Pokémon card frenzy is making collectors and startups rich

A file photo shows Pokémon merchandise. Analogue Pokémon cards are an unlikely sensation for the Internet era. — Sarasota Herald-Tribune via AP

Mark Shininger is a like a lot of millennials who played with Pokémon cards during grade school. He traded the collectibles with his friends and competed with his brothers for the shiniest, most powerful characters – until eventually he tired of the hobby, stowed the cards neatly in boxes and grew up.

Then last year as the pandemic wore on, Shininger began hearing about vintage Pokémon card sales, sometimes reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So the 24-year-old mechanical engineer from Random Lake, Wisconsin, dug up his old collection of Pikachus and Charmanders. He logged the creatures into a spreadsheet and turned his childhood passion into a US$4,500 (RM18,816) side hustle.