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Most players/fans of the popular trading card games either...

  • play the game
  • collect the game

or do both.

So for example, Pokemon Trading Card Game is first and foremost a card game, but the trading and the collectible aspect of this game is another huge side to it. The collectible aspect is clearly not about playing the game and more so about enjoying the card game as simply collectible items, the meta-game. This at first seems off topic to me, but I am not sure.

Some example questions pertaining the collectible aspect would involve asking about the rarity of certain types of cards, acquirement of cards, asking about value, questions about availability or about the release of new series/sets/types of cards, etc...

Is the collectible aspect which does not actually involve playing the game, on topic?

If not, should it be?

IMO, the reason why I think it should, is because the experts and knowledge base of these games are already here and the community is united as fans of the game. Experts of playing trading card games most likely also have excellent knowledge of the collectible aspect.

Conversely, a proposal like this has no common uniting theme aside from all being collectors, and the collectionable items are just too vastly different. Sending card game collectors from this site to another site feels like separating the card game community to me.

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  • Can you give an example of a collecting related question that you think would be appropriate for the site? The problem I anticipate is that most questions like that will be either entirely opinion-based or quickly out of date.
    – murgatroid99 Mod
    Commented Sep 9, 2014 at 17:12
  • 1
    There was one question recently that matches one of the examples. I personally downvoted it for "not show[ing] any research effort" (There's a booster pack insert that explains the rarity levels, how can you not know this), but other people seemed to receive it well.
    – jwodder
    Commented Sep 9, 2014 at 17:19
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    @jwodder, I agree that question does not show any research, I would personally DV that too. The sorta questions I am thinking of are not as trivial. To be specific, I want to ask about the rarity of reverse holos (RH) and holos (H) for Pokemon. There is ongoing debate whether RH or H's are more rare. On one hand you are guaranteed a RH in a pack, the H isn't guaranteed, but on the other hand, RH's are said to be harder to land on a rare because even commons can be RH, making chances of finding the RH you want a lot harder. Yet RH's are valued less for some odd reason. Not trivial IMO.
    – gitsitgo
    Commented Sep 9, 2014 at 18:17
  • And although it could be opinionated, I believe it can be answerable with some % chance calculation and also some reasoning and explanation. @murgatroid99, questions confirming misprints, availability of certain cards in different regions/countries, rarity/worth of promo cards when they are reprints, explanation of new types of cards or changes to the rarity/rating system, etc... although I agree that a lot of other questions will fall under your category.
    – gitsitgo
    Commented Sep 9, 2014 at 18:29
  • @jwodder That was not always the case and with older cards there was no way to determine the rarity outside of card listings.
    – Joe W
    Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 1:57

1 Answer 1

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Yes, questions about the meta-game are on topic here. See: Question About Games in General

Board and Card Games is not exclusively about in-game play situations and rulings. It's about the games itself. That includes the stuff that occurs outside the game.

We get meta-game questions about non-TCG games like chess:

And we have many questions about stuff outside the game in MtG, some of which are even related to collecting:

The key thing is just that the questions are appropriate for players of that card game, and that they fit our model.

The collectible aspect is fine and on topic.

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  • Ohhh, good to know! That's a good list of examples.
    – gitsitgo
    Commented Sep 10, 2014 at 13:38

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