Logan Paul, the controversial YouTube star known in the UK for boxing with KSI, recently made headlines in the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) community after showing off his expensive Pokémon card collection. This collection included some of the rarest Pokémon cards available, including a PSA 9 Base Set Charizard.
While Paul admitted he had always been a huge Pokémon fan, his reasoning behind his investment in Pokémon TCG was the sheer amount of money to be made in selling old trading cards.
Paul's video detailing his journey into the TCG collector's community has already amassed four million views on YouTube in just two days. After buying a $200,000 Base Set booster box, Logan Paul is planning on doing a live stream in which he opens all 35 packs, of which 34 will have already been sold to buyers via an auction on his site.
Due to the size of his fanbase, Logan Paul's venture into Pokémon has sent shockwaves through the TCG community and economy. One Pokémon TCG expert even described Logan Paul as having "thrown a bomb of gasoline" onto Pokémon. Here's what they had to say.
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Pokémon TCG seller weighs in on Logan Paul's influence
Pokémon TCG YouTuber, seller, and analyst, ZandGEmporium, recently published a video in which he described the impact Logan Paul's video has had on the TCG economy, as first reported by Dexerto.
"Someone with actual brand power, actual life-changing wealth is getting into the Pokemon community," he said. The attention that came from Paul's video has already impacted TCG pricing and selling, with ZandGEmporum claiming that "there are confirmed sales of a PSA 9 Charizard that went for $50,000. Could that just be someone throwing money at it?"
ZandGEmporium, who also sells card on eBay, highlighted the effect by describing how he had been overwhelmed by messages requesting Base Set packs or boxes since Paul released his video.
"There's [a Base Set box] at auction right now, it's almost $20,000," he continued. "This is the power of someone with a lot of money and a lot of connections coming in to an asset class that has a very, very low supply."
Addressing some in the community's displeasure at seeing Logan Paul, a figure who has garnered much controversy in the past, enter the TCG buying and selling scene, ZandGEmporium dismissed these claims by saying "you can say what you want, but if he's legitimately just buying something, opening it, and selling it, there's no scam to it. It is what it is."
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Has Logan Paul permanently shifted the TCG Economy?
ZandGEmporium warned against using the inflated prices of cards as a result of Paul's video as a base for the current TCG economy. "Just because a PSA 9 Charizard went for $50,000 doesn't mean that right now it's worth $50,000," he said. "I need to see several confirmed cases to see that that is the floor now."
He also cited other factors as causing Pokémon card prices to soar in recent months, including the upcoming 25th anniversary of Pokémon and the postponed Olympics scheduled to take place in Tokyo.
"It didn't need this type of explosion, so this is just causing more and more. It was already going up as it is."
You can see ZandGEmporium's full analysis below:
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