this comment.

This video does a good job explaining this endless cycle of dilemma, that players continuously find themselves trapped in, and wonder why it’s not stopping. At the end of the day, everyone needs to realize Konami and stores are businesses for profit that sell card games and players being the consumers have a choice whether they want to pay.

@literallygrass1328

6 ай бұрын

We do realise, but it does nothing and arguing is fun

@legalam

6 ай бұрын

But Konami doesn’t profit from the aftermarket card prices?

@richardstamm2144

6 ай бұрын

Yep. I feel like that portion of the video is influenced by APS Paul as well, who put this issue as being a players and preorders issue being too willing to blow big $$ for the next blowout cards. No shade, he's consistently one of the most reasonable voices in the hobby and he's not entirely wrong with what he said either. But I do believe that the immense pressure put on these overpriced cards is ultimately Konami's fault by first setting up the expectation for these prices, and second structuring the sets to have all the impactful cards in the most limited slots to where most of an opened box is a waste. The solution addressing only the 3rd party market is as unattainable as getting people to stop preordering games. FOMO, laziness, and impulse will always drive the majority of the market. Actually getting the average buyer to restrain long enough to reset prices would likely cause catastrophic damage to the hobby as a whole. Lose the habit, lose the novelty, and most people will just walk away from the game.

@literallygrass1328

6 ай бұрын

@@legalam they profit from all the product being pulled to get secret rares.

@LoadPast

6 ай бұрын

even if yugioh players formed some kind of union to refuse to pay exorbitant card prices, Konami would be just as likely to pull the plug on the TCG as they would be to change any of their annoying business practices

Even as a small collector, Yu-Gi-Oh has become a very expensive hobby, whether you're a player or a collector, the prices are going off limits. The first step is obviously printing less sets per year and bump the chances to get the good cards out of the packs.

@dudono1744

6 ай бұрын

Tbh the number of sets isn't a big issue, you can just skip sets that don't have stuff that interests you.

@frig7014

6 ай бұрын

@@dudono1744 the problem with skippable sets is that is one of the biggest drivers for OTS stores getting screwed, yes YOU the player can skip the awful side set, but your OTS store is mandated to buy it per their agreements with distributors, if they didn't get with the program on legendary duelist: soulburning volcano, they weren't allotted as much AGOV. And if your store (and every other vendor) didn't have to sit on 25 cases of legendary duelist that they will never sell, they wouldn't have to make all their money for the year off 2 singles from a main set. One other thing is the pricing of the boxes, how in tf is a store supposed to keep the lights on when the only good product for the year (the main sets & reprint sets), which is supposed to carry the weight for all the crap product they will take a 15 or more % loss on, are priced at basically 90% of retail msrp for them.

@sofaking9404

6 ай бұрын

@@dudono1744 But that hurts gamestores massively. The side sets with just junk archetypes are actively fucking over the resellers of yugioh since they arent worth it and people aint buying them. I remember the battle pack series of cards that featured like 200+ cards of different meta relevancy. We need those types of sets back.

@dudono1744

6 ай бұрын

@@sofaking9404 They don't have to be trash, I'm just saying you can skip the sets that don't have cards that you want. And unless you're a comp player, there's probably a bunch of them.

My favorite part about argument 2 is that the counter argument is literally ‘Bonfire’. Peoples reaction to the price hike in ‘Wanted’ was to get the card early which is why it’s now at 120 before release. I don’t understand how people come up with these points.

@mgreysanders

6 ай бұрын

Literally no reason for a basic Rota card that could've always been in the game, is an extremely rare card, as well as gonna get itself limited- semilimited in the next couple months

@KikiCatMeow

Ай бұрын

The fact they printed bonfire as an ultra is still absurd to me

Had a guy say that I must be new because I said yugioh was too expensive lol. No I just think its stupid that in my drone hobby I spend $600 on a new drone that I can fly forever with maybe a few cheap repairs. If I spend that on yugioh it could be banned the next month and I just lost all that money. You can play with budget decks but everyone knows you wont be competitive enough most of the time. And for new players even $150 is a lot to drop on a card game to bring to locals just to win a few games out of your sets.

@isidoreaerys8745

6 ай бұрын

Also it’s worthless cardboard. That costs literally nothing to print. The paper and ink and packaging is purchased in bulk by the printing house, so the cost per card is nominal.

while its true making the rarities too low would effect sellers since they need to make money on the box, you could string together arguments, ultimately its pieces of cardboard so Konami could lower the price of the products and still make enough profit while allowing sellers to sell cheaper and still make a good profit

It's not that YuGiOh is expensive, it's that TCG Yugioh is expensive. OCG doesn't have this issue due to better distribution of rarities, multiple rarities for more super and ultra rare cards. OCG boxes are also better value by a mile. Even if everything was printed as a common, demand would still be there. Ash has had multiple reprints, several of which are guaranteed in a pre-con, but even she's still worth a couple bucks. Other card games have staples that retain some value. Dragon Ball Super's card game has Senzu Bean as a common card in its debut set retain a value equivalent to a pack for multiple years, there were a number that had also maintained value. MTG has a plethora of staples like Sol Ring that retain a dollar value despite it being reprinted in just about every commander precon. That said, yes rarities should remain as a concept, however Konami TCG's way of printing sets has got to change. A 1:1 comparison between the OCG and TCG Diabellstar package would likely lead you to seeing the OCG Diabellstar package being valued a tenth of the TCG package.

Not even including the price of the fire king deck, scalpers are boosting those structure decks like crazy

Like his video. We need to get this circulated. This is a solid argument. Potentially the best argument I’ve seen on the topic. You even gave suggestions to address the topic.

