How Pokemon Cards Became a Stock Market For Millennials (theguardian.com) 55
The Pokemon Trading Card Game has quietly transformed into something its creators never intended: a speculative asset class dominated by adults hunting for profit while children struggle to find a single pack on store shelves. The resale market has climbed so high that the latest set, Phantasmal Flames, had a rare Charizard illustration valued at more than $800 before anyone had even pulled one from a pack -- a pack that retails for about $5.3.
Ben Thyer, owner of BathTCG in Bath, has watched his shop become a flashpoint. His staff have received threats from customers, and he's heard reports of attacks and robberies at other stores. He stopped selling whole boxes of booster packs and now limits individual pack purchases. On Amazon, customers can only enter raffles for the chance to buy cards at all.The Pokemon Company printed 10.2 billion cards in the year ending March 2025 and still cannot meet demand. The company shared a seven-month-old statement saying it is printing "at maximum capacity." Thyer sees signs of a correction -- prices on singles and sealed products are falling -- but expects renewed frenzy around Pokemon's 30th anniversary in early 2026.
Ben Thyer, owner of BathTCG in Bath, has watched his shop become a flashpoint. His staff have received threats from customers, and he's heard reports of attacks and robberies at other stores. He stopped selling whole boxes of booster packs and now limits individual pack purchases. On Amazon, customers can only enter raffles for the chance to buy cards at all.The Pokemon Company printed 10.2 billion cards in the year ending March 2025 and still cannot meet demand. The company shared a seven-month-old statement saying it is printing "at maximum capacity." Thyer sees signs of a correction -- prices on singles and sealed products are falling -- but expects renewed frenzy around Pokemon's 30th anniversary in early 2026.
Extremely Rare but 25.5M available (Score:2)
Re:Extremely Rare but 2.5M available (Score:1)
Re: Extremely Rare but 2.5M available (Score:2)
If I can buy 1.5-2 million of those cheap and set two thirds of them on fire then they become far more rare. That will flush more of the collection onto the market and I will buy those too, and burn them as well.
Simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Everything is gambling now.
It's not that everything is gambling (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's not that everything is gambling (Score:4, Insightful)
Really this is just indicative of a supply problem and Nintendo could fix it overnight if they wanted to. Presumably they don't make any additional money from this market beyond the first sale, so there's no reason for them not to just print cards on demand. That would immediately kill the scalper market designed to capitalize on the excess demand for the cards. There's no reason for Pokémon cards to be artificially scarce as they're just cardboard with graphics printed on them. They could still sell packs with a different design if they're worried about losing the collector market, but for someone who just wants to play the card game it ensures that they can get the cards that they want. Nintendo even stands to make more money with this approach as they're cutting out a middleman.
"capitalism" (Score:2)
Every single use of the word "capitalism" means the poster spews propaganda rather than logic. The word has become useless.
There are two main definitions:
* the most used one (by several orders of magnitude!): "any economic system other than communism, including even those that don't use money at all (like early kibbutzim), except for neanderthals ("primitive communism")". This meaning has been used in communist countries to refer to the outside world; we had entire universities devoted to such con
Both capitalism and socialism have failed (Score:2)
if you are reading this you are not one of those 5,000
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> Still beats the alternatives. The people remaining in Venezuela are fighting over what scraps of food remain.
Why include as an alternative, a country which has been subject to over a decade of sanctions that are having a massive negative impact on it's economy?
What part of Venezuela's situation (Score:2)
America's gearing up for war with them. Prior to that we had cut them out of the rest of the world and all of the global markets.
So I don't think Venezuela which is under active attack by every capitalist nation in the world is a fair representative of alternatives to capitalism.
I do think we live in the real world though and we can't pretend that socialism
complaining is treason (Score:2)
Criticism of capitalism is communism, and communism is treason.
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I plan on cashing in on my cache of pogues any day now.
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Well if it doesn't work out, at least it'll be easy to flip them :)
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Who knew? (Score:2)
I thought Pokémon cards died out a long time ago. Who knew they were still a thing? I didn't
I guess they are just printing money with those things.
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Who knew they were still a thing?
Pretty much anyone that's been awake since COVID's peak.
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I mean, they're ink and paper, you don't get much closer to literal currency printing.
Looking for that one rare one... (Score:3)
So *is* there a super-rare tulip bulb pokemon?
Beanie Babies (Score:5, Insightful)
I recall seeing infomercials selling "investing guides" for which dolls you should horde.
Hint: if the value of something hinges on the fact that the factory only goes so fast, you might not want to bet the retirement on them not spinning up another factory.
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Hint: if the value of something hinges on the fact that the factory only goes so fast, you might not want to bet the retirement on them not spinning up another factory.
So I shouldn't be buying collectable DRAM modules right now??
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Ha!
I lucked out in the early 90s and got this 16 MB SIMM. It fit in my Macintosh LCII but had to leave the case open as it was oversize. I could have both Photoshop 2.5 *and* Illustrator 5.5 open AT THE SAME TIME!
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Hint: if the value of something hinges on the fact that the factory only goes so fast, you might not want to bet the retirement on them not spinning up another factory.
Given the boom and bust cycle of fads like this, you also might not want to best they will, since they would then be stuck with some very expensive printing capacity they have no use for, but have to pay for anyway.
It's a delicate business, and their obligation is shareholder value.
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Absolutely agree. I wouldn't bet either way, but I might bet on the company's ability to make the right bet.
In general, there are very few collectibles that can beat an index fund for returns. Those that do tend to do so because some particular instance had some association with someone famous, which means you're not ordering it from Amazon.
It is much easier to choose an index fund than guess which detritus will
Commodity investments and scalpers (Score:2)
These stupid commodity investments and scalper-insanities just need to stop.
