Cecilily discusses the financialisation of Pokemon cards as an investment vehicle.
It’s one thing that makes me pause in teaching my niece how to play, I don’t want her to get caught up in the abstraction of the cards as anything other than pieces of cardboard with funny pictures of animals
Yeah it sucks because the actual card game was pretty fun for a while.
People forget that Pokemon started out as a bunch of dorks making an homage to bug catching. Pokemon’s own success kind of fucked it over.
I’d say the bigger something gets, the more likely it is the investor ghouls come out and strip it for parts.
Did I already rant about my friend who bought $3000 of cards and they’re just sitting on a table til he can onsell them for 20%+? He just said he paid something like $100 annual for an ebgames member account and he would preorder everything he could. He didn’t even know the names of the box art mons
Sorry but I truly hope your friend ends up holding the bag
Likewise but sadly he can afford to take the hit, he has a regular turnover of mtg, baseball and basketball cards too, so Pokemon tcg is just a different market he’s ‘diversified’ into
Can you ask him who the hell is buying these off of him?
Anyone who actually wants the product. Scalpers like that asshole buy literally everything, so if you want any of it you have to buy from them.
Sure, but do people want pokemon cards bad enough to pay that much?
In total sales, Pokémon is as big as Star Wars and Harry Potter combined. No other media franchise is better at parting people from their money. Yes, Disney makes more money, but only because they own a ton of different brands. Individually, none of them come close to Pokémon in sales.
Yes
I was lucky enough to get a big costco box that, after sales tax, cost me $72 CAD(14 packs, promo cards, etc)
The cheapest one could see for that same box on marketplace was $200. Local card shops were selling it for $300
Yes people will pay a lot
That’s just straight up addiction at that point. Or it’s other scalpers paying each other.
It sure ain’t me
I’m a Garbage Pail Kids collector. Or should I say was… eBay and Topps’ artificial scarcity have ruined what was once a fun hobby. Now every new set is an opportunity to get fleeced.
We knew a week in advance a Valentine’s Day set was coming. $60 a box. Sold out in 3 minutes. Almost immediately they were on eBay, some listing for as much as $250!
Sorry for the rant.