See Im that guy who wants to spend as little as possible to build a deck initially, and slowly bling it out when I see it working and getting me wins

@Cbsaiyan

6 ай бұрын

Exactly

@dissidiamaniac460

6 ай бұрын

Did that with branded and marincess

@thefirstsurvivor

6 ай бұрын

thats cool. Every deck you beat your deck absorbs their power and gets stronger + shinier xD

@Shinde425

6 ай бұрын

@@thefirstsurvivor well yeah, dont the yugioh rules state you take your opponent's wallet as spoils when you win?

Also when it comes to the prices, konami turns plenty of ocg commons and rares into secrets and ultimates over here. Artificially creating scarcity

I feel the best solution is to mimic the OCG but not fully. Have meta relevant cards like OSSWanted and Little Knight at a minimum of Super or even Ultra, then have higher rarity options for the luxury player. I do agree copying the OCG and having them as common and super would rank value, but if I can get a super(which is guaranteed the minimum per pack) that makes my entry worth paying and helps me get closer to a meta competitive deck then it would benefit all parties. Eventually they can even phase out mega tins and do some other kind of unique product.

@gravekeepersven82

6 ай бұрын

I think that would work. But they would still keep in the mega tens because those always sell

Left YuGiOh TCG in 2019 because of this exact same problem (and recently started playing máster duel). It's crazy how worse the situation seems now...

Just play with some cheaper OCG cards on tournaments and boykott tournaments not willing to this rule change. Shops will have OCG products and TCG products and customers can choose which cards to play. I play on Edopro or with proxy cards so high prices dont affect my as much

I got lucky and got my playset of Wanted for $50 after trading pulling 1 from a pack and I will be potentially priced out despite having the engine already. We needed multiple rarities yesterday but even then, I feel like cards will still be pricey given how the TCG market tends to play out. Bonfire is $40 in ocg despite their wallet friendly packs.

I just want to say In this game there is no skill Its just what kind of deck you play I can't get why people talk about skills in card game it just doesn't make sense to me

I will just send a link to this video whenever the argument restarts every other month, that's smart content !

A rare treat to see a video on a problem you thought you were only seeing. I am a Dragonball Super player that got into Yugioh after that game died in 2019 in my area cause of COVID shutting down my LGS. Boy has getting into Yugioh been a struggle because of most the points being made in this video.

Great video. I couldn't stop staring at the oversized crystal god in the background haha.

"adopting the ocg rarity system won't work for the west, trust me bro" is not a very persuasive argument. Why? The way this was expressed in the video did nothing to persuade me that actually adopting the ocg rarity system won't solve the pricing issues. If anything, the 25th anniversary rarity collection seems to indicate that it solved the pricing problems for the reprinted cards just fine

@qaz12301

6 ай бұрын

i was just going to make the same argument like the 25th anniversary rarity collection was a huge success and a great test to see how that style of printing sets actual would work

@Ito1298

6 ай бұрын

Yea, I was a bit confused when he did not elaborate the on the statement he made that the OCG printing system won’t work for TCG beyond “card culture is different from the west”. I think people understand that at a base level, hence the OCG and TCG. I was expecting a more in depth explanation rather than what feels like a “trust me bro” moment.

@solemnyugioh

6 ай бұрын

I can only speak for locals in the Tokyo area and districts around it, as I've travelled to many of them with their subway system, but essentially it's a big combination of factors: - Local game stores tend to be packed far more frequently than western game stores. It is pretty normal for someone to go to their job, get off work, grab some food from a local mart and instantly go to a local game store. You've got locals firing virtually every evening (not necessarily at every card shop, but there's also so many more card shops that if you want, you can easily visit one each and every night, as many players do...). This is in stark contrast to a majority of game stores in the west, being mostly focused on 1-2 game nights, the weekends... This means you have a far more sturdy ecosystem of local game stores than the west, that don't tend to live and die by just a single new set release. - This constant local attendance also leads to buying booster boxes and packs... which then leads to selling back your singles for store credit... which then leads to being more inclined to spend at the store again. - Perhaps this is too anecdotal, but from what I saw, people were far more keen to open product just for funsies. It felt like hanging out at your locals and just opening a box after a long day of work, was a nice way to let off steam, in a way that seems far more rare in the west (This kind of interest in the occasional casual gacha can also be seen in their mobile game loot box sales being so much higher and gachapon machines all-over the place. This is not the case for everyone living in JP ofc... but just as a broad general trend). Now I'm aware some will argue that it's exactly because their pull rates are easier that people will be more inclined to open product, but that makes very little sense when there's still such negative EV when doing this. - The cost of goods in general is far lower in Japan than in many western countries. If you just compare figures: Consumer Prices in United States are 48.1% higher than in Japan (without rent) Consumer Prices Including Rent in United States are 81.5% higher than in Japan Rent Prices in United States are 205.6% higher than in Japan Restaurant Prices in United States are 119.9% higher than in Japan Groceries Prices in United States are 35.3% higher than in Japan This is also reflected in prices for leisure. So it's easy to say "look, OCG pricing is X% cheaper" not taking into account that a part of that is their overall cost of living being so much lower than the west. Now I won't pretend like I have the exact answers, of course. I do not live in Japan. I do not own a game store in Japan. I can only speak from what I experienced there and what I heard from others living there. It's just that it's far too short-sighted to just assume you can copy-paste a complete model from one very different place in the world onto another place in the world and get the exact same results. At the end of the day, Konami's policies will affect thousands, if not tens of thousands of businesses and so it's probably wise to push for gradual improvements, rather than market-shattering overhauls.

