Do Virtual Pokemon have a dollar value?

Hey Poke Fam,

I was recently looking through my old gen Pokemon games from my DS, and I was over a friends house(who is way more of a Pokemon expert and fan than me). He was looking through my catalog of Pokemon and wanted to buy all the Pokemon on it because of the Pokemon I had and the conditions they were in. It took us into this discussion about the value of virtual Pokemon. We sat there for hours arguing about what would be worth more, and how much someone would actually spend on virtual Pokemon. So, I was wondering how everyone else felt about virtual Pokemon and their dollar value? My friend said he would buy Pokemon for tournaments and just to collect them. I've never entered a tournament, and just found collecting them through the game was good enough for me. Would love to hear how others feel about this.

Honestly, I wouldn't ever pay for digital pokemon. Part of the draw for the VGC for me over the TCG is that it's a one time cost for the game. And then I can simply breed my own pokemon for competitive purposes anyway.

eBay suggests that virtual Pokemon do have a monetary value, and plenty of people pay for them. I can see why timed event Legendaries might have a value, because they're annoyingly hard to get hold of in the GTS sometimes - people ask for the most ridiculous things - and it is an easy, viable option. Being able to obtain custom shiny or competitive-ready Pokeon straight away is a service that people might pay for as well; we don't all have time to endlessly trawl through the game for that perfect Pokemon, and thus we're denied the experience of higher-level battling because of it. tl;dr, people will pay for just about anything.

Would I pay for them personally? At one time I thought about it, because I needed a lot of them, but it seems doubtful. When they can be obtained in-game easily enough, it seems pointless to pay for them.

Meyneth said:

eBay suggests that virtual Pokemon do have a monetary value, and plenty of people pay for them. I can see why timed event Legendaries might have a value, because they're annoyingly hard to get hold of in the GTS sometimes - people ask for the most ridiculous things - and it is an easy, viable option. Being able to obtain custom shiny or competitive-ready Pokeon straight away is a service that people might pay for as well; we don't all have time to endlessly trawl through the game for that perfect Pokemon, and thus we're denied the experience of higher-level battling because of it. tl;dr, people will pay for just about anything.

Would I pay for them personally? At one time I thought about it, because I needed a lot of them, but it seems doubtful. When they can be obtained in-game easily enough, it seems pointless to pay for them.

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That is something I heard as well, that people use to sell Pokemon on Ebay. Since Ebay has banned those types of virtual sells, it seems like selling has been reduced to forum/reddit boards over anything else. I mean, I think if I was a collector of sorts. Buying pokemon might just be a fun thing to do, if someone has a pokemon with specific stats, nature and level. Maybe its shiny, maybe it's been bred in a particular way. Maybe someone has built a particular pokemon in a certain way to make it tourney prepared. (Also just noticed how huge video game pokemon tournaments are, like WHOA), I might just find it more valuable because of those things. The thing is, I would be reluctant to deal with the buying of pokemon on the internet, because you can get scammed pretty easily out of it. I've had friends who've sold virtual things in other games through paypal, and had to deal with losing their items or money. I'm starting to think, us as Pokemon players are hesitant to do those types of things outside of our friends' circles due to trust and security. Also, there's no central value to pokemon, its more of how each individual feels towards the worth of each pokemon.

ProfessorPokeStats said:

That is something I heard as well, that people use to sell Pokemon on Ebay. Since Ebay has banned those types of virtual sells, it seems like selling has been reduced to forum/reddit boards over anything else. I mean, I think if I was a collector of sorts. Buying pokemon might just be a fun thing to do, if someone has a pokemon with specific stats, nature and level. Maybe its shiny, maybe it's been bred in a particular way. Maybe someone has built a particular pokemon in a certain way to make it tourney prepared. (Also just noticed how huge video game pokemon tournaments are, like WHOA), I might just find it more valuable because of those things. The thing is, I would be reluctant to deal with the buying of pokemon on the internet, because you can get scammed pretty easily out of it. I've had friends who've sold virtual things in other games through paypal, and had to deal with losing their items or money. I'm starting to think, us as Pokemon players are hesitant to do those types of things outside of our friends' circles due to trust and security. Also, there's no central value to pokemon, its more of how each individual feels towards the worth of each pokemon.

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Actually, I think you'll find eBay hasn't banned those types of sales - you can find plenty of event Legendary, starter, and shiny Pokemon for sale on there. You can get every Legendary for around £10 or so.

It's precisely because there is no central value that people can sell things this way - how much you can charge, and how much someone will pay, will depend upon rarity in-game and how much someone wants something without having to give up something of equal/greater value they want to keep...or something they don't have if they're trying to get it through the GTS. Of course there is a high probability of Pokemon being hacked or cloned, making these kinds of purchases both risky and unnecessary (at least in my opinion) but even so, some people just want them, which is fair enough. When you don't have the ability to trade with yourself, or any friends, or don't want to trade specific things you want to keep...well, it's as good an option as any if you have the money and don't mind the potential hacks.

