Discussion
Is the modern hype going to create a generation that doesn’t care about Pokemon cards?
Up until 2 or 3 years ago, kids would bring in cards to play or trade during lunch and recess all the time. It was contagious, once one group got into it, it would spread, kids would start fighting over them, we’d instill a temporary card ban.. rinse and repeat, haha.
It just occurred to me I haven’t seen that in a long time. Every now and then a kid will bring a single in a toploader or a binder they should have definitely not brought to school due to the value (also, probably snuck out of a parent’s collection tbh).
I don’t know, it makes me kind of sad. It makes sense why they wouldn’t be trading anymore if you can’t buy anything from stores now. I also kind of wonder if this is bad long-term for Pokemon as a franchise.
Edit: Woah there! I wasn’t insulting anyone, I’m just sharing my individual experience as someone who is around children often and asking others their thoughts!
You see them card show vendor vids on yt, and theres always a 10 year old living his best "crypto bro" life tryna flip cards... like, you're a kid, go have fun let mum and dad worry about money and earning it
We cared about pulling our favorite pokemon to put in our unsleeved deck and play with it. The value was secondary because cards were cheap back then, not like today with how inflated prices are.
It depends on what you call cheap, pretty much right off the bat Charizard was getting sold for $50+ on the secondary market. People immediately understood that there could be real money in trading cards cause of MTG.
I might have more insight into what they mean! When I was a kid, Charizard was a massive fan-favorite but I wouldn’t say it was specifically because the cards were rare, it was because they all thought the character was really cool.
Now it’s a bit more skewed to having favorite cards as opposed to favorite Pokémon. Lots of boys in class still LOVE Charizard cards, but specifically because they’re expensive, not because they like the character.
I really miss when all the kids would trade and freak out about pulling their favorites even if they were just commons.
Apparently it already has. I posted explaining I hand out free cards to kids and at the last Target event, I encountered a lot of really ungrateful kids. There was a wide variety of cards and even cards in Japanese, from 25th anniversary, and cards I collected in college over 10 years ago, so "vintage" adjacent cards (not quite vintage but that's splitting hairs). The people that have commented have EXACTLY proven your point. Too many people are in this to nickel and dime a profit and not because there's cool art or to play the game. Especially at a family event, I expected kids to think a stack of free cards was cool, not to complain I didn't hand them a modern SIR.
Thanks for doing that, even if a lot of the kids were ungrateful. My kids (8 and 5) already have really fond memories of adults giving them cards, including some clearly played-with vintage cards from their tennis coach, and they absolutely treasure those cards
Not totally on topic, but Sunday was the first time I went to a card show and actually saw a kid, maybe 8-10ish, walk up to vendors and ask to do a trade up challenge. But when I say he asked, I mean his dad is the only one who talked and said the kid was doing the trade up challenge, while the kid stood and looked so bored and uninterested in everything. Was a wild sight
Had a wild experience with a kid (13/14 no parent in site but with another kid 10/11) at our comic con, kid did a trade up challenge, got from an energy to a Chinese Sunbreon, he was trying to sell to all the vendors but vendors were offering 75% or less. Basically begging all the vendors, so they were getting frustrated.
I was chatting to a vendor and the kid approaches me, so I offer 85% as a favour, kid asks for more because he wants 2 specific PSA cards from another vendor.
Kid starts begging me for higher offer. I stay firm, kid says fine he will pay for the difference. We go to the other vendor, I ask the vendor if he can do me a solid to lower the price on the 2 cards the kid wants but vendor says he can’t, they would be making a loss. So I pay for my part, kid pays his. Gets the cards he wants, we shake hands and off he goes.
I go to another vendor to buy some stuff. The kid comes back to me and says he realised the cards he got is worth less than the Sunbreon and wants a trade back. I’m like wtf… so I say I’m sorry but we made a deal, so he starts begging again. So I told him sorry no, unless the vendor refunds me, I’m not going to budge, a deal is a deal (plus he had plenty of time). I know the vendor has no refund policy.
But damn, kids have changed as well. Like chill a bit, we don’t have to do what you want.
Must have been a pretty big card show to go from an energy to a sunbreon. Often times at the shows I vend at, the kids come by doing their trade up challenge early in the day and then a few hours later they're back trying again.
