I know nobody can predict the future, but I find this a fun thing to think about! Where do you think the market for WOTC Pokémon cards will be in 2050?
I’ll go first, I think that the prices for WOTC Pokémon cards will be tripled if not quadrupled of what they are today, at least I hope. I think this because by 2050 most of the graded WOTC cards will be settled into personal collections and they will be much harder to obtain. I’m sure there won’t be to many ungraded WOTC holos floating around either by then. I can imagine sealed product being very hard to obtain also… what do you guys think?
Tripled or quadrupled from today’s values would honestly be pretty poor performance. At a 7% return which is a reasonable expectation from something like the stock market after inflation you can expect doubling of the amount every ~10 years thanks to compound growth. So in 32 years for something like the stock market you would be expecting no less than 3 doublings which puts you somewhere from 8 to 10 times your initial investment. Certain elite levels of collectibles frequently see higher returns than this as well as something like art but I’m not sure it’s reasonable to expect the same from Pokemon although there are obviously very different tiers of Pokemon cards.
I guess it is reasonable to say certain cards would likely beat 8-10x that and others would lag behind.
Looking at it from another angle, even only modest inflation over the next 32 years a card would have to double in dollar amount just to be worth the same amount of value in today’s dollars. E.g. a $40,000 base 1st zard today needs to be worth $80,000 in 2050 just to maintain the same inflation adjusted value. If it’s price were to grow similar to the historical growth rate of the stock market we would expect it to be worth ~$845,000 by 2050 which is roughly $348k in today’s dollars assuming 3% inflation.
That would be nice, wish I could actually live till 2050 lol , just kidding id make it most likely but I probably wouldnt know who I am let alone know what Pokemon is anymore
I’m sure the prices will be sky high but I’m not so sure that the collector base will be as active or interested in vintage WOTC product because it’s so unobtainable.
I don’t think set cards are going to be that out of reach. 1st Ed base, sure, but we are 20 years in and most set cards are affordable. Even 1st ed base today in played condition is still affordable.
I have to agree with Scott here. It depends what kind of product youre talking about.
Even today, a lot of cards are being sold for almost the same they were back in the day. Mass produced holos still going for $10-20.
32 years is a long time. Inflation alone would raise prices on pretty much anything. Minimum wage will probably be around $50/h… There’s really no way to predict how high some of the high end stuff will go for, but its safe to say we will see 7 figures deals happen.
Isn’t this the opposite of what you would expect? There’s a lot of factors in why somone would be interested in a product, but available supply isn’t one of them. If an item isn’t available, and there’s still huge demand for it, that’s what causes the prices to increase or go ‘sky high’. What your saying seems like a paradox to me.
, just kidding id make it most likely but I probably wouldnt know who I am let alone know what Pokemon is anymore 
