Ten years ago, Pokémon GO was released, and created a craze of people seeking out creatures on their phone. Suddenly, every sidewalk in every city in the Northern Hemisphere was filled with Pokémon-seeking pilgrims. Today, a similar resurgence has occurred; yet, instead of being focused around Pokémon GO, it’s now centered around Pokémon cards.
As their name may suggest, Pokémon cards are cards depicting creatures, people, and powers or items from the Pokémon universe. A Pokémon card contains 11 cards, which can be used to play against other players, though most of their value is derived from their use as collectibles. Naturally, some cards are more uncommon than others, and rarer cards can fetch high prices on sites like eBay. Some collectors even have their cards professionally graded to prove their condition, and these cards can themselves be incredibly expensive: in Feb., Logan Paul auctioned off his perfect-quality Pikachu Illustrator card, an extremely rare card awarded in 1998 to a select few winners of a drawing contest, for a staggering $16.5 million.
The popularity of Pokémon cards exploded in 2020 as a result of the pandemic and has risen steadily over the last few years, with around triple the rate of Google searches in 2026 compared to 2024. That’s likely thanks to the increased popularity of gambling-like products and nostalgia towards the franchise. This increased demand has resulted in prices of rare packs skyrocketing, with some recently-discontinued packs reaching as much as $50.
The Pikachu Illustrator card sold by Logan Paul for $16.5 million
While part of this price increase is natural, some of it a result of scalpers—people who buy cards and immediately resell Pokémon card packs, hoping to make a profit. By carefully watching when stores restock—and in some places, even camping out for the moment a shipment comes in—they’re able to buy cards before regular customers can get ahold of them and then sell the packs for double or even triple their original price. These coordinated groups force people to either cough up huge sums or buy old packs, making the hobby far less welcoming for newcomers. In response to scalpers, some stores have limited how many packs one person can buy, and in Japan a number of retailers have begun to require buyers to pass a Pokémon trivia test to prove they’re purchasing it out of a love for the franchise.
The craze around Pokémon cards has resulted in real-world effects. Robberies of stores and customers selling rare cards have become an almost monthly occurrence: this Feb., in a scenario reminiscent of a heist movie, robbers drilled a hole through a store and stole over $180k in cards. The value of these cards also makes counterfeiting them a lucrative prospect, with the number of fake cards increasing by about 45% in 2025 alone.
Yet a key component of this craze is a new alternative to buying physical cards: the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket app, which allows players to open digital packs and battle with others, was released in Oct. 2024 and has since maintained a user base of around 60 million players. While users receive a daily pack for free, they can also, of course, spend real money to purchase packs, although heavy restrictions on trading mean that cards are mostly traded between friends.
Just like the beanie babies before them, Pokémon cards may seem like nothing but a nerdy hobby. But they now possess incredible value, to the point where people can make a living off of trading or selling them. It remains to be seen whether the prices of these cards will keep rising or whether the bubble will pop.