@MitchKarajohn

6 ай бұрын

​​@solemnyugioh I am still not convinced but this is definitely a better explanation of your argument than what made it into the video :P

Wild Survivors and how the TCG treated Vanquish Soul was the confirmation I needed to give up trying to get into the physical game. Ill stick to the online games.

This was literally THE best and most logical take on this subject. I saw sooo many videos these days taking the MOST ridiculous takes, blaming the players and all this shit and not applying any logic or thinking about supply and demand. I salute you keep doing an amazing job as you're already are.

@finnbarrah4146

6 ай бұрын

Trish's arguement to defend current prices was literally "well its not as expensive as teledad wtf are people complaining about". Some people really are dense af.

@ippoverse

6 ай бұрын

Too many Konami shills out here

@panagiotisk3394

6 ай бұрын

@@finnbarrah4146 broooo have you watched Yaccine? I like his content but he had THE hot take on this topic xD

Another way Konami could fix the value of products would be to go back to the way boxes were during the start of the pendulum era before Breaker of shadows. Back then you had cards come out in multiple rarities you could get a "Dark Rebellion XYZ dragon" a sought after staple at the time in multiple rarities that pushed the price of the secret rare version of it down. Every secret came also out in ulltimate and 2 of these cards also got a ghost version. With 2 ghosts pair case of 12 boxes. You were able to get boxes with 2 "Rebellions" for example, also the Ghost did not eat a spot from the ulti or the secret in the box. Rares too was a very awesome way to get some legit cards in lower rarities while now cause of the fact that we don't have them anymore the pool of Supers has been inflated and became diluted, which was the reason why I feel Bystials were even as super preety hard to open. Ultimates and ghosts were more accesible and a good way for people to invest into a collection, they were affordable 'cause of that style of rarity distribution. Everybox had 1 ult and 1 secret guaranteed. Also rarity bumping that is something konami does in the TCG shamelessly right now, was a lot harder to do cause of that old style of boxes that they had. Ironically that era from "Duelist Alliance" to "Dimensions of Chaos" was the one era were rarity bumping was at it's lowest from main sets. This model that they used to have is not a magic bullet there are problems with it, but it is something that worked quite well and people in general were happy with it both for stores, collectors, competitive and semi comp/casual players. Your video was also very onpoint to your arguments especially for just adopting the OCG model, it wont work 1 to 1. That is why I feel we should go back to a model that actually worked like the above one I explained. In general something really needs to change, shops are closing or discontiniouing Yugioh. Konami should consider this as a red flag and start changing things. They now have some legit competition creeping up like digimon, one-piece, vanguard, classicaly magic/pokemon and even things like shadowverse e.t.c. Its no longer just a Konami/Wizards competition for dominance in stores and they should learn to adapt. Sorry for the text wall inner nerd took over. XD

@breadwinner92

6 ай бұрын

This is why rarity collection was such a amazing set because the rarity was spread out between 7 different rarity and you had a equal opportunity to pull a quarter century card Konami should be using that as a blueprint for future products

@-Pulsar-

6 ай бұрын

@@breadwinner92 That is what makes the current situation somewhat sad to me, we had something that worked preety well and was similar to what the OCG had. It had problems like the classic short printing shenanigans that konami does, but it wasn't super agregious as it is right now. I feel a big reason this happened was because the new model that "breakers of shadows" introduced suspiciously alligned with the whole loot box situation. So I've felt for a long time that the reason every pack has a super is so that they won't get marked as gambling. Which would put a lot of things in perspective if that was the case of the new model that this set introduced. It then just so happened that they saw an increase of booster box sales cause of this new model. Since it was harder to get the actual good cards now and they just rolled with it. Making the system worse and worse with every new iteretion of the base line model that "Breakers of Shadow" introduced.

@JinchurikiDemon

6 ай бұрын

"Your video was also very onpoint to your arguments especially for just adopting the OCG model, it wont work 1 to 1" You and the video doesn't explain why, yet you both said this, why wouldn't it work?

@breadwinner92

6 ай бұрын

@-Pulsar- also switching to a new printer process was also the problem as well because I don't know what happened between now and I believe legendary duelist rage of ra but Konami quality control as been terrible with print lines and foil bleed like for example when when ghost dark magician girl came out everyone was excited and cheerful and as soon as it's released printlines on the cards,nicks on the back of the card like people who play the game who spend there hard earn money should not have to go though this

@-Pulsar-

6 ай бұрын

@@JinchurikiDemon The biggest reason is the demand that exists in the west is very different from Japan. In Japan people play 3+ card games so to compete you need to make cards easy to get. In the west most people just play 1 card game. So if we had the OCG model as it is, it would lead to shops not wanting to carry Yu-Gi-Oh since they would not really have the ability to extract value from it. If every card was as cheap as in Japan, stores wouldn't want to buy the product, since the secondary market would be peanuts. The west is a lot more sustainability driven than the OCG. We even see this in how many sets were released these past few years. OCG gulped them up cause it was the only way Konami would be able to make money there, since cards are so cheap the only way to make them spend more is to buy more. This OCG strategy though translated in the TCG as a super exploitative high speculation market that exploits players and even local scenes. The situation we have now is up to a point driven by how Konami in order to keep relevance in the OCG started printing a huge number of new archetypes and multiple new sets that had in one shape or form also come over in the TCG. It's not just that of course, but it is a main reason why translating OCG market strategies would not work as intended in the west. Its 2 very different markets.

