Been delving deep into Pokemon. I still knew quite a bit of the cards, set and Pokemon itself before diving into the intricacies of the current market. With the market explosion going on as we speak, the brazen nature of pumping and manipulation I observe is at another level. The charmander on the left is a standard promo with arguably great artwork/meme. The charmander is a popular pokemon and has been increasing in price at a fast albeit somewhat unorthodox pace. It seems natural bc the market is so hot. Enter the drowzee, aka 84 star jordan pump buddy. The drowzee has unique art with a popular artist that made some other popular card art (lost origin gira, paldea magi). The price of this card exponentially skyrocketed overnight for no reason. Some could argue the art is unique, artist is popular (this is Pokemon… are the artists really > pictured Pokemon?). There are discord groups that will literally agree and pre-plan to go into TCGPlayer and eBay to buyout cards like this Drowzee. Their reason to buyout a cheaper IR card? To recognize an under-appreciated card. True intent? Massive Market manipulation worse than the 84 Star jordan pump.
The Pokemon market is truly odd, even more so than the sports card market imo… but I guess that is the norm in the collectible market?