Pokemon cards as well as any sports cards back during COVID were very hot. Parents were mad resellers were flipping the packs for 2-3X retail price. Then after COVID, the craze died down. Not sure if it was because Pokemon decided to just crank up production or people lost interest. Anyhow, we’re back to Pokemon cards being crazy hot again. You know it’s hot when the Pokemon vending machines are always out of stock or you see people lining up at the machines. When you search Pokemon on Best Buy, Walmart or Target, everything is out of stock. That’s when you know we’re back in the bubble.
Not quite sure what caused the hype to come back – I think it’s partly due to Pokemon releasing even more ultra rare variants. See, back during COVID, each ‘series’ only had 1-2 good high value cards that were worth $500. Eventually, more and more people pulled those cards and thus prices dropped. Now it seems each series has a handful of ultra rare cards that people covet and are worth $500+. Plus Pokemon introduced ‘God packs’ which are packs that all the cards in the pack contain rare and ultra rare cards. At this point, it’s just legalized gambling.
Anyway, if you’re at a retail store and you see a box of Pokemon on the shelf, check Ebay before walking out of the store.