Remember the thrill of trading Pokémon cards on the playground? Those days of chasing a holographic Charizard now seem like a distant memory. Today, the world of Pokémon cards has transformed into a high-stakes market, leaving many kids unable to even get their hands on a pack. It's a story of unexpected turns, where a beloved childhood hobby has become a complex, and sometimes frustrating, investment game for adults.
The Pokémon phenomenon has been going strong since the late '90s. The original games, like Red and Blue, sparked a global obsession. But when it comes to the trading cards, things have taken an unfortunate turn. It's now incredibly difficult to find newly released cards, thanks to a massive surge in reselling and scalping over the past year.
Selling old cards to collectors has always been part of the hobby. Like baseball cards or Magic: The Gathering, some Pokémon cards can fetch thousands. However, the Pokémon resale market has exploded, with even new cards valued at hundreds, even before they're released. For example, the latest set, Phantasmal Flames, featured a rare special illustration Charizard valued at over £600 before anyone had even found one. Considering a pack of cards costs about £4, the potential profit is enormous.
This has created a speculative stock market around the card game. Adults are snapping up cards, making it nearly impossible for kids to collect or play the game.
Online retailers, such as Amazon, often use opaque raffles just to give people a chance to buy cards. In the real world, resellers camp outside shops for hours, hovering around shelves and buying everything before anyone else can get a look – all to resell boxes that are often kept sealed.
Ben Thyer, owner of BathTCG, an independent trading card game shop, shares the challenges: "My staff have had customers threatening to come back and rip their heads off. It’s become quite unpleasant at times. We've even seen people list products on Facebook immediately after buying them from us, or sell them right outside the shop. We're anxious to put things on the shelves because we don't want to encourage that kind of behavior. We used to sell whole boxes of booster packs, but we've had to stop that and limit individual packs."
Finley Pink from Keynsham arrived at BathTCG almost two hours before opening to secure cards from the recent Phantasmal Flames set. He was first in line, among 40 people. "Scalpers are making it impossible to find cards. It's crazy, and YouTubers talking up the money are making things even crazier!"
And this is the part most people miss... The popularity of YouTubers and TikTok influencers, who record themselves opening packs and listing card values, is also a significant factor. They exaggerate reactions to "hits," discarding common cards and focusing on high-value ones. The joy of collecting or playing for fun is no longer the point; it's all about maximizing "value."
Pete Sessions, a project manager from Bristol, is concerned about the impact of influencers on his son Alfie's hobby. "He's been into Pokémon for a few years but just got into collecting the cards over the past six months – I've had to ask shops when their stock drop days are just to try to find some," he says. "Alfie watches YouTubers and he's become very aware of the 'value' of cards. I'm worried about the perception that it's easy to make loads of money, when that probably isn't the case."
Thyer adds, "People are opening these amazing cards on stream, but you don’t know how many thousands of packs they’ve probably gone through, or how much money they’ve spent. They feed you the good stuff – that dopamine hit – and you think: ‘Oh, I can do that!’ And then you spend a silly amount of money hoping to get one hit.”
The hype around making hundreds of pounds by opening a pack has created a volatile market. People use apps like Collectr to track their card portfolios for price fluctuations. This has also led to shady practices, like selling fake cards or opening and resealing packs after swapping out rare cards.
Then there's the card-grading industry. Cards are sent to independent organizations, rated, and sealed to potentially increase their value. Card shows are now common, where hobbyists seek their favorite cards, surrounded by those making deals worth tens of thousands.
Despite The Pokémon Company printing 10.2 billion cards in the year to March 2025, they're still struggling to keep up with demand. When approached for comment, they shared a statement from seven months ago, saying they are “actively working to print more of the impacted Pokémon TCG products as quickly as possible and at maximum capacity”.
But here's where it gets controversial... Fortunately, there are signs the reseller market is starting to cool down, with older sets trickling back onto shelves. "There are signs of the market cracking – prices of singles are coming down, sealed products are coming down. People aren’t as ferocious as they once were,” says Thyer. “There’s also a lot of people now thinking, ‘Christmas is soon and I need some money because I’ve not made what I was hoping for [from reselling cards]’. So we’ll see it dip, but then early 2026 brings Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, so I think we’ll see another crazy period.”
While many shops have adjusted booster pack pricing to reflect their perceived value, BathTCG refuses. "We won’t do it to our customers," Thyer says. “It’s hard as a business owner to say, ‘I don’t want to make more money’, but I don’t want to be another one of those shops remembered for scalping. Once the bubble bursts and everything goes back to normal, hopefully people will remember that we protected our community and looked after our players – that we ensured our local customers got cards at reasonable prices.”
What do you think? Is the current Pokémon card market sustainable? Do you believe the influence of social media and influencers is positive or negative for the hobby? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