You dont really need any arguments to say this game is once again entering a stupidly expensive format that makes the game inaccessible for many players. The fact of the matter is, 3 bonfire, 3 wanted, Witch, SP is like $700+. Its a fire meta, and these cards are essentially a staple in the format. They gave you 3 Fire King structure decks, but its incomplete. Guess what, youll need alot of engine pieces including the very expensive wanted/sinful package in order to be succesful at premier events. Let me give you a great example of why Konami TCG likes to mess with their playerbase and squeeze every drop of money from them. Thrust has been reprinted in its first set (outside of OTS pack). In its original set, thrust got printed in the highest rarity: secret rare. Then the OTS reprint came and it got reprinted in the highest rarity: Ultimate rare. And now with maze, it got reprinted again and guess what...? Yes... in the highest rarity: Ultra Rare. The card has been out for almost a FRIGGIN YEAR NOW. There is no goddamn point reprinting a damn card if it gets reprinted at the highest rarity everytime anyways. If Konami TCG wants to lose money and players, all fine by me. Their bussiness practices are bad. Locals are dying because of them. Incompetent people working there regarding designing sets and their rarities. Have to deal with shortprints constantly aswell. It doesnt matter what arguments there are. This is scummy bussiness by Konami TCG.

Even though Master Duel is best of one I find myself enjoying it win or lose. Simply because it is free to play and if you want pay it’s really just material or potentially pulling what you need, but at least you get CP.

@jayku1624

6 ай бұрын

That sounds REAL bad outta context

You mention rarity collection, which is a product we've wanted as fans/players but it made me think of duel devastator. Which was "hey, here are our staples" but it didn't work out. Pokémon has a huge range of products that are made in a way that goes "hey, here's shiny cute Pokémon but if you're interested here are some staples to, maybe, play the game"

@frig7014

6 ай бұрын

Difference with DUDE & rarity collection is that DUDE is a guarenteed collection of the same cards. This is amazing for accessibility but the issue was it actually put *too many things* all in one guarenteed bundle, consider structure decks as a better comparison. If you really really need droll & imperm the new structure is a great value even if you can save a little bit buying the singles, but if you really really needed just ash blossom DUDE was a bad value for you because you'd need 3 whole boxes of it for a collection of staples you might already have most of, so it was only a good value for those with none or very few of the cards in the set. Perhaps if DUDE was sectioned off slightly more a la carte or just a smaller product overall it would have sold better but its hard to say since this is just hypothetical.

@frig7014

6 ай бұрын

Basically DUDE was more of a failure than rarity collection (which sold out like hot cakes) because its intended audience was very niche, and for the same reasons buying a Box of a regular set is a dumb idea when you need just 1 card out of it. Had it came out earlier into the lifecycle of the staples it reprinted more players would be in its target audience (want to get into competitive but dont have any staples).

@garethm9523

6 ай бұрын

@@frig7014 which is interesting when you compare it to Pokémon trainers toolkit. Which has a psuedo-staple Pokémon and if you haven't played it has half a play set of staples. At the time I think DUDe was solid as it had relevant handtraps but then had a random assortment of extra deck cards. I think the structure deck comparative isn't as solid as both products require to buy 3. A structure deck maybe cheaper but you are potentially getting a lower cut on generic staples and a bad archetype or inversely a good archetype and poor staples. I think part of the conversation also has to include the player bases and how they judge product. As weird as it sounds I would love a video/series/podcast where are well known community member from each of the "big 3" compare each others products

that is the reason i stopped playing YGO a long time ago... the planned obsolescence of certain overpriced card is just too much to handle. I have been enjoying F2P MD though

I'm glad I cut back from Yu-Gi-Oh! starting last year on December since I was about to turn 30 which I promised myself I would stop playing new meta and play with the decks I already have!

I started playing this last year and its taken so much money just to get set up with staples and try get a strong enough deck together to compete against my group of long time players. I pulled a copy of Wanted from an Age of Overlord booster box and its the only reason i decided to run the sinful spoils engine in my fire kings deck because pulling one copy saves me so much money when the only australian listings on ebay at the time were $300 a copy

Very interesting conversation 🤔 need more discussion video like these also another thing is that Konami needs to fix there quality control there is no reason to be paying for a box or a case and half of the cards have print lines and foil bleed

"bUt iF yOu BuY tHe eXpeNsIvE sTuFf fIrSt, eVeRy OtHeR sTuFf iS cHeAp!".

@spicymemes7458

6 ай бұрын

"Girl math"

@thefirstsurvivor

6 ай бұрын

bruh no one said this

I loved these arguments. You provide excellent rationale with fun presentation.

As someone who never played paper yugioh, i had no idea about the economics of rarities and set values and singles carrying game shops, this is the first time i am learning about this, thanks for the information.

IMO something that could help wuold also be rarity pull bump (from 2 SCR to 4 SCR a box) while also reducing the quantity of the cards (instead of 10 secrets 5 of wich are useless how about 6?) and multiple rarities for cards (Imagine if we had ultra rare AND secret rare pot of prosperity at launch)

Really enjoyed the points and discussions, plus the solutions you proposed. I think you are right on the main aspect is that sets need to be better. That probably means that sets need to be released in a smaller quantity there are too many not worth getting. The sets need to be good enough to warrant actually buying the set versus the mentality that his been in the game for a while of just buy singles. Since unfortunately the sets aren't as good. I do hope they do something to reflect the OCG in someway even if it isn't a one to one like you said. Maybe it wouldn't work this way since part of the issue is the set itself, not just the rarity choices. But if there were multiple rarities of a card, and I have a decent chance to pull s:p little night or the card I need from Age Of Overlord I would be inclined to by the box. But maybe people still just buy the cheaper single, which in that case I think it would be worse for the game and card shops and I wouldn't want them to go that route. Instead just make staples with a decent pull rate and the sets overall better so even without getting the chase card you make something out of the box and it's not a bust or profit situation.

