Pokemon cards. What's the big deal?

Let me begin this, by saying that when I started on this journey, I hated Pokemon.

Well, not at the very start. I'm a 90s baby (technically 80s, very end of), so Pokemon was my childhood. I remember going into primary school with my shiny new Pikachu, being told that it was crap, and ending up giving the kid a black eye and stealing his Alakazam. Fond memories. cough.

Anyways, moving swiftly on. My name's Matt, I'm the founder of the Fantasy Road community, and the owner of this website/the Fantasy Road business. We specialise in comic books. Simples. Why is that important? Because for a while now, the comic book market has been in decline. Still confused? For years, comic books were our bread and butter (still are!), but due to the decline, comic book businesses are being forced to either diversify, or close entirely. You've probably noticed that your local comic book store has shut its doors forever, or the one in the town over is gone. Sad right?

Because of this, I was inherantly predisposed to thinking poorly of these odd little monster cards from my childhood.

That... quickly changed.

Comic books, I can understand. They have intrinsic value, true value. They're so deeply ingrained in modern culture, that they themselves have become iconic for the first appearances of some of the most famous characters in the world, with history dating back in some cases over a hundred years.

Pokemon? It feels like they came out yesterday. For years now, I've been saying that the pokemon bubble will pop, that the value will plummet. Pokemon are dumb, they're modern items with manufactured value that's been created by limiting the supply.

Whilst this is still technically true, it's now reached a stage that pokemon are old enough now, that they've gained value. They are now, believe or not, truly vintage. Mad right? seen as in my old age, it feels like they literally came out yesterday.

Aswell as this, as a comic book collector, we all collect for our own reasons. For me? Art work. I don't care about value in the PC, all I like is pretty pictures and cool covers. I'm a simple man. So why is that any different to a Pokemon card, especially if I don't even open the comics?

Sure, Pokemon are higher risk, but higher risk means higher rewards. Pick up a card that came out a month ago for £300, grade it, hit a 10 and bam, you've made yourself £700. Wild right?

Dealing with these cards, day in, day out, I've slowly learned more and more about them, and I have to say... My opinion has changed. They can be beautiful, and they can be ugly, the same as any other piece of art, and collecting them taps into that OCD frenzy self dosing dopamine injection-like feeling, that people just can't get enough of.

Is it a good decision to spend hundreds of pounds on a little piece of shiny cardboard, when the world is going tits up, the cost of living is through the roof, and people are barely getting by? Probably not. But are we going to do it anyway? Absofuckinglutely.