The Pokemon Card Industry Is In Shambles

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Y'all mind if I rant for a bit?

[00:00:02]Cool. Awesome. Also, don't worry about the gameplay. This is definitely just a new game.

[00:00:08]Uh don't coming out soon. So, yeah, it's pretty pretty dope. Yeah. You guys like Pokémon cards? If you do, you might have noticed that uh for the past oh, I don't know, couple of years, buying Pokémon cards has been an absolute nightmare. An absolute nightmare. Even though we have left the Scarlet and Violet era and we're now in the mega era, it is still a complete nightmare.

[00:00:36]You might be wondering, "Well, why is that?" And obviously, I you know, not to beat a dead horse, but scalpers. For some reason, I have gone ahead and went to my Pokémon collectors app because I like to log what I collect. Um you know, it actually helps me to see what I've got cuz I have a huge collection and I don't know, you know, when I want to collect master sets, I don't know what I have. So, for some reason, Pokémon cards have absolutely skyrocketed. Skyrocketed in the past 6 months. Um I'm not going to show you guys how much the the actual collection is worth, but you can see this is just 6 months and it has gone up an absolutely insane amount and I don't really know why why.

[00:01:24]I will say the last time I was pretty easily able to buy Pokémon cards was Paldea Evolved. For context, um that was 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 sets ago. That was 20 sets ago.

[00:01:47]Um now, what set it off is obviously Pokémon 151. We have the 30th anniversary here and a bunch of sets that have been, you know, uh basically well-wanted. Uh pretty Evolutions, Destined Rivals, Journey Together, Phantasmal Flames. We have Pitch Black Chaos Rising, Mega Evolution.

[00:02:09]But the main thing that I would say set off this nuclear bomb people wanting Pokemon cards so so much that they no matter where you go it is almost impossible to get Pokemon cards without scalping or paying above MSRP was 151. I will say the Sword and Shield era which was two eras ago, it was pretty easy to get Pokemon cards except for maybe Evolving Skies. But even that I was still able to go to a local card shop and buy booster boxes. I still have one here. And by the way, that booster box is like two grand now. I don't know how. That is a set that came out, you know, just a few years ago. So, yeah, I I don't know who to blame here because on some hand on some on some level I feel like I should be blaming the Pokemon company. Hey, why don't you guys just print more? But they have already came out and said, "Hey, we are printing more."

[00:03:02]On another hand, obviously scalpers are buying this product and the problem is is it's easy for them to do it. Bots, AI have made it super easy for scalpers with a lots of income to just buy these and then flip them immediately.

[00:03:19]Now, you might be thinking, "Well, then just don't buy them." And I don't. I have not opened up a pack since Actually, I bought a perfect order pack cuz I found one at my Target. But I have not opened up packs since Journey Together cuz I've never been able to find some. Um and the problem is is that scalpers would not succeed if they weren't being successful, but they are cuz everyone wants Pokemon cards. The Pokemon cards are amazing. I mean, illustration rares are amazing. Everyone loves Pokemon cards and where they are at now. But it is so absurdly hard to find any Pokémon cards that to it's to the point now where people are desperate so much so that they were buying from scalpers.

[00:04:02]And I don't know if there is a solution for this. So, basically, I'm here to say what is the solution?

[00:04:10]Okay, why do we buy Pokémon cards?

[00:04:13]Obviously, we want to complete our collections. I think that's great. I think that's awesome. Why do Why are scalpers so successful? And that is because we put a huge price tag on Pokémon cards that are brand spanking new. So, for instance, Fantasmo Flames, brand new mega era, you have the Mega Charizard EX.

[00:04:33]I This card is cool. Do not get me wrong. It is very, very cool.

[00:04:39]On TCGPlayer, though, this card goes for $900.

[00:04:44]$900, guys.

[00:04:48]For a brand new set, that is absolutely insane.

[00:04:53]And then you might be thinking, well, people are buying it. That is really It's a really cool thing. It's really cool.

[00:05:00]Just for for preference, um this is a very cool Charizard. I cannot deny it. It is one of the coolest designs they've ever done. So, I I'll give them props. But, at the same time, make it make sense because you go back to the Pokémon Legendary Collection era, a Charizard from Legendary Collection, those packs are like thousands of dollars. It's 500 bucks. It's not even barely half of that.

[00:05:27]A base set Charizard, the original Charizard, it's $490 um on TCGPlayer. So, so, I don't know. It feels weird. Obviously, a near mint version can go up to $1,500, but it all depends on the quality.

[00:05:47]And I don't know. It's a little strange because we're seeing black labels and graded cards going for up to 10,000s of dollars.

[00:05:56]Um if I go on to eBay right now and you know what? I'm going to do it right now.