Meyneth said:

Actually, I think you'll find eBay hasn't banned those types of sales - you can find plenty of event Legendary, starter, and shiny Pokemon for sale on there. You can get every Legendary for around £10 or so.

It's precisely because there is no central value that people can sell things this way - how much you can charge, and how much someone will pay, will depend upon rarity in-game and how much someone wants something without having to give up something of equal/greater value they want to keep...or something they don't have if they're trying to get it through the GTS. Of course there is a high probability of Pokemon being hacked or cloned, making these kinds of purchases both risky and unnecessary (at least in my opinion) but even so, some people just want them, which is fair enough. When you don't have the ability to trade with yourself, or any friends, or don't want to trade specific things you want to keep...well, it's as good an option as any if you have the money and don't mind the potential hacks.

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Wow, really? I have to check that out. I was told Ebay banned those types of things. Is there a way for people to tell if a pokemon is hacked or cloned?

ProfessorPokeStats said:

Wow, really? I have to check that out. I was told Ebay banned those types of things. Is there a way for people to tell if a pokemon is hacked or cloned?

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I would assume that the majority of them are cloned by default, since sellers typically sell multiples of the same Pokemon, but it's a little more difficult to tell if something is hacked before you get it...although if they're offering things like your OT, or custom movesets etc, it's a safe bet there is some kind of playing around involved. There are a lot of "perfect" Pokemon as well; shiny Legendaries, etc.

Those kinds of things are worth a lot to some people due to their scarcity, though. I have to admit, if I wanted a shiny Legendary Pokemon, I'd probably be willing to pay £2 or so for it instead of spending potentially hundreds of hours soft resetting for it...and potentially ending up with terrible stats or whatever. Similarly, if I was going to play competitively I might consider something like that, because I have neither the time nor the patience to make perfect Pokemon myself.

Meyneth said:

I would assume that the majority of them are cloned by default, since sellers typically sell multiples of the same Pokemon, but it's a little more difficult to tell if something is hacked before you get it...although if they're offering things like your OT, or custom movesets etc, it's a safe bet there is some kind of playing around involved. There are a lot of "perfect" Pokemon as well; shiny Legendaries, etc.

Those kinds of things are worth a lot to some people due to their scarcity, though. I have to admit, if I wanted a shiny Legendary Pokemon, I'd probably be willing to pay £2 or so for it instead of spending potentially hundreds of hours soft resetting for it...and potentially ending up with terrible stats or whatever. Similarly, if I was going to play competitively I might consider something like that, because I have neither the time nor the patience to make perfect Pokemon myself.

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So, do tourneys detect hacked and cloned pokemon? I feel like this is entirely new discussion in itself haha. I always knew people could clone and hack pokemon, but I thought nintendo detected these things and would ban any accounts that tried to trade such pokemon.

ProfessorPokeStats said:

So, do tourneys detect hacked and cloned pokemon? I feel like this is entirely new discussion in itself haha. I always knew people could clone and hack pokemon, but I thought nintendo detected these things and would ban any accounts that tried to trade such pokemon.

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It kinda is but I can stay on topic at the same time, haha

I would assume Pokemon that fall within legal parameters (i.e. stuff you COULD get in the game if you put enough time and effort in) would be OK, although I don't know how Nintendo detect these things...I thought it was if you actually did stuff on the cart, instead of just receiving stuff, it'd be alright? Not sure. But these Pokemon wouldn't have much value - monetary or otherwise - if they got your game blocked from online battling...

Meyneth said:

It kinda is but I can stay on topic at the same time, haha

I would assume Pokemon that fall within legal parameters (i.e. stuff you COULD get in the game if you put enough time and effort in) would be OK, although I don't know how Nintendo detect these things...I thought it was if you actually did stuff on the cart, instead of just receiving stuff, it'd be alright? Not sure. But these Pokemon wouldn't have much value - monetary or otherwise - if they got your game blocked from online battling...

