Envy is defined as: the painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another, joined with a desire to possess the same advantage.
Everyone is familiar with flex culture in 2026. Many influencers and social media personalities garner views by showcasing expensive and extravagant collector items. Unfortunately, Pokemon is not shielded from this cultural phenomenon.
With the Logan Paul booster box break last week, many have taken to forums with anger and vitriol toward wealthy “institutional” investors coming into TCG hobbies like they have for sport cards, watches, jewelry, sneakers, fashion, fine art, and other high-end collector items. If you are a collector on a budget, market booms can feel like drowning, as your goals fall further out of reach.
Have you felt envy in Pokemon collecting? How do you overcome it?
This is the fourth of several threads on navigating collector emotions. Please see below for those previous threads.
I am kinda jealous of people who have been collecting consistently for many years, and purchased cards before the prices went nuts. I’ve modified my goals a lot, there’d be a lot of cards I would be going after today if the prices weren’t so crazy.
At the same time I’m happy for you guys and I love hearing stories about how this mega valuable card was $20 back in the day
I can’t say I envy anyone else’s collection. In fact, I like to see people collect the things which I am not actively collecting, especially an interesting niche.
I don’t think the influx of money from people who have no real interest in my hobbies changes how I feel about collecting.
But nobody likes an annoying blowhard, or a phony. So I don’t think the introduction is much of anything to do with envy. If anything the behavior some of these people bring in makes me super embarrassed to now even share my interests again. Its not unique to us either. Other interests have been ruined. Fleetingly few things have been unscathed by one type of bad actors or another.
So to keep it to envy! If I feel envy, its to time; and like most envy, it’s really a bit of self-dissatisfaction. I have great respect and yes a bit of envy of those who experienced the card side of pokemon uninterrupted or for much longer than I have. Anyone who stuck with it from start to now especially is someone I wish I were able to be like. They got to have time to slowly and more healthily build up collections while things were different. Its more than the money. Its the culture, the excitement or learning new info. A couple times I almost hopped back in. But I was also pretty dang poor! So I try to not let it get to me. Though I wish I had kept asking for booster packs for my birthday and christmas every year. I could have been able to say I was there when the question was asked “where are the collectors at?” and I’d have been able to raise my hand and say, “here!”
I don’t feel envy necessarily, but I do feel a lot of anxiety that if I don’t purchase an item I really want right now than it may become impossible in the future.
I think I need to try to distance myself from Pokemon temporarily and distract myself with another hobby until the hype dies down. Once the hype dies down and prices are more stable I feel like I can make more rational decisions.
I think a little bit of envy can be a positive thing, it motivates you to continue and provides you with something to aspire to, or to look forward to attaining.
Jealousy is the emotion you want to avoid, the comparison of yourself to others and the lack of appreciation for the things which you do have.
This is a super hard emotion to deal with, specially when we are constantly in an environment where the tagline says “Gotta Catch 'Em All!” and you realize that you cannot do that for a variety of reasons and you have to watch others showcase and flex what you think you deserve to have. I have been through this emotion, especially as a new collector. I could not stop being envious of what others had and I really felt it was a detraction from what I wanted the hobby to be for me as a collector.
Over the course of time, I realized that it is such a futile emotion because it is really and truly out of your control how much another person has. Whatever we have and whoever we truly are in the given moment is all there is to our existence. Having the very best or the most complete collection in the world does not guarantee health or happiness for me or my family and loved ones. Any material thing can be lost in an instant.
Also, I know sometimes life seems unfair, and that is because for most times, that is what life is, unfair. If I keep dwelling on what my fellow collector has, I cannot do anything or work on what I have or want to achieve. Also, I really do not know what the other person has done to be able to achieve this collection. Maybe risky decisions that paid off, having a great collector mindset and acumen, persistence and perseverance etc.
I also realize how I showcase my own stuff might have baring on how someone else feels about the hobby and their position in this space, so I really need to work on being more humbler myself. Lastly, I feel gratitude (Collector Emotion - Thankful) plays a really important part. Being thankful for what I have and also just focusing on what I have without taking life too seriously (specially in this hobby) and generally training myself to be more positive and kinder is my personal life hack.
I have felt envy or jealousy a few times, but at the same time, it’s completely outweigh by 1) I’m already very happy with what I have, and 2) sometimes it goes to a fellow collector, so I’m happy for them.
One example is for example the German/Spanish Flying/Surfing Pikachu promos, which all four went to Tom’s Pikachu collection shortly after the auction on eBay went to a French collector, back in early 2021. Am I jealous that he has cards in his Pikachu collection that I don’t have yet? Of course. Even more so since I’m still missing them to this day (except for the Geman Surf-Pikachu ). But at the same time, I’m already happy they popped up to begin with. And I much rather have them go to a fellow Pikachu collector, whom I was in close contact with at the time and considered an online friend, as apposed to a random collector and never to be seen of again.
Some envy/jealousy is normal at times and nothing to be ashamed of. But as long as it remains with just that brief sting, and it doesn’t linger, or worse yet, consume you over time.
Imo, it’s a pretty useless emotion. You have your own life, you make your own luck, you chase your own goals/dreams. What good does it do to look in envy at someone else who might have it better. Loads of people whom have it worse might look at you with envy/jealousy as well for other reasons. At the end of the day, you can only primarily focus on yourself (and by doing so, perhaps have a positive impact on others).
I am quite a stranger to the feelings of envy and jealousy because i am superior physically and intellectually to 99% of people. It’s not that hard. The average human is surprisingly mediocre. When you get out of the subway or into a building, just take the stairs instead of the elevator. Boom. You’re already a far superior being than most, in the top 1%.
Read a book. You are based in US ? if you are american and have read a book in the past year, congrats, you’re top 1% (more accurately, it’s the combination of those two traits that welcomes you in this elitist club, just being physically and intellectually active makes you join the top of the pyramid)
Comparaison is the thief of joy, but sociological studies shows that what brings satisfaction is not the absolute amount of money you make, but that you earn more relative to your peers. Humans are social creatures that are hard-wired to compare themselves to each others. You just need to understand that your social circle is not representative of the general population (a random sample) and that the average person (a theoretical composite) is incredibly low on most metrics (especially if you are in the US)
when your everyday is just being superior, you feel amazement and excitement when meeting people of a higher degree of intellect or physique, certainly not jealousy
as for money or material things the like of pokemon cards ? it would not even cross my mind to feel jealousy out of that. My collection is awesome, it ressembles me, it is unique, I’ve sinked a lot of time energy money in it. If your collection ressembles you and is a manifestation of who you are ? I only have respect for you. If it’s a wall of sealed ETBs in Ikea cereal boxes ? I despise you with all my heart
I think everyone has envy to some degree! I think it’s human nature to pretend like it’s not there. There’s nothing wrong in feeling envy! :>
I usually envy people who can afford to get random cards on a whim, I envy that they don’t have other more important things that money has to go to first. Maybe one day I can achieve that to!
and I love hearing stories about how this mega valuable card was $20 back in the day
). But at the same time, I’m already happy they popped up to begin with. And I much rather have them go to a fellow Pikachu collector, whom I was in close contact with at the time and considered an online friend, as apposed to a random collector and never to be seen of again.
At the end of the day, you can only primarily focus on yourself (and by doing so, perhaps have a positive impact on others).
