Pokémon 10-20 years?

Where do you see wotc cards being in 10-20 years?

Where do you see the hobby overall? I know this is all speculative but would love to hear everyone’s thoughts?

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Similar to where it is now. With a bit of luck, even bigger. In 10–20 years, a new generation has grown to be adults with money and is doing the same things we did when we first had money. Buying all the cards we never could as a kid or completing our childhood collections.

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I see wotc cards being in the same place than now, in my binder

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That generation is more likely to be interested in cards they grew up with than cards they were born after. The current boom in modern (Sun & Moon year 3 to now) will be a lingering reminder of that

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Exclusive japanese promos going upppppplp

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Exactly. I think every generation has a special nostalgia for the cards they grew up with.

What I am curious about what will happen with the cards that came before them. Will the interest decline? Will the legacy help keeping these cards popular?
One could already measure how gen 2,3 or 4 behaved differently.

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How has it behaved differently?

What generation should we technically be on for the nostalgia returnees etc?

Did covid disrupt that timeline?

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Gotta remember they’re also growing up with youtubers having 1 million+ subs opening wotc cards with flashing lights and silly sound effects burying themselves in the next generation of fans subconscious haha

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Vintage i reckon will stay where it is, exception is trophy cards etc.

But i honestly believe that the current modern era. In 20 years, the likes of VMAX CLIMAX, VSTAR UNIVERSE and other popular sets from Japan and their English counterpart. Will BOOM.

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most of the popular cards that everyone wants to keep for the next few years/decades because they are incredibly awesome will be forgotten and will be replaced by cards that are more historical and nostalgic.

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I think fundamentally the collectibles market will continue to see growth for a few reasons. For starters, I feel that the attitude towards collecting from an investment perspective is more dynamic than ever. More people are parking money in different areas than traditional investments all the time for a whole slew of reasons that I won’t get into here, but Pokemon falls into that as well to me.

I think WOTC will grow, at least the most popular and in-demand cards. There will always be a nostalgia hit and I think as peoples incomes grow they could look back on their childhood again at some point or another and want to buy the cards even at higher prices than today. I don’t know if we’ll see a 10x or 20x return like has happened over the past 10+ years, but I feel it’s more likely to increase than just collapse and fade away due to how popular Pokemon is and continues to be across generations of people.

The modern market continues to surprise me. After seeing the growth in it through this period (particularly on the Japanese side), my attitude and outlook on it has changed a lot. I really think it’s going to do well over time. There’s just a lot of great cards that people will look back on and want to collect at some point or another. There’s no doubt the artwork is some of the best around in any era of Pokemon to date, and people clearly enjoy the cards a lot.

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there’s just something in the name that’s making it hard to take this comment too seriously :thinking:

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i see most wotc at maybe a 10-20% increase in 10-20 years. i could see something like neo destiny cards rising a lot more than that and many base-fossil cards not rising anywhere near that

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I think it will vary greatly depending on the type of cards. In the 25+ years of Pokemon, there’s only been 2 or 3 stretches (the first year or two after launch, Pokemon Go, and the pandemic) like the past couple years, it’s unlikely this level of interest and demand persists forever.

The really hard to find stuff that has a substantial following won’t go anywhere, those cards will probably only get scarcer and scarcer and prices will reflect that accordingly.

Modern? I think it will tank. Lots of people with closets full of worthless ETBs and the flavor of the day Charizard that hardly anyone will care about in 2035. Packs will go back to being widely available, reprints will happen, buy one get one free deals will be back, along with cheaper singles.

As for the not so rare but still interesting vintage stuff? I could see it going many different ways. But I think it will stagnate for a while if the overall economy cools down and the core collector base of vintage gets older. Priorities change as people get older, and Pokemon cards aren’t going to be immune to that.

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Vintage: stable/healthy steady growth, it’s an established market that already peaked (hopium). It’s difficult to imagine another global event that can cause sudden price increase: if the average person didn’t show interest in vintage during 2016-2022 I don’t think it will in the future.

modern New Vintage: BW-SM/SWSH? I honestly can expect some cards rising more than others, and some random stonk/drop events.
Growing children will be nostalgic of that alt art they couldnt have, and waifu lovers will always be difficult to understand.
Also it seems to me that a lot of modern collectors aren’t too interested in vintage: nowadays art is really great and different, normal holos can’t compete with fully textured high end bling bling. Maybe the real vintage would be perceived as a “boomer” thing, who knows: all this can cause a very distinct behavior in price growth, but probably not enough to surpass wotc stuff.

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Maybe modern sealed or the dozen CGI Charizards but if Pokemon can really make it through when the 80s/90s kids age out/die, I really don’t see how the alt arts will be worth less than some godawful art like Expedition Charizard.

I think things like Scream promos, Stamp promos will destroy most of Sugimori cut and pastes or bad 90s/00s CGI chase cards.

edit: Though forecasting all the way to when we die is pointless because you’d have made the decision to sell it or keep it long before then.

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Love the question, but most people are going to communicate their hopes on what will happen. 90% of us haven’t been in here for more than five years, which means we’ve only ridden one cycle. I would take answers from the seasoned collectors more seriously, but I highly doubt they will comment on this.

My guess, all sets from every era go up in cost due to economics. I HOPE WOTC does a few Xs, as that is what I enjoy collecting, but I have no idea. “I have two balls, and neither are crystal” :joy: :ok_hand:

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As someone who has seen several market cycles play out in Pokemon (albeit not nearly as dynamic as the 2020 boom), the pattern seems to echo with slight variations.

  1. Growth phase (stable, steady growth for cards with strong fundamentals)

  2. Hype phase (everything explodes in demand, even “junk” cards)

  3. Liquidation phase (major saturation, new price floors established)

  4. Consolidation phase (cards with strong fundamentals leave the market, junk cards become mostly illiquid)

Repeat

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There is some excellent art in recent sets, no doubt. But the number of cards printed is unprecedented. A good portion of Sun & Moon, all of Sword & Shield, and likely Scarlet & Violet has been printed exponentially more than almost any other set in the existence of Pokemon.

Sports cards were super popular in the 90s. Once the interest started to die down, the over-supply was massive. Not saying this exact scenario will play out with modern Pokemon, just that there’s not much room for Modern to go up, and a lot of room for it to go down.

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Mars