Collectables: the Pokémon craze lives on

The generation that got hooked on Pokémon are now collecting. Chris Carter reports.

Pokémon cards © Heritage Auctions
A box of playing cards could fetch as much as $300,000
(Image credit: Pokémon cards © Heritage Auctions)

“Gotta catch ‘em all!” was the war cry sung to children in the late 1990s by American singer Jason Paige. It was the theme song to the Pokémon cartoon television series and those lyrics appear to have become ingrained in a generation. The generation that grew up collecting the cards that accompanied the series have since become investors in those very same cards.

Although Pokémon cards have been increasing in value for years, the market is now hitting new highs, thanks in part to YouTube-star-turned-Pokémon-collector Logan Paul. “The celebrities jump-started it a little bit, but you could see it happening already, especially when the pandemic hit,” Sasha Tamaddon, the 22-year-old founder of the US-based collectable investment adviser Cardhops, tells Archie Bland in The Guardian. “All these people were going to their basements and looking at their cards and buying and selling because they didn’t really have anything else to do.”

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.