A Pokemon card collector went viral on Twitter recently after discovering an extremely rare card during an unboxing video. The card in question, a first-generation holographic Charizard, has been traded on second-hand markets for as much as a jaw-dropping $50,000.
The fact that Pokemon cards are still being sold en masse – not to mention traded for such ungodly amounts of money – should come as no surprise, and that’s because the world-conquering Japanese media franchise was designed specifically to exploit our most instinctive human weaknesses.
See, few things in life quite capture the magic of childhood like opening a pack of Pokemon cards. The moment you rip open the fluorescent foil and inhale that sweet smell of fresh plastic, sensations of mystery and possibility combine with the unapologetically capitalistic urge to possess, and together create a feeling of euphoria so powerful it’s rarely rivaled by any pleasure native to the adult world.
And it was precisely that kind of euphoria which thousands of people saw course through collector Leonhard54YT’s veins the moment he moved aside – with increasingly trembling hands – a disposable Zubat card to reveal, bit by bit, and in greater and greater disbelief, the glimmering edges of the legendary Charizard.
nothing will make you happier today than this clip of a pokemon card collector pulling a $55,000 charizard pic.twitter.com/UaLy7IOQzp
— Laz (@lazaro) May 23, 2020
As though he were neutralizing a venomous insect that just injected its venom into his body, Leonhard oh-so-delicately slid his catch into a translucent cover before proceeding to jump up and down the room in a frenzy that could almost be mistaken as a sign of agonizing pain.
Of course, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Having pulled a winning lottery ticket, Leonhard was fully aware of the obscene amount of cash which this much-sought-after card is worth. Indeed, on average, this Pokemon card sells for about a thousand dollars. However, the better the state it’s in, the more it’s worth. In the past, one copy – declared by experts to have been in a factory-level pristine condition – sold online for $50,000.
