Pokémon Mania: for Millennials, it’s not just about collecting

Don’t just call them cards. Thirty years after its debut, and having taken over children’s bedrooms across half the world, the Pokémon universe is enjoying an unprecedented boom: its cards have, to all intents and purposes, become an investment asset. One anecdote illustrates this transformation well. It is recounted by Giovanni Camisasca, CEO of Collecto, an Italian start-up that fractionalises ownership of collectables: ‘One of the most valuable boxes of Pokémon cards we’ve ever sold on Collecto, worth $80,000, ended up in the hands of the head of Risk Management at JP Morgan,’ he says, highlighting the buyer’s profile. To date, the total value of Pokémon cards sold on the app is close to 5 million euros. “The rise in the value of the cards is a phenomenon that has been going on for decades,” continues Camisasca, “but today, the appreciation curve has become much steeper. Art and wine remain the most valuable categories in alternative collecting, but after watches and sports memorabilia come, indeed, Pokémon.”

The most sensational record was set in February, when the auction house Goldin, owned by eBay, sold a 1998 Pikachu Illustrator for $16.5 million: the highest price ever paid worldwide for a collectable card. Further evidence of the asset’s strength: the card was snapped up by AJ Scaramucci, founder of the Solari Capital fund – yet another sign of growing interest from high-net-worth investors. Since then, there have been a string of other transactions worth over a million dollars. According to estimates by Chase Society, which monitors industry data, the total value of professionally certified Pokémon cards currently on the market could be close to $9 billion. It is a global market that originates in Japan and spans the United States and Europe, with the greatest liquidity remaining, for now, overseas.

What makes this transformation possible is, above all, ‘grading’, or the certification of cards. ‘The world of Pokémon cards, compared to other emerging collectables markets – such as the world of memorabilia – is quite advanced,’ Camisasca goes on to explain. “There are three organisations that certify the authenticity, condition and serial number of each card and determine its value: the best known is PSA, followed by CGS and Beckett. We rely on them too.” In practice, each card is given a grade from 1 to 10 based on various criteria, including scratches, the condition of the edges and the centring of the image. That number can radically change the price. Of a particular version of the Pikachu from the 2002 Legendary Collection, for example, there are just 35 copies graded PSA 10. A card in that condition can be worth around 250,000 pounds, compared with 15,000 pounds for a PSA 9 copy. A single point’s difference, therefore, can increase the value more than tenfold.

Behind the surge in prices, says Camisasca, there is more than just the nostalgia effect. ‘It’s a phenomenon that has been going on for ten or fifteen years, with periodic revaluations over time. It’s just that we’re noticing it more today because the curve has become much steeper: we’re seeing fluctuations of 20–30 per cent in just a few weeks.’ There is also a generational factor which, according to Camisasca, is still in its early stages. ‘The generation that grew up with Pokémon has only just reached the peak of its purchasing power. Collecting passions tend to last almost until the grave, so the trend is set to endure.’ Added to this is the entry of institutional investors, following a trajectory that Camisasca compares to that already seen with Bitcoin: first a grassroots phenomenon, then the gradual legitimisation and stabilisation of the market with the arrival of big money.

The fact that Pokémon fever isn’t just limited to big spenders is also borne out by eBay, which has just wrapped up a week of events dedicated to the franchise. In the first six months of 2026, users worldwide searched for Pokémon products at an average rate of over 500 searches per minute, compared with 360 during the same period in 2025. In Italia, ‘Pokémon’ has been the most searched-for keyword on eBay.it for the third consecutive year since 2024. And at the top of users’ wish lists is, once again, Charizard, ahead of Pikachu, Gengar, Mewtwo and Mew. This is a scenario in which Pokémon itself has sought to revitalise its brand. The first time was with the ‘151’ collection, launched in 2023 and dedicated to the first 151 characters in the series; the second was in 2024, with the mobile version of the trading card game, which brought new users into the Pokémon universe. Thirty years on, then, Pikachu and co. remain the undisputed stars of the collecting world. Except that today, rather than ending up in a school bag, some people prefer to keep them in a safe deposit box.