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What’s the deal with the Pokémon Trading Card Game Secondary Market?
We have entered a new era in 2020. Market trends are changing, brick and mortar businesses are innovating to survive, a new era of entrepreneurship is unfolding before our eyes, and the landscape of the next decade of the hobby collecting seems to have been kicked into hyper drive.
The Beginnings
Let’s start from the beginning. The millennial generation was raised on a grass fed diet of free range Pokémon since they were six, seven, eight years old. Many of this generation stuck with the most popular video game series of all time, playing each release and reskin of the game with enthusiasm, nostalgia, and the same amount of passion and energy that has allowed this franchise to be still one of the most successful intellectual properties of all time.
Now, this generation has gone through middle school, high school, college, jobs, relationships, and so much more with Pokémon culture always in the background. Anytime a feeling of nostalgia hits this generation, they can always jump back into Pokémon and be transported to the place that they all know and love. Now, as this generation has settled down into their careers with some extra cash available to them, they are starting to drive more and more nostalgic hobby industries.
2020
As 2020 hits all of us, we have seen so many hobbies and collecting cultures exploding in price and demand. Due to many of us staying at home for work/school, and not being able to continue with our out-of-house hobbies, people have been flocking to online purchasing and collectable speculation.
Picture this: Normally, you head to Pokémon TCG tournaments every Wednesday and Sunday nights with many of your other evenings preparing and practicing for the next tournament. Now, you’re left with none of that. So what do you do? Head to eBay to speculate and collect the new cards and dream about getting down to the store with your friends again!
Many people from the card game generation have experienced this or something similar. Take sports cards for example - as you may have heard, many of the sports card products are selling out faster than stores can keep them on the shelves. Many of these new collectors of sports cards are not able to get as much product as they want to purchase, so this demand is spilling into the Pokémon market. People who are coming back into the sports card industry are now finding that nostalgia of Pokémon cards. After a sports card entrepreneur does a few searches on card pricing and market speculation that is going on in the Pokémon market, many are jumping over to this market. Which, in turn, spikes the Pokémon secondary market.
What does this all mean?
First off, this means that a whole lot of people are going to be digging through their old Pokémon collections that they have stored in their parent’s basement. Some may find their 1st edition Charizard in mint condition. Most, will find a bunch of old cards that you played with on the sidewalk that are basically not worth money anymore. Be sure to check out our blog on the top 10 cards to look for if you’re looking to dig through your collection after this article!
For the long term market, it’s very hard to say. Even market speculators and experts don’t know what’s coming. If life as we know it goes back to normalcy in the next few months, we could see a large dip in the market around that time. Alternatively, this could just be the tip of the card collecting iceberg and we have only begun to see the ramifications of millions of new collectors around the world all finding the hobby at the same time. Will there be market dips and spikes as we navigate this newfound frenzy of collecting? Most definitely. Will the next few months and years of this be fun to watch? Heck yes!
However you enjoy card collecting, we want to stress that you do it safely, responsibly, and remember: it’s all for FUN first and foremost. If you’re looking to dip your toes into the world of card collecting, we recommend joining us on our upcoming card break streams on Twitch and YouTube! Be sure to follow our social media accounts for announcements!
Until next time, may your Shadowless Red Cheeks Pikachu grade at a PSA 10!
Ash Mitchum
Inked Gaming
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