We are in a new state of Pokemania.
The original Pokemania lasted from 1998 into the year 2000 and was a time of absolute insanity. Everybody was trying to get their hands on Pokemon products and corporations were indulging in Pokemon marketing like All Nippon Airway’s Pokemon jet.
Well we’re right back where we were!
People are emptying the shelves of Pokemon product just as fast as it’s being put up. People are literally waiting around watching vendors put up Pokemon stock only to take all of it the moment they’re finished stocking.
Everything is out of stock.
People are wrestling, pushing people to the ground, and fighting over Pokemon products at Costcos and Targets across America.
Preorders for a Pokemon set whose cards hadn’t even been seen by anyone yet sold out almost instantly.
This is a true state of Pokemania. No stock available, stock gone the second it’s put up, scalpers and hoarders everywhere, “investors” complaining about other people taking everything when they engage in the same behavior, preorders becoming a hot commodity, and hype for every single set becoming out of control.
The Pokemon Company’s printers are not going to be able to keep up with demand. They’ve already said they’ll be printing more Prismatic Evolutions the minute they get a chance to but it’s not going to be enough. And what about upcoming sets? What about the new The Glory of Team Rocket set which has even more hype than Prismatic Evolutions? People are already literally saving hundreds of dollars to buy the new Team Rocket set.
Maybe this would be a good time for The Pokemon Company to discontinue printing on older sets and use that freed up capacity to print more Prismatic Evolutions, Journey Together, and Team Rocket products. Maybe that’s exactly their plan! We don’t know and that lack of knowledge actually feeds into Pokemania.
This can’t continue. To keep people in the hobby there needs to be products available, the influence of scalpers and hoarders needs to be reduced or eliminated, hype needs to be reasonable… basically everything needs to be done in moderation instead of feeding into the beast, instead of buying into mania.
But I guess moderation is not going to happen.
Pokemania is just going to continue and continue until one day… WHAM. It’s over, the market crashes, everyone hates Pokemon for causing them to go broke from their “investments”. This is not the first time this has happened in collectible markets and it won’t be the last.
The Pokemon hobby is in trouble.