Why Are Pokémon Cards Fanatically Popular Again?
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past few months, Pokémon cards are back in the news. Yes, you read that correctly & no, you did not wake up back in 1996. People are literally getting into fights in Walmart parking lots & stealing cereal to have a chance at getting a hold of a card worth thousands or, in come cases…millions. To better understand what’s happening, let’s take a step back & look at what’s going on with Pokémon & the collectible’s market in general right now because there is a lot to unpack here.
To start with, last year was, for lack of a better description, a massive dumpster fire. People lost their jobs, their homes, & most everything that they typically use to distract themselves from how depressing life can be. Streaming service subscriptions hit an all-time high & video game system sold out all over the world in a frantic attempt to find solace for even a minute. During all this chaos, millennials rediscovered their love for collectibles. Part of this was from the NFT hype that came with the rise in cryptocurrency interest, but a lot of it came from the nostalgia that 80’s & 90’s collectibles brought for so many that needed an escape from reality. Sure, there was money to be made from these old toys & trading cards, but that only went so far during 2020.
Then, 2021 came around & everything changed. Nintendo & The Pokémon Company announced that with this year being the 25th anniversary of Pokémon, they would be celebrating all year long with new events, limited edition collectibles, & so much more. This news triggered something in millennials that, when added to the collectible craze that started last year, created a level of fanatic mania not seen since the Tickle-Me-Elmo Black Friday incident. While Pokémon cards have always had a market for collectors & certain rare cards used to garner valuations of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, now valuations have skyrocketed into the millions. There have even been unopened box sets of original 1st generation prints selling for over a million dollars just for the chance that the contents will be worth the price to open it.
So, what does this all mean? Have millennials lost their minds during this pandemic or is there more to the resurgence of Pokémania? Find out on today’s edition of Dallas Geek!