How Pokemon Cards Got So Expensive

five million dollars for a Pikachu three hundred thousand dollars for a Charizard the list goes on and on and on Pokemon cards the fun pieces of paper we collected as children are now worth hundreds thousands if not millions of dollars when one five dollar packet cards from the 90s containing something worth hundreds of thousands today well stick around if you want to learn how because this is the story behind why Pokemon cards are worth so much [Music] the hype around Pokemon card prices reached a fever pitch when YouTuber Logan Paul paid over 5 million dollars for the coveted Pikachu illustrator card but the rabbit hole runs much deeper than that the complex economy behind Pokemon card collecting still chugs ahead and the demand for Pokemon cards is still very real exemplified by channels like pokiref but before we get ahead of ourselves I want to take you back to the beginning back to the first Pokemon cards ever printed in America the set known as base set which launched in 1999 three years after Pokemon cards debuted in Japan this is where that famous Charizard card you've probably seen around comes from the thing is though not all base set cards were made equally you might own a base at Charizard but yours is almost certainly not worth hundreds of thousands of dollars why well two reasons one it's probably in poor condition and won't be able to score a PSA 10 upon review and two it's likely not from the first edition or shadowless print runs now I know I know what you must be thinking shadowless first edition PSA 10 what are you saying a Charizard is a Charizard right wrong in the early days sets of Pokemon cards were different depending on which print run they belonged to in the case of base set there were effectively three different sets two limited edition print runs known as first edition and shadowless and one known as unlimited so let's use Charizard as our example in base set's unlimited print run the Pokemon is framed by a box with a drop shadow the shadowless print run features the Pokemon framed by that same box but with no drop shadow as well as other minor aesthetic changes the first edition print run features all of the attributes of the shadowless one as well as a small icon on the left of the card which reads Edition 1. as it turns out these small changes make all the difference now don't get me wrong a PSA 10 Charizard from base set unlimited is still worth a lot of money around twelve thousand dollars according to a recent eBay Bay listing but it pales in comparison to a PSA 10 shadowless Charizard a two hundred thousand dollars or a PSA 10 first edition at almost three hundred thousand dollars but why what about the lack of a shadow makes the card worth so much more should I stop using drop shadows in my designs do people just hate shadows and again what does PSA 10 even mean what are you saying first off a grade from the PSA simply refers to the quality of a card usually how beat up or not beat up it is hence why your cards probably aren't worth much money they are likely pretty beat up a 10 means gem mint which essentially means it's not damaged or aesthetically out of proportion in any way at all second the reason a first edition Charizard is worth so much more than an unlimited one is not aesthetic it boils down to one word scarcity it's the same reason why Logan Paul spent 5 million dollars on a Pikachu there is literally one PSA 10 Pikachu card in the world in Logan Paul owns it there are 54 PSA 10 first edition Charizards so certainly more than one but not very many considering that as of March 2023 almost 53 billion cards have been printed that means if you were to be given one random Pokemon card from all the cards that have ever been printed the odds of you receiving a PSA 10 first edition Charizard would be close to one in a billion for context those are significantly worse odds than winning the lottery so unfortunately the truth comes to light it's not exactly that Pokemon cards are worth a lot it's that some Pokemon cards are really expensive because there just aren't many of them there's only one PSA 10 Pikachu illustrator card because it came from a special event in Japan it's not even part of a set there's only 54 PSA 10 Charizards because that print run went live before Pokemon really took off in the states unless were printed because of it but I don't want to sit here and pretend like nothing past the year 2000 is worth any money because that's simply not true in fact the numbers are are staggering and things really picked up around 2020. back when I was an avid Pokemon Card Collector the games that were out were Pokemon Black and White for context Pokemon card sets always align with the Pokemon video game out at that time I remember vividly saving up all my money to buy booster boxes for two sets from the black and white era dark explorers and Dragons exalted each box was a hundred dollars which is a typical price for a newly released booster box even today for many including my childhood self these boxes were for opening and then playing with I tore open those packs and got some really cool cards and competed at some tournaments with them to others though these boxes serve a very different purpose an investment vehicle today the lowest price I can find for a dark Explorer's booster box is about five thousand dollars for Dragons exalted about 3 500. certainly nowhere near the Staggering Heights of Pikachu illustrator but certainly more than the combined 200 I paid for them you would be hard-pressed to find an investment that 50 taxes on your money in 10 years but that's what dark explorers did again it all comes back to scarcity most people were like me they opened their cards they played with them others who probably weren't 10 years old opted instead to save them the trend doesn't show any sign of stopping right now extremely recent sets of Pokemon cards such as evolving Skies have already ballooned in price pokemania is as real as it's ever been probably in part thanks to Logan Paul and other YouTubers like pokirev and some of the artwork on these new rare cards is beautiful I can understand why people play so much value on them so there's your explanation of how we got here scarcity of course is my main sighted Factor but there's also the important context that Pokemon has historically been and continues to be an immensely popular cultural product in literally the highest grossing media franchise of all time above Marvel above Mickey Mouse above everything these two factors combined make for the deadly combination we've witnessed over the course of the 21st century I'd love to hear any and every one of your thoughts in the comments below thanks for watching if you're new here welcome to the bygone days this is a channel where I typically talk about all sorts of history from the Sirius to the silly and while this video is more of an explainer I think you could argue it falls under the umbrella of History somehow if you loved this video I think you'll really like this one on the history of how Donkey Kong saved to Nintendo let me know if you'd like to see more videos on the history of Pokemon or the Pokemon Trading Card Game don't forget to subscribe and I'll see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: The Bygone Days

Views: 64,141

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Id: vtUglgpjDg8

Length: 7min 29sec (449 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2023