Over the last 15 years PSA has graded more Pokemon cards per year than Football and Hockey 8 times. No other non sport cards has ever come close in a calendar year to accomplishing even half of that.
It’s safe to say that no other non sports card series EVER has had the collectible interest of Pokemon.
Magic the Gathering, even with half a decade head start, has only graded a quarter the number as Pokemon.
This little Japanese import has become a true collectible sensation ALL OVER THE WORLD.
What’s happened with Pokemon is unprecedented…a true phenomenon of the millennial generation.
The question here is, “Why?” What is it about Pokemon, or its relation to the times, that caused this anomaly to happen?
So as not to influence your thoughts, I’ll chime in later with some of my ideas.
I agree with @bagoly14. Pokemon cards are simple and easy to understand, X attack does Y damage to another Pokemon.
Also, TPC has really catered to both types of people who are interested in the TCG, players and collectors. For players, there are tin promos and such that bring down the prices of expensive playable cards, reprint sets like Legendary Treasures, and stuff like that. For collectors, there are the Full Art cards, gold star cards, and others that aren’t really essential in the TCG but still look damn cool.
As for PSA grading, it increases the value of your collection and provides assurance of the one thing collectors really care about: condition. It also makes your collection a bit more exclusive, tons of people may have that Charizard card, but how many have it in a Gem Mint 10?
Originality of first couple Pokemon generations remains still unmatched, that’s the real deal what brings people back to this hobby even after long breaks. And like mentioned in earlier messages the variety of different tcg products is amazing, there’s something for everyone.
The appearance of the characters while being released side by side with the show and video games allowed people to not only choose between collecting AND/OR playing the card game, but allowed you to be flexible in how you got into Pokemon. Anyone who loved the game or show most undoubtedly wanted to get their hands on at least a few of the cards. So you had that there. Plus the wide age-range of appeal throughout multiple generations of individuals side by side with generations of Pokemon has made it extensively easier for kids to feel like they “grew up with it.”.
Magic and Yugioh are great, but the games and shows related to the latter were never as reachable for the age range as Pokemon. The games could get pretty complicated too, and as someone who has played Magic, Yugioh, AND Pokemon, there definitely seems to be this sense that you can’t JUST collect Magic the Gathering cards without playing the game. Yugioh you could just collect cards from, but there’s this larger playing gap that you’re missing out of. However, with the style of play Yugioh keeps changing, it often leaves other people who grew up with it feeling out of touch and left behind.
Pokemon has accessed the media as a virtual game, a show where you can fall in love with characters, and as a card game that you can idolize your favorite Pokemon and have the option of collecting AND/OR playing the card game with no pressure coming from either side.
As for Sports cards… I honestly don’t know many people who collect them outside of older generations. So I don’t know much on that part.
I agree 100% here with Azul, unlike Yugi I felt the characters were too old and aimed mainly at teenagers. Pokemon concentrated on children, and with the protagonist being that of a child ,my generation grew up with it and even today nearly 20 years on, it’s still going strong. From aiming at new marketing with TCG World events and being involved with a community from around the world Nintendo surly knows who to promote their market for all people.
Plus Pokemon cards unlike Yugi follow set numbers, which personally I think gets you hooked on completing the sets, heck ten years on from collecting I got back into it, as I was determined to finish my sets as I could never could afford it as a child. For me I will continue to collect Pokemon cards, but not for the value as such, but for the memories mainly and for that inner child.
Pokemon has video games and markets towards a variety of age groups and cult groups. Magic does not.
The older magic cards that would be considered “collectible” by Pokemon players, are all still playable in the TCG, meaning grading older cards would not make sense as you can play them in decks. EX: why would a Vintage player or Legacy player want PSA power nine cards or dual lands?
Pokemon has had a variety of special promotional cards and very unique cards never released in english. Magic has never really had any such cards, Judge promos perhaps? But those mare any in quantity. There really are no “Holy Grail” cards in magic.
People by nature are collectors. Usually it’s memory related. No game had the initial impact of Pokemon. It seemed EVERYONE wanted them in 1999 on. Most parents couldn’t find them and the secondary market exploded. I sold over 3500 Pokemon auctions in 1999 alone on Yahoo Auctions, and this was when all payments were done through the mail. I’d go to my mailbox and have 20/30 white envelopes with cash or checks inside.
Then PayPal started. They would give us 5.00 for evey customer we could get to sign up and pay us with paypal. You’d sell a 3.00 card and end up with 8.00. It was sweet.
Another thought about Pokemons amazing popularity is the disenchantment in sports. The steroid error hurt the hobby as did the constant movement of players in their prime. It got to the point where you didn’t care who was on your team. Only the team mattered which hurt the collectible side of the hobby. It sucked to have a Dodger Mike Piazza jersey when he moved around the league…especially when he went to the Mets.
Plus, throughout the 90s there were loads of company’s producing cards and dozens of sets every season. It wasn’t like when you only had 2 companys producing cards.
Nice point Gary. Ive spoken to people of older generations who get (very) upset when you talk to them about favourite players etc who switched teams/clubs. Some people even end up hating their favourite player for “betraying” them while i know some others who follow a player wherever thy go and don’t really care about the team.
Pokemon is/was good at getting into childrens lives. You wake up in the morning, watch pokemon. Go to school and talk about pokemon and trade cards. Get home and play it on gameboy for a few hours. Plus if i remember correctly the first major realease in Australia wasn’t too long before christmas, so millions were spent on them as gifts within a couple months of being launched.
I thought in Magic Vintage you could use proxies, so long as you had the physical card to show? So whether or not they are graded isn’t super relevant to the players?
@azul Ryu: you gotta remember that Black Lotus was printed in 3 sets with copies easily available if you got the $$$
You heard correctly actually, well partially. You used to be able to proxy a certain # of cards in the old SCG Vintage tournaments, I don’t even think you needed the physical card either. WOTC tournaments like the Vintage Championships however there were no proxies. Also, Vintage players were all about being stylish/having insane looking decks; who wouldn’t want to be able to lay down actual Black Bordered Power 9 cards while playing?
True, but I’m talking Alpha. Granted, as proven by the points made relevant earlier in this thread, there’s not many widespread MTG collectors, and for a card that only goes for a couple grand in the larger scheme of things, it’s dwarfed in value by some of the Pokemon cards out there. XD
Never cared for Vintage. I still play Legacy though, but consider myself a casual player. I do prefer it over Standard as that gets expensive and I find the restrictions uninteresting. There is something about having some of the older cards too that could do some really weird stuff and playing by old rules. Hell, I remembered someone who played vintage, attached a card that cast “Deathtouch” (back before you had to do combat damage), and just infinitely tapped/untapped to deal 1 point of damage to every card on the field, causing all creatures to die.
Some Vintage play is just so broken if you have the right cards. XD
