Like middle parts and the looming fear that the internet will kill us all, the Pokémon Trading Card Game is a 90s trend that never quite went away and is now more popular than it's been in decades.

Sure, it's always had its fans and its competitive scene throughout the years, but right now, if you walk into your local game store, your comic shop, or even a Target or a Walmart, the chances of you getting your hands on a fresh booster pack are lower than me ever putting a Bruxish on my team.

You disgust me.

How did we get here?

Where did all these cards go?

And what does it have to do with... Logan Paul and stolen Happy Meal toys - what, what is, what is that- Friends and folks, welcome to Flyover Culture, your guided tour of pop culture and entertainment in the Midwest.

And the only show whose value on eBay is decreasing by the second.

I'm Payton Knobeloch.

As someone whose fandom with Pokémon burned brightly as a kid and then waned some until a few years ago, I'd be tempted to act surprised that the Trading Card Game is back in the news.

But that would be disingenuous.

Competitive players and collectors know the Pokémon TCG never quite went away.

But for the past year and now in 2021, we're seeing blink-and-you'll-miss-it stocks of cards that make chasing down the Gen 4 Lake Guardians seem convenient.

Sorry, lots of these to get out of my system.

Last March, something happened.

And I will give you three guesses as to what that was.

And because of that something, Play Pokémon announced it was cancelling its tournament series for 2020, including its North American championship in Ohio and its world championship in London.

It didn't take long for other in-person events to follow suit.

So you had bored Pokémon players stuck inside with more disposable income than they had planned for.

But that wasn't the only issue.

I think a lot of people downplay the fact that for a while, cards weren't being manufactured, because where those factories are those were locked down as well.

So when that supply chain slows down - but also, a lot of people talk about Pokémon but even the sports card markets went crazy.

A lot of those markets during the pandemic, of people staying home and having money to spend, really started to migrate to those... That's Randy Bellew Jr. Like Professor Oak, Professor Oak and Professor Oak before him, Randy is an officially sanctioned Pokémon professor.

He runs tournaments, events and generally acts as an ambassador for the card game.

We met up with him where he's held a bunch of these events: Comic Book University in Indianapolis.

And I also think you have a lot of people that are more my age that when the Pokémon Trading Card Game first came out, they were kids.

And now we're adults and maybe have a little bit more money to spend, and wanting to get back into it.

Bored, nostalgic adults are one factor, but Pokémon also released several specialty sets over the past year that were infamous for including rarer cards and variant shiny versions of previously printed cards.

Naturally, tracking those down was harder than usual.

Those sets are usually released towards the end of the year around the holidays - go figure - but the thing about those sets are is whereas normal sets, you have a booster box, you can just go buy loose packs, these sets are only released in certain promo boxes that will maybe have four packs or six packs or the trainer boxes have 10 packs in them.

Even though it is a lot of reprints and there's not a lot of new cards in there, there's a lot of ultra rares or shiny variants.

Those sets are more popular with kids because the amount of ultra rares you can get are a lot higher.

Boxes of these more popular sets like Hidden Fates or Vivid Voltage can run you anywhere from $75 to over $250 on the resale market.

And that shiny variant of the V-Max Charizard from Shining fates will run you about 300 bucks.

She's got a point.

She's an icon, she's a legend and she is the moment.

Now come on now.

Now, while making this video I was able to snag a couple of packs of the recent Battle Styles set.

I know overall it's not a great set, but my videographer Jacob tells me that these two are around three or five dollars each, so.

Later poors.

I'd also be remiss if i didn't bring up one of the clout-hungry elephants in the room: influencers.

Is now a good time to ask you to like and subscribe?

The past year saw a bevy of new YouTubers and streamers get into breaks, or opening packs on camera to see what good stuff they got.

I'll admit, there's something fascinating about it, or at least it makes for good background noise while i'm working.

Lycanroc.

OOOHHH, LYCANROC.

But the smaller streams pale in comparison to part-time boxer and internet bad boy Logan Paul, who opened up a $200,000 box of the first edition Base Set cards in October of last year.

Credit where it's due, the stream was a fundraiser for a mental health charity.

But this stream is also one of the biggest bumps the TCG had seen in a minute.

Only two cards left... We got Charizard!

We got our first Charizard of the day!

Oh my god.

Earlier this year, the hunger for the resale market got so ferocious that PSA, the company that grades cards based on quality, had to temporarily suspend its submissions.

