Pokémon Card Frenzy: Nostalgia, Hype and Skyrocketing Prices
A $5 Million Charizard and the New Trading Card Craze
When YouTuber-turned-boxer Logan Paul strode into a 2021 prizefight with a shiny Charizard Pokémon card dangling from a gold chain around his neck, it was a flashy sign of an unlikely boom. Paul claimed the rare card – one of only a few graded “gem mint” – was worth up to $1 million. In reality, that estimate wasn’t far-fetched. In the past few years, Pokémon trading cards have exploded in value and popularity, with some coveted cards fetching six and even seven figures at auction. It’s a frenzy fueled by pandemic-era nostalgia, social media influencers, speculative investors, and even supply shortages – a perfect storm that has turned a 1990s kids’ hobby into big business.
Pandemic Nostalgia Unleashes a Pokémon Revival
Stuck at home during COVID-19 lockdowns, many adults found themselves digging through closets and rediscovering their childhood Pokémon card collections. The COVID pandemic created an unprecedented boom for the Pokémon card market. Collectors, largely millennials who grew up with Pokémon, suddenly went into “trading overdrive,” pushing card prices up nearly 500% during the pandemic’s peak. It helped that 2021 marked Pokémon’s 25th anniversary – stirring nostalgia just as people had extra free time (and, for some, stimulus money) to spend on hobbies. “A lot of people are pulling out their old binders from the attic and reliving their childhood,” says YouTuber and longtime collector Nate “RealBreakingNate” Sharp. “They want those cards back… especially if they got rid of them.”
The numbers back up the nostalgia-fueled rush. Online marketplace eBay reported a 574% surge in Pokémon card sales in 2020 compared to the year prior – part of a global wave that saw trading cards of all kinds sell out in stores. In spring 2021, sales of Pokémon cards were nearly 600% higher than the previous year’s level. Millions of lockdown-weary adults flocked to the hobby, armed with spare time and disposable income, hoping to reclaim a piece of their past. “Those classic cards with immediately recognizable artwork started to climb in value,” Insider reported, especially as ’90s kids with money chased the joy of feeling 10 years old again.
At the same time, the renewed interest far eclipsed the original late-1990s Pokémon craze. “Right now, the Pokémon card boom is even bigger than when it first came to the United States back in the ’90s,” Sharp told Insider. “It’s probably the biggest it’s ever been in its 25 years.” In other words, Poké-mania didn’t just come back – it came back supercharged.
Collectors crowd a trade area at the 2023 Pokémon World Championships. Nostalgic fans – many now adults – have returned to the hobby in huge numbers, hunting for coveted cards amid a post-pandemic collectibles boom.
Influencers and the “Logan Paul Effect”
Another driving force behind the craze can be summed up in one name: Logan Paul. The social media star’s very public foray into Pokémon cards in late 2020 acted as gasoline on an open flame. In October 2020, Paul spent $200,000 on a sealed first-edition Base Set booster box – essentially a factory box of vintage 1999 card packs – and live-streamed himself opening it for an audience of nostalgic fans. The event drew over 300,000 concurrent viewers (and millions more in replays) as Paul and fellow influencers excitedly tore through foil packs in search of rare cards. The result was a frenzy: in the immediate weeks after Paul’s box-break stream, one major reseller saw Pokémon card trade activity jump 300%. Prices followed suit. For example, the average selling price of an unlimited Base Set Charizard card (graded PSA 9) shot up from about $470 to $4,366 in the month after Paul’s stream. (Even after a later market correction, that Charizard still traded at nearly four times its pre-stream value.)
Paul was hardly alone. An influx of popular content creators and celebrities opening packs on camera helped lead to the boom. DJ and influencer Steve Aoki began hosting Pokémon pack opening streams, and rapper Logic made headlines for spending $220,000 to buy a single first-edition Charizard at auction. On Twitch and YouTube, countless creators jumped on the trend, from gaming superstar Ninja (who reportedly bought ten elite card boxes at inflated prices) to Pokémon-centric streamers opening hundreds of packs for excited viewers. These flashy openings generated huge views – effectively turning Pokémon cards into viral content. “Pack opening videos…are incredibly popular and easily consumable,” Insider noted, and modern fans can live vicariously through online personalities ripping open rare packs.
But for many influencers, cracking packs wasn’t just about nostalgia – it was also business. On platforms like YouTube, creators staged high-stakes “box break” events: they’d purchase ultra-rare sealed boxes, auction off the individual packs to viewers, then open them live on camera. Buyers hoped for a jackpot pull (like a mint Charizard worth hundreds of thousands), while the host raked in revenue from both the pack sales and adoring audience. “Many content creators are snapping up rare vintage booster boxes…in what are known as box breaks,” explained one gaming outlet. They see the huge sums they drop as an investment they will recoup through pack sales and content revenue, rather than buying to collect for themselves. In one case, Logan Paul’s first box break was so profitable that he doubled down: he spent another $2 million to buy six more vintage boxes for a follow-up event in early 2021, confidently inflating the market price of those boxes along the way. It’s a feedback loop of hype – the more influencers show off pricey Pokémon cards, the more new collectors rush in, driving prices even higher.
