For £58 a new company can reveal which trading cards are in packs without opening them, sparking debate among fans about ‘the death of the loose pack market’.
They didn’t seem so valuable when they first came out in the 90s, but the rarest Pokémon cards are now worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in today’s market.
Fans will go the great lengths to get their hands on a first edition Charizard or Mewtwo. There was even someone who tried to steal £32,000 worth of Pokémon cards earlier this year, before they were firmly stopped by two MMA fighters.
Investing in Pokémon packs, with the hope of getting some of the most valuable cards, has become big business, but now a company is threatening to change the market forever with $75 (£58) CT scans.
Industrial Inspection and Consulting (IIC) claims to have created a way to use a CT scanner (the same technology used to check bags at airports) to reveal which holographic cards are in a Pokémon pack.
IIC has done a study which claims that it can use CT scanning to ‘characterise holographic cards in unopened Pokémon packs’, and they were able to ‘extract the shape of the Pokémon due to slight density differences in the cards and foils’.
The study also includes a video that shows what the process looks like, and how they managed to reveal that a pack contained a holographic Hypno.
The company is now offering its services to the public, and will scan your packs for £58 a piece.
Coincidentally, there’s also a YouTuber specialising in 3D printing, named Ahron Wayne’s Strange Brain, who is working on the very same concept.
A debate has started in the comment section of his video, demonstrating the technology, where people are concerned about how it will shape the Pokémon trading card market going forward.
‘This will be the death of the loose pack market lol,’ says Al Dunk.
‘This is not a problem than can be easily solved, and it poses a HUGE problem if card sellers decide to take advantage of it with how big the market is right now,’ Dwarf Ganon adds.
‘There’s a massive problem with this. Anyone buying loose packs moving forward takes a big risk of buying a pack that an individual knows good and well that you’re not gonna pull anything good/valuable.
‘But they’re still going to charge you the full sealed booster pack price. Sad world we live in,’ Ghost Dreamz says.
Worst case scenario, if owners can pay to reveal the exact card in their packs, it could crash the market as there wouldn’t be any trust between buyers and sellers.
IIC is aware of the controversy surrounding the technology, and addresses it by saying:
‘We have taken a position that making this technology available to the general public evens the playing field against wealthy investors and bad actors working in secret.’
While it’s been common for buyers and sellers to weigh packs for years – as holographic cards are heavier than the standard ones – this is taking it to a new level.
Weighing packs only reveals if it contains a rare card, not exactly which pokémon you’ll get, which can eradicate the suspense that comes with buying packs.
Theoretically, the technology could be used with any trading cards or toys bought in ‘blind bags’ although the fact that heavy holographic cards are more common with Pokémon makes that the obvious place to start.
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