Last updated: November 19, 2025
Iāve been diving deep into the Pokemon trading community in the last 2 weeks. It first started with my ex-roommate getting into it - he would passionately advocate about the profits being made across different types of pokemon transactions which got me curious to say the least. Weāve seen the Logan Paul $1M charizard purchases and all the āomg I found my old cardsā hype across the internet. Iāve really enjoyed getting into it, and weāll see how long it lasts. Itās quite an expensive hobby though when cards from 1999 can be in the five to six digit range in cost. This made me really curious to think about whether this is all hype or not. Below is my take!
Art
This is the major intrinsic value I can think of with the cards. While some people may buy the cards to play the game, much of the community focuses on it for the trading aspect. This makes me think of Bitcoin/crypto or even Labubus. I often think of the Warren Buffet quote āif I had all the bitcoin in the world, I couldnāt do anything with itā. Now, this is similar to many āalternative assetsā in that if you amass 100% ownership of every item in the category, there may be very little value. However, with Pokemon cards, I think that people do value the ability to display the art itself. Itās a collection - people are so creative in the ways that they sequence cards on a page in a binder, or put together connecting arts, or even make up new and funny ways for cards to be known (e.g. booger mew). The art form is the most fundamental intrinsic value of all Pokemon TCG. Some of my favorite arts below:
Nostalgia
Art alone is not the driving force for the demand. Pokemon has released new generations of games, shows, movies, and characters regularly from 1996 (Kanto), 1999 (Johto), 2002 (Hoenn), Sinnoh (2006), Unova (2010), Kalos (2013), Alola (2016), Galar (2019), and Paldea (2022). Each of these pokemon generations represents a new wave of children aging into adults with purchasing power. Nostalgia is a powerful factor that amplifies all other aspects of the hobby, as it is a purchasing motivator. We may continue to see more popularity of the Galar and Paldea generations as those kids turn into young adults with discretionary income. Some comparisons between ābase setā and āmodernā versions of those same cards
Scarcity
Scarcity is the next factor as far as I can tell that drives price appreciation. One, the Pokemon company is reportedly physically limited in terms of printing capacity based on factory space. Coupled with the fact that they continually create new cards and sets to release, each set will go āout of printā within ~2 years of release. This creates natural scarcity unless the Pokemon company decides to reprint cards, which I believe would generate negative backlash from the community except in very specific ways (e.g. the Celebrations set reprinted the Charizard but those prices are nowhere near the original base set shadowless Charizard). Additionally, of all the cards that do get printed, a number of them are not āpristineā, they either get damaged or they are cut from the factory printed sheet imperfectly. This introduces āgrading scarcityā since even if you can get a particular card from a set, there is a large chance that itās not perfect. Grading companies like PSA, BGS, CGC, TAG, among many others have generated demand for scarce goods by being the arbiter of quality for pokemon cards. This is the highest population PSA 10 card of all time so far, and thereās only ~112,000 of them. For a global community, this might not even be that much!
Asymmetric Information
Pokemon cards are also bought and sold in an imperfect information marketplace. Between eBay, Facebook Marketplace, peer-to-peer in-person sales, card shows, etc, there are a lot of ways for cards to be bought and sold with no centralized way to track quality or prices. A lot of apps (Collectr, Pokedata, Pricecharting, TCGPlayer) are either self-reported or pull information from places like eBay. There are Instagrams, Discord groups, WhatsApp groups, FB groups, and a number of influential social media figures that give perspectives on past and future price movements. I think that this lends itself to valuable trading opportunities since everyone wants to act rationally but nobody has sufficient information to do so.
Below are three price quotes using different aggregation methods on the new Mega Charizard X EX from Phantasmal Flames. While only a small variance, I believe this type of information on price differential can certainly influence the market.
Speculative Value
Finally, the combination of all the above: art, nostalgia, scarcity, asymmetric information, leads to an active buying and selling marketplace across the globe. The influx and outflow of demand creates fluctuating prices. The variety of products between sealed (elite trainer boxes, booster bundles, booster packs, ultra premium collections), raw singles, and graded single cards along with this fluctuating supply and demand with constrained scarcity lends itself to reasonable liquidity and general price appreciation, which enforces more confidence in people who are willing to buy-and-hold or buy-to-trade.
Many Pokemon collections have historically performed well as an alternative asset, and the above is my assessment of why that might be the case. Iāve just started in this hobby and I definitely understand sinking a bunch of money into it might turn into a loss, but so far itās been a fun topic with friends and Iāve really enjoyed putting together my personal collection in a binder, with some speculative investments of my own. Happy ripping!