From sneakers to concert tickets to beer to Bourbon and Whisky, there is nothing that is NOT somehow being finagled by greedy, desperate people to squeeze out a few more dollars although they never did anything to deserve those dollars except scam and click Buy a little bit quicker.
They will be sitting on a lot of worthless, cheap China-made trash now that the entire economy is about to topple.
so NFTs but even dumber (Score:2)
So NFTs but even dumber because we now have an asset that isn't unique, is only rare in context, and probably lacks any meaningful anti-counterfeit controls etc.
Every time it appears Gen-Z has a solid lead in race to be dumbest generation, the now middle aged Millennials groan and say hold on there youngin hold my beer!
To which Gen-Z replies, eww you still drink that stuff.
Re:so NFTs but even dumber (Score:4, Insightful)
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True but even sports cards traditionally they are given player in a given years, TOPS or whoever printed however many Babe Ruth cards they thought they might sell in his rookie year, and later when he turned out to be a sensation, people wanted those early issued cards.
Pikachu as far as I know is ageless, and Nintendo can decide to issue more of any given card, there are no real rules that anyone would slam as a rug pull or be able to reasonably say - well the 're-issue' isn't worth anything they there woul
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if one of the Base Ball card companies decided to print more TreyYesavage 2025 season cards, in 2032.
I can't imagine anyone doing anything like that. Oh. Nvm. [ebay.com] The Pokemon card thing is quite literally the same thing as the baseball card thing, no matter how much you try and "yes, but" it.
There is basically zero intrinsic value in either of them. None. Zero. Zilch. The value is in the intentional rarity. And if Topps (or Pokemon) were to re-print a vintage card because it got popular, that's entirely there prerogative. There are entire industries built around answering the "is this a 19xx Micky Mantle O
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My point stands, they did a reprint but it also labeled 'anniversary series' and it has not value. I stated a re-issue would have no value.
I don't collect cards, I agree with you in principle; but I can also acknowledge how the market works. People assign value to the originals, its like art where a skilled painter can make a nearly indistinguishable forgery / copy, some of which can stand up to quite a lot forensic scrutiny. Honestly there is no reason one of Eric Hebborn's Rembrandt's should be worth les
Re: so NFTs but even dumber (Score:2)
The card printing companies aren't dumb, they are quite aware of the secondary market and most do what they can to at least not tank it, because it could kill their business if they do.
One thing they do is make it easy to distinguish which card is a reprint or is original, with symbols or serial numbers, or different design or arts, or different back. And many card games these days have anti counterfeit measures in place for their most rare cards (which are usually foil, so harder to counterfeit in the firs
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POP? (Score:1)
Which bubble will pop first, Pokemon cards, Labubus, or AI unicorn valuations?
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AI valuation for sure!
Pokemon cards have been a stupid market for a very long time. There is no reason to think it will crash anytime soon.
Labubus are still just getting started.
AI valuation if they bust will bust before the hardware refresh cycle. So it seems it is the only one with a clear clock coming.
Manbabies (Score:1)
Should probably use "adults" in proper context.
These are just old children still trying to make baseball cards a thing.
A Pokemon card is an NFT... (Score:3)
Re: Make your own Pokemen cards with blackjack& (Score:2)
That's called making proxys and everyone playing those cards games is doing it when playing with friends to test cards or to use prohibitively expensive ones.
Not legal in tournaments, but noone cares outside. And yes, some websites offer alternate, tasteful or not, arts for those cards.
Just a piece of cardboard (Score:1)
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Re: Just a piece of cardboard (Score:2)
Please tell me how a rogue employee could print those rare cards on his own. Do you understand that those cards require specialized equipment and card stock not really available to the public?
Counterfeits are easy to spot, or if there are put there counterfeits indistinguishable from the real ones, then it seems the counterfeiters make sure to keep the market high.
What can, and did, happen though, is that done guy can print drawings, glue them on cardboard, say they are prototype cards from before the relea
Generational Brushes too Broad (Score:2)
I'm a Millennial, but I was in middle school by the time Pokemon got big and it was decidedly uncool. I don't know too many people of my cohort who are super nostalgic for them or speculating in them. My son is prime-pokemon age. He actually prefers designing his own "Pokémon cards" with AI-generated images and his own custom abilities. I had no idea people were bidding them up.
Reminds me a bit of baseball cards when I was a kid. Boomers that still had their Mickey Mantle rookie cards from childhood we
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Exactly. I was born in 82 and I have never understood the allure of Pokemon. I am much more interested in the binder full of Garbage Pale Kids cards my wife has.
Going back a bit further, I wish I still had all my Wacky Packages and Odd Rods.
Beanie Babies!!! (Score:2)
I wish I could collect more things (Score:3)
Pokemon cards are fun, but the real money is in healthcare. Imagine if I could buy up all the knee surgeries and sell them to millennials in 20 years. (Sorry, I don't accept Pokemon cards as payment)
No it isn't. It's just gambling. (Score:2)
The difference between the stock market and almost every other 'asset' is something called "Positive Sum Game". Gambling is a "Negative Sum Game." Much of the rest are "Zero Sum Game"
Negative Sum Games are games where someone takes money out of the system. Like a casino offering a poker game.
Zero Sum Game is when no one takes money out or puts money in. If you have a office bet and ten people put $50 bucks in and the winner takes 10*50= $500, that is a zero sum game.
None of the following are Positive S
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Exactly. Pokemon cards are the beanie babies/cabbage patch dolls of the 21st century. It's a fad which depends on the greater fool theory. At some point there will be no greater fools and someone will be left having spent a ton of money on cards which no one values any more.