Imagine being able to pay off a good chunk of a house today just from Pokémon and yugioh cards.
Imagine what a clown world we live in where people are willing to pay for them.
It's crazy enough that people pay obscene money for old baseball cards that are genuinely rare because people didn't value them until years after they were printed, but these cards came from computer files that are stored on some server, and they could crank out a million more tomorrow that would be identical in every way. It's truly artificial rarity.
Oh my friend mocks the entire thing, but 10k a year doing minimal effort and eBay selling is a nice paycheck bonus. He even shows me the buyer demographics of a lot of these cards/ collectibles, it’s almost entirely apartment renters in cities buying $200+ dollar cards. The eBay bidding addiction is real, I’ve seen people outbid his buy now price by $50+ a few times now.
The consumerism in nerd culture has gotten to epidemic levels and been nothing but bad on multiple fronts: hobbies that used to encourage DIY aspects are all but gone in the name of selling more products, scalping and limited runs have become so common now even some companies are trying to step in. Tell your friend to keep an ear to the ground, I don't know when the bottom will drop out but I'm guessing sooner than later.
Imagine what a clown world we live in where people are willing to pay for them.
It's crazy enough that people pay obscene money for old baseball cards that are genuinely rare because people didn't value them until years after they were printed, but these cards came from computer files that are stored on some server, and they could crank out a million more tomorrow that would be identical in every way. It's truly artificial rarity.
Oh my friend mocks the entire thing, but 10k a year doing minimal effort and eBay selling is a nice paycheck bonus. He even shows me the buyer demographics of a lot of these cards/ collectibles, it’s almost entirely apartment renters in cities buying $200+ dollar cards. The eBay bidding addiction is real, I’ve seen people outbid his buy now price by $50+ a few times now.
The consumerism in nerd culture has gotten to epidemic levels and been nothing but bad on multiple fronts: hobbies that used to encourage DIY aspects are all but gone in the name of selling more products, scalping and limited runs have become so common now even some companies are trying to step in. Tell your friend to keep an ear to the ground, I don't know when the bottom will drop out but I'm guessing sooner than later.