VIDEO: The Pokémon Card Price Boom explained, similarities to the video game market is remarkable

[OptOut | 8,883]

20 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

My Machamp got stolen from my lunchbox (came with every starter, it's worthless). I told a teacher and rather than help me find it, Pokemon cards were banned from my school. Screw you Jared.

Speaking as a teacher, they made the right call. Fuck kids and their stupid pogs.

I'm nursing a hangover the size of a planet over here, lil' Tyler whining about whatever the fuck a Marchump is???

 

[phart010 | 1,707]

I found this on the ground when I was in Middle school.

 

My dad bought it from me for $20 and gave it to my sister, who collected Pokémon. She lost interest later in life and gave me all her holograms.

 

[tidaldreams | 654]

11 hours ago, phart010 said:

I found this on the ground when I was in Middle school.

 

My dad bought it from me for $20 and gave it to my sister, who collected Pokémon. She lost interest later in life and gave me all her holograms.

 

Damn, get that thing out of a screw case and put it in a penny sleeve and Card Saver 1.

[broncofantd793 | 138]

I’m attempting to finish the Base set, Fossil, and Jungle. It’s fun to collect, when I’m not concerned about condition. The supply on these cards is so much more than video games!

[LutherDestroysTheGond | 690]

On 11/14/2020 at 1:44 AM, sg17 said:

When I was a kid I got Charizard in a booster pack. I ran through the house crazy with joy, can't believe my luck, thinking I'm in a dream. I didn't get a lot of booster packs so statistically there wasn't a good chance I'd get one.

A couple of weeks later a "friend" (i.e. classmate) was at my house and I let him look through my cards. The asshole stole my Charizard and I realized it only later that day. I was 9 or 10 at the time and this was devastating for me. I think I cried the whole day and my mom called his mom but he kept claiming he didn't take it.

Childhood trauma.

Holy shit.  Same thing happened to me.  I was at a Pokemon League Saturday morning at the Toys R Us my mom worked at and I let some kid look through my cards like a week after I pulled my Charizard.  I realized like 20 minutes later he stole it.  I got really upset.  My moms manager felt bad and comped a booster pack and Brushfire deck for me to have for free because he felt bad. 

Like a month later that kid came back (he was like 14-15 and I was maybe 10) and I was ready fight him.  The same manager came up and when he saw what was happening he stepped in and told the kid to leave.  The kid was taking shit and the manager eventually manhandled this kid out of the store.  I remember following them and yelling at this kid.  We got to the front of the stores and the sliding doors opened and the manager shoved the kid to the ground.  I'll forever have that image burned in my mind.  Never saw that kid again but I also never got my Charizard back.  That guy was super cool and I appreciated him getting rid of that kid.  My mom told me later the kid was a problem because he stole stuff from the store pretty frequently too.

I bought a scratched up Charizard years later at a garage sale in a big card lot for dirt cheap since i missed owning one.  Now I don't trust anyone with anything but as a kid I was devastated.

[LutherDestroysTheGond | 690]

I have a complete base, jungle, and fossil set and several black promo cards.  Most of them have been played with. I guess I need to look up if it's worth listing as one big lot in ebay because of the used condition of everything 

[Amermoe | 150]

On 11/7/2020 at 3:20 PM, Deadeye said:

Don't have them anymore.  I do have Marvel series 1 full set. As soon as that is worth anything, I'll dump it

I have full sets of Marvel series 1-4, as well as most of the Marvel Masterpieces sets, except 1996, because that is absurdly overpriced as it had a very low print run. I doubt any of the Marvel Cards will go up in price, because they were sold in the millions. They are very nice to look at though and very fun to collect, which is why I have them.

