u/PsyApe

I think Pokémon has a real long-term problem on its hands if it doesn’t make cards more accessible to kids.

One of the biggest reasons the TCG is thriving today is that the generation that grew up with Pokémon in the late ‘90s and early 2000s are now adults with disposable income. We buy booster boxes, ETBs, graded cards, premium collections, and even cases because we’re chasing nostalgia.
But that nostalgia didn’t appear out of nowhere. It exists because, as kids, we could actually buy packs. We traded on the playground, opened birthday presents, and built memories around the game.

Today’s environment feels different. Many popular products sell out instantly, get bought up by scalpers, or are priced so high that kids often can’t participate the way previous generations did. When the primary customers become adult collectors and investors instead of children, you’re eventually eating into the next generation of nostalgic buyers.
Sure, adults are driving record sales today. But they’re not the customers who will still be carrying the brand 20 years from now, tThe kids opening their first packs today are.

A large portion of buyers today are doing it purely for the money, not out of love for Pokemon.

I’m not saying Pokémon should stop making premium products or cater less to collectors. Those products are clearly successful. But I do think they need to make sure there are always affordable, readily available products that kids/teens can actually find on store shelves.

Every year that Pokémon cards become financially or practically out of reach for kids is a year where fewer lifelong memories are being created, and fewer memories today means in the future there will be fewer nostalgic adult collectors, less hype waves, etc

How do you guys think it will play out?

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Community survey: Why did you buy Pokemon Cards?

Will the Sealed craze kill Pokemon?