I eat ferroseeds for breakfast
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I don’t know if this has been said yet, but that Pokemon is just really young. Yes prices are crazy currently, but we just turned 30. We’ve been spoiled on high grade vintage cards for far too long and I think as time passes these cards, that are pretty commonly appearing today and going for prices that can still be achieved with smart money saving, are going to appear less and less frequently and for more and more money. Especially in higher grades. Price memory is gonna be tough
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Valid point, agreed. It is sad for collectors that have to deal with that.
Collecting Pokémon isnt a matter of life and death. Yes it sucks that people get priced out of finishing their collection goals, but there are always alternatives to every collecting style.
Doing a 151 WOTC Pokédex? Just get unlimited instead of 1st edition.
Doing 1 artwork for your favorite species? Japanese is cheaper and better anyways.
Doing master sets of English modern sets? Well…yes that sucks more than ever to try to do, especially with random expensive cards like Professor Program variants with very low distribution
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Please see a dentist ASAP
this is what my kidney stones look like
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I mean yeah, there’s various ways to make a collection work. Or switch it up. New collectors gotta make sure they map out their goals so it’s not just affordable but also attainable.
But the reality is that It just sucks that people have to change up goals they might have started in 2002-2010 or whatever and ignored pokémon/collected something else for a while until getting back into the hobby, only to realize that it’s no longer attainable without selling your house, credit cards/loans and dropping serious cash to finish.
Two things can be true at once. The casual early 2000’s years Gengar collector who had life happen and stopped collecting years ago to focus money on whatever else is going to be disappointed when he’s back and now can’t finish what was once a decently obtainable goal.
Not everyone is privileged enough to spend $10000k, $1000, or even $100 on a card they’ve always wanted that used to be 30, 50, 200$ etc. For us here that are able to do so, it might not seem fair to others that can’t or flat out just don’t want to spend that much money on something that used to be 1/3 cost.
Pokémon can be expensive and it’s true there’s diff ways to do stuff, but I also understand people’s frustration and reasoning why they are mad they can no longer finish their binders and finish what they had already started or wanted as a kid when it was cheap.
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I don’t know about how everyone else feels, but for me at least, the explosion of prices isn’t the problem: the drastic culture shift in the hobby is. Between the way pack opening gets treated as high-stakes casino gambling these days via platforms like Whatnot and the upcoming Logan Paul Whatnot ripoff - and don’t get me started on the $1000+ “slab bags” that have gone viral over the past 6 months. And the exclusionary, elitist vibe that many (but definitely not all) new collectors give off.
The one thing about prices that DOES bother me is the complete normalization of prohibitively expensive prices for in-print sealed product. “It’s no different from stocks or crypto”, they say. Except those are securities/currencies, this is a product. “Oh but it’s a luxury good for the wealthy like Gucci Bags and Rolex Watches”. Again, no - Gucci Bags and Rolex Watches are literally MARKETED as status symbols. “Oh but a Base Set 1st Box sold for $500k+, why should a box of [insert average modern in-print set here] be $150-?” Well, to quote Richard Garfield (creator of MTG and inventor of the TCG medium as a whole for those who aren’t aware), “you shouldn’t expect cards to immediately be worth a premium price, but over time, they can be special”.
Cards are more like sneakers - a product, not a security or currency - that wasn’t marketed as a badge of wealth - being treated as such by the market. It’s internet hustle culture, which, in many ways, isn’t a concept new to the digital age. Think about it - influencers *recruiting* their followers to invest, and recruiting new influencers to recruit more people to invest and become influencers themselves. It feels like a decentralized multilevel marketing opportunity.
I miss when the more balanced, grounded takes of SMPratte, Reserved Investments, and pre-2020 AlphaInvestments were the norm for collectibles finance channels rather than the insane hypebeast stuff that gets put out today.
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I agree with your comment.
Investor bros and influencers have gone crazy with Pokémon, and that certain culture has definitely gotten toxic. And that’s part of the reasons why it’s raised the prices because of the hustlers/culture currently.
Your point about the stocks/crypto/investments comparison to sealed product is true, but wow is it wild to think that that’s how people feel.
Also-to think of it as a pyramid scheme is …unsettling, because I understand what you mean. Eeekkk that reminds me of Amway LOL
Edit- try to look at the positives though. This site and many other places have a great culture to them. There are friendly colldctors everywhere and the current trend of things don’t fit the community as a whole 
Brings me back to this article from 2011:
https://behindmlm.com/mlm/theory/why-combining-mlm-and-collectibles-will-never-work/
15 years later, every single point from this article no longer applies.
