The Pros and Cons of Pokémon Cards for Uninitiated Parents 👾

Lately my kids and a few of the neighbourhood kids have been getting back into Pokémon cards in a big way. They typically bring their cards with them any time they meet up and spend a fair bit of the time comparing and trading them. Once in a while they will play the actual game ("Pokémon The Card Game"), but usually they will just show off their cards and trade with each other. There are a few down sides to this, but I would argue that the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Note that this post also likely applies to other types of cards (Magic The Gathering, Yi-Gi-Oh!, baseball cards, and more), but it seems Pokémon Cards are more popular these days, at least with my kids.

Table of Contents

Negotiation Skills
Attention to Detail
Identifying Counterfeits
Organization
Pricing Research
The Negative Side - What to Watch Out For

Negotiation Skills

When my kids and their friends are playing with their Pokémon Cards, I nearly always see them practicing their negotiation skills. This is a great thing to practice because it comes up all the time in life. If you will ever want anything from another person (hint this happens multiple times a day, every day, for everyone) you will need to negotiate for it in some form or another. Practicing and experimenting with these skills at a young age with siblings initially, then close friends, and eventually acquaintances at the playground is a great way to start to learn these skills.

Identifying a fair trade by understanding the value and rarity of different cards (which I'll get into more below) is an important part of this. Also, putting yourself in the other person's shoes to understand the trade from their perspective. This also helps keep things civil and ideally contributes to keeping it fun.

I try to encourage my kids to take any trade that they agree to seriously and not try to trade it back later. For a while, there was an assumed "tradebacks allowed" rule going through the trading scene, but this led to numerous issues. For example, what happens if someone trades a card with one person, then trades the card they received to another person? If "tradebacks" were allowed in the first trade, the second trade might also need to be reversed. I've definitely seen trades lead to arguments and tears when one of the traders realized they wouldn't be able to get their card back. Hopefully, this is all part of the learning process!

Attention to Detail

To trade effectively requires significant attention to detail. There are many reasons why one card might be worth more than another, and you need to pay close attention to ensure you're making a good or at least a relatively fair trade. For example, certain cards come with shiny or "holo" elements, this makes the cards a bit rarer than the normal cards. I won't go into every factor here, but will mention a couple.

It took me a while to realize this, but every card has either a circle, diamond, or star on the bottom right corner of the card (very small). These shapes denote the rarity of the card with the circle being common, diamond being rare, and star being the most rare.

But, even that system can be trumped by certain types of cards. There are card types called EX, GX, V, or VMax cards and these are the rarest types. Fortunately enough, the kids are all very aware of how sought after these types of cards are, and unlike the little symbols at the bottom right of most cards, it's very obvious when a card is an EX, GX, V, or VMax.

As your kids get more advanced in their understanding and identification of cards, they will learn many of the factors that contribute to rarity. Hopefully, this newfound attention to detail will transfer over into other elements of their life. Perhaps cleaning their room? A parent can hope.

Identifying Counterfeits

One additional way to use that attention to detail that is very important to trading is being able to identify counterfeits. Yes, fake cards exist and can show up in your kid's deck. My objective with my kids is to ensure that they understand fake cards exist and they aren't worth as much as real cards.

Sometimes it is obvious when a card is a counterfeit, for example when a card has 6000 HP or other stats that just don't make sense. Other times it is a bit more subtle: incorrect fonts, spelling mistakes, or slightly inaccurate shading. I won't go into all the ways to identify fake cards in this article either, but it is something to make your kids aware of if they are trading and especially if they are buying used cards from others. Check out The Card Bazaar and Zenmarket's guide for more info.

Organization

As your kids' collections grow, they will realize how important it is to keep their cards organized. If they've got a hot trade on the go, they will want to be able to find that perfect card to trade with it as quickly as they can. Elastic bands actually work quite well for this - perhaps one elastic band stack for each type of card (water, fire, psychic, etc.)? Binders with card holder pages are also a great way to go, because it's easier to see all the cards at once.

My oldest recently discovered this crazy symbol on the bottom right of his cards that signify which deck or release the given card is from. He is now organizing many of his cards into a binder by symbol, leaving space for the cards he's missing, with the goal of eventually getting every card from certain releases. Given the number of cards he has already acquired over many birthdays and Christmases, this organizational project is a significant feat! He may need to invest in a few more binders.

Pricing Research

Recently my older kids decided that they were going to spend some of their birthday money (or hard-earned "lemonade stand" money) on Pokémon cards. My approach to this is to attempt to add friction to the general transaction, rather than just discouraging it or telling them outright that they have to save their money. I also remind them how much interest they could be earning if they put their money into their Prentice Family Bank Account, but ultimately it's their money so I will try never to tell them "no" outright. If I were to say "no" outright, they would have a far harder time learning how to manage their own money. Plus, if they really love Pokémon cards that much, I would say this is a great thing to spend some of their money on.

I add friction to the transaction (and teach about doing research before buying) by asking questions like...

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