FOLIO
Wors by Kaleb Stowell
Trading cards have been around for more than a century, making their appearance in cigarette packs and later with bubble gum and baseball cards. Over time, trading cards became a huge game — and industry. Magic: The Gathering was one of the first back in 1993. Despite having gone through some ups and downs over the years, in the latter half of 2024, trading cards made a comeback in a big way, specifically Pokémon.
You may have noticed while walking through the aisles at your local retailer. The once overstocked card shelves are now empty. It’s not due to a lack of supply, however, rather a demand so great that stores physically can’t hold products for longer than a few hours.
The trading card scene in Jacksonville is very much alive and well with around 30 active locally-owned card shops, many of which serve as places where TCG (trading card game) players can come to play their favorite games. Chris and Lydia Pulliam, owners of Variant Vault, a brand-new card shop in Orange Park, spoke with us about this sudden Pokémon craze.
Chris said, “It seems like it’s pretty easy to turn around and say, ‘It’s Prismatic’ [a Pokémon card set], y’know, everyone’s chasing that $1,000 card.” James “Trey” McNicol III, an avid Pokémon Trading Card collector, agreed with Chris’ statement: “As someone who has been collecting for a little over two years now, I can confidently say that Prismatic caused a shockwave effect because ever since it has been hard to find anything at retail stores. It just isn’t feasible to walk into a Walmart or a Target and pick up some cards anymore. That’s why it’s important now more than ever to support local card shops, that’s the only place you can find decently priced products.”
This “shockwave effect” that McNicol mentions seems to be more than a placebo, as consumers and retailers alike have voiced their frustrations that the Pokémon company can’t satisfy the ridiculous demand for Pokémon trading card products. Many fanatics have taken to camping outside of retail stores such as Gamestop and Walmart in order to “catch a restock.” A local Gamestop employee who chose not to be identified stated, “It’s heartbreaking when you open the doors on a restock day [the day retailers receive Pokémon TCG products] and see a kid, who has probably been waiting in line for hours, be turned away because we don’t have enough product for everybody. It doesn’t even matter which set [Pokémon card set] it is. The demand is there every time.”
The reason for this sudden, dramatic increase in demand for Pokémon cards was partially due to the Pokémon company releasing a new app, Pokémon TCG Pocket, in 2024. Pokémon TCG Pocket is a free game on iOS and Android where users can open Pokémon packs, free of charge. Pokémon TCG Pocket saw instant success, garnering over 10 million downloads and generating roughly $43.6 million in its first week. A little over a month later, a Japanese Pokémon card set, Terastal Fest ex, was released in Japan, and a month later than that, Prismatic Evolutions (The English version of ‘Terastal Fest ex’) came out. The release of this set, coupled with the success of Pokémon TCG Pocket, almost single-handedly shot Pokémon cards back into the limelight.
The Pulliams also discussed the difficulties of starting their own card shop business. They explained that the Pokémon Company only allocates a limited number of products per distributor, and then distributors take pre-orders from retailers, card shop owners and private sellers. Lydia said, “We put in an order for $6,000 worth of the next Pokémon TCG set… and we were just told that we would only be receiving less than $200 worth of product. And the reason is because of how large the orders for the major retailers are.” Chris discussed that since opening his shop, he has received a ton of nice words from customers and competitors alike with some local comic stores even offering to send him product if he begins to run low.
Daniel Williams, owner of Dan’s Sports Cards and Games in Riverside, claims that the Pokémon market is currently a “bull market,” where prices and values of packs and cards have seen a sharp increase. Williams started his card shop over 30 years ago and has observed countless changes in the market. We asked Dan about what he has seen as a card shop that caters to all trading card games, he said, “In our shop the sales are pretty evenly split between sports, Pokémon and Magic… everything else is a very distant fourth place.” He also said he believed there are more card shops surrounding the Jacksonville area than any other major market in Florida.
Williams also touched on the difficulties mentioned by the Pulliams, specifically about distributors, saying, “When I started my shop back in the ’90s, things were very different. This was before eBay existed and other online websites. Distributors not only needed every account they could get, they begged us to buy from them.” This harsh contrast between the market from the 1990s to now showcases the unpredictable nature of the TCG scene.
Pokémon and trading card games, in general, are still red hot right now, so for anyone looking to rip some packs, it might be a while before you see the aisles of your local retailer fully stocked, so be sure to support your local Jacksonville card shops!
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