Trying to Get Rich Off Pokémon Cards

hey guys the thing I mention later in the video has sold out! thanks so much for the support ❤️

when i was nine going on ten, my older brother was moving out and left me his entire collection of pokemon cards. he was a super avid collector and had the original first packs from japan in mint condition as well as hundreds and hundreds of super rare US pokemon cards all in perfect condition- wrapped individually in plastic and placed into binders that were all organized by rarity.
What did I do with these cards?
I immediately took them all out of their protection cases + binders.... and taped them all.... to my door...
I wanted to impress my two entire friends I guess??? so when they'd come over they'd see pokemon cards covering both sides of my door?? even tho one of these friends didnt even like pokemon??? after filling up my door, i still had so many binders of cards that i'd end up hanging them all over my room. I moved them around and re-taped them on the door so many times that they began to fall apart. due to this, my dad would then go on to throw them all out.
i basically destroyed my family's future fortune in one day. i cannot tell u how many mint condition cards he had that are considered super rare and valuable. he had hundreds and kept them perfectly and i turned them into a pile of trash sent off to a landfill.
don't give ur valuables to nine year olds

The fact that every monster in Digimon ended with "mon" is hilarious

I remember the day that my little brother came home in TEARS because our elementary school had banned Pokémon cards. There had apparently been a physical fight over a Charizard and the principal had decided that it had gone too far. It was a dark day.

My parents threw out my fairly extensive collection of pokemon cards from the late 90s/early 2000s about 8 years ago when they moved house. And it hurts me, so freaking much. I could have had some pretty serious money in that collection. My partner spent bitcoin on pizza in like 2010 though, so we commiserate together.

I'm japanese and my older brother was into actually playing pokemon cards and wanted to make me play him for practice, without telling me how to play and obviously i had no idea. So he'd line his cards up the correct way and i'd just line mine up in a straight line, with my favorites being in front and the ones i liked less in the back. My bro flipped out on me for not playing properly and i bent a few of his cards in retailation. It ended in a crying match and we both got sent to our rooms by our mom. Good times.

kurtis you have no idea how happy this video makes me

I remember home-room in 4th grade when the kids who traded cards would all wait until the teacher stepped out of the room for something, and instantly maybe 6 or 7 extra large 3-ring binders would come flying out of backpacks and slam onto desks, everyone else pulling out what they had to trade from their pockets or card cases. They were so efficient at not getting caught that the teacher could have stepped right outside, and they had 3 or 4 kids in the room that acted as the lookouts at all times, and everyone else would ninja their way across the room to nab trades really quickly. Like, _almost the entire class._
And then one day our teacher caught us, and instead of busting us she revealed she was a fan too and brought us over to her desk to show us the Evee card she had taped on her monitor, since it was her favorite one because of the many evolutions. Mrs. Peters from Foothills elementary, one of the kindest and most gentle teachers I ever had in my entire scholastic career.

Here after Kurtis finally found a Gold Numbered Digimon card. Congrats Mayor 🎉

I really appreciated the things you said about having a collection of something: I recently started collecting crystals (and when I was a child I always brought home little rocks I found cute or particular) and my mother always mocked me for that and said I'm childish. Also, it was a nice video, I'm sorry you didn't get the gold card tho

I would emphasize asking price is not necessarily selling price. So would be wise to lookup sold listings to determine actual value.

Kurtis, these video essays and experiments are honestly so entertaining and the hard work you put into them really shows! we appreciate the effort you put into these and it’s just pure gold every time

The ending and the validation of collecting things made me feel warm inside 🥺
There really just is something so magical about having tangible things that you love. Seeing it all together and knowing that that silly little thing is something you've put so much love into? Man? What a great feeling.

You played this like how people should play the lottery. A very similar reaction whether you win or lose. This was so wholesome and nostalgic thank you

My dad collected a lot of different trading cards between the 1980s through the early 2000s. I asked him if he had any pokemon cards, and he said he thought a relative gave him a bunch of "weird cards." And when I finally found the box, I was amazed to see...a box of disney trading cards.

"When was the last time you were so excited that you were fucking shaking?"
Thank you so much Kurtis. This is now on my bucket list. I want something so good to happen in my life, that I start shaking. I want that level of happiness and contentment.

“Minimalism is propaganda being fed to you from companies that make grey couches”
I am losing it

Our school banned pokemon cards, so we had to get behind some bushes or toilets and trade 'em
It legit felt like we were dealing drugs

I remember being in like grade 2 and literally dealing rare Pokémon cards like a drug dealer lmao i would do that so seriously😭✋

I love Pokémon, but I 100% agree that Digimon was the superior show. Character development and storylines were so so good.

I literally remember crying for hours at a sleepover because I traded away my Cyndaquil and wanted it back

Kurtis, you better film yourself opening the other boxes, I’m invested now.

The recurring Barbie saying “balls” just kills me every time

Damn. Seeing all those Digimon characters was a nostalgia bomb. The first season was the best part of my childhood.

Reading everyone’s story’s about how they threw out all their collections and they regret somehow makes me sad as hell- I somehow relate bc I had book and a huge stack of pokemon cards.. and i don’t know what happened to them

I love how most of his audience definitely wouldn’t be interested or even know about this if it wasn’t for him.
ALSO MAKE MORE TRADING CARDSSS

Hey Kurtis, hope you’re not feeling down by the “numbers”, we all see how much time and effort you put into your videos these last few months (in particular) so feel proud of that

When I was little I thought I stopped liking pokemon and sold ALL my dads old cards. regret. the pokemon disliking phase lasted like a month and in that month I lost not just me but my dads hard hard work. needless to say I'm a huge pokemon fan again and collect the cards. none are worth much and really I just think they're neat but I can't believe I did that to myself

I've just discovered your channel, genuinely laughed at some of the stuff you said, but some genuine stuff too with the collecting / keeping as a way of control of something (mental health bonus points) keep up the good work my guy! Send us a card I'll happily wipe my ass with it for footage? Message for details we can work something out 😉

Watching this made me open up this collection I had of Animal Kaiser cards after not seeing them in a long, long time. Seeing them again made me really happy and nostalgic. Thank you.

