Almost every time I read a Reddit thread or YouTube comment about a One Piece or Pokémon product jumping in price, the word manipulation is thrown around way too much. First, I will admit there is some manipulation that goes on in the hobby, but the term is overused entirely, giving a dangerous false premise that the TCG market as a whole is manipulated. In reality, there is always negative sentiment when people get priced out of products. The individuals who never buy, especially during market downturns, and who have absolutely zero skin in the game are always the ones who cry the loudest. Seeing these echo chambers on social media gives a false sense that their complaints reflect reality.
From my own experience, I have personally seen these cards legitimately sell for these higher prices. Take the Bandai Fest 23-24 Luffy card, for example. It could be purchased below $20 for the longest time, even after the initial One Piece TCG bull run, before suddenly shooting up to $60, $80, and eventually $100. Naysayers were vocal, claiming this card was too common and overpriced even at $18. My thought process was simple: this is a promo textured Luffy card, so of course it has to go up . I went against the grain and purchased some copies expecting them to slowly rise in value years into the future. I had no idea it would jump so quickly. I sold a few copies over the $80 mark, sent the orders, and received the funds via TCGplayer. No returns, no scams. Just legitimate sales .
That could be dismissed as a bad example since I'm just a random person sharing my experience online. So, let's look at broader and well-known sellers, like Rudy from Alpha Investments, being one of the largest. In a recent video, he sarcastically asks who could possibly be buying all the Pokémon product, as there are stacks upon stacks of new Pokémon sealed product sitting behind him. But wait, aren't those prices currently 2x over MSRP? Maybe he knows something the naysayers just talk about instead of doing. He understands that these assets are actually still undervalued at these prices in light of the new demand.
He's not really knowing the future, but believing in where the market will go based on the trajectory of past sets. Underlying all of this is the sheer power of demand . Demand for these premium products is already incredibly high, and the smart buyers scooping them up even at these current levels proves they firmly believe prices will climb much further. Just remember when Pokémon's Evolving Skies hit $600 per booster box—you might have thought it was wildly overpriced then, but years later, it's trading at over 4x that amount.
Looking at other major figures, YouTubers like Big Ace Trading are proving the exact same point. As a One Piece TCG investor, he recently made a video detailing his purchase of $100,000 worth of OP-13 tins . People scream that OP-13 is too overpriced, but the logic remains the same: he states his bullish case and backs it up with hard proof and actual capital. He isn't worried about the noise because his money is where his mouth is.
So when we see these singles or sealed products being bought out at high prices, just change your perspective and see that most of these sales are, in fact, the reality of what's happening. Stop listening to the idle talk and look at what is actually happening with the capital. Even if 90 out of 100 available products are bought out by a single entity—what people love to label manipulation—the stark reality is that 90% of the supply just went off the market . The sellers of the 10 remaining available units can now set their price because they hold the control and the available product. It doesn't mean someone has to buy at that price, but the floor has undeniably shifted.
Now imagine the heavy-hitting investors with the cash to make these moves, quietly buying 90 out of those 100 available products. This is incredibly potent with One Piece singles, where the supply is much more limited comparatively. The truly astounding thing is that this exact same phenomenon is still happening with higher-volume products in Pokémon. Just look at the rapidly shrinking supply of modern TCG singles in sets like Ascended Heroes and even older sets, where Sword & Shield singles are drying up. The whales are accumulating, and the float is vanishing.
This is the new reality of the market. The good news is that there are so many different singles, sealed boxes, and various card games available that just because you don't have massive capital doesn't mean you can't still collect and invest. It just means you have to make smarter moves and utilize your buying power more wisely. At tcjournal.io , this is exactly what we do. It does absolutely no good to look at the data after all the sales have happened and make a move when a card has already jumped; sales data just shows the past . The real move is to enter the right positions before these products dry up. Join for free today to see what we suggest, and start making your own winning moves.