Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘I kick myself knowing one card I traded could’ve paid for a house’
In the late 1990s children swapped Pokémon cards in playgrounds across Canterbury. Now, more than 25 years on, collectors are willing to fork out hundreds of thousands of pounds to get their hands on the most prized assets. Oliver Kemp spoke to those for
Aquarter of a century ago a Japanese cultural phenomenon exploded onto the scene with a series of video games, a TV show and a set of trading cards. Pokémon - little critters with various elemental powers that battle one another for victory - became the talk of playgrounds across Kent, as children swapped covetous cards and built up huge collections. For many the cards were put away in attics - or in some cases binned - when those inevitable teenage years loomed, but the cultural behemoth never really went away, and now 25 years later people are falling in love with the pocket monsters all over again.
When Alex and Gemma Bowness opened Level Up Games in Palace Street, Canterbury, a decade ago, they had not even considered the impact selling Pokémon cards could have on their business.
But six years later, after taking a punt by putting a shoebox of cards on the shop counter for 10p a pop, the pair have become bona fide Pokémon card traders with a formidable local reputation.
Alex estimates the Level Up Games collection sits somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 cards, with the rarest single card being valued at an eye-watering £345.
When the first set arrived in shops back in 1998 he paid little attention.
The business owner said: “The cards bypassed me at that point, which in hindsight I’m thinking ‘why shouldn’t I have picked some up?’ - but hey, that’s the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” After completely selling out of that first shoebox of cards in 2014, the husband and wife knew they should look to sell more.
Alex said: “A week later they’d all gone; someone came in and said ‘do you want to buy some more?’
“It snowballed from there to the point where we’re now dealing with graded cards, we’ve got a lot of collectors - I’ve just sent a package out to Holland - and the tourists were always really interested when they were here.
“So we’ve got a really broad appeal, from kids who just want shiny cards right through to very highbrow collectors who will really examine them to make sure they’re just right for their collection.”
The cards have been consistently released by the Pokémon Company since they took over printing in 2003 - and with more than 9,000 cards in the English
set and almost 7,000 in the Japanese set, there’s a lot for collectors to obsess over. Adding to the vast hobby is the complicated process of graded cards, whereby a professional trading card graded service is provided by US company PSA, which grades cards based on their condition between one and 10.
This can make a significant
difference to the value of the card. A first edition holographic Charizard with a near-mint 7 grade could cost you about £9,000, whereas a perfect 10 rating would set you back more than £200,000. Demand for the first-edition cards hit an all-time high when Youtuber Logan Paul and rapper Logic collectively spent almost $400,000 to get their hands on one coveted holographic Charizard each - a card which first hit shop shelves in 1999.
But as someone who sees the joy trading cards can bring his customers, Alex is conflicted at high-profile celebrities making the market fluctuate with these kind of seismic bids.
He said: “While I do approve of what they’ve done for the market, I don’t necessarily agree with them just waving money around like that... it seems a little self-serving.”
Adam James remembers thinking nothing of trading his Charizard cards with another child when he began collecting the first time around
The 25-year-old from Canterbury said: “I don’t even like to think about it - I had base set Charizards, and I remember trading them like they were nothing.
“Now I’m kicking myself, thinking ‘that was a house there that I just traded.”
Like many collectors, Adam’s interest was piqued after Logan
‘We’ve got a really broad appeal, from kids who just want shiny cards through to very highbrow collectors who will really examine them to make sure they’re just right’
Paul dubbed the trading cards a ‘legitimate investment’ when he live-streamed himself opening an original base set box of cards which he paid $216,000 for.
Since then, an unopened base set booster box was auctioned at a staggering $408,000. But what began as a mild curiosity for Adam over the value of his old cards turned into him discovering a friendly community of fellow card enthusiasts online, which he says has gone a long way in helping him get through the numerous lockdowns amid the pandemic.
“I made an Instagram account and found an absolutely wonderful community
which has helped me out a lot this year, especially with staying sane being stuck indoors all day,” he said.
“It’s a great thing, not only for the nostalgia, but the community as well.
“The amount of people I’ve met online is crazy.” Adam now has about 1,200 cards in his quickly-expanding collection - many of which he purchased at Alex and Gemma’s shop - and plans to continue for the foreseeable future.
He added: “I just really enjoy the hobby and I’ll definitely stick with it.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to turn my back on it anytime soon.”