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

I really regret selling my sets when I did. I had the first 6 sets at one point. Base, Fossil, Rocket, Gym Something, and there was a mini 9 card set with some kinda tropical island theme. Sold it all in like 2009

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

50 minutes ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

I really regret selling my sets when I did. I had the first 6 sets at one point. Base, Fossil, Rocket, Gym Something, and there was a mini 9 card set with some kinda tropical island theme. Sold it all in like 2009

Lol, I gave away my childhood collection to a guy on NintendoAge for free because he wanted some Pokémon cards. I only collected from base set to I think base set 2  as a kid.

The dudes name was “ThatNintendoGuy” I think.

[koifish | 555]

On 11/7/2020 at 6:04 AM, sg17 said:

I really don't get these people.

It's beyond misunderstanding of economics. It always seem like there is a self-awarness issue involved. They see other people buying pokemon cards or whatever, and then they buy them an "investment" as if they are the first to realize the cards can become collectible. They think that someone in the future will be the sucker who will buy these cards from them for more then they originally paid, and don't stop to think there is a pretty good chance that they are that sucker right now in the present.

(I don't have anything against people willing to pay a lot for an item if they themeself want it, even if it's just a collectible that will sit on the shelf. But it's baffling when people spend ridiculous amounts on items that already have a lot of hype, because they think it will have more value in the future.)

It's just Fear Of Missing Out, plain and simple. Everybody doing this stuff was galvanized when the news told them that this stupid "electronic money" thing made some people worldwide into accidental millionaires and billionaires, and I think it made people hyper-aware that they could be missing out on easy cash available via the internet.

The other problem is just lack of financial sense. People don't really understand investing, but they figure if other people can buy and sell things for a living, then surely it can't be THAT hard, right? I think people just think "it's popular, it's gonna keep going up" for no real reason. There's as many suckers as there are opportunists and unfortunately they expect to win and instead, they fail, sometimes hard. I always think back to this guy who was desperate to sell through a box of fidget spinners for whatever he could get, as he put his life savings into them and then the bubble burst. I also think of the photos of a couple in divorce court in the late 90s sorting out who gets which beanie babies. My point is there are always gonna be people who try to find new hustles, and especially with how awful the economy has been in the new century, there's certainly understanding of people not only wanting but even needing the cash flow. Doesn't mean they are always qualified to do so.

On 11/14/2020 at 2:27 AM, DefaultGen said:

My Machamp got stolen from my lunchbox (came with every starter, it's worthless). I told a teacher and rather than help me find it, Pokemon cards were banned from my school. Screw you Jared.

Yeah, at my school it was some kid making a trade and not really realizing what a trade meant, and then crying when the other kid wouldn't give it back to them. Schools had to be practical; Ban whatever creates too much trouble. Just annoying how it's always one screw-up who ruins it for everybody. Guess that's facts of life we learned early

As for the "games meant to be played" thing, I was super into both playing and collecting the cards for a while. Then at some point I realized what my dad said was right, that they're just pieces of paper given artificial scarcity, and it's a scam to make you buy tons of overpriced cardstock. If I was going to play it nowadays, I'd just print out pictures of cards. To hell with paying for a new deck every time they change the meta/remove cards!(of course I also realize the game only keeps moving onward if you keep buying them, so there is a double-edged sword here. Just hard for me to justify it, probably why I'm not a CCG player).

 

[koifish | 555]

On 12/3/2020 at 11:49 AM, LeatherRebel5150 said:

I really regret selling my sets when I did. I had the first 6 sets at one point. Base, Fossil, Rocket, Gym Something, and there was a mini 9 card set with some kinda tropical island theme. Sold it all in like 2009

Sounds like me when I traded in (among other things) all three n64 bomberman games (yes, including Second Attack, my favorite one) for credit toward a wavebird. Oh well. Friend of mine told me "if I had taken the plunge on every investment opportunity I've ever been given, I'd be broke and penniless" . You can't punish yourself for not having a crystal ball :).

[a_profile_name | 230]

On 7/30/2021 at 8:14 AM, koifish said:

I always think back to this guy who was desperate to sell through a box of fidget spinners for whatever he could get, as he put his life savings into them and then the bubble burst.

 

fidget spinner bubble? that's a thing?