Flip Now, Play Later: An 11-Year-Old Sums Up Pokémon’s Scalper Era

Kotaku explores how scalper culture has seeped into Pokémon cards, highlighting an 11-year-old at a card show who admitted he doesn’t know much about Pokémon and told PokéBeach, “I just flip cards,” after learning from influencers that cards are a good investment. The piece notes upcoming Pokémon Company rules banning partnered vendors from selling graded slabs at official events and restricting items over $1,000, to be enforced at the Indianapolis Regionals and the World Championship. The article laments that the hobby risks becoming about resale value rather than the game, anime, and camaraderie that once defined it.