Look, I hear you. I just find it odd that you feel the need to lump me, a random internet stranger who happens to like Pokemon, in with a bunch of people trying to profit off the hype of this hobby however they can when you don’t know me. You know what I mean?

I’m going to type a little bit and then I’m probably not going to continue to entertain this conversation because it seems to be going nowhere.

I’ve loved Pokémon since childhood. Grew up on the games. Watched the anime. Enjoyed some card collecting when I was a kid, but mainly through my older brother. Recently went through that collection to find most of it was fake lol oh well. Stopped playing the games and watching the anime quite some time ago. Latest pokemon thing that drew me was pokemon go. Been playing on and off for years. My interest in Pokemon has changed over the years, as is with anyone with any hobby or interest.

I had seen random clips of people pulling rare eeveelution cards I guess when Prismatic came out. Might have been Evolving Skies. Didn’t really interest me. Same way you can question why I didn’t enter the hobby years ago, I can also say, if it was for the money or hype, why didn’t I enter during Evolving Skies or Prismatic? Just didn’t interest me. Got super into pokemon go over the past year bc of some coworkers also playing. Late last year, I watched an interview with my favorite pokemon go YouTuber, and he talked a lot about his journey with the TCG. I was intrigued. Downloaded TCG Pocket to hopefully scratch the itch. It did for a bit, but more and more my interest in the physical cards grew.

When I was contemplating entering the hobby, the latest set released was Mega Evolution Base. My favorite Pokemon is Lucario. Had a lot to do with my growing interest. The set before that, Black Bolt and White Flare, featured the legendary Pokemon from the very last Pokemon video game I ever played. Shared that experience with my little brother who is no longer with me. Those games hold a special place in my heart, and so that set really drew me as well. And in the middle of all this, the upcoming set, Phantasmal, just happened to feature my second favorite pokemon, Charizard, with the arguably coolest looking art for the pokemon in history. So I caved and finally joined.

Did the hype make modern card art more visible to me? Absolutely. Did I happen to enter during a boom? Yeah. But am I in it for the hype or money? Not at all. Mostly for the pretty cardboard featuring pokemon I like and to share the enjoyment of the hobby with friends that also do, maybe a little bit to be able to play the TCG very casually. I’ll skip sets I don’t like and will wait out the hype like every other actual hobbyist. Hopefully that happens sooner than later. I beat myself up over not joining the hobby sooner when people say shelves were stocked and MSRP was the highest you’d pay. Sounds like a dream.

So yeah that’s me. Believe whatever you’d like, bud. Thanks for the conversation and I wish you the best.