What is happening with Evolving Skies?

Eevee Skies

It is hard to deny that everywhere you look someone is talking about Evolving Skies. People looking to buy, looking to sell, booster box availability, showing their haul from a big box store, Costco has a bundle. The list never ends when it comes to Evolving Skies. I do not think I can go a single day where I do not see something Evolving Skies related. What is with the hype? Why is this set so popular? In this blog I will try to give my best assessment of what is happening with it and how we got to this point, and where we have seen something very similar before.

Evolving Skies came out on August 27^th 2021. It came right after Chilling Reign and before Celebrations. It was a mixture of Japanese sets Eevee Heroes and Skyscraping Perfect Blue Sky Stream. The sets included Eevee evolution Pokemon as well as dragon/flying Pokemon. While that sounds like an amazing set already, there must be more why this set is so popular, right?

Celebrations

One factor to consider is when Evolving Skies came out, Celebrations was announced but no cards were shown yet. It was a mystery. No one knew what was going to be in it and speculation was wild. It was the next set to be released after all. Tons of people cut back on buying Evolving Skies because they wanted to hold off for Celebrations. All the hype was around Celebrations to the point that I dare I say it overshadowed Evolving Skies. Once Celebrations came out and the hype cooled, people looked back and saw what they missed and the interest for Evolving Skies grew immensely. By the time that happened most stores were sold out of Evolving Skies and it was hard to find at retail.

Alternative Artwork

Two sets prior was Battle Styles. It wasn’t the most popular or sought-after set but it did something very important for the Pokemon TCG and collectors. It introduced a new concept of alternative art cards that were unlike anything we have seen before. Alternative arts also referred to as “alt arts” covered the entire height and length of the card. They told a story, gave the Pokemon a personality, showed them living among others and even in their natural habitat. Up until this point the main chase cards in modern product were usually a computer-generated looking artwork, a rainbow variant and then maybe a shiny variant of the original artwork. Those cards were pretty, but people were starting to complain that they were getting old and stale. Alternative arts were new, fresh and people fell in love immediately. It was universally adored by fans and collectors alike. The concept was still new when Evolving Skies came out and some of the most popular Pokémon got the alt art treatment. Umbreon, Dragonite, Rayquaza, Glaceon, Sylveon and Leafeon were the main attractions.

Alternate art VMAX cards is where this set really shines and is the biggest reason for the hype. They glitter, have gorgeous art, hard to pull and there are a lot of chase cards in this set. There were more chase cards in Evolving Skies than all of the Sword and Shield sets prior combined.

The alternate art V cards were nothing to write off and ignore either. Most people thought of V cards as slightly more expensive bulk, but not Evolving Skies. These were gorgeous new alternate art Vs just doubled the amount of chase cards for this box. Take that and add the fact that they are extremely hard to pull and well, that creates tons of demand.

Supply and Demand

These alternate art cards are hard to pull, and I mean very hard. This is a sample of what your average pack opening experience would look like for Evolving Skies. Booster boxes, Elite Trainer Boxes, Booster Packs, it all sells out online and in stores almost instantly. Collectors want those alternative arts. I saw some people open over 10 booster boxes and not get the chase card they want. If you do some simple math, $145 a box multiplied by 10 boxes is $1,450. It became easier and more financially smart to just buy the card you want and save yourself the headache. Collectors caught on to that and now everyone is buying the singles. Naturally, the price of singles goes up. You know what happens next! The price of sealed product goes up. It is a cycle where both sealed and singles feed off each other. This brings in speculators who see these crazy prices and buy it to flip it later. This then increases demand while lowering supply which you guessed it, increases prices. So, this is where we currently are now with Evolving skies. In my opinion these prices are too high for modern cards that still could potentially get reprinted.

Reprints

But they did get reprinted and they’re still expensive. What gives? Well as stated above the speculation on this set right now is through the roof. I would argue that a huge percentage of Evolving Skies is sitting unopened in peoples attics and basements. When it reaches crazy prices this will flush out all the sealed product into the market bringing it down. However, you need to ask yourself, why wouldn’t Pokemon reprint a set at the height of its popularity? I am still seeing new waves of Darkness Ablaze, Vivid Voltage and Shining Fates hitting stores. It makes sense for them to do so. Everyone is looking for Evolving Skies right now and Pokemon reprinting helps collectors, players and themselves. We could potentially see another year or two of reprints. Adding onto that as time goes on, more sets will come out, people will discover past sets, cards they missed and people will move on from Evolving Skies. The prices will probably come down as more of the cards will hit the market from grading, collections and people hoarding it. My best advice is be patient, you will never go on a marketplace that does not have Evolving Skies cards listed. You will never search eBay and find no results found, so just be patient. It is not over yet for Evolving Skies yet though. Try to think, where have we seen something similar to all this hype?

Why Does This Seem Familiar?

That’s right, Hidden Fates. There must have been 6 or more waves for Hidden Fates. I stopped counting after a while because they were always coming back in stock. I like to compare the Moonbreon to the SV49 Charizard. They both are extremely popular cards, super hard to pull, have very high price points. The cherry on top is it’s all you ever see posted about on marketplaces. When Hidden Fates came out you could walk into stores and casually pick it up. Then 2020 came and people realized how many “chase” cards there were in that set. Even going as far as to calling it the best modern set. The set contained Umbreon, Charizard, Sylveon, Glaceon, Mewtwo and Cynthia to name a few. All massively popular cards. Well, just like Evolving Skies the demand seemingly skyrocketed overnight. Card prices went up to astronomical amounts and I remember SV49 Charizard was selling well over $1,500 for a PSA 10 and $750 for a raw copy. As time passed more people got the card graded, pulled it from packs, then reprint after reprint. It got to the point where it did stabilize and right now as of 10/14/2022 its sitting at around $775 for a PSA 10 and $375 on TCGplayer. Now I love SV49 Charizard, but let’s be honest, how often do you see people talking about it now? Not nearly as much and I predict in a year from now, we will look at Evolving Skies the same way. It is a fantastic set, arguably better than Hidden Fates, but new sets will come out, time will pass and the hype will settle down.

Evolved Skies

In conclusion, is Evolving Skies one of the best sets ever? Depending on who you ask, maybe. After reading this article I hope you can see what made this set so special and why people are still so hyped for it. This trend seems to happen with at least 1 set every generation. A set that is just so obviously above and beyond the others that it is all people want and talk about. I hope they keep printing Evolving Skies. I love opening the packs and even though I never get anything good, the dream of one day pulling that Umbreon VMAX is why this set will go down in history and never be forgotten.

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