{"id":703799,"date":"2026-05-30T13:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T13:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/703799\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T13:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T13:31:12","slug":"11-year-old-selling-pokemon-cards-isnt-a-fan-i-just-flip-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/703799\/","title":{"rendered":"11-Year-Old Selling Pok\u00e9mon Cards Isn’t A Fan: ‘I Just Flip Cards’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve lived through all of Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s 30 years<\/a>, so I\u2019ve watched as the \u201890s Pok\u00e9mania descended into the modern-day scalper culture<\/a> that has soured millions of people on the hobby and put those who remain in a constant state of vigilance. Maybe because I was so young when Pok\u00e9mon was first starting out, I still have a lot of joy and whimsy attached to the series, but it\u2019s been pretty tragic to watch the light leave the eyes of our collective consciousness when we see the little yellow guy because scalpers have turned the whole thing into a get-rich-quick scheme. There\u2019s something darkly funny about hearing that Pok\u00e9Beach<\/a> was talking to a kid at a recent card show and the boy told them that he didn\u2019t actually know much about Pok\u00e9mon, but he\u2019d begun flipping cards after seeing influencers talking about how it was a good investment right now. My inner child weeps for this kid who is grinding and hustling instead of grinding to win his eight badges.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9Beach relayed this anecdote in the context of reporting that Pok\u00e9mon will be banning partnered vendors from selling graded slabs at its official events, as well as preventing sales for items over $1000, as well as plushies and cards from the Japanese Pok\u00e9mon Center that are not yet available overseas. The Pok\u00e9mon Company won\u2019t be making an official announcement, but the rule will go into effect at the Indianapolis Regionals this weekend, and will also be enforced at the Pok\u00e9mon World Championship in San Francisco in August. We\u2019ve reached out to The Pok\u00e9mon Company for comment on the situation and will update the story if we hear back.<\/p>\n

The fansite also talks about meeting an 11-year-old kid named Rob at a recent card show, who told them he had not played the games or watched the anime. Instead, he said his experience with Pok\u00e9mon was far less whimsical: \u201cI just flip cards,\u201d he told Pok\u00e9Beach. \u201cI don\u2019t know much about Pok\u00e9mon.\u201d He went on to say that TikTok and Instagram influencers had taught him that Pok\u00e9mon cards were \u201cthe best investment right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oof. That hurts. Obviously not every kid has to grow up enjoying the same things I did, but it does feel sad to know that there\u2019s a generation of kids who may end up mostly associating Pok\u00e9mon with the scalper nonsense that has plagued the series in recent years, rather than the adventures and friendships that have defined it for decades. The youngsters no longer care for the joys of \u201ccomfy shorts\u201d<\/a> and the power of friendship, only the resale value of cardboard. Go outside, little king. Adventure awaits outside of the scummy corners of the internet, which are ruining this series for everyone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve lived through all of Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s 30 years, so I\u2019ve watched as the \u201890s Pok\u00e9mania descended into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,3506,255990],"class_list":["post-703799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-pokemon","tag-pokemon-tcg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}