“Collectibles have to be scarce?” Turns out if you convince enough people that they can make life-changing money, product can be as mass produced as it gets and it won’t matter.
“Self-sustainability by organic demand?” Or, a huge amount of influencers telling everyone how amazing an investment it is.
“Can appreciate in value over time?” Nope, it’s instant these days. 200% gains BEFORE THE PRODUCT IS EVEN RELEASED is the average.
What the person who wrote this article didn’t anticipate was the rise of modern influencer culture. Now it’s influencers recruiting new investors, and also new influencers who recruit more new investors and influencers…
I recently uninstalled Instagram from my phone because it all just made me feel sick. And it wasn’t easy - I’d been active on Insta pretty regularly for almost a decade.
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I personally haven’t been able to delete my social media apps, but the entire influencer/ consumerism boom has turned me towards minimalism. Even when buying cards, I’m like “what does this add for me, and how much”. Will I sell it? Look at it? Have I been influenced by others? I agree that influencers and social media platforms are going to far making everything about “value” and “gains”.
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- big collectors and youtubers causing prices to sky rocket
- stu*pid people that everyone praise and i dont even know who they are and dont want to that make prices rise (logan paul no idea who he is to this day. one thing i know he aint michael jordan so chill ?)
- pokemon going crazy now vintage modern posters games vintage not vintage toys whatever it all costs a lot. base set magnemite 1st edition is not rare and should not cost almost 200$ at CGC/PSA 8
- fan club cards out of reach now for me as well as the fan club post cards i love so much
- people on ebay putting the words “very rare” on every god damn listing of pokemon vintage
- Another big one is people putting on listing “pop 1, pop 2” so what ? doesnt mean anything it may be something not many people bothered to grade. doesn’t mean it is not rare though doesnt mean it is as well
- now this one is up to people coz its their money but i will never EVER pay for a booster pack then pay extra for my booster be opened in stream to get a stupid shoutout. I dont care if your scott trump or logan whatever (no offense to scott just an example). what am i farting USD ? why the hell would i do that and even if it was worth it to open a vintage booster pack ill open it for myself thank you very much.
p.s. for me it was never about buying to sell but solely collecting may it be smart or stupid i dont care. yes i did sell on the past but i did regret it though i sold it because of financial issues and not because i wanted to or wanted a profit UNLESS i have 2 of the same thing
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i was born en of 89. never had IG till i think 2023 or 2024 for maybe a year in which i barely used it and deleted on 2025. never had tiktok twitter twitch all that just FB. thats mostly for talking to people i need to or scrolling for 5 miutes and im done
Toughest pill for many people to swallow. Deleting your account from any platform that has embraced algorithmic short form video feeds is probably one of the best ways to improve your life instantly.
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A tough pill for me to swallow multiple times has been that i’ve bought a card that i’ve been extremely excited to get and prepared a place for it in a binder page and when it arrives it just doesn’t look good there with the other cards, it has been weird that a great looking card can look kinda lame in a page where it doesn’t really fit. This has been one of my biggest collector’s third world problems 
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eBay’s integration of PSA’s pop report for each listing has made it much much harder to buy under the radar cards…
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We will never get a straight Pokémon game or TCG set ever again. Like, a game/set with no Megas, EXs, Dynamaxs, etc. Just plain ol’ Pokémon with no special gimmicks. I dream of a simpler time.
I get why it’ll never happen: gimmick Pokémon are super hype and sell a lot of product. But I miss just being able to KO six Pokémon for six prizes and not have to worry about some 300 HP behemoth… because then it just becomes an arms race.
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I’ve been thinking about it and my collection goals are perhaps a bit too complicated. One card arrived that i thought was a holo but turned out the card is a non holo instead and i had to change a combination of cards and goals in six binders because of that
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The innocence of pokemon distracts and obscures how competitive and difficult it can be to collect.
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I sell for one of two reasons:
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Priorities. I have a 12 year old son and some things are more important to take care of than holding a card that 10x. For instance, I desperately need a new car so I am debating selling some stuff to make that happen.
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I can’t get better cards without selling. I will 100% sell what I can/want to afford an Art Academy, especially seeing how some parts of my collection will never ever be finished (RIP Japanese full art Pikachu goals)
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