Like many people, Pokémon TCG Pocket has re-ignited my interest in pocket monsters. Its colorful booster packs and easy-to-learn battle system have me glancing at the paper trading card game, curious to dive in deep and explore collecting, trading, and battling in real life. However, the Pokémon TCG is not the world of childlike wonder it may first appear to be. Beneath its adorable monsters and approachable gameplay lies an off-putting toxicity.
That toxicity has less to do with actually playing and more to do with Pokémon card collecting. Since the late 2010s (and especially since the 2020 pandemic), interest in the trading card game has exploded. A record number of people seemed to be nostalgic for a distant, more innocent past.
In Pokémon TCG Pocket, you can open a decent amount of packs for free. The gambling-like highs and lows of pulling quality cards remain, but you don’t need to make serious financial investments to have a good time.
However, if you want to crack the best Pokémon packs in the paper game, you’ll need to fork over some cash. And if you want to chase after the prettiest, rarest, or oldest cards around, you’ll need to really invest. Collecting Pokémon cards is an investor’s game, not a playground one.
It was always clear that there wouldn’t be enough first-edition Pokémon cards to go around. However, that was part of the charm for some, and it didn’t deter them from hunting the cards down. Influencers online can get famous by showing off rare Pokémon cards they’ve spent thousands of dollars acquiring or reacting to their pulls from particularly pricy booster boxes.
As a newcomer to the hobby, I don’t begrudge people who can afford a Base Set Charizard their purchase. I’m perfectly happy to chase after modern, less scarce cards and leave the big fish to the whales.
The problem is that even the newest Pokémon sets are scarce, expensive, and scalped to high heaven. The Pokémon TCG printed a record 11.9 billion cards in 2023, and there still weren’t enough to meet surging demand.
The latest (though certainly not the first) example of this phenomenon is Prismatic Evolutions. Its most desirable cards feature stunning new art of some of the game’s cutest Pokémon. Low pull rates for the chaser cards, combined with fears that scalpers would snap up all the product (as they’d been spotted doing with other recent Pokémon sets like Surging Sparks) drove people to buy early and buy in large quantities.
And, as predicted, the scalpers leapt on this opportunity. Pre-orders were hard to get, and release-day purchases were even more challenging. Many stores limited orders or refused to stock Prismatic Evolutions entirely, so hostile and competitive was the Pokémon scene of late.
Videos and images surfaced online of individuals buying trolleys full of booster boxes and hoarding huge numbers of products in their homes. Reprints have been promised, but that’s no guarantee that the new copies of these cards will be any easier to find.
Perhaps older Pokémon fans have acclimatized to this intensity. Several of my co-workers have managed to grab Prismatic Evolutions, whether through speedy pre-orders or by taking an entire day off work to hunt local game stores on release day.
And, after all, accounts claim that Poké-mania was just as bad in the 90s when the TCG first hit the US. Maybe Pokémon collectors have always been this aggressive? Maybe this is normal?
As a newbie, it certainly doesn’t feel normal. I’m an Eeveelutions lover, and I hugely prefer opening packs on Pocket to actually battling, so I naturally felt the pull of Prismatic Evolutions. But the chaos that unfolded between pre-order and release date put me off wanting to participate. If the odds were so stacked against me, and the cost of entry was so high, why play the game at all?
In its first four days, Pokémon TCG Pocket apparently made $12.1 million. After a month, estimates put its revenue at over $200 million. While we have less concrete stats for the paper game, some reports say the TCG made $857 million in 2023 in Japan alone.
I may be reluctant to join the fight for Umbreons and Eevees, but based on the profits being made, I seem to be in the minority. To those of you going into (Pokémon) battle, I do not understand you – but I wish you good luck.
If you’re interested in Pokémon for playing, here’s a summary of how to play Pokémon cards. Plus, we have a guide to the strongest Pokémon around right now.
Source: Wargamer
