Out of sheer interest, does anyone have a gauge for how popular modern ptcg is in the playgrounds - e.g. teachers, school admins? I get the impression the hobby - or at least the collect-ability side of it - is still going strong in some schools, if only from several comments I’ve seen on Reddit. Bonus points if anyone has a flavour of international school trends.
I disagree with some who have claimed that the cards are going to die out amongst kids due to modern entertainment being overwhelmingly digital. There is nothing digital that can replace the satisfaction and tangibility of physical Pokemon cards - holding a piece of art in your hands. Not to mention that when we were kids, these things were akin to currency. Combine all this will a still-incredibly-popular media franchise and growing Youtube influence, I’d be willing to wager they’re still going strong in most western schools. I have absolutely nothing to base that assertion on other than my own conjecture though, so would love to hear some thoughts on this.
I work in a school and modern sets are fairly popular. Kids often bring in certain cards to trade or they bring in the modern binders to show off. Another popular one is Yugioh. This is Australia btw
I have a younger sister who’s in 8th grade and she told me that 1st-5th graders collect/trade them, but that no one her age is engaged with it (but MTG is very big, apparently). This is in the Northeastern U.S. and at a very small school (~30-40 kids per grade) – so take this with even more of a grain of salt because of the sample size.
My friend’s kids go to an international school in Guangzhou, China. Kids in their class are really into PTCG and bring their cards to school. In fact, it has caused enough trouble (I guess kids being upset over bad trades lol) that the teacher is urging parents not to let them bring.
So my feeling is that Pokemon cards are live and doing well even these days either the younger generations.
I spoke at two local schools in December and was asked for three more before the outbreak. The teachers/admins seem much more open to the game than they were 20 years ago. Maybe because they were the ones affected by the bans back then;)
Supporting the game is a better strategy. Take it off the playground and put it into clubs:)
@thevenusaurgarden , @pokehut1 , While I’m not in an environment with too many children, I think the High school kids are raging over the Pokemon cards.
Are kids trading in the Mercedes to own some PSA 8 1st Editions is uncertain. It’s similar to the hype of the 90’s wotc kids.
Apparently 2 year olds own cards psa slabs now too.
My daughter’s right at the age and they are glued to tick tock, JoJo siwa, and slime hype. She couldn’t even find fans of pokemon I think teachers were afraid the kids would start gambling or trading cards that lead to bullying. I know there are a lot of math skill, probility, reading comprehention, etc but popular kids have way of ruining things & teachers don’t want to deal with the hassle of getting to the bottom of the problems when they arise.
My wifes a teacher and gives out pokemon bulk to kids for doing good work, apparently they get super hyped over it and pokemon is still really popular. A lot of kids collect the cards (i don’t believe they play the game, just like the cards)
My wife is a kindergarten teacher. She said she has to take pokemon cards away from kids all the time because it is distracting the class. The funny thing is she told me a story where some kids will bring the jumbo cards to school and they will actually fold them up like a handkerchief and put them into their pockets lol.
I think teachers were afraid the kids would start gambling or trading cards that lead to bullying. I know there are a lot of math skill, probility, reading comprehention, etc but popular kids have way of ruining things & teachers don’t want to deal with the hassle of getting to the bottom of the problems when they arise.