\n<\/p>\n
Gen Z and Millennials are in agreement: their obsession with Pok\u00e9mon may never let up.<\/p>\n
Despite the Japanese franchise nearing its 30-year anniversary, young men in particular continue to be on a lifelong mission to \u201ccatch \u2018em all\u201d\u2014and are spending hundreds, sometimes even millions of dollars, collecting trading cards.<\/p>\n
Part of the \u201cboy math\u201d is that investing in cards could yield significant returns, and there might be some truth to the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pok\u00e9mon cards have seen the largest long-term increase in value among all card categories: up 3,261% over 20 years, according to data provided to Fortune<\/em> from Card Ladder.<\/a> Even looking at a one-year investment, the average Pok\u00e9mon card is increasing at nearly 46%\u2014a pace far exceeding hot stocks like Nvidia so far in 2025 or the S&P 500\u2019s average 12% annual return rate.<\/p>\n While cards have to be rare and in pristine condition to make significant profit, the industry frenzy has left the shelves of retailers like Walmart and Target bare\u2014and even caused some stores to enact limits or pauses on selling<\/a> altogether. And online, it\u2019s pushing the resale market to new heights.\u00a0<\/p>\n Users on eBay searched for \u201cPokemon\u201d nearly 14,000 times per hour in 2024, according to Adam Ireland, VP and GM of global collectibles at eBay. And pairing the Pok\u00e9mania with continued demand in the sports card world (thanks to athletes like Caitlin Clark and Michael Jordan), it\u2019s created a perfect storm of opportunity for the trading card industry. The total gross value of cards on eBay has increased for nine consecutive quarters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe trading card hobby has entered a new era, driven by technology, innovation, community, and a great balance of modern creativity\u2013with new sets, storylines and characters\u2013alongside good old nostalgia,\u201d Ireland tells Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n No other influencer may have driven continued interest in Pok\u00e9mon cards in particular than Logan Paul. The YouTuber, who is also known for his ventures into professional wrestling, boxing, and entrepreneurship, has spent millions of dollars purchasing cards\u2014and then profiting off the millions of views generated from his content.<\/p>\n \u201cNostalgia + business = the new art,\u201d he wrote<\/a> on social media after spending $200,000 on cards<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThese things are appreciating like crazy as collectibles are becoming very low supply, high demand art pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n Cliff Hawkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Logan Paul wearing a Charizard Pokemon card chain as he entered the ring for a 2021 boxing match against Floyd Mayweather.<\/em><\/p>\n In 2022, he broke<\/a> a Guinness World Record for the most expensive Pok\u00e9mon trading card sold at a private sale with the purchase of a PSA Grade 10 (essentially perfect condition) Pikachu Illustrator card for $5.275 million.<\/p>\n \u201cThis card cost me more than my ranch. My 84-acre ranch,\u201d Paul said at the time.<\/p>\n Other social platforms, including TikTok, are full of content creators who have dedicated their lives to the purchasing, opening, and reselling of cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n But for some, the joy of collecting or making a profit doesn\u2019t work out as much as planned, with a recent call into Dave Ramsey\u2019s personal finance vodcast showing just how bad the obsession is gotten for some young men.<\/p>\n \u201cI messed up big. I went behind my pregnant wife\u2019s back and racked up $26K in credit card debt in four months,\u201d the caller said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you jack up $26K on?\u201d Ramey asked.<\/p>\n \u201cPokemon cards\u2014trying to buy a bunch and sell them online, but it didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n Like other collectables, trading cards can be considered a \u201ccommodity\u201d and even art, according to Jason Howarth<\/a>, SVP of marketing and athlete relations at Panini America, a sports card company. But whether to consider it a true investment opportunity depends largely on your intentions.<\/p>\n \u201cFor some people, they (collect) because they view it as an investment. Others do it for the pure fun of it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n By and large, most collectors are not going so off the deep end and being overly financially irresponsible, and instead see the hobby as a guilty pleasure. That includes Ryan Hoge<\/a>, the president of PSA, one of the biggest companies that evaluates the condition and authenticity of trading cards. He said he personally has tens of thousands of cards, but like many, he enjoys collecting them, even if they are stored up in a closet.<\/p>\n \u201cI think sometimes people want to break from the digital, and this is a good outlet for it,\u201d Hoge tells Fortune<\/em>. And not only do you get to hold something in your hand, but you also get to interact with a community of like minded people that have similar interests.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, nearly 125,000 fans attended Fanatics\u2019 (which owns trading card company Topps) second annual convention centered around all things sports and collectibles. And the event notably saw influencer and former gymnast Livvy Dunne purchase a card<\/a> of her professional baseball player boyfriend for $2,850. The National Sports Collectors Convention<\/a>, which also brings over 100,000 fans, is set for later this summer outside of Chicago.<\/p>\n While the trading card industry was on the brink of extinction following overproduction in the 1990s, it\u2019s since recovered and is booming. Sports cards bring in $1 billion in annual revenue for manufacturers and retailers, according to The Athletic<\/em><\/a>. Pok\u00e9mon alone brought in a similar number, and was the only toy to surpass $1 billion in sales last year, says Circana<\/a> data.<\/p>\n And even though over 75 billion Pok\u00e9mon cards have been produced (enough to wrap around Earth end-to-end 165 times), demand is still skyhigh, according to Barry Sams, vice president of game development and community engagement at The Pok\u00e9mon Company International.<\/p>\n \u201cWith explosion in demand, we\u2019re printing at maximum capacity to deliver the greatest amount of cards possible to fans for current expansions while ensuring we maintain quality standards,\u201d he tells Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThose who grew up with Pok\u00e9mon now have children of their own to share that passion with, and oftentimes, that means revisiting old Pok\u00e9mon card collections and recreating fond childhood memories as a parent.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The opportunity within the card industry is causing retailers like GameStop to pay greater attention. The electronics store said in the first quarter of 2025<\/a>, collectibles, such as Pok\u00e9mon and sports cards, made up 29% of the company\u2019s sales\u2014outselling video game software.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on trading cards as a natural extension of our existing business,\u201d GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said at the company\u2019s annual shareholder meeting last month. \u201cThe trading card market, whether it\u2019s sports, Pok\u00e9mon or collectibles, is aligned with our heritage. It fits our trade and model. It appeals to our core customer base. And it\u2019s deeply embedded in physical retail.\u201d<\/p>\n The industry continues to fascinate even world leaders. During this year\u2019s Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, President Donald Trump was seen with a graded trading card<\/a> that depicted the assassination attempt on him last year.<\/p>\n And in a recent meeting with a young student, Pope Leo XIV didn\u2019t shy away from the trading card frenzy and was more than happy to sign<\/a> a \u201cPopplio<\/a>\u201d Pokemon card.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how old you are, when you get a pack of cards in your hand, the first thing you want to do is rip it open and you hope that you\u2019re going to get that hot rookie, or you\u2019re going to get a player from your favorite team,\u201d says Panini\u2019s Howarth. \u201cIf any one of those things happens, you\u2019re ecstatic.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gen Z and Millennials are in agreement: their obsession with Pok\u00e9mon may never let up. Despite the Japanese franchise nearing its 30-year anniversary, young men in particular continue to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":5253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[6531,1655,1710,6529,6533,228,6530,1245,292,2094,6528,293,6532],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nSocial media is driving a trading card craze\u2014and some poor financial decisions<\/h2>\n
A billion-dollar market built on nostalgia<\/h2>\n