Jul 5, 2026
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Pokémon took over the world with its games, cards and TV shows. This moment in time was dubbed “Pokemania” and Time Magazine described it as “a multimedia and interactive barrage like no other before it.” Pokémon, as a whole, is now the largest media franchise in the world, having pulled in $115 billion in sales across all types of media.
Flash forward to 2026, and we’re experiencing another sort of Pokémania — but the stakes feel much higher as “Pokéheists” are on the rise. Earlier this year, an armed robber stole more than $100,000 worth of items from a Pokémon store called The Poke Court in Manhattan. In late 2025, two trading card shops in Cape Cod faced a similar fate. One of the shops —Darkwater Games located in Mashpee — lost $40,000 worth of stolen merchandise.
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Social media personality Logan Paul got in on this lucrative action, too. He sold a card for $16.5 million in February, breaking the Guiness World Record for the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction.
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As time has gone on, some of the fun of collecting Pokémon cards and merchandise can be attributed to hunting down rare, uniquely collectible items. But with prices getting so high that some people are robbing stores at gunpoint, or just buying items for the sake of reselling them, some Pokémon fans are disappointed in what this passion has turned into.
“When it’s starting to feel as if everything is gambling, what can be lost in the thrill of the chase is the joy of discovery” wrote Chris Almeida for Bloomberg.
Flipping cards has become more important than opening them
Rather than collecting Pokémon cards and indulging in the thrill of opening a pack to find out what is in it, many people are hoarding the cards for resale.
Since March 2025, the value of the Pokémon market has risen by over 145%, according to data from Card Ladder pulled by CNN.
Barry Sams, The Pokemon Company International’s (TPCI) vice president for game development and community engagement, told Bloomberg that before the pandemic it would have taken him months or years to sell through a supply of new items, but now it can take just a matter of hours.
Sams said it is disappointing when they can’t keep items on the shelves for their most important fans — kids and families.
“It’s obviously very exciting and all that it’s become collectible and an asset class, but that’s not really our goal,” he said. “Every time those values go up and we can’t get our product to our fans, I hear about fans that are no longer fans because, ‘I can’t find it anymore. I can’t enjoy it anymore.’”
Moneywise reached out to TPCI for comment but has not yet received a response.
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Even kids are getting in on the action
Many people who flip Pokémon cards post about it on social media. A quick search of “flipping Pokémon cards” on TikTok results in hundreds of thousands of videos of people explaining how much they made flipping cards and why they’re a good investment.
These videos are reaching kids, and inspiring them to attempt flipping cards too. In a post in May on Pokebeach — a Pokémon fansite — a user who goes by Water Pokémon Master shared that at a recent card show, he met an 11-year-old who said watching influencers open Pokémon card packs on TikTok and Instagram inspired him to flip cards himself.
“I just flip cards. I don’t know much about Pokémon” he told Water Pokémon Master.
That said, there are people out there who are hoping to keep the magic of Pokémon alive for kids and not let it turn into just another chance to turn a profit. *Bloomberg *spoke to one collector who’s donated thousands of cards to a local game store so kids can play with them.
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Em Norton is a Content Specialist at moneywise.com. They have been with the company since 2022.