From $4 Packs to Million-Dollar Prizes
All of this hype and demand has sent Pokémon card prices into the stratosphere. Cards that once traded for pocket change on schoolyards are now commanding eye-watering sums in the secondary market. “This original set of cards has always had value, but 2020 caused their prices to skyrocket,” says John McDonald, an executive at TCGplayer, a major online card marketplace. By the end of that year, the top collectible Pokémon singles (worth $50 or more) had increased 466% in value on TCGplayer’s platform. And in early 2021, six of the eight highest-priced cards sold on that site were Charizards – underscoring that Pokémon card value is driven mostly by scarcity and nostalgia, not gameplay utility. (Charizard, the fiery dragon, has effectively become the Mickey Mantle rookie card of Pokémon.) In fact, eBay’s 2020 trading card report found Charizard was the single most popular card on the market, standing alongside legends like Michael Jordan and LeBron James as a top draw for collectors.
Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of Poké-mania’s extremes is the rise of record-breaking trophy cards. Take the Pikachu Illustrator card – a Japanese prize card so rare only a few dozen exist. In 2021, Logan Paul acquired a mint-conditioned copy of this “holy grail” card in a deal valued at an astonishing $5.275 million. Guinness World Records recognized it as the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold. Meanwhile, Charizard cards have repeatedly notched their own headlines. First-edition Charizard holos, once obtainable in $3.99 booster packs, have sold for over $300,000 apiece in top condition, and rapper Logic’s $220K Charizard purchase in 2020 briefly held a record before being surpassed. Sealed booster boxes of the 1999 Base Set – originally retailing for maybe $100 each – have become collector gold: one such box sold for $360,000 at auction in late 2020, only to be flipped for $408,000 just two months later.
An authenticated 1999 1st Edition Base Set booster box – once a $100 retail product – now sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction. The spike in value of sealed Pokémon card boxes has been unprecedented in the past few years.
The trend isn’t limited to vintage ’90s memorabilia either. Modern Pokémon card sets have seen frenzied demand and price spikes upon release. In February 2021, for example, a highly anticipated set called Shining Fates hit stores – and immediately sold out everywhere. Fans struggled to find packs at retail price; an elite trainer box (MSRP around $50) was soon reselling for $100–$140 on secondary markets. It’s clear that across the board, from old cards to new, Pokémon’s trading card economy has been operating at a fever pitch.
Speculation, Shortages, and the Hunt for Profit
Underlying the boom is a strong streak of speculation. Pokémon cards are now being treated by many as an investment – “similar to how stocks are bought and sold,” as one longtime hobby shop owner observed. The line between collector and investor has blurred: some buyers genuinely love Pokémon, while others are doubling as investors and treating rare cards like alternative assets (not unlike fine art or coins). The combination of Americana nostalgia and genuine scarcity in certain cards has convinced people that these little pieces of cardboard can hold – or even dramatically increase – their value over time. During the pandemic, stories of big payouts and record sales created a fear of missing out. As one economics commentary noted, seeing prices skyrocket, “nostalgic individuals joined the trading community armed with stimulus payments [and] unemployment boosts,” eager to jump into the hype.
This speculative rush has had some intense side effects. For one, it overwhelmed card-grading companies – the services that authenticate and rate card condition (a high grade can multiply a card’s value). Industry leader PSA was inundated by an avalanche of cardboard gold-seekers. “Our records show that Pokémon card submissions have increased steadily over 10 years, but never more so than in the past 12 months,” PSA spokesperson Terry Melia said in early 2021. In 2020 alone, over 1 million Pokémon cards were submitted to PSA for grading, and in the first quarter of 2021, submissions were on pace to be four times that number. At one point, PSA had to halt most incoming submissions for months just to work through a massive backlog; the company revealed it received “more cards in three days than we did during the previous three months” as the craze peaked. By 2023, PSA’s president noted, Pokémon had gone from a niche segment to “the world’s largest collectibles market” in terms of grading volume, overtaking even baseball cards.
