Antiques Roadshow guest who bought her Pokémon cards for $35 was stunned to find its worth today
It's been decades since the Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) came into being, and it's only getting more popular with time. The rare items from the Pokemon TCGs have shot up in value, thanks to the community which keeps its demand high. Some Pokemon cards now can be sold for hundreds of dollars, so do check the cards that you own to see if there's something huge in store for you.
In a recent episode of Antiques Roadshow, a guest brought in a set of Pokemon cards from the 1990s. The guest, a Pokemon enthusiast in school, collected them for fun. According to her, this set was bought by her mother for only $35. The appraiser, who is also a fan of the Pokemon, explained that these cards were part of the base set of 102 cards released by Wizards of the Coast.
"Being a '90s baby myself, the Pokemon craze was insane. When we look at Pokemon today as a brand, as a franchise, Pokemon is an all-encompassing brand. It's unbelievable. Pokemon is king," the host said on the show.
He says that while Pokemon was released in the United States back in 1999, the original card game was released by Media Factory in Japan back in 1996. He also says how we wouldn't get the Pokemon game if "it weren't for the original game for Game Boy, Pokemon Red, and Pokemon Blue," adding that the original Gameboy game is what "sparked the initial trend."
The name Pokemon comes from the original game named Pocket Monsters, he sayd and shows the cards and says that two pages are opened in particular. "Do you have any idea why these two pages are opened in particular," he asked the guest. The guest talks about how the pages that are opened contain holographic cards. "Yes, the cards you have here are the 16 original holographic cards," the host says, before adding how the set also contains two Mewtwo cards, with one being a shadowless card.
He then goes on to talk about the prices of each of the cards, adding that some shadowless cards can go as high as $2000 for one single card. He also said how one of the "Charizard" cards was around and would have gotten her as high as $15,000 back in 2021 when the demand for these cards was at its peak. Lastly, he says that her total binder would be in the range of somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000.
Many took to the YouTube video to express their thoughts, "You know we're getting old when Pokemon is on antiques roadshow," read one of the top comments by @WinningThePooh217, while @JayShooty writes, "Man this brings back so many memories. I collected all the original when I was younger and they would be worth so much today. Unfortunately, my dad stole them all when I was in high school and sold them to a pawn shop for next to nothing."
