I hate that they actually became valuable over the years. I gave all my Pokémon cards (and my crystal game boy color) to some kid in my neighborhood when I out grew them. I at least hope he had fun with that stuff.
That’s the fate pokemon cards were created to have. To be played with and loved until they’re a fuzzy faded piece of trash in their 4th kid’s closet.
Yup, gave mine to a neighbourhood kid that I babysat.
Honestly, over the years I think I’ve come to sour on the whole notion of collecting things as a hobby.
It’s one thing if you’re collecting stuff that no one wants and will be junked otherwise, or are collecting things to restore them and get rid of them again, but collecting stuff that is either highly desired or potentially used, just to collect it and have it sit there, feels really wasteful and self indulgent.
That’s how I feel about things that are created specifically to be collectables.
Personally I collect cameras, some of them in order to use, some because they are nice to look at, or have interesting history.
Everyone did that, that’s why they’re valuable now
Mine were stolen at church camp. I had planned on keeping them until they were worth something.
i had a first edition Charizard that was stolen at a sleepover (dumb ten year old me wanted to show it off). then the rest were stolen by my sister when I was in college where she cut them up to decorate her binder.
don’t know how many still survive but I’m pretty pissed
My mother THREW THEM IN THE TRASH as a punishment. 25 years later and I’m still pissed.
That’s the opposite of me… when I was in my early 20s and worked retail, a lady at my store saw my Pokémon hoodie and was like “my kids outgrew Pokémon, do you wanna buy their stuff for cheap?”
I go over there and there’s four containers (two of them Pokémon themed backpacks) full of minis, plushies, and more. I asked her how much and she’s like “ehhh fifty bucks?” I have never said yes so quickly in my life.
As I’m leaving, she’s like “oh do you want their cards for another forty?” And busts out three albums, complete sets of base, jungle, and fossil, with some other sets at the end. Base set had a bunch of first editions (not Charizard, unfortunately… just regular foil.)
I still have everything she sold me, 18 years later. I dunno if I can ever sell them.
Now this is what the older generations called a Pikachu - it is some sort of electric rat and a symbol of surprise, or that’s what some almost forgotten memes tend to show. And this is a Vaporeon, it was a common fertility deity in the pre-AI times, according to ancient copypastas.
What the archeologists saw in the ancient caves:
My wife still has her 1st gen through 3rd releases. Small collection but some fairly valuable ones. She said if I did the work of researching, I could do what I wanted with them. I checked prices and immediately took them out of the janky binder they were in and sleeved/hard cased most.
When I finished pricing, she heard the amount they were potentially worth, she decided she didn’t want to part with them.
I have a complete set of base through Fossil, with lots of first editions! I have no idea what they’re worth, but I could never part with them.
But they’re just worth nostalgia if you don’t sell your paper bits for other paper bits!
I always liked the lady who brought in a complete set of beta MTG cards (including the power 9) of her husband.
What is an “Antique Roadshow”?
It’s a TV show on PBS. People bring antiques to be appraised, and an expert tells them what they have, what’s special about it, and how much it could be worth. The fun ones have someone coming in like “this was my grandmother’s cabinet growing up and I haven’t thought twice about it” and then the appraiser telling them “this was made by the most famous carpenter in 1890’s Massachusetts, it’s worth $20,000” or similar stories.
Yet they won’t accept my very rare beanie babies.