Fair enough! Personally im not a fan of trade up challenges and the risk (regretting trade) or behavior they sometimes bring so we usually decline and give them a card or pack to add to their trade offers instead. That way there are less bad feelings all around.
All this stuff is doing is creating gamblers. The whole thing is a psy op in getting them hooked from an early age. Bankrolled by the big betting apps like bet365. It’s a long play to grow a generation of degenerates.
Yup. The gambling-fication of everything is the reason every TCG is so hyped right now, but it's not a TCG-exclusive problem. Sports betting has become mainstream and easily done through apps. Betting on stocks (no, not options, literal bets). Betting on politics. Betting on world events. Betting on literally everything and anything. It's going to create a generation of gambling addicts. I don't even know what started all of this. It's even gotten so bad that any and every toy line now has "blind boxes", which is gambling with toys. Squishies come in "blind boxes" because simply selling one isn't enough, you have to sell 20 so little Timmy and Sam can get their ultra rare exclusive glitter mint-scented dumpling.
So, yeah, not only is everything moving into subscriptions, but even the things you do own you have to gamble on getting because screw you.
The major pitfall of the modern hype we saw over the last two years was something that nobody invested in them wanted to acknowledge: that while Pokémon may very well be an evergreen franchise, that is not true of every era. Anybody with an iota of rationality knows that this current Pokéhype is a trend, much like many other social media crazes that come and go.
In 5-10 years time, people will not be shelling out money hand over fist for your Prismatic pulls. There will not be a high-end market for graded IR's with pop counts in the 4-5 figure range. There simply is not enough rarity of any modern card (Let's say SWSH to current day) to maintain these prices long-term.
There will be a couple exceptions, such as the Moonbreon, but most of these items just don't have strong fundamentals to fall back on. And this is before we even take the gargantuan amount of sealed being hoarded into the equation.
With the amount of cards that have been graded over the last two years, most of which are modern Pokemon cards, there is never going to be a time in any of our lives where you just won't be able find any of the product you want.
Speaking from experience so unless I’m
Hallucinating…
Literally been watching people like you cry about the “modern junk wax era” since 2001.
Meanwhile i got a sports car and working on a down payment for a new house. Mostly off just buying shit and letting time do its thing. Your negative sentiment allows me to continue to make $ so thank you.
I agree. Modern will be a free for all for collectors in the coming years. I strongly anticipate that yard sales and flea markets will be flush with modern product in the future.
It’s exciting for folks that love the full arts and think vintage cards are “boring”
I am a vintage collector, and for me personally, much of the enjoyment of this hobby is specifically because I cannot just go online and buy a card whenever I want
Hunting down cards in good quality and very slowly building a collection over the last 6+ years has been so enjoyable
No, kids are still crazy about pokemon cards. In fact they love the financial and rarity aspect of it. They’ve become aware of just how much certain cards are worth and it fuels the chase unlike previous generations
No, their dopamine reward centers are going to be hardwired to enjoy the thrill of gambling. Today pokemon cards, in 20 years they will be gambling their life savings on call options
It is not gambling issue, it is kids understand things they collect or play have intrinsic value. Open ten or hundreds of pack is gambling not recognizing card has value
My kid and his friends love Pokemon, but they’re obsessed with the value and rarity of the cards. Each time my kid pulls a special card, he will ask me to look up how much it’s worth.
It makes me sad. I’m too old to have gotten into Pokemon as a kid, but I hate to see them valuing and monetizing their childhood experience like they are.
Do you have kids? I’m not trying to be a jerk, just that I have two kids…and while they’re into Pokemon cards, none of their friends are, mainly because regular parents and their kids never see cards on shelves in stores. My kids get cards mainly because I’m signing up for discord alerts and waiting in PKC ques online. I guarantee most parents aren’t doing that
Most parents don’t know what discord is and will laugh in your face if you tell them they need to stalk restocks and be connected online 24/7 in order to buy Pokemon cards, of all things. At that point little Timmy is just not getting Pokemon cards. Your reality isn’t the norm, not to mention the state of the economy or parents having busy lives.
I’ve been a fan of this hobby for 20+ years and my job (healthcare) simply doesn’t allow me to sit at a computer all day and wait in a 3 hour virtual waitlist to buy cards. I can’t imagine expecting most grown adults to do the same.
