Pokémon people cashing in
Anthony Jimenez hadn’t thought much about his Pokémon cards since middle school, when girls suddenly seemed more interesting.
But with time on his hands during the pandemic, Jimenez dug out his old collection and found that the cards were in pristine condition, a fact that would change his life and financial outlook.
“When I found my old Pokémon cards, it was like, ‘Oh my God, these are skyrocketing in value. I should try to sell some of them,’” Jimenez said. “So we decided, just for fun, to try this out because Los Angeles was shut down, and we literally had nothing to do.”
Jimenez, 27, has kept his day job doing marketing for a West Coast tech giant. But he’s sold enough new cards and some of his old collection to fuel a lucrative side gig — Tony’s Collectibles — that he runs live on Instagram on some nights with two childhood friends. It’s been clearing an average of $6,000 per show.
The pandemic inspired a surge in the buying and selling of all manner of collectibles, from traditional fine art, rare coins and currency to newer crazes such as Pokémon cards and street art. It’s the kind of commerce that normally relied on brick-and-mortar stores and large, in-person events, but it has managed a relatively smooth transition to online events run by newcomers like Jimenez and venerable firms like Stack’s Bowers Galleries, founded in 1933.
“We have seen a record number of new clients coming into the market,” said Brian Kendrella, president of Stack’s Bowers Galleries, which recently auctioned an 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar for $7.68 million, making it the fifth-most valuable United States coin ever sold. “We’ve really seen it across all asset classes.
“These are new clients at an entry level from a price point perspective as well as at a highly advanced level that are spending six figures and beyond,” Kendrella said.
The demand explosion has increased scarcity and injected a bit of chaos into the collector industrial complex.
Professional Sports Authenticator has been hit with an “avalanche of cardboard” from collectors seeking out the authentication and grading company for a third-party evaluation of their trading cards, President Steven Sloan said.
The crush forced the Santa Ana, Calif., firm in April to temporarily stop accepting new submissions while employees worked through the backlog. In a July update, the company said it and parent Collectors Universe have been hiring “at a phenomenal pace” to shrink the backlog.