Price Tag

This time, let's not talk about cards, rather, let's talk about money stuffs and bulls.

As we all know, YGO is a very expensive vice and hobby to maintain due to the price of very powerful, rare, and limited printed cards such as the promos and also TGU and also expensive tier decks, such as Mermails, Magicals, and of course the Incarante Dragons.

Let's look at some of the reasons why YGO is expensive:

1.) Limited Numbers
   
First reason is the availability of cards. In OCG, ever since the legalization of promotional cards, I had this
gut feeling that everyone would be very excited to play their Hero Deck as it did happen. As soon as the announcement was made, Hero became a whore. It was like, Hero Deck, Hero Deck everywhere. It was the beginning of a crisis that the people who can't get resources for this promo cards will be in jeopardy and turn to cheaper yet powerful decks.

Promo cards in the Philippines are like 1k for those that are badly needed such as the Fire Fist promos, Yaksha, and Wolfberk. Wolfberk is still increasing due to the possibility of the rise of 4-axis. I already spent 10k just to complete my Fire Fist with Vulcan and I think I'm going to spend more because I still don't have  Wolfberks. Big Eye is also a player favorite now that Incarnate Dragon is a thing. There are people who are buying it for like 1k to 1.8k just to get their hands on one.

2.) Card Rarity

Another issue is the rarity of the cards. The higher the rarity the more expensive it is if it's useful. Cards that fall under this category are Megalo, Junon, Kizan, and the Incarnate Dragons.

If you look at them closely, they're all Super Rare cards in OCG. Despite not being the highest rarity, they are more expensive than their boss cards because they are more useful and abusable. To understand better why they are more expensive, it's all about ratios.

Since there are only 5 UR in a set and there are 2 sure UR and since UtR are also just UR, you automatically have 3 of the 5 UR in a set, and if ever they are all unique, that leaves you with 2 more UR to find. But in SR, there are 9 of them in a set, and in a box there are only sure 3 SR in a box so that leaves you with looking for 6 more and you might end up with cheap SR like the unusable ones. Also, in UR you have 30% chance to get the UR you want given you have a UR in your pack (Note: I also added the HR and UtR in the probability), while in SR, you have 11% to get the card you want if you have an SR in your pack.

The probability only applies in OCG boxes.

3.) Demand and Supply

Since there is a limited source, there is low supply and since there are a lot of players so there is high on demand and in economy, the if the demand is higher than the supply, there will be an increase in the supply's price.

This applies in YGO as well. In the beginning of a release, cards may be cheaper since people sells them, but in the long run, the cards will get expensive since people are now keeping the cards for themselves, thus, if a person sells his copy, expect it to be high because people are reluctant to let go of their copy.

4.) Hoarders and Collectors

This is a problem of YGO right now. They are those who hoard or collect the cards without even joining any single tournament yet they have all the right piece like the Incarnate Dragon you're missing, or a Megalo, or TGU you need. Instead of giving or selling them to players who actually play the game, they let their copies collect dust in their binders and give it a ridiculous high price thus causing a crisis in resources. The hoarding of the cards force the other players to turn to cheap decks giving birth to whore decks such as Gadgets and Machinas. They are mostly the people who are on the sidelines always watching and trading. I too am a collector but at least I join major tournaments and I sell my cards when I have extras.

So please, to all those who haven't joined a single tourney, please make the game healthy by selling your copies or at least lending them to those who actually play the game.