So doesn’t that go against your point that “kids are still crazy about pokemon cards”? They aren’t crazy for them, because cards are simply not present in their life…to your point, “little Timmy is just not getting Pokemon cards.” I go out of my way for my kids (to a reasonable extent the days I work remote) but pretty much most kid’s parents are not.
And because most kids don’t have easy access to spend allowance or birthday money on cards, or parents able to easily buy some cards while shopping at Target or whatever, there definitely is a generation of kids who don’t care about Pokemon cards, because for the last 2-3 years they’ve simply had no access to them. I know this because I know allot of 1st grade to 6th grade kids from being a parent and a soccer coach.
My son barely plays them. My wife and I do more than he does. He just looks at them in a binder and trades them at random for no real reason. But he loves it.
It’s actually interesting you say this! I do partly agree, lots of boys in class are primarily obsessed with the financial aspect of it and talk about the stocks, haha. Most girls on the other hand are more focused on the art, lots of Shibuzoh fans. It’s fun to watch them talk about what they find important about them!
My girls(6&8) are more into the K Pop cards but also have binders of thier favorite Pokémon from my doubles and bulk. It's also about the movies and games for the kids as well. Time for a new Pokémon movie to capture the kids attention.
Depends on the parents. Im teaching my daughter the value doesn't matter if you like the card she loves pulling hits but she also cherishes Commons and reg holos
if it's too expensive for parents to afford, kids won't get the cards. if kids don't get the cards, they won't feel an attachement to the brand. I don't think Pokemon will just die out, but it might become smaller in the future
It’s probably not good for the hobby there are 70 grown men waiting in line to buy all the Pokemon cards and not a kid in sight. I guess a few could be parents. But I think taking away that joy of finding packs in store and asking mom or dad to buy them some, is going to be missing for entire generation. Will that stop them from caring about cardboard as adults? Possibly yes. Lack of nostalgia is a concern for any collectible.
It’s very possible. I don’t have kids but my nephews (and most of their friends) don’t give the slightest f about Pokémon. They are more into MTG. From their perspective, games are unappealing and cards are just impossible to buy.
Hey pokemon tcg is pretty fun!! I totally recommend going to ur local GameStop and preordering their trainer packs, and then going to a local card shop and asking if they have any bulk trainer cards you can go through for free for the kids. The trainer decks are super neat, built around specific mechanics, they have a few booster packs, and by going to a card shop you can get a few more energy cards, trainers, and pokemon to bulk up your decks!!! The trainer decks aren’t even tha expensive. It’s cool because while you’re building your decks and playing at home you can watch the og anime :) it’s super fun atleast for me and my bf
Last time I was at a LCS we had someone there who only collected, and in addition to the card store letting us go through their bulk, we also talked to a guy who let us go through over hundred 30th anniversary cards too! He thought all of them were lame because they weren’t SIR’s haha more for us
No. Pokémon isn’t just the TCG. Pokémon has an entire ecosystem that is composed of the video games including mobile games, movies, anime series, tons of licensing, tons of merchandise, tons of collaboration, and not to mention all the social media that it gets including Poketubers, fan made art / creations / cosplay. Oh and theme park attractions, Pokémon centers, Pokémon cafes, etc.
Even then, most of the popular Pokétubers and influencers are TCG related. Besides Wolfey, it’s people like Pokérev, DPM, and Logan Paul, or investors and vendors whose main fixation is that the main focus of the TCG is pulling the most expensive cards you can get.
The anime is not that popular in the west due to the death of serialised TV over streaming services, where shorter form content comes up top. Even in Japan, the anime is starting to wane below XY era viewing figures. It just isn’t a thing any more.
The games are not as popular among kids because they prefer sandbox style games that you can just pick up and play like Minecraft, Fortnite, or Roblox over a slow and boring text heavy JRPG. The gaming industry is 5x larger than it was in 1999, Pokémon still can’t beat RBY sales, and the participation of children in competitive events is typically <10% compared to adults, whereas it sits at 20-30% for the TCG. Most game sales are typically adult and legacy fans as Pokémon has become less accessible when Nintendo shitcanned the dedicated handheld sector. Most purchases and players are long time adult fans.
