What’s up I wanted to share a quick story I had today at my local card shop that was a huge humbling experience and a reminder that this hobby is all about the kids and we should give back when we can.
Im at the card shop buying singles for my binder and this kid walks in about 10-11 years old , comes up to the counter and asks if he can trade in his binder for store credit. The employee looks at his binder and tells him " yea there’s nothing good here sorry " (hurt my heart to hear this ) kids face was filled with sadness , but like a champ he says ok that’s fine and he walks out. Kid comes back in 10 minutes later with $5 and asks to buy a pack. They didn’t even have a single pack under $5. Vivid Voltage was $6.50. He couldn’t even afford a fucking Pokémon pack! So I bought him a Vivid Voltage booster box right then and there. Man , the way this kids eyes lit up will stick with me the rest of my life… It gave me a good reminder that we were all once that kid and getting caught up in prices and money can sometimes be blinding to the bigger picture.
That’s all folks. Thanks for listening to my story. And if ya see a kid at your local card shop or card aisle. Buy him a fucking Booster Box ( or pack ).
I cringe to think about the amount of kids getting scammed at LGS’s
Glad you made his day, I could see an experience like this ruining the hobby for him and I dont blame him.
Regarding a kid not being able to buy a pack for $5: that’s something I’m actually concerned about.
I understand the market dynamics have led to the current prices. Most of us are able to adapt. However, the kids on (very) fixed budgets cannot so easily adapt. Some would say these are non-essential luxuries so it doesn’t matter. I guess, but if these kids get priced out now, they could simply leave the hobby permanently. That’s a sad situation for everyone.
I really do hope that sometime this year sealed modern packs get back down to MSRP. Not for my sake, but for the sake of the next generation of collectors.
To adults these are non essential luxuries. To a child its the most essential thing in the world. Its a token of their innocence. Good on you op. Great job.
My LGS is similar but the reasoning they’ve said is that they can’t compete with big time distributors on getting allocated product that everyone wants and even if they sold msrp they’d just be giving scalpers another source so they might as well be the bad guys.
Great story. I’m still in gratitude to a lady who paid for an 80p bottle of pop I couldn’t afford almost twenty years ago, so I think this kid will probably carry this memory for life, ha.
Absolutely love stuff like this. Good on you for making that kid’s day. I’m sure if he was feeling at a loss for passion with Pokemon, you invigorated it back to life and then some.
Love this story so much. It feels so good to get the cards and sets we want, but it can’t beat that feeling of giving them to someone else who couldn’t get them themselves.
You weren’t at Magic and Monsters where you? I went there over the weekend and witness pretty much exactly what you are describing. That being said my experience is the shop is awesome but the kid was so excited (he was there with his parents)
Limiting product amounts would certainly help. Not sure about your LGS but my biggest one that sells pokemon near me does not give me “we had to do this” vibes when it comes to their price hikes. I mean they were selling penny sleeves for 2 dollars when I went the other month when they were still a dollar mid last year, not to mention their absorbant pokemon card prices. I definitely feel that many LGS’ taking advantage of the pokemon hype. When I went to an almost exclusively MTG LGS after, they just had a few pokemon packs at 4 usd per and some much more appropriately priced sleeves.
TBH it kind of pisses me off that 5 dollars cant buy a damn pack of cards from a newer release. I remember in 2010 I was able to buy a pack of base set or legendary collection for 5 dollars. Overall Pokémon is still affordable, but finding newer sets for MSRP at Target or Walmart is very hard (though Target is now limiting purchases on in-store Pokémon card purchases). I miss how Pokémon used to be popular but not “trendy” unlike today.