Great video, thank you for this!!

To me this is very real, and this video highlights the problem with people and how they want to justify how companies rip their customers off. Card games should have enough staple/new cards for everyone, and everyone should be able to acure them, especially when said game has tournament play involved. The expensive part *should* come when the card has a high rarity. I am someone that will pay for higher rarity, but that shouldn't mean that the player next to me should not be able to play the game properly because a staple newly printed card is locked into 1 single rarity at 1 copy every 1-3 boxes. But as we all know, it wouldn't be as profitable for Konami if it is that way and unfortunately we have accepted it.

i love how Sam BankmanFried just randomly appears in the background of this video Lol

Well you saved the most important points till last. Yes, doing full arts and more alt arts would revitalize the market. Yugioh has the best art style of any mainstream card game, especially in their early days. Leverage that. And all you said earlier about "we can't just copy paste rarity collection" almost seems unnecessarily strict when right at the end you nailed it. Konami doesn't have to do every card every rarity. Just having important cards at S, UR, and gigachad rare is more than enough to make things bearable. Supers can also be the mid bling of more impactful commons, so we don't have to pile up 90% of the set into the "useless" pile. I really hope there's enough unified voice behind Rarity Collection to force them to listen. We want what they want: a successful product that lasts another 25 years.

Legendary duels of the deep still my favorite set to play and I still look for ways to sharpen it up. I play it more umi control than kairyushin control in terms of changing the level of water monsters on the field (mo-yo, Kashtira ogre), using the ice barrier package for the Kaiju, or using silent sea nettles to extend into toads, full armored ray lancer, and even stealth krakens. So many different strong end board options supported heavily by both sea stealth cards depending how I draw ofc.

@isidoreaerys8745

6 ай бұрын

I like the water cards too

This was a good discussion video. I like the way you say "hockey" 😅

From what i heard, stores live of selling product the easiest, because they dont have time for opening packs for singles. So making the product worth buying is important.

God, I love your dismantling of the luxury argument. Everything we do here happens in a social context and economic decisions such as Konami's sales directly shape the culture people have created - or _can_ create - around the game.

I essentially agree with all of this. Why I chose to run a deck no one competitively plays and max out it's potential so much it wins.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you on the ocg argument. You said in your pin post that there are more game night and people are inclined to buy seal products more while in the tcg, there is only 1 to 2 game night. However, that logic also apply to all the tcg like magic or pokemon so that is no excuse, also the reason why i dont buy seal is because the rate is abysmal with the exception of rarity collection which feel worth it to me and i bought it cuz i need a copy of baronne and some other card and feel like i have an actual chance to pull it (and i did). Imo, the reason why ygo ocg is doing what they are doing because they are a much more competitive market compared to the tcg where the top 3 dominate for a long time and so konami can get away with their terrible policy. Also the logic that the ocg got more money to spent, wouldnt that incentivise konami to make the card game more expensive for ocg player? They cannot do that due to the reason stated above about how it is a competitive market over there.

Sets should have way more value as a sealed box, I'd rather pretty much spend 300+ usd in sealed box and have pretty much most of the cards than spend that money in just 3 cards

@MaliEndz

6 ай бұрын

That will never work because by design opening sealed is already rng when you are only guaranteed certain amounts of rarities a box so you can spend 300 and only get $30 worth of value. Thats why singles go up because you guarantee what you want

@dlnoob2205

6 ай бұрын

@@MaliEndz but thats my point, if we had a much better distribution of rarities in sealed boxes it'd be a much better deal for us players, rn you could buy 10 boxes and pull maybe one copy of a short printed card, which is just stupid

@francescolofaro8258

6 ай бұрын

the fact you spend way less by buying singles is totally stupid. in any commerce, the more and the more random you buy, the more value you get. I'd rather play slot machines, than buying sealed products. Luck is involved in both case, but with one of them, you can go big lol.

@dlnoob2205

6 ай бұрын

@@francescolofaro8258 I agree, buying sealed boxes is just a waste of money, but the problem is that in the past 3 months we've received the wanted engine, little knight, bonfire and every card is over the 100 bucks, also the Horus and centurion base are rlly expensive, next month the snake eyes are gonna sky rocket, so buying singles is getting unaffordable too

@Nephalem2002

6 ай бұрын

One idea I think would work is axing pack filler in main sets and replace it with reprints of staples from previous sets.

I really dont know why they didnt reprint the POTE cards ( Kurikara, Ultimate Slayer, Spright, Tear) in that Maze Set. That would have been a huge boost to buy the sealed product and that increase the supply of chase cards which would decrease the high prices.

This is why while I take yugioh seriously, I take it semi-serious at best. I don't feel like spending $500+ every few months (that you usually can't even re-coupe since prices crash when stuff gets banned or reprinted) just to be able to continue playing top tier decks. I got back into physical yugioh during POTE, choose exosisters because I like how the deck plays+it was meta relevant at the time. I still main the deck and the most ill do is spend money on an expensive staple here and there (ie s:p little knight) just so I don't get completely left in the dust. But ygo prices as a whole are crazy and extremely off-putting to getting new players in the game. One last example is that I was able to pick up 3 fire king structure decks for $15 on a deal. Fantastic! Too bad if i wanted to play the most competitive version of the deck I would literally need to pay about 30 TIMES that (and thats a LOW estimate) just for a few cards. Insanity. I'll stick to dogmatika fire king and take my 2-2 tourney record with hundreds of dollars still in my pocket.