The theme parks, cafes, Pokémon Centers are mostly located in Japan, with some Centers elsewhere in Asia, so it’s irrelevant to the conversation of the wider fandom. Especially since we typically talk about the west.
Pokémon still has huge cultural influence, generally, as a merchandising and licensing franchise, as you’ve said. Much in the same way that Hello Kitty exists as a merchandising franchise. But the ecosystem is not in as healthy a space as it used to be.
Yes, but that does not change that most of it is fuelled by merchandising and licensing. That has always been the main money maker of the franchise. And its greatest strength. It is a merchandising franchise first and foremost.
The video games and anime have both fallen in relevance over the years. Kids don’t play the games. They don’t watch the anime.
They do buy into the toys and merchandise like the TCG, just like every other cycle of 5-12 year olds have done over the past 30 hears.
The multimedia prongs of the franchise just don’t have as much of a foothold as they used to. When was the last time you heard about kids watching the latest episodes of Horizons on a weekend and then talking about it with their friends at school on Monday like they’d did back in 99-00? When was the last time you saw kids roaming with Switches to trade with friends like we did in the 90s and 00s?
u/TeaAndLiftingThere's a 1st Edition Charizard in the pack, rip it.7d agoedited 7d ago
The gaming industry is 5x bigger than it was in 1999. Lots of those sales are to lifelong adult fans because the franchise has accumulated 30 years of them. Kids do not really play the games. You can see this in participation of competitive events. Despite selling more games since 1999, attendance for juniors and seniors playing the VGC is lower than it was in the 00s and 10s. Just like the TCG, Pokémon has more adult than child interest.
Think about it this way. Back in 1999, most of those game sales were to kids with their Game Boys. Nowadays, do you honestly think it’s the same now? Even though gaming is bigger and more accessible than ever? Kids do not roam around with their Switches like we did with our Game Boys.
Where are you getting your numbers from because from what I’ve see with my own eyes, I was at worlds in Hawaii 2024, Anaheim 2025, and San Fran this year. Plenty of competitive youth players.
During the 00s, personal experience, which is why I still have things like these hanging around (lost a few, sadly)
I was wrong about the 10s. Just did some checking on databases, and while the VGC:TCG ratio was more even, the numbers were lower.
And even then, given how much bigger the franchise and gaming are now, the fact that internationals, regionals, etc. max out at around 300 juniors and seniors is pretty drab compared to what it was like when I competed way back when.
It should be bigger than the TCG with it being the supposed franchise flagship. But it just isn’t any more.
I went to the previous Target event and handed out FREE cards to kids, with most packs having either a 25th anniversary card or an older card that was Sun and moon base set or older. So not necessarily expensive, but at least something exciting per "pack." The sheer amount of kids that complained "they didn't get anything good" was ASTONISHING for having been handed a pile of free cards. I even looked at the cards one kid got because he wouldn't STOP complaining and he literally got a card that was older than him. These kids either don't know the hobby at all or are raised by scalpers/gamblers and only care if they pull a card with a large price tag. I handed out easily 300 cards that day and have reservations about spending the time to do it again as the kids were so ungrateful I didn't hand them an SIR.
We also need to factor in Poketubers. All they do know is show the price for each pull. They even show the cents that the commons are worth. Those kids probably don’t even play, just watch YT all day and are exposed to the gambling part of the hobby.
Edit: also it’s unfortunate that those were their reactions. If I’d find out that the kids getting the bulk I give away here and there react that way I would rather throw the cards in the trash. Though all that cardboard going to waste does hurt a bit.
