The Predatory World of Pokémon Cards

Video Description

You can go to my sponsor https://aura.com/zackarysmigel to try 14 days for free. That’s enough time for Aura to start scrubbing your personal info off these data broker sites, without you lifting a finger. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ZackarySmigel/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/zas11s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zas11s/ Everything else: https://linktr.ee/zackarysmigel Here are the chapters for this video. Feel free to jump around accordingly: 0:00 The Pokémon Card Nightmare 2:45 The $120 Million App: TCG Pocket 4:05 The Prismatic Evolutions Craze 7:02 The "Moonbreon" Problem 9:23 Why You Can’t Find Pokémon Cards 10:20 The Rise of Whatnot & Influencers 11:53 The "Rip and Ship" Scam 14:05 Phantasmal Flames & The Charizard Effect 15:30 Why Everyone Hates GameStop Now 17:59 Dollar General’s "Ghost Inventory" 18:46 The Walgreens Stock Conspiracy 20:14 Companies Are Failing Their Employees 21:13 The Reality of Ordering Cards Online 22:25 Battling Bots on Pokémon Center 23:42 Inside a Pokémon Drop Discord 24:35 Catching a Restock at Walmart 25:06 MSRP vs. Scalper Prices 27:09 Opening Packs (Is It Worth It?) 28:12 The Gambling of Card Grading 28:46 The Hidden Risks of Grading 29:55 The PSA Monopoly 31:13 Why People Are Grading "Junk" 31:55 The Kabuto King Phenomenon 33:07 Interviewing The Kabuto King 33:36 Is The TCG Market Rigged? 35:18 The "Adultification" of Pokémon 37:18 Greed vs. Nostalgia 39:20 Can We Save The Hobby? Assistant Editor and Graphic Designer: @JoeMrozek Note: I deliberately leave the channel icons and video titles on each video for reference in case anyone wants to see the full videos featured in these documentaries. If anything is unclear, or for additional references, please reach out, and I will happily provide a link to any of the following content discussed, featured, or used as a b-roll in the video. Copyright Note: Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Music: All songs featured in the video are from: - Epidemic Sound: https://share.epidemicsound.com/8mvwnm (referral link) - YouTube's Audio Library - Kevin MacLeod's royalty free music library: http://incompetech.com/ - Ian Taylor's RuneScape Music library owned by Jagex LTD. Please check out their music on Spotify if you are into that style. I cannot emphasize enough how good the music is. =-=-=-= #youtube #videoessay #zackarysmigel Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more! =-=-=-=