Pokémon cards have been around for over 25 years, but they haven’t always been as expensive as they are now. What happened? Did something change? What makes Pokémon cards expensive at this point? Will they always remain expensive?
These are questions that we will give an answer to, as well as some others in this article today. Let’s get right to it!
Pokémon Cards: When Did They Get More Expensive?
When Pokémon cards were first released, they were incredibly popular. They sold better than expected and kids around the world started collecting and trading them.
Even over the next 20 years though, they never skyrocketed in price. Sure, there were some cards that sold for more money, but we didn’t see many $100,000 price tags at that point.
As of 2020 though, Pokémon seemed to get several major boosts in price. The major influences seemed to be:
- 25 Year Anniversary of Pokémon Cards: This meant that everyone collecting Pokémon cards when they originally released either had children who started to collect or saw that they were gaining popularity and dug up their old collections
- Covid: More people were indoors and started taking up hobbies, Pokémon card collecting being one of them.
- Logan Paul set several world records spending money on Pokémon cards and brought it even more popularity
In looking through the Most Expensive Pokémon Cards Ever Sold, we can see that ALL of them were set no earlier than late 2020. So these factors among others raised prices tremendously on what was already a very popular hobby.
What Makes Pokémon Cards Expensive Now?
Prices for the beloved franchise have started dropping from their peak in 2021. However, they still remain incredibly inflated from prices before that point. Why is that?
The answer is relatively simple.
- Pokémon cards as a whole are still incredibly popular and sought after by now several generations of people. Despite card prices dropping, the number of new sold Pokémon cards continues to remain high.
- Scarcity drives prices. Old card sets won’t get reprinted so the amount of nice older cards continues to decrease. Pair that with the fact that your chance of pulling modern chase cards have drastically decreased from the original sets, and popularity and pricing remains.
I’ll add that grading Pokémon cards does increase their value and scarcity and will make them a better investment in the future. Let’s cover our last point.
Will Pokémon Cards Always Be Expensive?
The answer to this question isn’t quite as simple as the last two.
We have to start with if Pokémon will always be popular. If they aren’t, then there won’t be enough demand to keep prices high.
Well it turns out that Pokémon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time, which is incredibly impressive. Pokémon cards have now also survived through 25 years of production, which is not a short period of time to remain in popularity.
So for me personally? I don’t get the feeling that Pokémon cards will be going anywhere. If they will remain expensive though? That depends completely on the ongoing popularity and scarcity of the cards themselves.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t go switching out your 401k for Pokémon cards. That being said, it doesn’t seem like the market for Pokémon cards will be going anywhere anytime soon.
Thanks for reading!