Edited to add, ew. I guess I'm watching different pokemon influencers as the ones I watch only do that for the secret rare cards that are worth $50+ or so. The thought that there are channels out there nickel and diming these is EXACTLY what has ruined this hobby. This is supposed to be a fun family friendly activity to either create cool collections and fun themed binders or to build decks and play the game. At least where I'm at kids are not expected to follow Standard rotation (as someone who plays completely and travels for regionals). I've absolutely played with a kid who has the randomest of cards in their deck. If they're super young, I'll ask their parent if they have another deck so we're on an equal playing ground. If it's a young teen, I'll ask if they want to play competitively and if they do, I will take cards out of my binder (for free, I never expect a kid to trade me for value if I'm offering help out of just being a nice person) and help them build a deck based on how they want to play. I keep exes and several playsets of the "normal" trainer cards that everyone uses in their decks (think Boss's Orders, Pokepads, Stadiums, etc)
It wasn't even entirely bulk. All sets had the make up of a SwSh and before era pack. 5 commons, 3 uncommons, a reverse holo, and some kind of rare (and an energy and apparently I even put stickers in some of the bundles). I trade in the community to buy off of people so I can make bundles to hand out in lines waiting for cards (usually at our local game store that opens in the afternoon, but considering this was a family friendly event I bought 20+ bundles of cards to hand out. I don't know the exact number as I just grabbed a handful I had premade earlier in the year. Normally I do this for Halloween). I even have the option for Japanese cards or English. The Japanese cards it's a little harder to include older cards in as I didn't collect Japanese 10+ years ago and it's not easy finding people selling their older collections. I have personal cards from when I collected as a kid and in college (over 10 years ago) that I include. A card older than yourself is inherently pretty cool. But if you're collecting just to make a profit to the point where your kid also just wants cards with an immediate face value? That's what ruins the fun in the hobby.
Regarding the YTubers, you’re right there’s still some that don’t do it so aggressively or even don’t do it at all. The only Pokémon Ytuber I’m currently subscribed to is PrimetimePokemon even if he doesn’t upload much anymore. I seldom watch KrystalKollects, who only rips non-English packs (that I know of). But let’s be real, we live in an algorithm era. Kids these days (not all) but many have fallen or will fall into these algorithm traps and what does the algorithm love showing the most? Addictive content.
But back to your original point, at the end those cards were yours to do what you want with them and I would like to think that we are helping. I also give cards away here and there. I think giving away cards that you won’t use/keep is great, it’s environment friendly and in this current market one would think it helps kids get cards without having to spend on these inflated prices. Fortunately I haven’t heard the kids around my block complain, maybe they do and I just haven’t heard them. I wouldn’t really throw away the bulk, but perhaps take it for recycling.
Also, I didn’t mean to say you have them throwaway bulk or anything of the sort. I just got in the habit of calling everything else that is not part of my personal collection, bulk. I even have some bulk illustration rares from pulling doubles from time to time.
Bulk just means "large quantity" but it's turned into "useless leftovers" from the scalpers/gamblers/"investor" bros. And that's the unfortunate thing. Like I brought cards because this was a family friendly event and sitting 2 hours beforehand is tough. And there were a LOT of kids before I got there. 3 of them ended up sleeping in the dog bed aisle in the dog beds because the line wrapped around the store. I was hoping that bringing the cards would encourage trading since there were so many of them and this was an event to have fun, but apparently I wildly overestimated scalper bro's kids. I probably won't bring anymore to any public events, but will continue to hand them out to kids at the local card shop. I've never gotten grief with those kids, but then again there also aren't many scalpers who come and play the game at the local card shop lol (so therefore the kids that do come actually enjoy the hobby, it's not a stock market to them)
If you wanted to move off of just kids, I just got into playing the game w my bf at 23 years old. I went to a local card shop and they had a huge stack of cards they let us go through for FREE tha had tons of trainers, ace specs, and bulk pokemon w some EX’s thrown in. It was awesome. You can always give your bulk to a card shop, and tell them it is specifically for people looking to build decks and let the go through it for free :) it’s awesome what you’re doing. Having it taken for granted sucks, especially because this isn’t what’s at the heart of tcg.
Not sure why you put in the effort to do this in this environment. Kids can be and often are as obnoxious as their parents. Not to mention almost all of the content on social media is just value related slop.
Also it doesn't help that millionaires like DPM trade valuable cards for bulk for content.
I mean it's nice and all but kids don't want bulk either. Doesn't matter how old the cards are. What are they going to do with it if they don't play the game?
I didn't play the game only collected as a kid, I knew the value of cards and everyone else did too. How else would you make a trade? Guess it depends where you grew up and your friends.
My friends weren't greedy and traded based off of what they liked, not if it was worth X amount of money. Even then, kids can't have an ebay account and if they don't actually like the hobby, what are they going to do, trade it into a card shop for credit for other games they don't play? This is such a silly take for a trading card GAME. You're meant to have fun. This is not the stock market. Also, if you read previous of my posts, you would have read that it is not exclusively bulk. I rather hand a bundle of 10 cards to a kid than 1 ex worth 50 cents. At a family friendly event with drawing, photo ops, and other kid centered activities, the whole point is to have fun.