[00:05:59]We're going to look up fan uh Fantasmal Flames uh Charizard. I'm going to go to recently sold. Let's go ahead and go to sold items here. We're doing this live.

[00:06:12]Um a PSA 9 sold for $930.

[00:06:17]Let's go ahead and head over to highest highest paid. Hold on.

[00:06:23]Yeah, okay. Okay, this is so dumb. So, black label, which is a If you guys don't know anything about grading, Beckett is a company that people grade cards with and they release black label.

[00:06:33]So, black label is the master master top top class top class. Like it is a perfect card. Like it is almost AI generated. It's so perfect.

[00:06:45]The crisp cuts, whatever, all that.

[00:06:48]One of these just sold in March 28th for $54,000.

[00:06:56]This card was released a year ago.

[00:06:59]>> [music] >> What are we doing?

[00:07:02]So, you might be thinking, well, why is that What I don't understand.

[00:07:05]What does that mean? Well, what happens is scalpers see that and they say, "Hey, I'm okay with buying these booster boxes for a couple hundred bucks a pop at the chance of getting this card, grading it a 10, and selling it for $50,000."

[00:07:19]And that's okay. Hey, you can get a PSA 10. A PSA 10 is still selling for $4,000. What are we doing? I don't know.

[00:07:26]Where are people getting this much money? Also, why are we spending this much money on cards that are brand new?

[00:07:33]Like I don't know, dude. This is crazy. This is insane.

[00:07:39]Like I I don't know. I think it's just frustrating because I have seen that a lot of people, including myself, are sort of leaving the hobby. And that is what I'm a little bit scared of is that I feel like what the hobby the hobby's true fan base and basically the the whole point of this video is it feels like the hobby the intended fan base are leaving the hobby because they can't participate.

[00:08:08]You know what I'm saying? Like kids, people who are not going to spend triple the price tag, people who just want to buy a pack, people want to just play the game. People who just want to play the actual game, including myself, I love playing the actual card game.

[00:08:24]It is impossible. Like I haven't been playing because I literally can't get the new cards without spending triple the the price.

[00:08:32]Um so it's just not fun.

[00:08:34]So, what's the solution? I would say we should take a a uh page out of Japan's book. And the whole reason why I wanted to make this video as well is they started doing this thing where if you buy Pokémon cards in person, um at local card shops, they will release new sets, but will only release it to kids under 10 for the first initial bit. You can reserve packs, but you are supremely limited. I think you can buy like five packs or only one box.

[00:09:06]Um which I think is totally fair. You buy one box or a couple packs, and that's it. Kids can buy packs, and I think they're they can get like five 10 packs. And what they've done on top of that is packs are being cut open, so you can no longer have sealed packs. And they're doing this at Pokémon centers and local card shops in Japan.

[00:09:28]Basically, completely stopping resellers. If you buy a booster box, the wrapping on the booster box is being removed. And they're even removing like the tags as well. So, basically completely eliminating the abilities to be um to to to scalp. So, the only people who will be able to sell booster boxes are those who are actual wholesalers or you know, local card shops. So, what do I think we should do? I think Pokémon company should do that, too.

[00:09:59]Local card shops should all participate.

[00:10:01]I think if you buy a pack from a local card shop, they should rip it open for you. And then, here you go. Here are your cards. Um and that's it. I I'm I we are at that point because it has been a absolute nightmare. Let's say I want to get a booster box right now of Fantasmal Flames.

[00:10:21]Um oh, you know, it's only uh a god uh wait, this is Sorry, not a booster box. A A ETB is $240 um or 130 bucks. Uh you know, it it it changes.

[00:10:33]Um oh, here we go. A booster box just sold for almost 500 bucks.

[00:10:37]It's it's just not fun. It's just not, you know, enjoyable to be a collector.

[00:10:43]Um so, I don't I don't know. I That is kind of why I know some of you have been asking like, "Where's the Pokémon card videos?" I just haven't been enjoying it. I can't buy a product without spending way too much money where I don't think it's worth it anymore. Um obviously, I love the hobby. I love the game, but I don't really feel like spending, you know, triple or quadruple the amount of money it costs for one of these freaking packs.

[00:11:12]And uh yeah. So, yeah, I just felt like rambling. Maybe more videos like this in the future. I have a lot to talk about, and I'm like, "Maybe I should just talk about it." cuz Pokémon, I'm passionate about Pokémon. I love the game. I love the community that isn't scalpers.

[00:11:27]If you're a scalper, you. Um but uh yeah, it's uh yeah, I don't know.

[00:11:36]Anyways, I'll I'll see you later. Sorry for swearing.

[00:11:41]I just got mad because you know, I just want to open up some Pokémon cards and you know, I can't. I literally just can't and it sucks. So, yeah.

[00:11:53]Okay, bye.