A few days ago, Logan Paul spent another $3.5 million on sealed Pokemon cards. In February, he spent $2 million on first edition Base Set booster boxes which he auctioned and opened on stream. It was all a scam – he earned more in selling NFTs of himself than his initial outlay, and by my reckoning earned a healthy $10 million from the stream. But it was a signifier of something bigger – Pokemon cards are valuable now.
Rare Pokemon cards sell for extortionate amounts of money nowadays. They have to be rare and in good condition to reach the eye-watering figures the likes of Paul bandy about, but cards that are graded ‘gem mint’ by external companies can be worth as much as half a million dollars. The more people that open these sealed boxes, the more rare the cards get, and prices will only increase as we move forward.
However, this has had a knock-on effect on modern Pokemon cards. While perfect cards from the latest sets aren’t worth a fraction of a first edition Charizard, many people believe that they will be if they keep them sealed for 20 years. But that’s not the case.
Scalpers have ruined modern Pokemon card collecting, both online and in-person. People will queue up at shops to fill their trolleys with thousands of dollars worth of cards, leaving none for the genuine collectors or players who want to build competitive…