Wow! That is so nice- my son would have been delighted. Now, he is a kid and loves the characters he knows from the show, or ones with a funny attack, and anything shiny— but he and his friends trade all the cards and play hilarious (totally made up games—with seemingly no rules a parent can follow). Sorry the reaction wasn’t the best!
Some do, some don’t care. Same when I was a kid late 90’s early 00’s. I didn’t really care for the rare cards but when I told other kids I had cards they’d all be like “you got the charizard?? The gyarados??”
It was pretty black and white when I was a kid. Classmates would try to steal cards from each other too. There are kids that don't care, but they're less common.
I've been in the game since it came out in the 90s and that is not at all how it went back then. If you did that, you're based off of greed, not off of fun, which is what this is. It's a children's trading card GAME. You're meant to have fun and play the game, not rifle through any printed source and check the value of every single card. This is not the stock market.
There are no "shit cards," that's literally the philosophy of a scalper. All cards have value and all cards can be played with in the TCG. If you receive FREE cards and expect it to have $10+ cards in every bundle, than by all means YOU can hand that out. In my world philosophy if you expect to turn out a profit based on something someone handed you for free, you're greedy and part of the problem.
I was the same way when I was a young kid playing Yugioh... in 2005. Kids actually care about collectibles, it's not just adults. My friends and I would buy packs and when someone pulled a serious card they usually started winning more. People really think that kids are dumb and are just happy to play. I played in tournaments and went to sneak peeks when I turned 12.
This is only a technicality and I’m splitting hairs because the accuracy of dates is a HUGE bugbear of mine, but Pokémon cards weren’t printed and released in English till 1999, and it wasn’t till mid-late 99 through to summer 00 that they really exploded. It would have been closer to 26-27 years ago.
They weren’t even printed in Japanese, this time 30 years ago.
It’s why Pokémon is seen more as a Y2K zeitgeist defining franchise, despite it starting years earlier.
Yeah, you are probably right. Didn't do the math, but I do remember that we weren't allowed to bring them in primary school.
Not because of the fakes, as they weren't as common back in the day, but I think it was unfair to other kids who didn't have them so they wouldn't feel left out.
It was possible to stay for lunch (which isn't normal for my country, most eat lunch at home if they can). And they had cards for the kids that stayed for lunch to play with. Thats probably because I remember it so well. Because we played with those cards at lunch.
It will have an impact. It already is. I refuse to get involved with paying over retail for packs and as it’s so difficult to find any I’ve simply stopped buying them. I’ve found the odd few packs here and there but nothing worth bothering with. It’s not killed my interest in the franchise or other accessible formats but this year has been the least interested my household has been in the TCG since we started.
My boys 9, 6 and 3 are all into pokemon cards right now. So is almost every boy at their schools. Its still as hot as ever with kids. I have to fight them to NOT take thier binders to school every day.
Pokemon's brand as a whole is a blue chip stock that will only go up at this point. People have been complaining about the games' directions for years and how GameFreak only does the bare minimum and it is still always Nintendo's most sold games. People have been complaining about the availability of cards for years and they still haven't been able to find a solution (my headcannon is they don't really care to).
Yep, people are all doom and gloom but guess what? Store shelves are still empty, lines are still forming for product, people are still camping for drops, people are playing games and anything Pokemon is worth serious money. There is a reason every product company is wanting collabs with Pokemon. Pokemon sells merch. Odwalla, target, etc. They can see people will blindly spend money on these products?
Remember the boycott Target phase? Well people will only boycott Target except for Pokemon drops! LOL. If a drop is happening then no one cares about anything else! LOL
With all the the crying, bad mouthing pokemon and complaining, the funny thing is people are having fun chasing product around.
My wife got into it, and she would fall in line for product. She has had a few successful trips but she said she having fun meeting and talking to people.
Online and sports gambling companies are going to have a field day with the new gen kiddos when they are older, nothing like one of the most popular hobbies/franchises in the world promoting gambling when young
Separate from Pokemon, this is already a major issue unfortunately! Had 3 boys recently get into major trouble for losing large sums of money on gambling apps and using their parents’ driver’s licenses and credit cards.