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Hmm, that's interesting. Battling seems to be the main hook to why people play pokemon. So, I would only assume people would find a dollar value in pokemon for battling use. If the pokemon are hacked and get them banned, it would be a waste. It seems people would have to pay attention to the details of the pokemon, such as location, time met, move sets and such to determine if the pokemon is in legal parameter. I have this weird feeling that us as pokemon players, because of our nature towards the game, if there was a centralized value then selling and buying would become another addictive asset to the game we already enjoy and love haha

ProfessorPokeStats said:

Hmm, that's interesting. Battling seems to be the main hook to why people play pokemon. So, I would only assume people would find a dollar value in pokemon for battling use. If the pokemon are hacked and get them banned, it would be a waste. It seems people would have to pay attention to the details of the pokemon, such as location, time met, move sets and such to determine if the pokemon is in legal parameter. I have this weird feeling that us as pokemon players, because of our nature towards the game, if there was a centralized value then selling and buying would become another addictive asset to the game we already enjoy and love haha

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I really hope Nintendo don't cotton-on to that >.>

I am actually very surprised that we haven't seen season passes or DLC for Pokemon titles yet; between timed Legendary events that are easily missed, clothing options, and numerous items not available that make certain things a lot easier, Pokemon is ripe for having paid content. It would outrage the player base if they DID do something like that, but given recent practices with the Switch, I wouldn't be too surprised if Pokemon DLC is on the cards for the future. Whether or not it would be worth paying for would depend on what it is, I think...just version exclusives, or Legendaries, may not be good enough for a lot of people.

Meyneth said:

I really hope Nintendo don't cotton-on to that >.>

I am actually very surprised that we haven't seen season passes or DLC for Pokemon titles yet; between timed Legendary events that are easily missed, clothing options, and numerous items not available that make certain things a lot easier, Pokemon is ripe for having paid content. It would outrage the player base if they DID do something like that, but given recent practices with the Switch, I wouldn't be too surprised if Pokemon DLC is on the cards for the future. Whether or not it would be worth paying for would depend on what it is, I think...just version exclusives, or Legendaries, may not be good enough for a lot of people.

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I wouldn't put it pass nintendo. Watching how people collectively paid nintendo millions for coins in pokemon go. I would only imagine what they might add to the games, then again why would they break something that doesn't need to be fixed. Pokemon video games have been doing amazing since the beginning. If new platforms are to be built to enhance the world of pokemon, I only pray the pokemon players who love pokemon create them, and not the business minded corporations. What I love the most about Pokemon is its ability to create communities amongst people on a global level, that's one of the reasons why I think Pokemon will never fall.

There are definitely always going to be people serious enough about the games that they're willing to pay large amounts of money for "perfect" Pokémon, be it for battling or collecting or whatever else, so they definitely do have a dollar value.

As for the DLC idea mentioned above... I really hope not lol. Were it not for the Switch online announcement, I'd have discounted the possibility, but now I'm actually a bit worried :/ It's certainly possible in the future and I think at the very least they've probably considered it. That said, it would cause huge backlash and the mass enthusiasm for Pokémon games would almost certainly be diminished so... I dunno. Still a bit worried I guess.

Rainbow said:

There are definitely always going to be people serious enough about the games that they're willing to pay large amounts of money for "perfect" Pokémon, be it for battling or collecting or whatever else, so they definitely do have a dollar value.

As for the DLC idea mentioned above... I really hope not lol. Were it not for the Switch online announcement, I'd have discounted the possibility, but now I'm actually a bit worried :/ It's certainly possible in the future and I think at the very least they've probably considered it. That said, it would cause huge backlash and the mass enthusiasm for Pokémon games would almost certainly be diminished so... I dunno. Still a bit worried I guess.

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Yeah DLC in Pokemon sounds a little scary to me haha. What range do you believe people will pay for pokemon for? Its interesting how some may say a couple of dollars, while others say it could be way more.

Well, three years ago, Nintendo thought region locking was a good idea, and we never would have had things like paid online services for their consoles, or season passes for their more popular franchises like Zelda...I don't think Pokemon is quite as immune as it seemed to be back in those days.

Maybe the example still holds true to an extent, in that Game Freak wouldn't put a monetary value to single Pokemon, BUT I wouldn't be surprised if we had a season pass for episodic DLC content in similar vein to the Delta Episode from ORAS in the future, which would boast exclusive Legendaries you wouldn't be able to find in-game anywhere else. Especially if Pokemon is making a jump to the Switch. People might not be willing to pay money just to receive single Pokemon, but would they pay with less fuss in the context of a small story-based experience? I think a move like that would be applauded in the larger scheme of things.

Meyneth said:

Well, three years ago, Nintendo thought region locking was a good idea, and we never would have had things like paid online services for their consoles, or season passes for their more popular franchises like Zelda...I don't think Pokemon is quite as immune as it seemed to be back in those days.

Maybe the example still holds true to an extent, in that Game Freak wouldn't put a monetary value to single Pokemon, BUT I wouldn't be surprised if we had a season pass for episodic DLC content in similar vein to the Delta Episode from ORAS in the future, which would boast exclusive Legendaries you wouldn't be able to find in-game anywhere else. Especially if Pokemon is making a jump to the Switch. People might not be willing to pay money just to receive single Pokemon, but would they pay with less fuss in the context of a small story-based experience? I think a move like that would be applauded in the larger scheme of things.

