Over the last few days (August 2021) we have heard that distributors are marking both Darkness Ablaze and Vivid Voltage out of print. This may be a permanent move or may be a case of no reprint date has been set for the immediate future.
Sword and Shield Base Set and Rebel Clash, the first two Sword and Shield expansions, have already been declared out of print earlier this year.
This latest news means that all four main 2020 Sword and Shield sets are no longer available.
The Darkness Ablaze expansion set was released on 14th August 2020. The set has a total of 201 cards, 22 of which are secret rare cards and featured a VMAX Charizard 020/189 which was the main Chase Card of the set.
Vivid Voltage released on 13th November 2020 with a set of 203 cards, 18 of which are Secret Rare cards. The main chase card for the set is the secret rainbow rare Pikachu 188/185.
Darkness Ablaze and Vivid Voltage have both been extremely popular sets largely due to the fact that they were released at the height of the 2020 Pokémon boom. But also because both sets have chase cards of the popular characters Charizard and Pikachu. Additionally, the Vivid Voltage set has amazing rare cards and has a very high pull rate compared to many other sets.
The decision to place Darkness Ablaze and Vivid Voltage out of print comes just two weeks before the launch of Chilling Reign, the seventh expansion set of the Sword and Shield Series. It is likely that Pokémon want to customers to focus on purchasing products from the more recent expansions.
With a year since the release of Darkness Ablaze, and nine months since Vivid Voltage hit the shelves, collectors have had ample time to complete their collections. The Pokémon company will be hopeful that collectors will turn their attention to Evolving Skies, which has an unprecedented 87 full art cards and the upcoming 25th Anniversary set, Celebrations.
Savvy collectors and investors will buy up the more popular cards of these sets. It is still possible to purchase booster boxes of both sets and prices of Pokémon cards in general are fairly low at present. However, prices are sure to increase considerably as supply dries up and it becomes more widely known that Pokémon have placed Darkness Ablaze and Vivid Voltage out of stock.