Then there were the product shortages. Demand grew so red-hot in late 2020 and 2021 that store shelves were routinely cleared of any new Pokémon card stock within minutes. Retailers like Walmart and Target saw long lines and even scuffles over card restocks. McDonald’s, running a promotional Pokémon card giveaway in Happy Meals, was overwhelmed by nostalgic adults buying up meals just to get the bonus packs. The situation prompted The Pokémon Company to issue an unusual public statement acknowledging fans’ frustration at the “lack of availability and outrageous resale prices” for cards. The company assured it was “working to print more… at maximum capacity” to catch up with the demand, blaming “very high demand and global shipping constraints” for the shortage. In short, even the manufacturer couldn’t churn out cards fast enough to satisfy the craze.
The scarcity was exacerbated by scalpers and opportunists hoping to flip cards for profit. High-demand products were targeted by the same tactics used in electronics and sneaker markets: automated bots snapped up online restocks in seconds, and some individuals would camp at stores to buy out entire stocks of new packs. “If scalpers can see a profit, they’ll invest, often at the expense of regular collectors,” one reseller admitted. By diverting so much supply into resale, these profiteers created a vicious cycle – “more stock going into the hands of resellers means less on the shelves, which further drives up prices,” he explained. Stories spread of kids and genuine fans being unable to find cards at retail at all, without paying scalper premiums. The effect was felt even on brand-new releases: a highly coveted special box set might carry a $50 retail tag, but sell out instantly and reappear online for triple the price. All of this only fed the perception that Pokémon cards had become not just a hobby, but a marketplace for speculation.
Boom or Bubble? Longtime Fans Feel the Squeeze
For dedicated Pokémon card collectors – especially those who fell in love with the hobby before it became a Wall Street-like frenzy – the recent boom has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, the flood of interest has validated their passion, bringing new fans and energy. On the other, many regular collectors feel they are being priced out of their own hobby by a wave of speculators and content creators chasing big payouts. “The average person who was really just doing this as a side hobby is kind of priced out of it at the prices these are at right now,” says Jessie Studle, a trading card shop owner in Gillette, Wyoming. Boxes of cards that she used to sell for $100–$200 are now running $700 or more – far beyond the budget of a casual fan who just wants to enjoy ripping some packs on the weekend. “I don’t think the hobby can sustain [it]… It’s priced out a lot of people,” Studle told the AP, adding that she’s already seen some longtime customers drop out because they simply can’t afford to keep up.
Indeed, there’s growing concern that the frenzy may be too much of a good thing. Veteran collectors worry that newcomers buying cards purely to profit or show off online are distorting the market and hurting the community. “Many fans believe [influencers] are legitimizing scalpers and depriving collectors who don’t have as much spare cash of the cards that they love,” one report noted, referring to the trend of wealthy streamers paying double or triple retail price without batting an eye. The situation has sparked initiatives to protect genuine fans – from local game stores limiting purchases per customer, to one UK-based YouTuber creating a special sign-up list to ensure children (not scalpers) get priority for new Pokémon card stock. The Pokémon Company’s promise to boost production was likewise aimed at getting more cards into the hands of real enthusiasts, rather than just resellers.
There are signs that the wildest phase of the craze has calmed down. As pandemic restrictions eased and stimulus checks dried up, prices for many cards have leveled off from their 2020–21 peaks. “I’ve seen a trend lately, where cards are kind of leveling off,” says Jesus Garcia, a consignment director at Heritage Auctions who helped sell one of the world’s rarest Blastoise cards. He was shocked by how fast prices spiked – gains he thought would take a decade happened within a year – and he suspects “the boom is unsustainable” in the short term. Other hobby experts echo that caution, calling the surge a possible bubble that could correct itself. “I don’t know when it’s going to not do what it’s doing,” store owner Studle admitted of the market’s breakneck rise. “I don’t know what makes it stop, unless it’s the hobby itself putting a stop to it.”
Yet even if the speculative fever cools, Pokémon cards seem unlikely to fade back into obscurity. The franchise’s fan base – bolstered by millennials and Gen Z who grew up catching Pokémon – is larger and more global than ever. Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) says Pokémon is now the single biggest category in the trading card industry, comprising roughly one-third of all cards it graded in 2023 (more than any individual sport). Put another way, Pokémon cards have dethroned baseball cards as the king of collectibles. And the phenomenon has left an indelible mark: what was once a kids’ pastime has transformed into a multi-million dollar market, complete with high-roller investors, live-streamed auction events, and headlines in the financial press.
As the dust settles, genuine fans can only hope for a rebalance – that prices become a bit more reasonable and packs easier to find – so that the hobby’s “gotta catch ’em all” spirit remains accessible to all. In the meantime, the wild ride continues. Whether bubble or not, the Pokémon card craze of the early 2020s has proven that the allure of Pikachu and Charizard isn’t just child’s play – it’s a powerful force of nostalgia and hype, one worth billions of dollars in cardboard.
Sources: Pokémon Company and Business Insider; The Loadout; Polygon; Associated Press; TCGplayer; PSA; Investopedia; Hypebeast
