Log in member
We unbox and then take a look at a bunch of new Pokémon cards that are making up the 2026 collection.
"New Pokemon TCG Set So we got a special package, which isn't actually to celebrate a new Pokemon TCG set, but really to commemorate some of the sets that marked 2025."
"As we now head into 2026, Pokemon cards are more popular, but also more expensive than ever before.
It is actually a bit of a situation that is unfolding with new fans and old fans that have, well, sort of collided together.
But in that little group of collectors, which has grown into a global mega cult, there are also other forces pulling, and these forces don't really care about the Pokemon cards so as much they see value, tradable value."
"Now, this has been driven up by YouTube and TikTokers, and particularly professional businesses or business people that see these and their value skyrocketing across platforms, particularly online.
And it has grown into such a beast that it has become prohibitively expensive, but also precarious because it's not necessarily something that you would want without."
"Collectibles to have value is not a new concept.
Far from it.
So as I have been celebrating a bunch of milestones with Pokemon with my eldest boy, I just wanted to open some packs and unpack what is going on with the TCG today."
"So we were so lucky that they sent over a few extras.
So sets like this, Destined Rivals, arrived in 2025, and well, immediately you would think, well, when these cards are so readily available through these booster packs, surely their value is diminished."
"But we've gotten to a point where searching for these very valuable cards, each of them holds, I think, 11 cards total.
Each of them has such a distinguished value, even when newly printed, that even sealed booster packs are bought up in bulk by a group that is passionately called scalpers."
"There are videos, bereft online with videos, with scalpers heading into, well, toy store chains, or wherever you get your Pokemon card packs.
They get their greedy hands in and they simply pull out packs, ETBs that we've also taken a look at here at the show, Elite Trainer Boxes, these card deck packs, which is meant actually to start building your own battle deck, but also contain sealed packs."
"And once they start to do that, well, they just buy them wholesale.
In such that these toy store chains have had to put limiters on the amount that adults can come in and buy at any one point, because there have to be cards left for children to buy."
"Now, I have, well, really, it wasn't actually me who fostered this love, but my eldest boy started watching the original Indigo League from like 1998 on Netflix and quickly, well, came to adore Pokemon as a franchise.
And what he and I would do is that we would look at these bulk cards and we would start building a collection for him."
"Now, he really loved this stuff.
He loved the idea of evolutions, that something like Nidoran will evolve into a Nidoqueen, following those steps, putting them into a binder, for instance, and looking at his collection together with me."
"Something like Tyflotion, this card, well, in the beginning, it held no real value to a scalper, but this held great value to my son, because this would fill out a gap in his collection.
But ultimately, because this happened to me when I was a boy as well, these cards, you start to see, well, not value in particularly, but there are tiers of quality."
"So he'd be starting to looking for EX cards, full art cards.
These cards that are, well, a lot more rare, for instance, and therefore also more expensive.
He and I actually went to our very first card show, not too long ago, a couple of weeks back, and there's a couple of Pokémon that he really liked, and he wanted us to look for them."
"Sure, so let's take a Pokémon like Dragonite.
It's not in this particular set right here that I've opened, but so you go up to a vendor, he has displayed all of his eye-catching, attention-grabbing cards in like a glass case, and there are Dragonite cards there."
"But these started like $70, like 50 euros maybe.
So it is seemingly heading towards a place where a person like my son is neither, perhaps not unable, but it's becoming prohibitively expensive for him to enjoy Pokémon with me."
"The new, this is the brand new set, Phantasmal Flames, and it contains a couple of Charizards in here.
For instance, one that we took a look at in our original quick look on the topic that is golden."
"And this golden Charizard, now there isn't one in here, but this golden Charizard, once you pull it, then it could cost, let's say, $1,000, $1,500 for a brand new card that isn't vintage in any way."
"It's not rare.
Well, it is rare, but you can go and buy the booster packs and pull one if you want.
And because of that option, well, these packs are just, these are very expensive."
"And in like, let's say in a year, getting these packs, if things continue the way that they do, it'll be hundreds of dollars to buy sealed product, meaning that it's new."
"Like it's one thing for a base set from 1996 in its foil wrapper to be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The overall available supply must be really low.
But this, this is being printed right now."
"So how come it is so expensive?
Well, it's because of market forces, something that we cannot readily dictate.
We're going to have to wait for, well, saturation in order for these prices to come down."
"But right now, as we're recording this, we're seeing card stores that have like these cards laid out in their glass cases, robbed at gunpoint because there was like $150,000 in there."
"Now, while there weren't five years ago.
So it's a bit of a precarious situation.
But what I will return to is that, should you pick this hobby up yourself or with your kids?
And I still think that this is a worthwhile hobby because my son could very easily be wanting an iPad."
"He could be wanting to watch television.
He could be wanting a bunch of digital stuff, gaming stuff that would leave him with little physical, tactile appreciation for real toys."
"But this is something that we share, that we can trade, give to one another as gifts and experience in a much more tactile way.
I love this stuff."
"And I love the Pokemon universe so much because it gives, it's the immediately same sensation for my son, who's five, as it was for me when I was five."
"So be careful when you buy Pokemon cards.
Be careful what you instill in your children.
If you give them to them, make sure they value even these cards that are worth nothing."
"Because it's about the creatures, the universe, the immersion that they bring and not necessarily pulling a chase card.
See you on the next one."
