Imagine the shock of finding your old Pokémon cards – only to discover that one genius childhood move might have cost you thousands.
Remember when the Pokémon card craze started? People were paying thousands for a single card, and you couldn’t help but wonder if your childhood self had bought one of those money-makers instead of, well, Bitcoin. Well, someone recently found a rare Pokémon card, only to be left in shock when they discovered what their younger self had done to it. It’s a devastating mistake that turned a valuable collectible into a mere memory. Here’s everything you need to know about this heartbreaking twist of fate.
The Heartbreaking Card Mistake
When the Pokémon card market exploded, collectors saw rare cards soaring in value. Some went for thousands of dollars, causing many to scramble through childhood collections, hoping they'd stashed away a hidden treasure. One person thought they’d hit the jackpot, only to realize that their childhood attempt to protect their cards had ruined any future value.
The Pokémon fan's best friend shared a story on Reddit about finding a Charizard card worth easily more than $10,000 years later. When he was 9, he came up with a clever idea to protect his valuable cards from theft: he cut off the corners. His logic was simple: if the cards were ever stolen, the missing corners would make them easy to recognize. Despite this, he still put the cards in protective sleeves, hoping to keep them in good condition. Little did he know, this decision would cost him in the future.
Small cut, big loss
Not a costly mistake one might think? It’s only about 5% of the card missing. Pokémon traders think differently. There’s a grading system that assigns a number to the card’s quality, taking into account fingerprints, scratches, and other imperfections. Trimming the corners would massively lower the PSA score, which ranges from 1 to 10. It's like Shrek turning into a human – a 10 becomes a 2.
The post gained about 10,000 upvotes and a lot of sympathy from other users, who shared similar stories and pointed out that the strategy was successful since nobody stole the card. The owner of the card learned from his mistake and didn't repeat it, as his older self did not cut corners to get rich. Now, excuse me while I prepare my Pulitzer Prize speech.
Do you own an Illustrator Pikachu? And can I live on your super yacht? Let me know in the comments!