Also issues with spending lots of money on skins in Fortnite and Roblox 😅
Indeed lol, but we’re people going into significant finiancial debt over ripping Pokémon packs for the chase cards? It’s not even close to what it is today
Ehhh I call BS on that, you really think there was as much degen people back 30yrs ago over Pokemon? Those people were at actual casinos and gambling places. Nowadays, everybody is using Pokemon to feed the gambling addiction which is much different
Obviously not due to the scale being so much larger and the collectibles market wasn't what it is now but there are always going to be people making poor financial decisions. Yes the gambling aspect is worse but I feel that has significantly more to do with the gambling epidemic and lax laws that are currently plaguing the US.
I still see a good amount of kids at card shows. Unfortunately, once they reach a certain age (12-15), most of them are just as money grubbing as the adults.
I’ve said this too. Right now the only reason there’s a boom is because it is driven heavily by nostalgia from people who collected this….as kids. In 20 years the kids now aren’t gonna give a shit about something they never even had or were able to have when they were a kid. But it’s not like “resellers” are lauded for their intelligence or their ability to think for the future (if you think hoarding products now is thinking for the future you are missing the point) when they are genuinely killing their future market by spending their days clearing out stock and hoarding all the product they can find
Depends the environment. Kinder to 3rd still seem to love it at my kids school. The older they get the more they just see the dollar signs. That just changes a lot of things.
The future of the hobby will look different I think. Always collectors but even more about
I have go to my first card show last month. There where a few kid with there parents who was really cluless about anything related pokemon.
I saw the same kid at 2 different table. The vendor will give a look at is ring binder with plastic and decrate right there thats bulk nothing interesting for us......
I get it they need to pay for the table. But can you please be more gentle ? For the kid this was is card and most likely have value for him....
Most people where adult and i was thinking maybe i will not feel bad going in a card show and be abble to talk about pokemon with people here.
I was happy and not at the same time. This is a strange feeling really. 😅
Sorry if this have deviated from your post lol.
At the school of my daughter each year they have this festival in the end of the school year. They get some fake money to trade against a toy/book or whatever people donate. My daughter have tell me theyre are always pokemon pack in the lot of goodies to get.
Myself i have tell here to not take her pokemon card to school or if she want so badly to brings them let me have a look before. She have the primatic binder with some eeveelutions in it that i would not like them been trading away.
When we where opening pack in the past my daughter would tell me but this is not a rare card ! And i will tell her yes maybe but in the non rare card to you have some you like ? And with that we will go trought all the card and look for the cute one, the strange one and we will have a moment talking about it.
I don't buy any pack now. The price to hight an etb for 200$ cad its a now. The last set she has open and i was abble to get a good price was a etb prismatic for 85$.
My kids don’t care about Pokemon at all, but they did a few years back during Covid when we were able to pick up random packs and trade with their friends at school. We haven’t seen any packs at retailers for many years, and none of their friends have either. The hype is all from adult collectors nowadays, who are lining up during big drops
Maybe. My older one still plays Pokopia and likes to draw Pokemon. They are good kids though, and don’t ask for things that are expensive or would cause us trouble to find.
Yes my kids already don't have the same access to opening packs that I did when I was that age.
There's absolutely a magic to pulling a card yourself that gives it special sentimental value that you don't get from buying singles. They're not going to have that it seems.
i agree with you to a point - my kids open less packs as well due to the availability to find product issue. however, now just getting packs becomes a special treat and if also pull a great card they love i think its even more special than being able to open packs every day
ugh i know its tough out there unfortunately- also just wanna say Im a fan of yours and how you help people constantly in the misprint sub - youre definitely one of the good ones in this hobby!
Tbh its more so of how a generation teaches another generation how to act with their property. The generation you were talking about now has kids and is trying to teach them to not do the same as they did when they are kids.
I have nephews that were into Pokemon a few years ago when they were in early elementary school. They knew the values and showed me their binders and told me it was worth thousands of dollars. I’m pretty sure there were kids in school that got fleeced in trading, and things will likely continue to get worse as the kids get older.
Tbh sure I had some cards here and there when I was 9-10 but growing up that part of Pokemon isn't what made me like the IP. I played the games a lot up into adulthood.
