It’s basic human nature to want to collect. Coins, stamps, dolls, bottle caps, magazines. If there’s multiple variations of the same object, there’s someone who collects it.
I consider myself a pretty big collector. I love collecting physical media. Comics, books, video games, vinyls, figures, board games, the whole nine yards.
I also collect trading cards. Which is what I would say if I could actually buy them.
Cards are probably the most common thing to collect, unsurprisingly. They’ve been around for forever, since 1868 to be exact.
The earliest trading cards took the form of baseball cards, later evolving into tobacco cards. They were somewhat popular, nothing crazy really. These cards were by a variety of companies to promote their business, even if the product themselves had nothing to do with baseball.
That would all change in the 80s when collectors started to realize that their collections could be worth something one day. Manufacturers started to increase their numbers due to everyone now buying multiple copies.
It was also during the 80s that trading cards started to move further and further away from their sport origins. There were cards based on everything from movies to original concepts.
The 90s would bring even more change to the medium. This was mainly due to the introduction of trading card games, also known as TCGs.
Cards in a TCG are specially designed sets of playing cards. Each card represents an element of the theme and rules of the game itself. Each card represents its respective game’s version of characters, locations, items, spells or events. “Magic: The Gathering” introduced all of this and more in 1993.
As important and popular “Magic: The Gathering” is, it’s definitely not the first game you think of. No, that honor probably goes to “Pokemon.”
“Pokemon” rules the 90s. The game, anime and toys were absolutely everywhere. As you probably guessed, the TCG was no exception. The very first set of cards were released in 1998 and even since then they have dominated the trading card space. “Pokemon” is often referred to as the franchise that made trading cards mainstream.
This is something I see as a good and bad thing.
I think it’s a cool thing that such a niche and nerdy hobby is so widespread. Collecting trading cards is an all ages activity; it can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone, especially TCG. You can either get the cards for the game or the artwork.
As with most things, there are people who like to ruin a good thing.
Remember when I said that collectors started to realize that their collection was going to be worth something one day. Well that day has arrived.
The aftermarket for trading cards is absolutely insane. If done correctly, collectors can make massive profits off of cards. There are multiple websites built around aftermarket selling. Websites that not only list the value of every single card ever made, but also the projected value of every new release.
It’s honestly pretty intimidating. I have never been a fan of selling my collectibles. I don’t know what it is, but something about it has always made me feel weird about the entire thing. As of today I think I finally know what that something is.
A lot of people only buy cards just to sell them again for an easy profit. These people are unaffectedly known as scalpers.
There are many ways for scalpers to quickly build up a large inventory. The more technical ones have bots that automatically buy the maximum amount of allowed packs.
Back in the day, i.e two years ago, scalpers used to wait outside for stores to open and buy every single pack possible. This has since changed. Stores like Walmart and Target picked up on this and now have a limit on how many cards a single customer can buy.
About a year or so ago I went to Target with my friends with the intent of buying Disney’s new card game “Lorcana.” When we got to the store there was a long line of people waiting in the card aisle. A poor employee had to give packs out one at a time just to make sure everyone got one.
This leads me to what inspired me to make this article in the first place.
It’s no secret that I love “One Piece.” I adore every aspect of the series. About two years ago, they announced that the “One Piece” card would be getting an English release. I was beyond excited for this.
Two years and two months later, I brought a starter deck and a few single packs.
It is currently pretty much impossible to find “One Piece” cards in store. This is due to the rapid demand for them on the aftermarket. The “One Piece” card game is currently the second most popular TCG to resell. “Pokemon” is still the first.
It’s getting to the point where you can’t even buy single packs online for their original price. Everything is marked up.
This is a hugely disappointing situation. I’ve seen plenty of fans who want to get into the hobby but literally can’t.
What makes this worse is that there isn’t really a way to fix this. We just have to wait for them to die down in popularity. The only other alternative I can think of is staying alert when new sets are coming out and buying them as soon as possible.
Next month sees the release of the brand new “Ultraman” card game. I am excited to see how the game will be received in the coming months. Will it be another “One Piece?” Or will I actually be able to collect it?