Why Poké Balls Are So Cheap: The B-Grade Theory

The Poké Ball Economy: A Theory

In the Pokémon world, children as young as 10 years old start their trainer careers. These kids have limited pocket money, yet they need to buy Poké Balls constantly. A regular Poké Ball costs 200 Pokédollars, a Great Ball 600 Pokédollars.

At first glance, these numbers might seem reasonable. But here’s the thing: Pokédollars aren’t dollars - they’re Yen.

Why 1 Pokédollar = 1 Yen

There’s strong evidence that the Pokémon games use Yen as their economic basis:

Clothing prices in the games match Japanese clothing prices when you convert Pokédollars to Yen
Pokémon was developed in Japan - it makes perfect sense that Game Freak based the in-game economy on their local currency
Item and service prices throughout the games align with Japanese pricing when you treat Pokédollars as Yen

So what does this mean? 200 Pokédollars = 200 Yen = about $1.20-1.50 USD.

Think about that for a second. These devices can:

Convert living creatures into energy
Store them in a portable capsule
Maintain them in stasis indefinitely
Reconvert them back to physical form on demand

And they cost less than a cup of coffee.

Why This Makes Sense for the Target Audience

Here’s where it clicks: The target audience is children with allowances.

A 10-year-old kid starting their Pokémon journey can’t afford expensive equipment. They need cheap Poké Balls that work well enough to catch Pokémon, but are affordable enough to buy dozens of them with pocket money.

This creates massive demand for ultra-cheap Poké Balls. But how can such advanced technology be so affordable?

That’s where my theory comes in.

The Problem: Cheap Yet Terrible

So we’ve established that Poké Balls need to be affordable for kids. But here’s the issue: They work terribly.

Even when a Pokémon is at 1 HP and asleep, a regular Poké Ball can fail. The catch rate is awful. You often need 3-5 balls to catch a single weakened Pokémon.

Great Balls are better, but still unreliable. Only Ultra Balls and specialty balls (Net Ball, Dusk Ball, etc.) work consistently. And Master Balls? Those catch guaranteed, every time.

Why is there such a massive quality difference?

The B-Grade Theory: They’re Defective Master Balls

Here’s my theory: Normal and Great Balls aren’t cheap versions of the technology - they’re manufacturing defects.

Think about GPU production: When errors occur during chip manufacturing, those chips don’t get thrown away. Instead, defective cores get disabled and the chip is sold as a cheaper model. A failed high-end chip becomes a mid-tier chip with disabled cores.

Poké Balls work the same way.

How It Works: Failed Master Balls Get Downgraded

Master Balls are the pinnacle of the technology - they never fail. But manufacturing perfect Master Balls is incredibly difficult and expensive.

What happens when a Master Ball production run has defects?

Energy storage is unstable
Conversion technology has glitches
Recognition algorithms have bugs
Structural weaknesses in the containment field

These failed Master Balls can’t be sold as Master Balls. But they still partially work. So the manufacturer:

Removes the Master Ball branding
Repaints them
Sells them as lower-grade balls based on severity of defects

The worse the defects, the cheaper they have to sell them:

Slightly defective → Ultra Ball (1200₽) - still premium priced but not perfect
Moderately defective → Great Ball (600₽)
Heavily defective → Regular Poké Ball (200₽)

This explains why regular Poké Balls fail so often even on weakened Pokémon - they’re the worst-quality defects that barely function.

Alternative: Counterfeit Knockoffs

There’s another possibility: They’re counterfeit copies.

Unlicensed manufacturers reverse-engineer Master Ball technology without the patents or quality control. The result? Devices that technically work, but with massive reliability issues.

These knockoffs get sold as “Poké Balls” and “Great Balls” - cheap enough for kids to afford, but bad enough to fail constantly.

Why This Theory Makes Perfect Sense

1. The Target Audience Is Children With Limited Money

In the Pokémon world, kids start their journey at age 10. They don’t have jobs. They rely on:

Allowance from parents
Prize money from battles
Found items they can sell

These kids need dozens of Poké Balls. If each ball cost 2000₽ instead of 200₽, the game would be unplayable for children with limited funds.

So there’s massive demand for ultra-cheap Poké Balls that sort-of work. The B-grade theory explains how manufacturers can meet this demand: sell the manufacturing failures to kids instead of throwing them away.

2. Artificial Scarcity of Master Balls

Notice how in most games you only get one Master Ball? (Unless you win the lottery or use glitches.)

This isn’t just a gameplay mechanic - it’s artificial scarcity.

If Master Balls were easy to manufacture, there would be more of them. But they’re incredibly expensive to produce properly, and most attempts fail.

Those failures get recycled as B-grade products and sold as cheap Poké Balls to children.

3. The Price Curve Doesn’t Make Sense

Look at the prices:

Poké Ball: 200₽ (terrible catch rate)
Great Ball: 600₽ (mediocre catch rate)
Ultra Ball: 1200₽ (good catch rate)
Master Ball: NOT FOR SALE (perfect catch rate)

An Ultra Ball costs 6 times as much as a Poké Ball, but is way more than 6 times as effective.

This fits perfectly with the B-grade theory: The worse the manufacturing defect, the cheaper the ball must be sold. A slightly defective Ultra Ball can still command a premium price. A completely broken Poké Ball has to be practically given away.