@dpacula63

6 ай бұрын

I hate “seriousness” is measured by how much money you spend. You can be as serious about the game as Jesse kotton but if you don’t have the money you literally can’t compete at the same level. Passion has nothing to do with it, it’s the money.

@TgsMaverick

6 ай бұрын

@dpacula63 exactly. I do try when I play but I'm also not willing to spend that abhorrent amount of money every few months.

@isidoreaerys8745

6 ай бұрын

@@dpacula63yugioh players are satisfied simply by measuring who has more money, they should just switch to the stock market. That’s all this has become g the end of the day.

Imagine not having some dom perignon along with that corporate boot

A very good job explaining the situation than APS Amplifier recent video.

I think the issue is not the game itself, but the fact it doesn't have a ranking system where players are ranked and play only in their rank or a themed tournament (my friends and I did things like common only tournaments or water only themed tournaments). It's not so much the lack of variety in decks, but tournament types done in card shops. The barrier of entry is due to the fact it is just an open tournament with no other tournaments that legitimize everything but the popular decks.

just trying to get a couple of goat format decks put together to play with my gf has been a pretty decent chunk of change. i can't even imagine trying to buy every new release and keep up with the competitive meta. that being said i've been able to find some booster packs for like 3-4 bucks a piece on tcgplayer and when you factor inflation into the equation thats really not terrible

Honestly the best video on this topic. I would just like to add 1 thing. A common solution posed by yugioh players who dont play pokemon is to copy the pokemon model of multiple rarities in 1 set. I think as a Pokemon, Yugioh, and One Piece player, I have a decent enough experience to rebut that. Pokemon is too big and the pokemon market is too different to make a 1-to-1 comparison and think itll work in yugioh. 1. the collector market that will go apeshit on the high rarity 120usd charizard(day 1, may or may not explode in price in 5+ yrs) and competitive player who will just use the 20-30usd charizard are very different markets. I dont know if yugioh has a robust enough collectors market for that same model to work. 2. most of the time the highest rarity chase card of a pokemon set is not the most competitive card and even if it is theres a low rarity copy for the playerbase. 3. Pokemons collector market being much larger than the playerbase means more product is opened and theres usually enough supply for the competitive scene. 4. Pokemon having a standard rotation format means cards are expected to have longer lifespans and wont crash in value in the next 6-9 months when the banlist hits/a better deck blows it out of the format so theres more time to get rid of inventory so theres not a rush to jack up the price and get rid of it as early as possible in the eyes of vendors. 5. One piece also has multiple rarities but the game is way too expensive right now(though i would attribute that to scalpers and bandai not knowing how to handle their fucking game)

@koyoyoyo1170

6 ай бұрын

my suggestion to people feeling priced out. just play master duel. i quit paper play when kashtira took over after tears demise and havent looked back.

Scalpers help the community by driving up the prices of singles, so that players have to buy from their local store. Our heroes.

@geek593

6 ай бұрын

Scalpers don't exist in Yugioh.

@Nephalem2002

6 ай бұрын

@@geek593Lmao yes they fucking do. But their largely shoplifters.

I play gunkan and laval in master duel I wonder will these cards be relevant when they come to the game

*Tistina Poster? Have you found the best way to play right now? May it have Support from OCG?*

@solemnyugioh

6 ай бұрын

It’s an oversized card won at a YCS :) Afraid I haven’t found a good way to play it

This was the best video I’ve seen on the subject so far, absolutely agree

No card game should be selling cards for $100 up eventually the card will lose its hype

Not gonna lie , i don't care about the secondary market, i just want yu gi oh to be accessible for the most and stop with those absurd prices

Your correct on making every card cheap. So many MTG shops are dying due to this. Singles so cheap making a profit is extremely hard.

IMO Yugioh is at its best when there is a cheap accessible and competitive deck. Not something that COULD do well, like floo right now, but something like the salamangreat structure deck when it dropped. I had hoped fire-king would be that next Salad/Monarchs. I personally consider Yugioh an expensive hobby, but even with a budget of 150-200 euros a month, the fire deck is out of reach unless I sell pretty much my entire collection. Which is INSANE.

@Nephalem2002

6 ай бұрын

Fully agree. Before Jan 2020 you didn’t even need the 40$ Cynet Mining for Salamangreat. The deck functioned nuts without money cards just being itself. Same with Monarchs and Dinos before it.

This is why competitive Yugioh is completely dumb in my opinion. You invest a lot of money into a powerful deck and for what? To win... more card packs? Packs that give you nothing in return and Konami prizes are absolute trash, they don't cover your travel, your hotel, your food or anything you're just going minus every time you go to a tournament. It's not worth the time either. Yugioh is best played online or at a casual and fun level with friends, outside of that, investing hundreds and hundreds of dollars in cardboard that WILL be devaluated is very foolish.

I'm also curious at the beginning to try ygo physical card but look at the price, it almost no guarantee to sell it back with the same price when konami release a new card or the older one got power creep. What a money waste to spend for bunch of cards that has no value at all.

The problem is because of the prices I won't be able to join the TCG. I've been playing MD since the release and recently got an interest in trying the physical card game, but when I saw the prices I reconsidered it quickly. They should print cards at lower rarity, so the game is more accessable and once I got a deck I can still upgrade the raritie's for my new favorite decks.

