Well, my sis used to love and own some cards when we were kids (nowadays she collects Mr.Mime cards, an addiction I fuel xD).
My girlfriend is fine with it but gets a bit shocked when I spend 100 euro or more on a card xD.
Whenever I go to my mom’s house she still kinda lectures me about how I spend money on kid’s cards and videogames.
They mostly don’t care. I’m sure there are some that still think it’s for children and I’m a giant manchild but who cares. I’m definitely not the only one among my friends and family that collect and play the games. We’re all pretty open about it. I have a lot of nieces and nephews and its pretty fun talking about pokemon with them. They’re usually very interested in the older stuff and just my general knowledge about the older games and the show as well. Makes for fun conversations.
The games have always been ubiquitous for me since I have been collecting video games forever now. The reason I got back into cards since childhood was pretty serendipitous.
Long story short, I ended up buying a few packs at my local Target during a really stressful time of my life and opening them with my brother and parents. Things just went downhill into the rabbit hole from there. My brother and I started putting together binders, and my mom and dad loved opening packs. We would always open a booster box or packs on whatever holiday or birthday to celebrate together.
My dad ended up being a big species collector, collecting Snorlax and Pikachu (he is a big Quuador fan). My mom has a few binders that she fills with cards she finds cute or shiny. My brother and I are both into Japanese promos and hunt a few niche Chinese cards now and then.
A lot of my close friends also share the love for Pokemon and have gotten into collecting cards (albeit a lot more casually) since I’ve started back up again as well. Some don’t care, but will ask me a question now and then or ask me for help finding product in the current climate of things.
Even though I consider myself a virus collector when it comes to cards, I definitely feel grateful to have a hobby that I can share with friends and family.
My family and friends largely don’t care. However I slowly have infiltrated their outlook. My ex girlfriend used to play vintage tcg with me and she used to buy me Pokémon cards for birthday/Xmas. It didn’t work out in the end as she thinks bulbasaur is better than squirtle unfortunately.
I started building vintage decks in lockdown and purchasing played wotc cards to use. Now I hold Pokémon tournaments with all my school friends. I mean - they grew up with it as kids but they have had no interest in it as adults.
There is hope yet. 