For those who haven't seen the pattern, since January I've been making a series of posts all within a week for particular Pokémon topic, which I've dubbed as "gimme five", in line with the theme I've set for this year. This month, I've chosen the theme of Pokémon merchandise - but not all of them will be about specific items. Some of them will also be about other aspects or issues of Pokémon merchandise, including considerations and challenges. Incidentally, today's post deals with the latter, and it's a significant one at that.
The challenge or issue is the expense incurred for certain Pokémon merchandise items and how that could be minimized - that is, making things "cheap" or "on a budget". It's a difficult matter to consider, and that might also be reflected in the actual composition of this post for other reasons, though I digress. Yet with the state of the world today and the state of everyone's pockets for Pokémon and otherwise, the matter bears some consideration so that today's fans can get their fix of merchandise without spending a lot.
And that is where the problem lies. Many items of official Pokémon merchandise are expensive because their materials are excellent or their size is large (or both), and they have licensing fees attached to them. Even if something official (in other words, given "blessings" by Pokémon itself) were to be made by a small business, the licensing is expected to be where the costs would lie... which is essentially the case for the PIJ batik shirts, being produced by an actual local entity for Pokémon. As such, it might seem that most official merchandise cannot come cheaply in one way or another.
If fans are interested in cheap Pokémon merchandise, they might have to settle for something previously owned (which is certain to be affected in some way), something not very big in size (which is likely to be priced less depending on other factors), and/or something independently made (which almost surely dispenses the licensing). All of these obviously have their pros and cons in the same way that anything cheap - merchandise or otherwise - does as well, being that one gets what one pays for. Then, the tenets of buying good things for good prices would apply, and at that point, one might settle for official in any case and for support.
"Cheap" perhaps won't ever come to describe most official Pokémon merchandise, but it may still something that most fans think about, especially in this day and age. Some amount of money is still needed to make the world of Pokémon merchandise go around and around, but there may be no fault in fans wanting to suppress that in some way. Depending on what is on offer, at least a few things may be gained reasonably.
One year ago: Tournament: Dusk & Dawn Raid Group Open Great League
Two years ago: Showcasing Pokémon at PokéStops
Three years ago: Making Sense of Field Research Tasks
Four years ago: Go Fest Gets Musical
Five years ago: Everyone's Go Fest
Six years ago: Cosplay: Konbini Anime
Seven years ago: ...However Things Turn Out
Eight years ago: Shiny Stories
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