Card Lounge Podcast

Pokémon card prices are breaking records: Prism Star cards that sell for $10 raw now go for $2,000 to $10,000+ in a PSA 10, and a Team Plasma Lugia-EX is listed near $4 million. Rob (Roboskillz) and Jake (TwiceBakedJake) debate whether this is real collector demand or market manipulation, and who ends up holding the bag.Jake's take: collectors are buying the label, not the card. Most of these cards are easy to find raw. The scarce part is the PSA 10. Rob's take: too many low-pop cards are spiking at once for it to be organic, so he's sending low-pop Black & White holos to auction as a live experiment.Sign up to Chance for Free Slabs from Us! https://chance.live/?referralCode=cardloungeArizona TCG: https://www.arizonatcg.com/Collectr App: https://app.getcollectr.com/Chance giveaway! Enter your Chance username below for free graded cards!https://forms.gle/aPeRC5cugB9fEy798

Elestrals creator Adrive joins the Card Lounge to break down the Pokémon market, why most new TCGs will fail, and what it really takes to build a trading card game from scratch. From selling a $50K sealed EX Deoxys box to overprinting 25,000 boxes of his own set, Adrive shares the mistakes, the wins, and the 1 of 10 serialized card that has never been pulled.We cover the Black Label Mega Gengar crash ($80K to $16K), whether The Pokémon Company controls supply on purpose, collector boosters in Lorcana, One Piece Pandaman gate, the hidden Mew debate, and how Elestrals serialized cards, divine packs, and the spirit deck system work. Plus an Elestrals booster box opening and Adrive's top Pokémon grails, including the Neo Discovery 1st Edition Yanma.LOUNGE5 for 5% Back w/ Arizona TCG! https://www.arizonatcg.com/Collectr App to Track Cards! https://app.getcollectr.com/A huge thanks to Adrive for coming on the pod!https://www.youtube.com/@Elestralshttps://www.shopelestrals.com/?ref=CardLounge

Pokémon cards are setting new records every week: a 1st Edition Base Set Charizard passed $1M, a $3M Art Academy Mudkip, and Level X, Gold Star and Legendary Collection reverse holo slabs jumping to six figures. Rob (Roboskillz) and Jake (TwiceBakedJake) debate the money laundering theories, lay out how a low-pop market manipulation play would actually work, and explain why "last sold" is misleading so many collectors.We also rip 30th Celebration packs (Gengar Prime Classic Collection pull), rank the Pikachu illustration rares, check whether scalpers are finally feeling it (Prismatic Evolutions and Ascended Heroes ETB prices), cover PSA's new grading minimum, and share what we'd buy and sell right now.Sign up to Chance for Free Slabs from Us! https://chance.live/?referralCode=cardloungeCheck out the Collectr App! https://app.getcollectr.com/Chance giveaway! Enter your Chance username for free graded cards!https://forms.gle/aPeRC5cugB9fEy798

The first Pokemon card ever released came out of a 1996 Japanese manga magazine — and almost nobody kept a copy. John from Cardbound joins us to break down CoroCoro issue 223, the glossy Ivy Pikachu and Jigglypuff, and the variant card that became the second-highest Pokemon card sale of all time.John spent two years buying up nearly every known copy of CoroCoro 223 when they were selling for $5 and $10 apiece. That obsession turned into the Cardbound documentary, a $400,000 gamble on a card that might have been worthless, and a $3.3 million sale. We get into all of it: how he found the books, why the marketing variation exists, what the wrong illustrator credit tells us about Pokemon's earliest days, and where the real hidden gems still are for collectors willing to dig past 2025.We also cover Buyee and the Japanese marketplaces most collectors never touch, why there is no PSA 10 Ivy Pikachu, the KFC cards that were actually the first English Pokemon cards, Wizards of the Coast demo packs and shadowless, the Keshi figures that were the first Pokemon toys, and John's 151 master set in twelve languages.LOUNGE5 for 5% Back w/ Arizona TCG! https://www.arizonatcg.com/Collectr App to Track Cards! https://app.getcollectr.com/

Rob showed up to record this one with no voice after SF Collect a con, and we still don't have a single 30th Celebrations booster pack in hand the night before release. We break down why product is locked down tighter than any set launch in memory, why Natalie's early 30th Celebrations leak blew up the way it did (and why we think it's the smaller story), and dig into the real question: are collectors and dealers rigging six-figure Pokemon card sales to set price points?In this episode:Why GameStop, Best Buy, and Target lines are already forming for the September 16 release, and why we're heading to GameStop right after this recordingHow some TikTok and Whatnot sellers are getting 30th Celebrations product weeks before street date, and where the line between "leaked" and "stolen" actually sitsThe "one in 20 chance" scam some live-sale platforms use to sell a $30 chance instead of the card you think you're bidding on — banned on Whatnot, still running on TikTokWhy a Gold Star Torchic sold for $2.5 million and a Level X Arceus sold for a quarter million days after the same card sold for $2,000 — and whether these prices are being manipulatedOur top 5 predictions for the biggest 30th Celebrations chase cards by artwork and pull rateIs the hobby splitting into two separate markets: ultra-rare vintage chasers and everyone else buying modern for funLOUNGE5 for 5% Back w/ Arizona TCG! https://www.arizonatcg.com/Sign up to Chance for Free Slabs from Us! https://chance.live/Check out the Collectr App! https://app.getcollectr.com/