What's the Deal With Pokémon Cards?

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I remember getting a set of Pokémon cards about 30 years ago. They were neat, and it was a fun card game to play and swap with friends. It was pretty harmless fun, really.

Fast forward to when we opened the shop, and customers keep coming in to ask about Pokémon cards. Due to the fact that we are friends with the coffee shop down the road, we don't stock cards and instead point the customer there.

These past few days I've seen shorts on YouTube related to Pokémon trading shows. Obviously I'm only seeing the higher end of sells (because who wants to watch a trade of a basic card?) but a single card can sell for $800+ ! And it's like the stock market watching these guys trade! And I'm seeing kids with binders that total $15k. Kids!

I guess my question is, how did that happen?

I'm just trying to understand the evolution (pun intended) of the market...

Does anyone here collect them? Can anyone shiny (another pun) a light on the situation?

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

It’s pretty obvious isn’t it?

They plant cards of lower runs in the packets, increasing their perceived value. This has been the case since the first ever trading cards (monsters or sports alike).

And then over the last few years, just after the NFT craze, the same “influencers” started making this their topic. 

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Pokemon is currently the highest grossing media franchise ever.

Its pretty much as big as Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Harry Potter combined: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises

I'd say Pokemon has always been pretty popular (especially in Japan & with Nintendo gamers), however flew under the radar of been mainstream after the early 2000s. When Pokemon Go launched in 2016 and went viral, I feel it launched Pokemon in to the mainstream once more, gathering a totally new fanbase that had never historically had interest in Pokemon before.

Around then the demand for everything Pokemon surged and has never really stopped. The price of genuine older used games sky rocketed to £100+ a game for a good conditioned boxed copy, now they can go for £300+ 10 years later:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/117115090596

I don’t really follow the TCG, however that has grown in pretty much the same way. To the point you have "influences" not really in to the franchise realising they can make a lot of money from it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp32jgkqx0lo - which seems to hype it up and increase demand even more.

Also I feel like Nik mentioned the print runs don’t accommodate for the sheer demand, keeping both the demand and prices high.

[neufuse Veteran]

Did you know having your kid carrying cards through customs unknowing the "value" can you get you in trouble if they are more than $10k in "perceived value" and not declaring them you will get hit.. kinda stupid a piece of paper could cause this issue because your kids have some cards someone made a value up on....

[+Batfink Subscriber²]

It really took off in the pandemic and just carried on from there.  I'm in my early 40's and got caught up in the nostalgia of it, particularly when 151 came out a couple of years ago.

My nephews also got really into it and it was so cool being the uncle who bought three booster boxes and we all sat there opening them.  I completed master sets for S&V and S&V:PA.

Weirdly, earlier this year, I sold a load of unopened product... covering what I had paid for everything the past three years.  A 151 Elite Trainer Box (cost £49.99) could be sold for £800+ MAD

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

Pokemon is one of the few CCG's that never died. As previously mentioned, CCG's exploded during the pandemic. I also think nostalgia is playing a factor here. There's also a ton of out of print cards that could make a deck more interesting (if that card is legal to play in the format your playing).

The three that's have manged to not cease to exist over a very long time are:

• Magic The Gathering (1993)
• Pokemon (1996)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! (2002).

I'm not saying this the best source, but a decent source to get an idea of various CCG cards values. 

https://www.tcgplayer.com/