Despite the Japanese franchise nearing its 30-year anniversary, young men in particular continue to be on a lifelong mission to “catch ‘em all”—and are spending hundreds, sometimes even millions of dollars, collecting trading cards.
Part of the “boy math” is that investing in cards could yield significant returns, and there might be some truth to the matter.
“The trading card hobby has entered a new era, driven by technology, innovation, community, and a great balance of modern creativity–with new sets, storylines and characters–alongside good old nostalgia,” Ireland tells Fortune.
“These things are appreciating like crazy as collectibles are becoming very low supply, high demand art pieces.”
Logan Paul wearing a Charizard Pokemon card chain as he entered the ring for a 2021 boxing match against Floyd Mayweather.
“This card cost me more than my ranch. My 84-acre ranch,” Paul said at the time.
Other social platforms, including TikTok, are full of content creators who have dedicated their lives to the purchasing, opening, and reselling of cards.
“What did you jack up $26K on?” Ramey asked.
“Pokemon cards—trying to buy a bunch and sell them online, but it didn’t work out.”
“For some people, they (collect) because they view it as an investment. Others do it for the pure fun of it,” he says.
“I think sometimes people want to break from the digital, and this is a good outlet for it,” Hoge tells Fortune. And not only do you get to hold something in your hand, but you also get to interact with a community of like minded people that have similar interests.”
And even though over 75 billion Pokémon cards have been produced (enough to wrap around Earth end-to-end 165 times), demand is still skyhigh, according to Barry Sams, vice president of game development and community engagement at The Pokémon Company International.
“With explosion in demand, we’re printing at maximum capacity to deliver the greatest amount of cards possible to fans for current expansions while ensuring we maintain quality standards,” he tells Fortune.
“Those who grew up with Pokémon now have children of their own to share that passion with, and oftentimes, that means revisiting old Pokémon card collections and recreating fond childhood memories as a parent.”
“It doesn’t matter how old you are, when you get a pack of cards in your hand, the first thing you want to do is rip it open and you hope that you’re going to get that hot rookie, or you’re going to get a player from your favorite team,” says Panini’s Howarth. “If any one of those things happens, you’re ecstatic.”