The whole game is unsustainable that’s why the board of directors/executives are concerned with the state of the game if you were to read their meeting notes from last year they are worried about new players getting into the game and the long sustainability of the game because Card prices and game mechanics it’s something simply Konami can’t really fix no matter what region you’re in either way it’s all CG or TCG the game is just on its last legs

The only reason this game stays alive is because of how hardcore the fanbase is. With every year, we lose more players, and fail to keep new ones. This game is dying and people refuse to recognize it. Sure there’s always Master Duel, but people WANT to play paper so they can actually interact with people cause Master Duel doesn’t have VC.

I feel like full art is a way to go imagine a full art sinful spoil card or a full art ghost rare card that be AWSOME

The other part to this problem is the lack of new players. Konami hasn't done much to bring new players into the TCG. It's all Rush Duel and nostalgia bait now, with Konami milking the core players instead of trying to bring in new players.

@Nephalem2002

6 ай бұрын

Rush and Speed should’ve hard reset the game I argue.

great video bro!

this is why I innevitably end up always playing master duel instead. The worst part is I never end up playing most of the meta decks because I don't enjoy playing whatever everybody else is playing

Most comp decks are 200-800 range having the top decks be 1500+ will def make ppl stop competing not a good business strat

The problem with buying a box of new yugioh expansion is, if I see only to cards in the set I want or like I’m going to buy those single cards and not a box to get a bunch of cards that are or no use to me

Also,we could have 3 types of rarities in a set for the same card: Ultra - Secret - Ulti. And 3 types of impossible rares ( A.k.a. In some boxes randomly) : 001/500 alt art + Ghost rares + Starlight rares.

One thing that irks me card games. If I buy a box for $80, why shouldn't i get all the cards I want when a new set comes out every couple of months. The price of a triple A game is 60, now creeping 70. Why is multiple payments of $80, or however much the box is, a year, not enough to sustain my playability of the game, and the profit of the company. The model is simply broken

@isidoreaerys8745

6 ай бұрын

Yes! A triple AAA game can be enjoyed all year for $70 but yugioh master duel, a game held together with duct tape and popsicle sticks wants to charge me $200 dollars for the gems to pull a new deck ONCE A MONTH in order to keep up with the meta?.!.?.! Maybe the multibillion dollar grossing Konami is the person acting entitled, not the player base.

@prokopf-9332

4 ай бұрын

@@isidoreaerys8745 well card games always have been like this. Its about selling cards, not playing cards. People like their sick rare pulls, this game would have been dead from the start if you could just buy a collection of all the cards. Yugioh or pokemon would have never picked up if there wasnt luck involved in drwaing cool/good cards. It was about the excitement of the rare pull.

But yea u definitely so far has best take in this matter. Ill give u my like and kudos.

I had this discussion at locals today. One player said he wishes it was cheaper because i was playing fire king without sinful package, and it would have been a better match if i could afford the package.

not a point for or against what you're saying however; I am British and live in a major city, i find it hard to find any Yu-Gi-Oh events or worse yet products. Honestly since Toys'R'us shut down like 5-7 years ago i haven't seen anywhere which sells Yu-Gi-Oh products. I can find Pokemon TCG events 5 days of the week and find the product basically anywhere i go. I do think the multiple rarity system is better as people would buy a box for 40 to 50 if you know you're getting the cards you want and can sell/trade the ones you don't.

Bandai with digimon has done this very well. You can get U,R,SR, and SEC as alt arts and a ghost in a set. You get 1 secret in a box with 2 alt arts, with a chance for secret alt art. So if you want to bling out your deck you going into alot of boxes. I can make a $50 deck, or I can have a $400 deck of the same cards.

I'm stubborn as hell and just wait forever for reprints. I waited from the release of rage of ra all the way until rarity collection to get my god slimes and I've also waited all this time to finally be rewarded with an ancient chant reprint. I always told myself "fuck those scalper prices" and waited purely out of spite. Ik its due to supply constraint at the end of the day, but its easier to get all hyped up when I make it a me versus evil scalpers narrative.

It’s so hard for me to get into TCG because it’s SO EXPENSIVE. I can’t even show the game to my friends when we hang out because nobody wants to spend 100 bucks for some piece of cardboard. The game being this outrageously expensive is gatekeeping SO MANY PEOPLE from enjoying it.

@isidoreaerys8745

6 ай бұрын

Sooo many. I have so many friends who soul love it, and enjoy master duel, but will never spend 500 dollars on some cardboard.

I've always advocated for the OCG method. The "big expensive" cards that are either generic staples or great cards for archetypes usually have multiple printings, ensuring you could pick up most any card for about 5 bucks if you just want to play the deck, but if you want to bling it out, you have lottery options! I know it's a bit late for this now, but the card quality is also much higher for OCG, so that's just a secondary slap in the face for us...

@thefirstsurvivor

6 ай бұрын

What if tcg konami doesnt have the confidence to do that? You would somehow have to convince them with a motivation

@edwardjohnpadilla4957

6 ай бұрын

​@@thefirstsurvivor if they have all card print in all rarity, konami would still get sales...oversupply would simply goes to export cards to other regions.

@thefirstsurvivor

6 ай бұрын

obv they still get sales but how much. thats what they want to know@@edwardjohnpadilla4957

@dudono1744

6 ай бұрын

OCG cards are getting english printing, so I guess there are people who buy them and sell them to TCG players.

