If there’s one thing I could talk about for hours, it’s Pokémon cards.
As a kid, walking into the store and seeing a wall full of cards was a surreal experience. Opening a pack and pulling a rare would be the highlight of my day.
However, times have changed.
As an adult, the amount of times I’ve been disappointed by empty shelves is too many to count. Online, resellers have products listed 3x higher than what you’d normally pay in store. People have become so hungry for buying and reselling cards that stores like Target have posted limits on the amount of products customers can buy.
Card scarcity and their increasing prices have been a problem for a few years now. Though he hasn’t been the only one affecting it, controversial figure Logan Paul has been a big contributor to these issues.
Recently, Paul attended a live wrestling event sporting entirely black and yellow attire. What made him stand out amongst the rest weren’t his clothes, however. It was his accessory: a PSA grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card.
For those unfamiliar with card grading, Professional Sports Authenticator, or PSA, is one of the most popular and reliable grading services out there. Once a card’s surface, corners, edges, and centering are inspected, it’s determined how perfect it is. Professional Sports Authenticator, or PSA, is one of the most popular and reliable grading services out there. A grade 1 is the worst you can get while a 10 is the best. Not only is Paul’s card a 10, it’s also a Pikachu Illustrator card, which is considered the rarest Pokémon card to exist. Only 39 were ever produced, back in 1998. It’s a virtually perfect card and the only one of its quality to exist, which is why it’s valued at a whopping 5.2 million dollars. This earned it the Guinness World Record for the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold at a private sale.
While I think it’s cool that a grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator exists, I’m worried how its ownership by Logan Paul will affect the already struggling Pokémon card market. I understand why a rare item like this has a high value; it’s basically a one-of-a-kind collector’s item. But given how Paul has affected the community before, I’m worried that cards will only become more expensive and even harder to find. This already happened with Paul back in Oct. 2020.
After he pulled a 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard from a $200,000 booster box, the average price of a PSA 9 rose from being $470 to $4,366. This is an increase of over 800%. Pokémon cards have always been an investment option for people, but never before to the extent Paul raised it to. Mass shortages came as demand grew. Buyers knew collectors would be willing to pay outrageous amounts for cards, causing skyrocketed prices. These issues were only exacerbated by Paul less than a year later, when he wore a BGS (Beckett Grading Services) grade 10 1st Edition Base Set Charizard to his boxing match against Floyd Mayweather.
As it stands now, if you want to buy cards you either have to be lucky or rich. It’s disheartening to experience and takes the fun out of collecting cards. I have hope the hype will eventually die down, allowing those who legitimately want to collect to be able to do so again peacefully. Given the recent Logan Paul appearance, though, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.