Recently, during a business trip in China, I had in-depth discussions with industry insiders and discovered a surprising phenomenon: Pokémon cards have become the hottest Secondary Market among the younger generation in mainland China, and its rise speed is remarkable.

The prosperity of this market has brought about a series of interesting phenomena. Firstly, due to the wide variety of Pokémon, hundreds of market makers and speculators have emerged. They will conduct large-scale acquisitions and control of specific Pokémon cards, making cards like Pikachu and Charizard become hard currencies in the market.

This situation has also attracted a large number of arbitrageurs. They would buy in bulk when domestic prices are lower or when official offline venues sell them, and then sell them at high prices on overseas platforms, profiting from the price difference. Interestingly, due to the rapid growth of the Chinese market, some cards actually command a premium domestically, which has triggered reverse arbitrage behavior. Recently, customs at Beijing and Shenyang airports seized a large number of illegally imported Pokémon cards.

The official use of Pokémon cards is for card battles, and their low blind box prices make related arbitrage activities difficult to completely prevent. Cross-border individuals can easily claim that these cards were just drawn or that they are carrying them to participate in Pokémon gym challenges or master tournaments in other regions.

This potential lucrative opportunity has attracted the participation of many ordinary people. After all, spending just a few dozen yuan to buy a blind box could lead to drawing a card worth a fortune, enabling rapid wealth accumulation.

Surprisingly, the groups that were previously enthusiastic about digital collectibles, NFTs, sneaker trading, and cryptocurrency speculation now seem to have shifted to the Pokémon card market. The rapid rise of this emerging market reflects the ongoing pursuit of wealth games by contemporary youth, as well as their ability to quickly transition between different investment fields.