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From a corporation perspective, individual Pokemon wouldn't have a monetary value. I'm more interested in what us as pokemon players would find to be a monetary value for individual Pokemon. I think the trade of pokemon is a heavy part of pokemon culture. I think its that way, because trading is controlled by us as the players. Trading was introduced to us by Nintendo, but we are the ones that make it happen, we fed the idea, and was given a global platform to do so thanks to Nintendo. I would rather see pokemon players buy and sell pokemon from each other, almost like a community marketplace, than see nintendo monetize off of DLCs for us. There's some of us who take Pokemon really seriously and some of us just love to play now and then. I find value to be an important piece to any gaming experience.

ProfessorPokeStats said:

From a corporation perspective, individual Pokemon wouldn't have a monetary value. I'm more interested in what us as pokemon players would find to be a monetary value for individual Pokemon. I think the trade of pokemon is a heavy part of pokemon culture. I think its that way, because trading is controlled by us as the players. Trading was introduced to us by Nintendo, but we are the ones that make it happen, we fed the idea, and was given a global platform to do so thanks to Nintendo. I would rather see pokemon players buy and sell pokemon from each other, almost like a community marketplace, than see nintendo monetize off of DLCs for us. There's some of us who take Pokemon really seriously and some of us just love to play now and then. I find value to be an important piece to any gaming experience.

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From a corporate perspective, practically everything has a monetary value. I think Game Freak would be very hard-pressed to charge for individual Pokemon, but if they weren't available any other way, they'd find a way, and in this current money-driven gaming environment, people would buy them.

I can't see them ever promoting or authorising an in-game marketplace like that though...hell, I think if Nintendo could, they'd crack down on people selling digital Pokemon on eBay and the like. For one, that's already a free service via the GTS. For two...Pokemon is a kid-friendly game, and we've already had kids spending obscene amounts of money on in-app purchases and the like...can you imagine the potential for disaster with that?

Meyneth said:

From a corporate perspective, practically everything has a monetary value. I think Game Freak would be very hard-pressed to charge for individual Pokemon, but if they weren't available any other way, they'd find a way, and in this current money-driven gaming environment, people would buy them.

I can't see them ever promoting or authorising an in-game marketplace like that though...hell, I think if Nintendo could, they'd crack down on people selling digital Pokemon on eBay and the like. For one, that's already a free service via the GTS. For two...Pokemon is a kid-friendly game, and we've already had kids spending obscene amounts of money on in-app purchases and the like...can you imagine the potential for disaster with that?

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I agree with you, I think an in game marketplace would be hell. Personally, I would rather buy a digital pokemon from another pokemon player than from Nintendo. I already spend so much for nintendo products, and if nintendo gave pokemon players the power for once to build an economy of wealth within our own pokemon community. Nintendo would benefit from an increase of activity within their games, but we as the pokemon players would benefit as a whole. This is my perspective, when I see a corporation selling a hotdog. All I see is a corporation who doesn't care too much about what I like selling me something; nonetheless I buy it but that's my feeling. Now, if I see a friend of mine, or someone from my community who shares my passions selling a hotdog, I may feel more excited buying it from them. The hotdogs might both be exactly the same, but I know my money is going back into people who share the same love for that particular thing. Sorry, I used hotdogs as an example, I'm feeling rather hungry haha. Pokemon is more than just a game, it's a culture, community and entire entity in itself. When we begin to look at it like that, we will see its much more than just a competitive game or something to pass the time. Just like this site, which I haven't been on for almost ten years now. It's flourishing with friendships, fun, rivalries, and joy. All of which couldn't have happen without the franchise. I hope Nintendo puts more power in the hands of us as pokemon players.

Part of me does kinda wish there were some way of buying pokémon - I lost all my Gen IV event legendaries and my only ever successful attempt to breed pokémon with good IVs (Eevee and the lowest IV it had was 30) because I only had one DS so I agreed to trade him a bunch of them where he'd be able to clone them for himself, and I'd get them back once I'd got the 40-odd pokémon I needed in my new save. They disappeared. So I would definitely have paid money to replace my Darkrai and the like if there had been an official way to do so.

That being said, considering how Nintendo eventually even removed Game Corner in order to become more kid-friendly I can't see them ever doing anything like what people in this thread suggests - Pokémon Go has lots of in-app purchases but presumably a lot of the people who were involved in that assumed that the majority of players would be at least of secondary school age (12+) and thus would be able to be held accountable for their purchases rather than having parents angry at their 5 year old spending $1000 because they can't flick a poke ball straight.

I would pay for them in certain situations. One of them being distribution carts online. I have been really wanting to get spiky eared Pichu and pikachu colored Pichu and the only way to get them is through the distributions. I've been looking into buying those distribution DS cartridges on ebay so that I can have them forever instead of using a cheat device. So I guess this would be the closest thing for me that would count as paying for a virtual pokemon.