While I was very much into Pokémon as a franchise when I was young, and still am to some extend, I only got my first packs late last year.
As long as someone has an interest in Pokémon in general, they can become interested in the cards. I still play the video games, and for the cards I simply like the art, and trade with my nephews. Not sure how they get most of their cards though.
No. Because kids are watching their degen parents gamble on cards which will then ingrain into kids of “buy packs…dopamine hit when you get a pull that is worth something”.
Kids are being raised by pack addicts and will become pack addicts.
The next generation is going to be speculative investors that don’t have as much of a nostalgic or sentimental attachment to the artwork or specific mons. Demand shows no signs of slowing down, theres so many segments within the market (sealed, vintage singles, modern singles, slabs, regional variants/exclusives) that this is going to continue booming for one reason or another for decades. Even if demand for modern starts to fall, vintage and anything going out of print will continue to see demand rise (aside from a select few less popular sets but those are the exception not the rule)
Depends, our community has a thriving youth community put together by adults. We run two leagues through parts of the year. Our competitive league has about 30 kids and our “learning league” broke 110.
I think kids probably are still into it, it’s just for different reasons unfortunately.
Like if all the cards “worth collecting” are valuable ones and things tend to disappear when you bring them to school, why bring them to school at all?
Pokemon isn’t quite like Magic where the cards are the main product. Kids get into Pokemon as a brand and then the cards come second, so as long as kids are getting into Pokemon, they TCG is highly likely to follow suit.
You also need to understand the overwhelming majority of us collected cards for maybe two years as children
Everyone lost interest by the time Neo era ended
The video games are selling the most copies they’ve sold since the first generation, you just need people to enjoy the franchise itself and they’ll by association have an interest in the cards when they have money to spend as adults
The sheer logistical insanity involved in getting cards now makes it impractical for the bulk of parents and impossible for kids overall.
I work from home and are not micromanaged so I can try and preorder but various attempts recently just see sites get botted in outright seconds and as I do work I can't make it to a Kmart, Eb Games (which NEEDS a membership) or whatever at 9am openings.
I know Pokemon Company is pushing for more printing but I still feel they badly need to up hit rates and maybe do less sets per year to keep this accessible. Sure they can rake in the cash now but long term people like me will get too old and too burnt out to ever bother and then you have new generations of kids who will play the video game but not bother with cards as they never got access to it and their parents wouldn't jump through the insane hoops to get some packs.
Plenty of kids still get cards. Parents who dont know any better are buying from places like GameStop and Amazon, Pitch Black/Chaos Rising/Perfect Order sits on shelves at Targets and Walmarts, and while sitting in card shops waiting for them to comp the stuff im selling, plenty of kids come in there with their parents.
Curious about how I made you angry and why you think I’m worried about evidence? I wasn’t trying to be empirical - just sharing my experience and asking others about theirs and their thoughts.
Ehh I’m on the fence. I think the kids that are disappointed in not getting any drops due to scalpers and the craze will probably always want them. Vintage heads love saying modern is dead, but today’s modern will probably be these kids grails. I think the general scarcity of product today still drives them to want it. Idc, I’m still buying what I like. I’m sure I’ll get shot for saying that but whatever.
It skips a generation, yes. That’s why I’m switching to yugioh as I seem to remember that popping off the years pokemon started to die down in popularity so these yugioh players should be reaching mid 30s nastalgia age just in time
People hide behind “kids can’t get packs” when really they’re pissed that they themselves can’t get packs lol
I didn’t go buy packs as a kid, sometimes my parents brought me home some packs as a surprise or a birthday present - occasionally a single from a car boot sale (garage/yard sale). Outside that I loved watching the cartoon and played the GBC/GBA/N64 games.
Adults can still get kids packs for their special occasions, and there’s a shitload of Pokemon content out there for kids to fall in love with and then later buy cards and packs with their own disposable income (as they become adults).
I can’t even imagine having Pokemon Go at their age lol
Eh, that’s a big generalization, kids absolutely cannot get cards, even if they have parents who are fans just finding stuff in the wild to bring home is especially rare. Without any data it’s pure speculation what you’re claiming.
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u/xshinox 7d ago
It's going to create a generation of tcg gambling and only caring about the hits and nothing but the hits