Pikabhu, I see you.
Collectible trading cards have come so far with regards to the evolution of relief patterns changing how characters can be contrasted against a foil background and packaging of contents in various products including tins, collection boxes and Elite Trainer Boxes. It was always difficult to determine true value of sealed products beyond the merits of the set it belongs to because the contents were unable to be determined without sophisticated weight measuring techniques eg. three decimal precision scales. Companies like the Pokémon Company International then introduced varying weight code cards to combat easy identification of a booster pack’s contents.
As of July 2024, we have learnt that a group of people have formed an entity for the sole purpose of using CT scanning equipment to identify the contents of sealed products. As ingenuous an entrepreneurial idea this is, it no doubt puts a lot of strain on businesses that have deployed a lot of capital in acquiring sealed boxes like Curious Collectibles has. We would consider the act of scanning sealed products to be pretty unorthodox behaviour. This practice will not come without risks, however, but the long-term consequences are still yet to be ascertained.
In the medical field, pumping your body full of radiation isn’t the most desirable thing to be doing. CT scanning is known to deliver a larger dose of radiation than regular x-rays since it serves to produce clearer information. There is currently no known negative side effects of exposing the cardboard and foil materials to such a concentration of radiation so we will have to wait it out for the effects to emerge over time.
Another risk to be leery of is the greed that has been evidenced by weighed booster packs on the secondary market. Just as some packs get listed as “unweighed”, it is expected that any startup that scans sealed product will innately give in to the human sinful nature to be greedy. Any entrepreneur who makes it an endeavour to expose what is inside sealed product could have questionable motives. Sealed products are sealed by the manufacturer for a reason. How do you know your collection is not getting switched out for something less desirable and allowing the scanner to make off with your highly sought after, expensive hits?
Until the implications of this heinous practice come to light, I will leave it at that for now and share updates in future blogs. Although, if anyone has a science background and can expound upon the implications of penetrating cardboard and foil materials with high dosages of radiation, that would be appreciated. For now, in the interest of disclosure, you should know any product that Curious Collectibles acquired prior to July 2024 and pre-orders arriving in July-August 2024 up to and including Pokémon TCG Stellar Crown sealed cases have been purchased from various vendors online as we cannot secure product from the Australasian distributor Banter Toys since they only service brick and mortar operations. We have suspended purchasing TCG product altogether until the ramifications of CT scanning can be ascertained.
