SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- Pokémon cards are experiencing a massive comeback decades after their initial popularity in the 1990s, with collectors and card shops struggling to keep up with unprecedented demand.
Brad Thompson is a manager for TC’s Rockets (5155 Waring Rd., San Diego). He sees the surge firsthand at his shop, where demand has exploded.
"I get people in here every single day. I probably get 100 people come in here in a day just looking for packs, looking for individual cards. There's a big boom happening right now in the collection," Thompson said.
This boom is happening worldwide as comic bookstores and card shops try to keep up with demand for Pokémon cards. For some collectors, it's nostalgic -- trading for specific cards to play the Pokémon card game.
"There's a lot of people now that were millennials who watched as a child; and now, they're having kids, so they're collecting cards with their children," Thompson said.
For others, it's about snagging a collector's item that can be worth significant money. Cards are graded based on specific criteria.
"They grade it on surface, centering, corners, and just overall condition of it," Thompson said.
Typically, a pack of Pokémon cards can cost anywhere from a few dollars to a couple of thousand, depending on the type of card set.
Douglas Quasawadish, owner of Supreme Card Shop (9122 Fletcher Pkwy., La Mesa), said the appeal lies in the uncertainty.
"It's the chase, the thrill of the chase," Quasawadish said.
If collectors pull out one of the limited-edition cards in that stack, that's where the payoff comes in.
"You'll buy a box of cards and open a whole box. And you might not get anything out of it, but then you might be able to open a box and get a $2,000 card," Quasawadish said.
Quasawadish said his inventory of Pokémon cards has grown over the years when he discovered Pokémon's popularity and how much money people are willing to pay for them, especially the older versions.
"This came out in 2010, and this was probably no more than a 100 bucks. And there's one guy who's selling it for $20,000," Quasawadish said.
To date, the most expensive Pokémon card sold is a Pikachu Illustrator card that sold for nearly $5.3 million.
While finding and selling a card worth that much is rare, Quasawadish said he doesn't see a slowdown in the Pokémon craze anytime soon.
"Things do come down here and there, but the scarcity of the cards and the boxes themselves is going to continue to drive the market on this kind of stuff," Quasawadish said.
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