Let’s talk about Master Sets…
So I was sitting on Pokelou’s discord server this past week and the question was posed by a user, “What is the most affordable set to collect rn? I'm on a tight budget due to college expenses and I am just curious as to if there is a more affordable set than the others right about now.”
A few of the other’s mentioned some of the cheaper sets like Stellar Crown and Journey Together. I jokingly responded with the Scarlet and Violet Energies (although in hindsight the cheapest would be the Mega Evolution era Energies. There’s only 8 cards!) However, I agreed that Journey Together would be a beautiful set to Master (It’s a bit of soft spot for me)
However, I’m a bit of a data nerd, so I went on a bit of a deep dive to answer this question for him.
Step 1:
I headed over to TCGplayer and started compiling data. I went to the Pokemon > English Price Guide and then went into each of the Scarlet and Violet sets, and clicked on View the Price Guide.
This page pulls up a list of all the cards in a given set, with all the options of Holo, Rare, Reverse Holo, etc. I edited my preferences to uncheck the Code Card, Normal and Holofoil cards. This left me all the Reverse Holo’s for each set. I selected all and added them to my cart.
I went back to the preferences and checked Normal and Holofoil, and unchecked Reverse Holofoil, and then selected all the cards in the new list and added them to cart. This gave me each card for the master set in my cart.
Step 2:
Once I had all the cards in the set in my cart, TCGPlayer was able to use the built in Optimizer to “Find carts with the lowest prices and the fewest packages” using the Advanced rules of Lightly Played or better. I let it process and the site then provides 2-3 options, which gives me the price and shipping for the whole set. THAT is the price I was using for estimates.
Step 3:
Repeat this for each set in the S&V era, and the Mega Evolution Era, (and Mega Dream ex). This whole process took about 2 hours for all the sets and (and redoing a few sets as well because I was including shipping in the total prices.
Step 4: I also wanted to compare the “chase” or the “top hit” of each set, to see how those top cards play into the total amount of each set.
I compiled all that data into a spreadsheet!
Then I graphed it
(m2a is Japanese Mega Dream ex, newest set in Japan at time of writing)
So! What does this tell us?
Well, obvious data:
Cheapest Set: Obsidian Flames - $245 for the whole set (which is CRAZY! The Obsidian Flames Booster Box is currently priced at $289! 36 packs or a guaranteed whole set!)
Most Expensive: (To no one’s surprise) Prismatic Evolutions - $3598 for the set (all the normal, reverse holo, pokeball, masterball, and illustrated cards)
The total cost for the all the Scarlet & Violet era master sets - $18,429
The total cost for all the current Mega Evolution sets - $4532
Total cost to master everything - $22,961
Which is basically a decent used car, or 4600 booster packs or 150 booster boxes. That’s a lot of cardboard
So, what should you collect on a budget?
Honestly, the answer is going to be different for the individual. The best set to collect is the one that will bring you joy without turning your hobby into a source of stress or financial pressure. Maybe instead of master setting sets, you focus on your favorite pokemon and collect all of their cards.
At the end of the day, your collection is not lesser because you set boundaries, Choosing what not to collect can be important just as choosing what you want to do. Collecting with intention keeps the hobby a hobby.
or Obsidian Flames. It’s pretty cheap right now.