Pokemon is really hard to stay competitive with as the legal set is rotated annualy.
So basically... Everything is made and marketed towards the heavy spenders... But a lot of us in this thread... maybe in this website in general, don't reflect that demographic at all. A lot of us are poor, grew up poor, or are financially well off, but are in this position due to frugality.
There is also the idea of making people know they're getting a lesser experience. "You bought the thing, but it's not really the thing. It's the thing with some stuff removed."
I remember that back around around 2019~2020 there were a few big Youtubers who made videos about finding rare Pokemon cards or making money off selling them, with some involvement from grading companies as I recall. It was around the same time old video game prices prices also started rocketing up from people getting into to trying to make money off or invest in them. I think video game prices have cooled off some because the grading companies involved were pretty much revealed as a scam, but from what I've been hearing it sounds like Pokemon cards are still getting it bad with lots of stories of dudes camping out and buying up entire store stocks, stores needing to put in strict limits on buying cards, Nintendo putting out statements about trying to fix supply issues because the target audience of little kids can't buy any cards and whatnot. It's pretty much a combo of dudes who put together $1000 decks for official tournaments, autistic collectors, and investors/scalpers buying up cards to sell to the former groups.
This.
Nintendo fans tend to be extremely rabid if you say anything slightly critical of Nintendo, and tend to be some of the biggest consoomers. They don't just stop at the games, they go for every little merchandise, every single little thing. I remember when amiibos were around, and they would lose their shit about them.
Yes, more people are trying to "hustle" no matter how ethical or not what they do is. Sometimes they come out poorer than they did before
Except working
It's because people were spending their Covid bux on whatever bullshit, and some kept the behavior.
This describes most consoomer products. There was some article a while back about how middle class latinks are the primary demographic in movie theaters. Guarantee you Rosely from Fresno has an LV iPhone case which can cost up to $500 per their website. No fakes or replicas for her of course, just swipe it on her maxed out credit card with 29% interest.
Nobody wants to work post-covid. All they want to do is grift and scam. Funny how Covid has made the world a much worse place.
Marisol, but otherwise accurate.
Covid brought out the rot that always lingered in humanity and made it more acceptable to behave like antisocial freaks. Something about the lockdowns and everything around 2020-2021 really sped things along. I don't know if it was pre-covid or during covid, but there was a trend I remember where some were punching old ladies in the faces during around that period.
I remember when asian Old ladies getting punched in the face and it started the whole #StopAsianHate that twitter leftists regurgitated for a few days. I believe that was 2021.
They destroyed all of the social trust in work.
covid taught people that a long term honest business will be taken away from you at the blink of an eye, an investment will disappear, a physical store will have to close, government literally told people, plain as day, "if you love what you do and want to do it long term and earnestly.... you're a FUCKING SUCKER LMAO, GET FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED!" so now people want their money quick because they're scared nothing will last
I don't know if those brands (BMW and Mercedes and other imo former luxury brands) are aware of it or not but my perception and the perception of others I've talked to has completely shifted/tanked. 15-20 years ago you saw one and your mind's eye saw the boomer in his polo shirt, sunglasses and watch in the drivers seat even if you didn't catch the driver physically. Now, and especially since the late 2010s, it's all ugly minorities driving that shit. Indians, chinese, and goblin looking hispanics. Don't know where they even get the money from whether it's those sweet make-work jobs, welfare fraud, or good old fashioned crime but it's coming from somewhere because those shitboxes are approaching $100k new now (and it's gotta be new, nothing but the best for Pajeet Singh, Lupe Rojas-Espinoza, and Hong Xi).
Old ladies were getting punched in general, including Asians, and it was starting to piss off the azns, who were starting to talk about straying from the Coalition of the Ascendant. So #StopAsianHate was just a way to keep them in the coalition, which worked for a few years. That post-COVID period was a pretty interesting time.
I assume they are like any (formerly?) DEI-obsessed business where they think it’s a good thing some toad-looking lahteenah is driving their luxury SUV.
