Hobbies
During the pandemic, a special event had happened and that was the 25th anniversary of Pokémon! So, once I heard that Pokémon was going to have special collectibles trading cards to celebrate their 25th anniversary; I was excited! In fact, it made me want to get back into collecting the cards and play them on my PC (and ipad). However, I wasn’t the only one who had that idea. Apparently, everyone else wanted to get back into collecting. Which made sense, it’s the pandemic, people aren’t doing much, everyone is tired of staying at home, the sad weekly unemployment paychecks are not being used and simply being stored for responsible uses. So, more people wanted to get their hands on it… even non-Pokémon fans. We called them scalpers! The salt of the hobby industry.
Now, I’m not here to discredit anyone’s personal struggle. Maybe this is the way to get out of some difficult situation, and I will say, you do you. But I still don’t like you!
The reason why many of us (fans and real collectors) do not like scalpers is because, they go around buying all the new (or old) items, and sell it on eBay for triple the price. To give another example, the PlayStation 5 was also scalped. People will buy multiple units and sell it. For example, the physical edition of the PS5 costs around $499; scalpers will sell it for $899 — $1200. And the same goes for Pokémon, a normal box set cost around, $19.99, scalpers decide to sell it for $40 or more. I even spent $80 on one box.
The reason for scalpers going after Pokémon cards is because they found out that individual cards can have value up to $1000. But, the thing about pricey cards is, that they have to be hard to find, for example, the shiny Charizard that came out in 1996. It’s not hard to find that card but it also depends on which edition it is, which set it came from, what’s the condition it’s in, and if it’s real. Scalpers knew nothing about this and only followed a certain YouTuber who popularized the non-Pokémon fans to go and collect them.
I could be wrong about this info since there have been so many people telling me different things about why the price is going up. A lot of people told me that the true reason is because the shipment is slow, and a lot of people aren’t getting any at the shop. Or because of Covid, we have a labor shortage. Whatever the reason is, scalpers have no right to take what people enjoy and profit from it. But I also blame the people who buy things from scalpers. The less we buy from scalpers the less of them there will be. That’s the only reason why we have them because people are willing to buy things for extremely high prices.
Now, in 2022, most of the scalpers are gone and the Pokémon card prices are returning to normal. Now, I can go to Target or any card shop, and I can find normal prices for the set I wish to buy. Which is great!
The great part of collecting Pokémon cards or anything really, is the joy of it. Sure, some people would laugh at a 26-year-old man (or woman; yes, they exist too) for collecting things that are meant for children or they believe it’s a waste of time. To be honest, life is a waste of time. As morbid as that sounds, one day you’re going to go, and if my hobby is something that I enjoy and it doesn’t bother anyone or endangers my health or others, why does it matter? Shouldn’t we enjoy what we do? I can say that watching sport is childish, makeup design is childish, painting and art are childish, anything can be childish or a waste of time. But no one says anything because certain things are considered “the norm” and other stuff isn’t. For the longest time, nerd culture was frowned upon. But, now everyone enjoys anime and comic book movies. Which is great, but we still have a long way to go because while the nerd culture is widely available, we are still considered to be childish. Rather it’s collecting Pokémon cards, Funko Pops, Lego, video games, or comic books, it’s considered to be an immature thing to do. To be mature we have to go to work for 50 hours a week, go to bars/clubs, sports, and other adult things that are considered normal.
Look, there’s no shame in any of these, if that’s how you enjoy your life then do it. But, don’t tell other people how to enjoy themselves. Being an adult is such a boring and uninteresting label. Yes, we are an adult at age 21 (at least in the U.S), but does that mean we have to stop doing the things that entertain us? Who makes video games, cards, makeups, and all the other stuff? Adults. Being an adult is just a label of what age we are, to be honest, a kid can be more mature than an adult, but we never give them the satisfaction, we want them to be a kid for a long time until a certain age because that’s how it supposed to be. They can stop having fun at a certain age and can live as a depressed adult.
But why?
Why should a person stop doing the things they love simply because they are at a certain age? Whatever the reason it is, it’s wrong.
There’s a difference between being immature and mature. As an adult, I take many things seriously when I have to. Rather it’s providing money for the house, getting paperwork done for insurance, getting groceries, laundry, calling places, you name it. No one likes doing these things, but we have to and that’s the adult thing to do. It’s boring, tedious, and draining. Once those are done, I act the way I want, which is childish. I make jokes, quote annoying TikTok videos, collect cards, play games; give my girlfriend a raspberry on her belly even though she told me to stop because it tickles and she threatens to give me a blackeye with her foot. The things I enjoy. I’ll agree maybe these are childish behavior, but honestly, I have a kid-like heart, and I think it’s important to have that.
It’s important to remember how much we enjoyed being young, and how a lot of us miss certain things when we were young. My father didn’t buy many collectibles for me growing up, because he thought it was a waste of money. Now that I grew up, I have the money to spend on the things I like, and I’m not going to apologize for it.
If people say that enjoying Pokémon, or other hobbies are childish, that’s their problem. Not mine.