For someone on the opposite side of the counter, like Dair Grant at Comic Book University, the craze is impossible not to notice.

Right now it's been really hard to stock them.

On average, we probably sell maybe 50 to 100 packs every day.

Some of the bigger items that have multiple packs or things, maybe 5 to 10.

And then individual cards, lately we've probably been selling 15 to 20 individual cards a day.

Dair says the store sees a ton of new people all the time who have maybe lapsed on their time with Pokémon and are just getting back into it.

It's a challenge just to keep those supplies stocked.

It's almost always the newest set, but like Vivid Voltage was a set previous to the current set, and it was very popular right out of the gates.

And it was really the first set that really exploded where we kind of saw demand really increasing and our ability to keep things in stock diminishing.

Even in a year where there haven't been many in-person competitions, it's not surprising that a shortage like this one is affecting those players.

But as Randy says, just not as heavily as you might think.

So a lot of your competitive players, uh some will buy product - I'm personally the type - like dude, I like opening packs, it's fun.

But you'll get a lot of your competitive side will just buy single cards.

They'll just buy the cards they need for decks and really it's it's a full ecosystem that helps each other, because the collectors open packs to find the cards they want and then in turn they sell maybe the cards they don't need, but they'll sell the competitive cards, the competitive players that give them money to go buy more product.

They don't want to open a bunch of product because, "I don't need all those, I just need what i'm playing with."

Even if competition isn't being significantly impacted by the shortage, some people say the spirit of the game definitely is.

That came to a head earlier this year when for Pokémon's 25th anniversary, McDonald's put specialty card packs in their Happy Meals.

And where there are things meant for kids, there are adults there to ruin it.

When i saw people trying to buy entire cases of the promo cards it's like - that's not who it's for.

I know of quite a few younger kids of, you know, kids of friends of mine that have developed an interest from getting those Happy Meal promos and that's what that's what those are intended for.

Hey everyone, Payton here with a quick update.

I was in the middle of editing this episode when i got a text from Pokémon card collector and videographer extraordinaire Jacob, who sent me this.

So yeah.

It looks like Target is wholesale just suspending its sales of Pokémon cards Also included in this are sports cards like MLB and NBA, but the big headline here is the Pokémon cards.

And to be honest, this is not that all surprising.

We've seen over the past couple months that Target had to impose a limit allowing people three items a day at first per person, and that went down to one item per day per person.

And after reports of people camping out overnight when Target is set to restock and Target saying that they'll call the cops on people.

So on the whole, this news is not all that surprising, but it is a big thing to drop.

On top of this, there have also been reports that Walmart is no longer stocking Pokémon cards in its stores, although the retailer says that those rumors are untrue.

I reached out to Rob, the owner of Comic Book University just to get his thoughts, and he did say that he doesn't think it'll significantly affect smaller local stores, but it won't hurt either.

Not to try and predict the future, but there is a solid chance that this may boost traffic to those smaller local stores.

So yeah.

This situation is ongoing and i have no idea where it's going to go, but i did want to include this quick post-script before the video goes out.

Now, onto our regularly scheduled outro.

Usually with these kinds of videos, I try to tie it all together with some kind of theme or a look ahead or something like that.

And keep in mind things should be returning to some kind of normalcy in the next few months.

The Pokémon Company has said that it will be increasing production for future sets and getting new packs on shelves as soon as possible.

Things are getting better.

I can't wait to to be able to travel to tournaments and and see all the people, and this community has just been so wonderful.

And even though we try to stay connected online, it's just not the same.

And like I said, hopefully we're back to normal sooner rather than later, and ready to get back and start seeing those people face to face again.

It is fun to see the excitement for people when they find or open a pack and get something that really surprises them.

And it is neat to see people come back into the game.

I think that's what we've seen as a big influx of people who have nostalgia for playing when they were kids.

Keep opening packs, and keep looking for all those different Pokémon.

In the meantime, be patient, I guess?

Don't harass store employees, don't steal Happy Meal toys from children.

That seems fair.

Maybe don't get into hobbies just to chase a quick buck.

Maybe the real value of the cards is what you give to them.

Just kidding, that's stupid.

I'm gonna sell these.

I'm getting name-brand cereal this week.

Hi, thanks for watching Flyover Culture.

This has nothing to do with anything, I just, I like it and I wanted to have it.

Uh, if you enjoyed this please like and subscribe and do all those things, and we will be back soon with more Flyover Culture.

Thanks, see you next time.