@nharviala

5 ай бұрын

@@edwardjohnpadilla4957 Rarity collection helped prove that point. Even though the most expensive super rares are something like 2-4 bucks each, the quarter centuries are highly valued and sought after, leaving the casual, competitive, and whale communities happy in one go!

Its gatcha game for a reason. There multiple reason for this that work together from artificial scarcity, to people willing to buy the high price tag set by 3rd party sellers. And selling the cards you got at said value as the stores that specialize in selling them. For konami it should probably move printing the cards in the same rarities they do in the ocg it could help. Doesnt mean it will work.

The pokemon card market is cheaper bc pokemon can come in 3-4 different rarities depending on if it’s a V, VStar, VMax, EX ect. Rarity goes as follows from cheapest to more expensive: regular, full art, gold, illustration art, and Rainbow. Even lower end “common”, “uncommon”, and “rare” can have reverse holos, in which yugioh used to do with their rares and ultimate rares back in the day. I think there’s a misconception that just because a card is common in pokemon means it’s cheap. A card called, “Pokemon catcher” was a common and used to be upwards of 15-25 a copy bc of how good it was (before the errata) and some staples now are 2-5 per common. Pokémon unlike yugioh reprints some staples in other sets and they usually rotate in and out of formats. Pokemon also does actual precon decks of specific archetypes in the a set that was released in tandem. The problem is that Konami doesn’t reprint cards in a frequent manner that pokemon does to where the jumping on point is easy. I’ve seen several times where a staple card was supposed to be in a structure deck and was omitted for no godly reason. That’s a problem.

@VindeZwarts

6 ай бұрын

One of the best decks in format for pokemon is charizard ex. For a regular copy of this card it’s $15-17 and it has multiple rarities and printings and 2 coming out in a few months. The most expensive version of the card atm is the illustration art sitting at $65. By the end of February the card will have 7 printings.

Hey Maxine are still collecting cards or just doing it privately I haven’t seen you post on your IG in years?

@solemnyugioh

6 ай бұрын

I still collect :) Last vid is actually another PSA return. I just don't really use that IG anymore

@hitman10190

6 ай бұрын

@@solemnyugioh I hear you I deleted my IG collecting page last fall and only collect privately through buying on PWCC, eBay, and Facebook. I just don’t care for others approval on my hobby along with the IG collecting community having way too much drama and entitlement for my taste lmao :(

There is a slight problem with several points you mentioned, namely that its predicated on konami caring about shops, and frankly konami seems to not care. If shops closed, they just sell it online.

I liked this video, solid explanations. I would however have liked it if you discussed a bit more in depth on the culture differences between Japanese card game players compared to the west and Europe. It seems like the most common "solution" is to have OCG style card distribution, but I'd like to hear from you why exactly you don't think k it would work

@solemnyugioh

6 ай бұрын

I can only speak for locals in the Tokyo area and districts around it, as I've travelled to many of them with their subway system, but essentially it's a big combination of factors: - Local game stores tend to be packed far more frequently than western game stores. It is pretty normal for someone to go to their job, get off work, grab some food from a local mart and instantly go to a local game store. You've got locals firing virtually every evening (not necessarily at every card shop, but there's also so many more card shops that if you want, you can easily visit one each and every night, as many players do...). This is in stark contrast to a majority of game stores in the west, being mostly focused on 1-2 game nights, the weekends... This means you have a far more sturdy ecosystem of local game stores than the west, that don't tend to live and die by just a single new set release. - This constant local attendance also leads to buying booster boxes and packs... which then leads to selling back your singles for store credit... which then leads to being more inclined to spend at the store again. - Perhaps this is too anecdotal, but from what I saw, people were far more keen to open product just for funsies. It felt like hanging out at your locals and just opening a box after a long day of work, was a nice way to let off steam, in a way that seems far more rare in the west (This kind of interest in the occasional casual gacha can also be seen in their mobile game loot box sales being so much higher and gachapon machines all-over the place. This is not the case for everyone living in JP ofc... but just as a broad general trend). Now I'm aware some will argue that it's exactly because their pull rates are easier that people will be more inclined to open product, but that makes very little sense when there's still such negative EV when doing this. - The cost of goods in general is far lower in Japan than in many western countries. If you just compare figures: Consumer Prices in United States are 48.1% higher than in Japan (without rent) Consumer Prices Including Rent in United States are 81.5% higher than in Japan Rent Prices in United States are 205.6% higher than in Japan Restaurant Prices in United States are 119.9% higher than in Japan Groceries Prices in United States are 35.3% higher than in Japan This is also reflected in prices for leisure. So it's easy to say "look, OCG pricing is X% cheaper" not taking into account that a part of that is their overall cost of living being so much lower than the west. Now I won't pretend like I have the exact answers, of course. I do not live in Japan. I do not own a game store in Japan. I can only speak from what I experienced there and what I heard from others living there. It's just that it's far too short-sighted to just assume you can copy-paste a complete model from one very different place in the world onto another place in the world and get the exact same results. At the end of the day, Konami's policies will affect thousands, if not tens of thousands of businesses and so it's probably wise to push for gradual improvements, rather than market-shattering overhauls.

@thedoublehelix356

6 ай бұрын

@solemnyugioh thanks for the quick and thoughtful reply. I see you've pinned the response which is great too. Big fan of your video essay content!

@Nephalem2002

6 ай бұрын

@@solemnyugiohWith how Yugioh is right now, their current TCG methods are unsustainable. We NEED a market crash for this game, akin to 1929.

As a volcanic player bon fire would be nice but my build doesn't really need it I'll wait for to become 200$ for a play set.