How Pokemon Cards Became a Stock Market For Millennials (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0180347423
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/12/09/1928240/how-pokemon-cards-became-a-stock-market-for-millennials
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2025/dec/08/how-pokemon-cards-became-a-stock-market-for-millennials
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.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/games/2025/dec/08/how-pokemon-cards-became-a-stock-market-for-millennials
Simple (Score:4, Interesting)
Everything is gambling now.
It's not that everything is gambling (Score:3)
Everything is a grift. Capitalism is breaking down, or rather it's being broken down by monopolies and billionaires. So people have to try to find money any way they can and since you can't do it the traditional way of competing in a free market, because there is no free market anymore, you have to try to grift your way to a living.
Re: (Score:3)
Still beats the alternatives. The people remaining in Venezuela are fighting over what scraps of food remain. The rest of your comment is just stupid. This is people operating in a free market and acting in their own self-interest. If they can make more money doing this than some other job they could have instead, why shouldn't they do this? Maybe they even like doing this more than working retail, cleaning carpets, or whatever job they might do if this weren't available. If I could earn as much buying and
"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
Re: (Score:1)
Always has been. In the past it was beenie babies, basketball cards, baseball cards, comics, tulip bulbs. There's always something people latch onto, get super hot for a while, then the market collapses.
Re: (Score:2)
I plan on cashing in on my cache of pogues any day now.
Re: (Score:2)
Well if it doesn't work out, at least it'll be easy to flip them :)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
> Who knew they were still a thing?
Pretty much anyone that's been awake since COVID's peak.
Re: (Score:2)
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:4, Insightful)
30 years ago it was [1]Beanie Babies [wikipedia.org].
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.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanie_Babies
Re: (Score:2)
> 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??
Re: (Score:2)
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!
Re: (Score:2)
> 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.
Re: (Score:2)
Given the boom and bust cycle of fads like this, you also might not want to best they will,
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: (Score:3)
It's more like Trading Cards, which have been around a long time. American Baseball Trading Cards, for example, had many cards that could command a fortune. I heard a lot about them growing up, but not so much these days, so I guess Pokemon is this generation's Baseball to a lot of people.
Re: (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:2)
> 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. [1]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
[1] https://www.ebay.com/itm/326454051804
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect one of the reasons for the price run up is that ownership claims over these cards now can trade as NFT's. Such cards are one of the biggest volume drivers for "real world assets" on Solana. What the custodial arrangement looks like and how to know they can actually be redeemed is someone else's problem for the speculators. MTGox ... that's Magic The Gathering online exchange... anyone?
POP? (Score:1)
Which bubble will pop first, Pokemon cards, Labubus, or AI unicorn valuations?
Re: (Score:2)
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)
... rendered on a bit of trash.
Just a piece of cardboard (Score:2)
A rogue employee at Nintendo can print as many so called rare cards as they want. All economics no matter what is being traded is a scam, it's just made up numbers you barley evolved monkeys.
Re: (Score:2)
What does barley have to do with evolving monkeys?
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
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Beanie Babies!!! (Score:2)
Nothing ever changes.
Extremely Rare but 25.5M available (Score:2)
10.2 billion printed. The absolute rarest possible cards are about 1 in 1,200 packs which means there are still 25.5M of each of the rarest cards. I suppose in 200 years they will actually be rare.
Re:Extremely Rare but 2.5M available (Score:1)
Can't edit, but math is off due to packs vs cards. Divide by 10 and you get 2.5M cards of each super rare printed so far.