Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic got its official announcement at the most recent Pokemon Presents, and as more details come out about the base set reprint, more fans of the game seem increasingly concerned. The Pokemon Day reveal for this new collector's item promoted it as a "premium Pokemon TCG set that will last a lifetime."
The original Pokemon TCG base set originally came out in Japan more than 26 years ago with 102 cards that are all considered iconic by collectors today. Many are difficult to come by in decent condition and increasingly cost-prohibitive, like the older Charizard cards. So the Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic seems like a great way to get these cards into the hands of eager fans, but many are skeptical about who will actually be able to get ahold of this set.
A look at the subreddit for Pokemon TCG shows fans expressing both excitement and concern over this new set. The top comment on the announcement thread calls it "basically an expensive collector's item." There was uncertainty surrounding the price point of the base set reprint since the English website at the moment has no price listed among its details. The Japanese version of the website, however, has the retail price set at 35,000 yen, which at the current exchange rate converts to a little over $250 USD. Pokemon cards are getting increasingly expensive in recent years as many flock to buy and resell them simply for the value of the cards, leading to fatigue and frustration among many in the dedicated fanbase.
The Japanese site for the Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic actually contains a lot more details surrounding what will be included in this set, including how many and what kinds of cards can be expected. There will apparently only be 60 cards total, and some won't even be base set reprints (such as the announced EX prints for Lugia and Ho-Oh, as well as Suicune), meaning this will only be a mini-base set that only includes half of the original 102 cards. The set does look sleek, and many on the Reddit thread note some of its cooler features like the 3D poison and burn tokens along with the ball-rolling tool that replaces coin flips. The question for many is whether or not that's worth $250.
There's also the concern of availability, as another comment notes, "Great, another TCG product that's gonna get scalped to bits." The Japanese website appears to understand the fact that the supply will likely not meet consumer demand and mentions a lottery that Japanese customers can use for a chance at getting the set. However, no such lottery or other method of distributing Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic to keep the majority of the supply out of the hands of Pokemon TCG resellers has been brought up by the English website yet.
The Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic set releases sometime in late 2023.
Sources: Pokemon.com English, Japanese