Current Events > So many guys in my class from high school now 'Invest' in Pokemon Cards

(+) Yeah! (+)

These are all adults with families by the way. I see them on my Facebook talking about buying enormous Pokemon Card Packs for storage and how they will send some to get graded and store in their attic or something.

What in the world happened. I also know for a fact that as a Pokemon fan... I was like the only one still playing the games in my class none of them could probably name even 10 or 20 pokemon off the top of their head. Nevermind any from the current gens.

What is it with Pokemon and all these investment bros just getting into Pokemon investing now? Did the pandemic start this?

Weird. Most of the "rare" cards I have aren't worth much of anything. I think the ones that sell for the most are in Japanese anyway.

Idiots buy from scalpers, and idiots voted in idiots who didnt outlaw scalping

Influencers made it this weird fad.

I sold a few duplicate cards from my collection recently for unbelievably stupid money. Mine is all older stuff though, Base Set to BW plus a lot of rare things.

Perhaps they are hoping that they will get a similar experience in 20 years time?

Charged151 posted...

Weird. Most of the "rare" cards I have aren't worth much of anything. I think the ones that sell the most are in Japanese anyway.

Typically, cards in languages other than English go for less. Sometimes much less.

There are exceptions though.

"Investing" in collectables has always been a thing. Used to be postal stamps and figurines.

K-driver posted...

"Investing" in collectables has always been a thing. Used to be postal stamps and figurines.

Yeah and thats how shit gets ruined. Comic books are still feeling the negatives of the speculator boom to this day despite it long being realized the only comics worth a shit are extremely old and feature important characters.

Same thing will happen with pokemon cards. No one is gonna care if you own a super rare hollowgraphic card of some 8th gen pokemon. They'll care if you have an original fat pikachu that was one of the earliest cards printed for the game or some shit like that.

Investing in niche collector markets is a gamble. Once the target demographic reaches a certain age they're done with it. No one cares about stamp collections or Lone Ranger memorabilia anymore and there's a bunch of people who will inherit that stuff from old guys and give it away at auction.

ai123 posted...

Typically, cards in languages other than English go for less. Sometimes much less.

There are exceptions though.

I've been told the highest $$$ cards tend to be Japanese, but I could be wrong.

I have coworkers who are on a first name basis with the card shop owners nearby. In fact, I bet they are one of the main reasons he was able to move to a bigger place. They participate in the instagram "breaks" where they split up boxes and open them on air.

At least once a week, sometimes twice three or four of them go down to the shop and buy boxes and packs. Sometimes they spend 50 bucks, sometimes they spend several hundred on whatever a "hobby box" is. It's mostly baseball, but sometimes other sports, and one of the guys seems to do mostly Pokemon. He says he has some cards with a little money. He's had them graded (if that isn't a racket of it's own).

My brother is one of them, he drops several hundreds of dollars at a time. He has cards worth money that have been graded. He's got numerous 1/1s. When he does pokemon cards he buys the big boxes and give them to his kids. During Halloween he gives them out in little grab bags, some containing actual legit good cards or randomly cards in the 50-100 range.

I go with them rarely but only bought 2 booster packs of the FF MtG game last week. Didn't get anything worth more than 5 bucks.

It's an expensive hobby. It's gambling. They are addicted.

Charged151 posted...

I've been told the highest $$$ cards tend to be Japanese, but I could be wrong.

The very highest value cards are Japanese promotional or special cards and there are very few in existence (stuff like Pikachu Illustrator and the Trophy Pikachus).

But when it comes to regular cards pulled from packs, the English version will be worth more than the same card in other languages

lol need to go dig through my storage because i have a bunch of shiny old japanese and english pokemon cards back from when i was a kid and the game was brand new. maybe i can sell them to dumb people.

If this is how they act now, imagine when you gotta line up for a cup of water soup

monkmith posted...

lol need to go dig through my storage because i have a bunch of shiny old japanese and english pokemon cards back from when i was a kid and the game was brand new. maybe i can sell them to dumb people.

Good place to find out

https://www.pricecharting.com/category/pokemon-cards

As someone who remembers how comics were, they're delusional and are in for a really bad time.

Since Covid, I've heard people complain that "Nobody wants to work anymore." I think that oversimplifies it. I think people see scamming as the norm now, so the path to wealth is to excel at scamming. People see getting rich on inane bullshit that produces nothing of value for anyone, and the immediate thought is now, "How do I that?"

I have a collection Magic the Gathering cards that's worth at least $5K, but I got into Magic to play the game. And as I played and won tournaments, I used my winnings to keep getting more cards that I wanted to play with it. The emphasis on collectability in these card games, at least for Magic, came at the expense of the far more satisfying tournament play system, which, around me, has mostly died out. I got a lot of self esteem from being good at Magic, and the move towards these meandering, meaningless 4 player free for all formats has sapped my passion for the game.

ai123 posted...

I sold a few duplicate cards from my collection recently for unbelievably stupid money. Mine is all older stuff though, Base Set to BW plus a lot of rare things.

Perhaps they are hoping that they will get a similar experience in 20 years time?

Really? Interesting. I have quite a few still laying around. A big shoebox full.

I kinda thought the big hurdle with this stuff was finding a buyer, even if the theoretical value is super exciting

They're investing in the wrong TCG, Pokemon cards are crazy mass produced.

haloiscoolisbak posted...

Really? Interesting. I have quite a few still laying around. A big shoebox full.

I kinda thought the big hurdle with this stuff was finding a buyer, even if the theoretical value is super exciting

I mean, it depends what you have.

Shoeboxes full of commons and rares won't fetch much (though people buy them in bulk). Holos are worth at least something. Popular Pokemon like Charizard, and Gengar fetch the most, as you would expect.

Very rare cards (like Pop 5 Umbreon star), and special promos are what gets the most. World's folders, staff promos, anything that's sealed will have card shops and collectors begging you to sell to them. Legend pieces from the HGSS era sell very well. Primes, LV.X, ex, EX, etc can be worth between $10 and $500 each depending on rarity and condition.