For those of us who are swimming in Pokemon card bulk, fighting for space to store our folder collection, and spending way too much money on every available expansion - this post is for you. Thanks to the creative mind of one Redditor, we now know what a fellow Pokemon card collector would have looked like in the Renaissance era.
The 15th and 16th centuries were, of course, bereft of such extravagance relating to shiny bits of card worth thousands, as wealthy individuals of that time would have probably invested their funds in items of a more artistic and cultural nature. First edition Pokemon cards are selling for large sums nowadays, including the holy grail, Charizard, which recently sold for $666,000 - no doubt a Renaissance civilian would have found superstition in that auction. The transitional era from the Middle Ages to modern times would have had its own pocket of collectors, but thanks to one artist, we don’t need to imagine what a pastime collector would look like.
Redditor Cleverusername58 broke their silence on the Pokemon subreddit to post their Renaissance-style oil painting of a cherub-faced boy holding a binder full of Pokemon cards. It’s a rather bizarre sight to see, but it would maybe appeal to art enthusiasts of a Pokemon persuasion, or perhaps a collector with a specific sense of humor. The favorite comment award has to go to the user who titled the painting “Father, I wish to show you my Pokemon Card collection” and we wonder whether they managed to type that with a straight face.
Pokemon card collectors are having a continuous battle with scalpers at the moment, which has been somewhat relieved by stores limiting a certain amount of products to each customer. One man who wanted to avoid retail prices altogether ended up getting arrested for staging a card heist in Tokyo, however, Team Rocket was not on hand to help his escape via a hot-air balloon.
The Pokemon card business is at its most lucrative right now, with millions of people on the hunt for ‘chonky’ rainbow Pikachus and all of the Charizards. Additionally, a recent spike in collectors wishing to grade their rare finds caused the popular card grading service PSA to stop accepting new cards temporarily.