Pokémon Investors Hate This

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this booming Pokémon market, it’s this:

No one wants to hear the one simple truth I’ve learned from nearly 5 years investing in Pokémon cards…

I started investing in Pokémon during another booming market: late 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic boom.

I remember the hype surrounding every new Pokémon release. With prices rising every single day, and enormous gains being earned within mere weeks and months.

I also remember not being able to buy any products at reasonable prices.

I cut my teeth as a Pokémon investor when store shelves were empty, and any stores that had new product were selling them for as much as three times the MSRP price.

And, like many, I bought a lot of Pokémon products during this time of limited supply and inflated prices. And, I’ve held nearly all of it now for more than 4 years.

I’ve watched the prices on many of these products surge in price, at first, before crashing back down to earth and staying there for years.

Many of these products have not yet to returned to their all-time high prices seen during 2021.

Along the way, it’s reinforced how essential this one simple truth is. Even if no one wants to hear it:

A booming market is not the time to be buying Pokémon products.

Now, I know the readers of this newsletter are different: I’ve been preaching this over the past year, and if you’re subscribed to this email, you are likely one of the few who understand where this comes from and why it’s so important.

But, it’s been interesting to see how, as the market has boomed, the average viewer of my YouTube videos simply isn’t interested in learning this lesson. A lesson that I’ve had to learn the hard way: by buying into a booming market and watching those Pokémon investments stagnate for years between booms.

Don’t get me wrong: there are absolutely short-term investing opportunities in this kind of booming market.

Just look at the market for Illustration Rare cards: many of these cards sold for a couple bucks each over the past few years, and some of them have since surged to $100 or more over a matter of only a few days.

You could have made a lot money anticipating these moves over the past few months…

But, did you?

I certainly didn’t.

Because, I follow my boring Pokémon investing strategy that is rooted in the fundamentals of the Collectibles Cycle:

1. Buy when the market is boring, and

2. Sell into the hype when the market is booming.

And it feels like all the collectors and investors entering the market today hate this. They would rather buy into the hype and chase the short-term opportunities.

I certainly don’t have anything against people who choose to chase these kinds of plays. But I believe these are riskier moves than they seem.

The low-risk strategy leans into the fact that the market is cyclical. In a predictable, cyclical market: we should buy with confidence when the market is boring and everyone else is scared. And, when we finally see that next market boom: we sell into the hype.

I now know that most of the Pokémon audience has no interest in this view. And that’s ok.

I’m going to continue to teach what I’ve learned from my years of experience investing in Pokémon cards.

And I hope it’s helpful to some of you.

As always,

Thank you so much for reading the TCG Buyers Club newsletter. My name’s Grey, I buy cardboard, and I’ll keep trying to make Pokémon collecting and investing simple.

Cheers 🍻