In a recent video @smpratte postulated that there’s a possibility we could look back on present times as the “golden age of modern”, which is a concept I find pretty exciting.
I wanted to post this thread to get some perspectives and thoughts on this idea, so thought I’d post a few discussion points in case anyone else shared interest;
Does the ‘unlimited’ nature of modern cards interfere with this concept at all?
How will the 1999-level furore surrounding the hobby, that’s gained momentum over the last couple of years (and absolutely bust down the doors of 2020), be looked back on? This year in particular is clearly one to be remembered.
Subjectively speaking, is there sufficient nostalgic value in modern cards? Does the TCG have significant influence on today’s generations to warrant looking back on this as a particularly great period in the hobby?
The ‘Golden Age’ of collectibles, in general, seems to describe a period during which initial releases and print runs of a collectible established it as something of quality and with inherent, if subjective, value. I think many would agree that the WOTC era was *the* Golden Age of Pokemon cards. Some might argue that we’re now exclusively in the ‘modern age’, but does that necessarily mean there can’t be a substructure of periods we consider to be ‘gold’, ‘silver’ or ‘bronze’? After all, ‘modern cards’ by definition cannot stay modern forever.
One thing that will hold back modern from becoming nostalgic is the amount of optimization that’s present in the way new sets are opened. In the 90s and 00s, Pokemon cards were being played with, traded, carried in pockets, and manhandled. Some cards I only knew existed because of checklists or magazines, today we have set lists with high-res images before the set is even released.
In addition, nobody that I knew was worried about the condition or future “investment” value. That lack of foresight is what makes it hard to track down mint copies of the cards we grew up with. Today I can pick up PSA 10 or gem equivalent copy of any modern card with the click of a button.
I’d say we are in the golden era for the specific collectors that would use a site like E4. Only a select few are actually enjoying the monumental price records, as more and more casual collectors get priced out. This is even true of new product before it hits the shelves. My wife works part time at our local game store and most kids didn’t even get the chance to open sets like Champion’s Path because the boxes were all sold ABOVE MSRP to adults who had pre-ordered them. Whether or not that will make the set more desirable by today’s kids, only time will tell.
I don’t think so. The only big cards are all Charizards and full art rainbow and hyper rares that I don’t foresee aging well. I think we’re in the golden age of vintage product if that makes sense. Nearly every wotc holo is sought after to some degree
I don’t think being in a world where everyone flocks to high street shops to buy out all their stock to sell online for a higher price is equivalent to a golden age. We’re living through a time when the hobby is overwhelmed with people who are only here with the hope of making some quick money. There’s very little care for the cards or the Pokémon themselves, only the resale value.
This is a pessimistic perspective. The opportunity for scalpers to exist just points to the massive amount of demand that is present for modern product. For every person flipping a product for profit, there is someone buying the product above retail prices just to open it.
There’s a reason scalpers exist today but weren’t around for Crimson Invasion
It is a pessimistic perspective, I agree, however that’s only because I don’t have much of an optimistic outlook on the situation to outweigh it. At the end of the day I think it’s all down to money and not something which can be attributed to excitement in the cards or the Pokémon themselves, and that to me is not an indicator that we’re in a golden age of Pokémon itself. After all, the Pokémon company aren’t really doing anything different now to what they’ve been doing for the past few years.
I’d argue that more people are opening modern product for profit than for pleasure and that more than half the people who have opened modern packs couldn’t name a quarter of the Pokémon in whatever set it is.
That is to say I don’t believe it’s a golden age for Pokémon itself, rather a golden age for viewing Pokémon as an investment. I can see people looking back to 2020 and commenting on how much money they made (or lost) by treating Pokémon as an asset rather than looking back to 2020 and commenting on how much they really enjoyed the franchise itself.
Absolutely! There are more collectors than ever. More cards than ever. More discussion than ever.
Sun and moon era was stagnant and saturated. Sword and shield is actually exciting. People enjoy seeing the new releases. It’s the most comparable modern experience to the original 1999 excitement.
I think a big factor being left out of this conversation is the actual gameplay of the game and how the current meta is. Even though the cards are expensive and look nice, to be in a golden age everything needs to be doing well. Most people on this site do not care about the current meta (myself included) but it is still a large part of the collectors out there and up until recently, the biggest consumers of modern product. It ebb and flows but a healthy meta is good for modern in terms of production and consumption.
I think rainbow rares will be looked back on as really Meh. Looking at one on its own, sure they can be kinda nice. But when you look at one after another they become monotonous, and really not as nice as the regular full art in holo.
Full art trainers are some of the only modern cards I care about collecting (they’re some of my favorite arts since the game started) and it would be nice if they had *some* rarity to them but unfortunately only the boring rainbow versions do. Great for ease of acquiring, meh for seeing them ever become worth anything.
Something like the Mimikyu card that has Acerola in it is imo 10x better looking than most rainbow rares including Charizards. It’s kinda funny to me that people couldn’t care less about it.
The difference is that todays market is so optimised for everything including modern which means that the cards you want are more readily available and they probably will be more available in the future in mint conditions.
But if you want to see the similarities a big part is to check the school yards, are the younger kids playing and trading cards in every break they have or is it just the collectors who are buying up modern, I would say it is a combination of them. The more kids play with them, the more I would say this is the modern golden age.
As for rememberability, I would say the modern cards are way nicer than base/jungle/fossil. Those sets are blend (imo) with not a whole lot happening in the art work while there are a lot of variations in modern sets, you can collect great art, full arts, rainbow rares, normal ultra rares. There is something for everyone and at everyones price points. If the kids are playing in the school yards, I would say the nostalgic values are higher than those of the wotc golden age.
Coming back into the world of Pokemon and Pokemon card collecting after 20 years away has me feeling a similar level of excitement as I did when I was 10.
The innocence of Pokemon seems to have gone away a bit with so many focused on the monetary value of their cards or collection but you can’t deny the all-around excitement that is happening to Pokemon right now. I think kids today who are collecting or playing with Pokemon cards will have a different nostalgic feeling towards Pokemon in 20 years, compared to how we/I feel now as an adult. It’s just not the same.
I feel like the Golden Age was when Pokemon first boomed in 1999/2000 and has now reemerged into the Modern Golden Age.
I do think 10 years from now we’ll look back at the last year or so + the 25th anniversary as a sort of peak in modern collecting. I think one thing that will definitely be memorable and nostalgic is the fact that all of this happened during Covid. I don’t think you can really overstate how important that is. I know I’ll always distinctly remember this period of my life and I think that’s true of anyone, kid or adult. The stronger the memories, the stronger the nostalgia to me. We’re at a highpoint in terms of interest in the hobby and I think we’ll continue having such a strong interest for the next year or two. After that…well anything can happen but I think we’ll see a downturn in interest as hobbies just naturally have ebbs and flows in interest.
With regards to the nostalgia value of modern cards, I think there’s literally no difference in terms of creating that sense of fondness/love towards the hobby. There’s nothing inherently different in modern compared to vintage/wotc for creating nostalgia. Nostalgia’s made through the memories of the experience as a whole, not because of any specific card itself. If anything, you could argue that the inability to buy an etb of Champion’s Path as a kid could cause them to buy them when they’re older and have the resources to do so. Logic’s reasoning for buying the Charizard was similar I believe, so again, it’s the experience as a whole that creates nostalgia to me, not just the cards themselves.