So I was talking with my wife tonight about some of the kids she has in here speech class. They range from 1st - 4th grade and a lot of them are really into Pokémon cards.
She told me today that one was convinced that they have stopped making Pokémon cards because he’s not seen any in store in a long time.
I know that things have been getting better as far as supply and scalping. Just wanted to share a story and ask you all what, if anything could come out of kid(s) having this point of view?
Man, that sucks. It’s great seeing the renewed interested in the hobby, but adults and scalpers are ruining the hobby for the generation of kids that just want to have fun.
Can’t help but feel like this is a bit of a leading question.
I don’t think it’s a big deal. Sure you can be sad or sympathetic for kids today but there are so many ways to interact with the hobby today outside of modern packs sold at walmart. Whether it’s youtube, parent-child inter-generational collecting of older cards or just playing with the cards they already have. Packs are such a specific experience and there’s so many ways to collect and play outside of opening packs. Even for myself, the first 3-4 years of collecting, probably less than 5% of the cards I had came from packs I personally opened.
It’s been 8 months since TPC announced they’re doing everything they can to increase supply.
Still can’t walk into a store and find cards on the shelf. Sure, if you take a day off work and drive around to 15 stores you might get lucky at one. Or if you pay 3x MSRP. But the majority of collectors aren’t able to (and shouldn’t have to) do that.
Long term prediction- the longer this situation goes, on, the uglier the drop in prices and interest on cards across the board will be. For many of us here, if we weren’t able to get packs regularly when we were younger, we wouldn’t feel nostalgia towards cards and continue spending on Pokemon cards the rest of our lives. Kids who can’t get Pokemon cards aren’t going to wait around for a year… they’re going to find something else to do with their friends.
Products are printed to demand and further, but scalpers are sitting on it. They will get finacially burned as the product hit the marked. Give it time and the marked/stores will flood with Pokemon.