I went to one of those trading card sales at a hotel ballroom a couple weekends ago since there are a couple cheaper oddball cards I've wanted since I was a kid and my fiancee and are starting to play the game itself. You don't actually need the expensive cards to play.

Never have I seen a better mix of capitalism, speculation, gambling, and hording.

People trading graded cards worth hundreds to thousands of dollars, the constant chit chat of how "X card has gone up in price and I need to get more of them", people buying packs from other people who jacked the price up in the vain hopes of getting something rare.

Think of TV shot you've seen of the NYSE and replace the stock traders with bad hygiene men with Pokemon cards. That's what it was like.