Although we didn't outright sneer when linking to this May 2024 Le Monde article:
"In Japan, yakuza are reduced to stealing Pokémon cards",
it might have been a bit condescending to include "Making a slow getaway: Japan's anti-yakuza laws result in cohort of ageing gangsters" among the outro links. The geriatric mobsters may have known exactly what they were doing.
From The Wall Street Journal, September 10:
Lucas Shaw hit the jackpot with his latest investment.
The 27-year old account manager in Ohio used some of the gains to splurge on his fiancée’s custom engagement ring, which has three diamonds totaling 3.5 carats on an 18-karat gold band. The money will also help pay for their wedding.
Shaw’s windfall didn’t involve Big Tech stocks or crypto. It was thanks to the hottest investment among individual traders these days: Pokémon trading cards.
The cute, fictional characters blasted off in 1996, when Nintendo launched Pokémon as a videogame. Pokémon has since become a global phenomenon with a lineup of TV shows, films and games. Now, prices for the franchise’s trading cards are soaring like a Charizard, sparking a wave of risky speculation and even a crime spree in Japan.
Pokémon cards, which pay no dividends and aren’t subject to financial regulation, have seen a roughly 3,821% monthly cumulative return since 2004, according to an index by analytics firm Card Ladder tracking trading-card values through August. That trounces the S&P 500’s 483% jump over the same period. Meta Platforms, one of the Magnificent Seven, has climbed around 1,844% since the company went public in 2012.
Justin Wilson estimates his collection of around 500 cards and 100 sealed items is worth about $100,000.
The 32-year-old advertising manager in Oklahoma City started buying Pokémon cards as a kid in the 1990s. He picked up the hobby again in 2019 after realizing he had “adult money” to spend, and has no plans to stop.
“You’ve gotta catch ’em all,” said Wilson, echoing the franchise’s famous catchphrase. He views the cards as investments similar to his Roth IRA retirement and Vanguard brokerage accounts.
While financial advisers generally caution against betting retirement savings on fictional battling critters, the cards caught fire among amateur investors during the pandemic. As some investors banded together to spark the GameStop meme stock mania, a more fringe group of traders, also stuck at home and armed with cash from government stimulus, began scooping up Pokémon cards.
The craze intensified after influencer Logan Paul revealed in 2022 that he acquired a near perfect-grade “Pikachu Illustrator” card worth $5.3 million, setting a new Guinness World Record for the priciest Pokémon trading card sold in a private sale....
....MUCH MORE
First thought that comes to mind on the Logan Paul tidbit?
If it wasn't at auction it was probably a wash sale of some sort to either raise mark-to-market on other cards or to enhance Mr. Paul's brand.
