I’m a Pokemon Collector living in Japan and just did a quick translation of Scott’s part.
Narrator: Scott Pratt has built his wealth by buying and selling cards from the early beginnings
Scott: “These are graded a 10, which is the highest grade they can receive”
“Any card that’s been graded sells for more”
Narrator: “Sold rare appraised cards with a high grade can earn over one hundred million yen (about $750,000 USD). Those profits are then used to collect cards worth hundreds of millions of yen each.
Passionate about Japanese anime since a young boy, it’s something that Scott had one day longed for"
Scott: “Ive purchased a lot” “I’m happy that I am finally able to afford the cards that I couldn’t buy when I was a child”
“Rare cards are like continuing to chase after a white whale. If I’m able to get my hands on one, I’ll spend whatever money it takes”
Narrator: “Scott says that for him, trading cards are now his hard assets”
Scott: “Cardboard can be turned into money. Value is just something that is abstract. I think it’s very similar to an art collection”
Near the end with the kid in the shop looking at cards, the narrator said “after looking at the price, he had given up on buying it”. I know that feel, kid. I know that feel.
What a cool cameo! Wish the whole thing were translated. It would be neat to see what the sentiment is overseas. (Or at least the sentiment seen through the lens of this special)
Interestingly the opinion of the economic analyst (17:15 to 18:30) they have on is that from their perspective it’s a speculation bubble waiting to burst, He says that people caught up in a bubble don’t realise it’s bubble at first, but when people realise it’s about to burst, in a very short period of time there will be a large number people who will want to sell their stuff but few people who will want to buy it. He doesn’t say the market will collape (sorry he does say collapse but not sure if he means the bubble or whole market). The prices can’t stay this high forever and I guess the underlying suggestion is that it’s more likely that as an investment or treating it like a business it’s far more likely that people will fail rather than succeed.
Another guy who is an editor of a magazine (23:20 to 23:50) says that if the the prices continue to stay high then typical people who just want to play the game for will simply choose to not play the game and that isn’t a good long term situation.
Two things stand out to me in response to those talking points.
I feel like the bubble thing really only makes sense when discussing new, or otherwise newly available, commodities. That’s not really a feature of Pokémon. While there was undoubtedly a pandemic gold rush, we already saw the correction from that. I’m not sure what the theoretical basis is for such an established collectible to supposedly crater at a 30 year maturity.
Pokémon is smart and careful with its modern chase cards - there is a reason they are all alt-arts. Alt-arts ensure that the function of the card is accessible to players in the form of a “normal card” while the alt-art commands the premium. I do think players suffer a convenience penalty when all the product is sold out all the time and this can definitely be a deterrent from people who see the cards as a mechanical tool they don’t have access to. But I don’t think there’s anything to the theory that cards will become too expensive to play and turn away players.
Beyond that, vintage deck building is a niche aspect of the hobby and not really a factor. Vintage cards are collected, not played.
They’re not exactly experts on the subject so they are just calling it as they see it, and the discussion is mostly if not entirely about modern investing anyway.
Also, was it just me or was the shot of Logan’s nipples extremely gratuitous?
Which is kinda funny since I feel like that it’s currently the cheapest it’s been to play the game (with some exceptions like Cram-o-matic) in a long time, partially thanks to players/collectors/card stores cracking boxes in search of chase cards and selling the regular art cards for cheap
Yeah agreed. I was in a Book-Off with a gaming space the other day and it was absolutely packed with people playing Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic, Pokemon, One Piece etc.
There was definitely a conflation about the most expansive items and current modern product. I told them they are separate markets and the current product is still being produced and not the same as illustrators, etc.
Actually the interviewer leveled up the longer we talked. By the end she was putting things together on her own. For example, when we talked about the PSA backlog, she was like, “its probably difficult to fix as you can’t just hire anyone, and it also probably takes awhile to train people for that type of job”.
Thanks for the translation! (@smpratte You can give out badges to members. )
YouTube’s auto-translate option is still lacking quite a bit unfortunately, although I could follow the general context of the video sections because of it I guess.
I wonder if this translation is inspired by Scott saying ‘sperm of the sperm whale’ a couple of times during the full 4-hour interview.
we appreciate you!