4. Specialty Poké Balls Are Expensive

Net Balls, Dusk Balls, Quick Balls and other specialty balls usually cost 1000₽ and work better than Ultra Balls under certain conditions.

Why? Because they’re purpose-built, not defects.

These balls aren’t failed Master Balls - they were designed from scratch for specific Pokémon types or situations. That’s why they can be effective at a lower price point than Ultra Balls - they’re purpose-built rather than salvaged defects.

The Dark Side: Planned Obsolescence for Kids

Here’s where it gets dystopian.

If this theory is true, it means the Poké Ball industry knowingly sells defective products to children.

They know regular Poké Balls fail constantly. They could make better balls for the same price - but why would they?

Kids have limited money → so we sell them junk
Kids don’t know they’re being ripped off → so we can get away with it
Trainers need multiple balls per catch → so we sell more units

It’s planned obsolescence targeted at children.

A 10-year-old kid encounters a cool Pokémon, throws 5-10 Poké Balls until it finally catches (if they’re lucky), and thinks: “I guess that’s just how it works.”

But no. The balls are just garbage.

Exploitation Economics

Think about the business model:

Manufacture Master Balls (expensive, most attempts fail)
Sell the few successful ones at premium prices to wealthy trainers
Rebrand the failures and sell them to kids at rock-bottom prices
Kids need 5-10 balls per catch because they’re defective
Kids buy even more balls
Profit from selling manufacturing waste

The industry has created a system where manufacturing failures are more profitable than successes because children buy them in massive quantities.

But Wait - Why Doesn’t Competition Fix This?

Good question. Why isn’t there a competing company making functional Poké Balls for 200₽?

Two possible answers:

Possibility 1: Patent Monopoly

Master Ball technology is patented. The original manufacturers (presumably Silph Co.) have a monopoly.

Anyone else who wants to make Poké Balls must either:

Pay licensing fees (making the balls more expensive)
Illegally copy the technology (Chinese knockoffs)
Develop their own inferior technology

This explains why the market isn’t flooded with better cheap balls.

Possibility 2: Quality Control Is Impossible at Low Prices

Maybe it’s technically impossible to manufacture cheap Poké Balls that work well.

The technology is so complex that even tiny production variations massively impact catch rates. The only way to make reliable balls is expensive quality control - which makes Ultra Balls and Master Balls expensive.

Cheap Poké Balls are simply the price of affordable technology.

What About Craftable Poké Balls?

Here’s where things get interesting: In some Pokémon games (Legends: Arceus, Scarlet/Violet, Legends: Z-A), you can craft Poké Balls from basic materials - specifically 1 Apricorn and 1 Tumblestone.

Does this contradict the B-grade theory? Not necessarily. Here’s how it fits:

Theory 1: Crafted Balls ARE the Cheap Ones

Maybe the craftable Poké Balls are the low-quality version. Think about it:

You’re making them by hand from basic materials
No factory quality control
No advanced manufacturing processes
They work, but barely

The “real” Poké Balls sold in stores might be factory-made attempts at Master Ball technology that failed. Meanwhile, the ones you craft in your tent from Apricorns? Those are the DIY version - even worse than store-bought failures.

In-universe, you can think of crafted balls in Legends: Arceus as having slightly worse, more inconsistent performance than the standardized, factory-made balls seen in most other games—even if the actual game mechanics treat crafted and purchased Poké Balls the same. Your homemade balls are literally worse than the factory defects.

Theory 2: Different Eras, Different Technology

Alternatively, Legends: Arceus and Legends: Z-A take place in different time periods (past and near-future respectively). Maybe:

In the past: People crafted primitive Poké Balls from natural materials before industrial manufacturing existed
In the modern era: Mass-produced balls dominate, using failed Master Ball technology
In the future: Technology has advanced but the B-grade market persists

The crafting option in modern games (Scarlet/Violet) might be a “back to basics” approach - letting trainers make their own low-quality balls instead of buying factory rejects.

Theory 3: The Factory Recipe IS Apricorns

Maybe the factories use the same recipe at massive scale:

Industrial Apricorn farms
Automated Tumblestone processing
Quality control that separates good batches from bad

The good batches become Ultra Balls. The mediocre batches become Great Balls. The failed batches become regular Poké Balls. And they’re all made from the same base materials, just with varying quality control.

This would explain why you can make your own - the recipe isn’t secret. But factory-made balls work better (or worse, depending on the defect tier) because of professional manufacturing processes.

Conclusion: Poké Balls Are Deliberately Garbage

Whether they’re failed Master Balls, Chinese knockoffs, or planned obsolescence - regular Poké Balls are intentionally terrible.

The industry sells children and young trainers defective products because:

The target audience has limited money
The target audience doesn’t know they’re being ripped off
It’s profitable to sell manufacturing failures as “affordable alternatives”

Next time you’re playing a Pokémon game and throw three regular Poké Balls in a row that all fail - even though the Pokémon is at 1 HP and asleep - remember:

That’s not bad luck. That’s B-grade merchandise.

The system works perfectly for manufacturers:

Master Balls are too expensive for kids
Kids need cheap balls to start their journey
Defective balls work well enough that kids keep buying them
Kids need multiple balls per catch, increasing sales
The industry profits from manufacturing waste

It’s brilliant, cynical, and perfectly explains why 200₽ buys you technology that barely works.

Do you have a different theory about why Poké Balls work so poorly? Or counterarguments to my B-grade theory? I’d love to hear them!