ThePokémon Trading Card Gamehas been around since 1996 in Japan and as of March 2020, the game has sold over 30.4billion cards worldwide. That’s a hell of a lot of cards and there’s a reason for it. These seemingly playful and innocentPokemoncards can be worth a lot of cash, especially if you get your mitts on a rare one that can bag you up to five-digit or even six-digit figures. Times have certainly been hard for everyone in 2020 and financially, things got a lot worse but thanks to a collection ofPokemontrading cards accumulated since childhood, one student managed to sell them to pay for his medical college.
Caleb King, a junior at the University of North Georgia, was able to sell hisPokemoncards for over $80,000 on eBay. What’s even more awesome is that King paid $4,000 for some of his collection back in 2016 making a massive 180% increase in value. Using the money in the best way possible, King is now able to use his profits to fund his way into medical school where he hopes to qualify as an orthopedic surgeon. He also states that due to lockdown, this has made thePokemoncards gain even more value. “People kind of want a distraction from everything that’s going on, and I think [Pokemon] is one of the ways people can.” King says.
Having one more card up his sleeve, King still has a first edition Red CheeksPikachuin his possession stating that he has seen it sell for up to $20,000. At present, King has a collection of 21 cards which are priced upwards of $50,000. Thankfully, he never did listen to his parents when they told him it was crazy to spend so much money onPokemoncards but who’s the crazy one now? “A lot of people tried to discourage me from doing it at the beginning, especially my parents,” King explains, “They said, ‘Hey you shouldn’t be spending that kind of money on these cards, that’s ridiculous.’ I didn’t listen, and it paid off.”
King’s mom talks about how proud she is of him even though she now has “The egg on her face.” and looking back, maybe she could’ve supported his decision more “Now when we pull back, we laugh,” said mother Tammy King. “My husband says, ‘Oh my gosh maybe I should’ve given him some money to put into Pokémon cards.’ But yeah, I’m proud of him, I’m proud of who he is, I’m proud of his character, his drive.”
Back in 2019, the rarest of rarePokemoncards sold for awhopping $195,000at auction. The card in question is none other than the Japanese “Pikachu Illustrator” card, one of only 39 in the world. The reason it is so rare is that it was awarded as a prize in an illustration contest through CoroCoro Comic and the unique card was created specifically for the contest.
WithPokemonturning 25 this year, The Pokemon Company has started off its anniversary festivities witha new video and a tease of what’s to come called “25 Years of Memories”. The video jogs through previous games and other important points in time in the franchise’s history. It also showcases a Pokeball rolling through the various regions in the game’s history, pinpointing key areas of hardware,Pokemon, and locations.
Pokemon Sword and Shieldreleasedfor Nintendo Switch on November 15th, 2019 and if you’d like to check out that review, you can clickright here.