I once had a holographic Charizard card that I gave to my friend down the street to watch him dance. Some years later I saw it online listed for hundreds of dollars regularly. It was a Charizard EX from the FireRed LeafGreen era

“I almost started crying because i was talking about a Digimon episode.”
-Kurtis Conner, 2021

I collected since 99 when I was in Jr high until I trailed off and got into Magic the gathering in my more "grown up" high school years. Had to dig them out to make sure they still were safe when I saw prices go insane. Found and changed out old crusty binder pages and all new protectors, and that's it. I'm broke but I wouldn't sell any of the full sets of everything I have. Maybe when it's in the millions I'd consider parting with my childhood, until then I'll just keep them along with all my magic cards I refused to sell, lol. Some day being an outcast nerd in school will pay off though! Probably for the lucky bastard who inherits my crap though. lol

I have some cards worth over $100 in my collection, but I absolutely refuse to ever sell them. I traded my hard-earned packs of gushers for those cards.

You know you've made it in life when you can just drop $4,000 on digimon cards. We love to see it.

Oh man, this made me wanna look to see if I still have my old Digimon trading card handbook 🤔

Shout out to Jenna's dad and Kurtis's mom- without you guys, this potential hype would have never been possible.

This makes me kick myself in the ass harder and harder every year. I had an amazing stash of first editions from when i was a kid, i started collecting right when they came out, and Every pick i ever had went straight from the pack and into a card sleeve, I had 5 1st edition charizards, 12 1st edition blastoise, 7 1st edition venusaurs, the list goes on and on, same for when fossils came out i had 1st editions from that, i had a pre-release aerodactyl, and like 200+ other near mint 1st edition holo's from 98-00 or 99-01 w/e the years were. and..... heres the tragedy. my younger brother, he and I lived separately our entire lives and we are 14 yrs apart. well by the time he was like 11, i was 26 and i still had all my cards, still mint, they were just stored away. He was super into pokemon, and I felt really bad that we were away from eachother and I wanted to give him something cool as a keepsake that he could hold onto (from his big brother). granted these cards hadnt jumped thru the roof in price yet, they seemed like they werent going to. So I gave him the entire set. (well doesn't he still have them?) No. He said he took them all out of their sleeves and they were all eventually lost/destroyed/messed up cause he was "a young dumb kid so he didnt take care of them." Several tens of thousands of dollars thrown in the garbage. Sorry to make such a novel of this, but if it happened to you, youd feel like a fucking idiot and write a book about it too. So much money lost.

When i was in grade school, my dad bought me packs of Pokemon cards. I wasn't a huge fan of the show and I didn't play any of the games but I liked collecting them because they looked cute. I threw them all away when I got older, maybe I should've sold them - I had the ones with the hologram thingy as well.

You made me way more interested in watching some Digimon. That's for sure.

i love your normal videos but these video essays ones are definitely my favorite its so much fun watching you talk ab something your so passionate about

A long video, I needed this

God this video so perfectly describes my experience with Pokemon and I absolutely love it. I'm the same age as Kurtis and I've been having major Pokemon-related nostalgia of late, even buying some modern Pokemon booster packs.
I also want to flex that I immediately caught the Pokemon Puzzle League reference. "When you're hot you're hot" with Blaine's goofy fucking voice could best be described as an early meme in my household.

I remember every kid in my school obsessed with those trading cards, and none of us knew how to even play it.

I never thought I’d be made to laugh a Pokemon puzzle league reference. Bravo Kurtis.

My favorite version of “minimalism” is the konmari philosophy where you just keep things that bring you joy so like, collections fall right into that!

I’m so happy the Barbie saying balls is something that is staying, it’s so funny

I love the realisation montage 😭😂 IT’S SO FUNNY .

End of the first Digimon season had me weeping as a child and I'm sure it would now as well lol

I fully love collecting this made me feel less ashamed

End of the vid made me so happy when you just went from 1 booster box to like 6 and a half

I love how he skipped over the beanie babies when those r prolly worth so much 😭

"Or did I miss something" lmao that's the coldest I've ever seen you get with a joke. I'm cracking up over here. Oh man. You're the best, Smooth Kurt.

Digimon fusion is one of my favorite shows to this day. Digimon's writing is so good.

Really resonated with this video as someone who collects dolls :) I totally get the feeling and energy behind nostalgia and the joy and power behind collecting, so cool to see Kurtis talk about his past experiences and ultimately get himself back into collecting things he loves again.

I have never had any interest in nor did I have any knowledge on Pokémon when I watched this. Yet it always amazes me how you can keep my attention through this whole video anyways. Love your channel dude fr. The effort always shows. 👌

My school banned Pokémon cards because it was a form of “child gambling”

I recently rewatched Digimon with my son, thinking yeah this isn’t gonna hold up. Look not everything does but I was surprised at how much did and the story arcs *chefs kiss* perfect man

34:00 had me coughing laughing cause it caught me off guard lmao

I collect snow globes and I always get so excited when I get a new one. Collections are so fun

This might be my favorite of your videos. I love when commentary you tubers talk about things they enjoy. It’s much more positive and strangely uplifting.
I agree about digimon. I always loved the show and Gururumon is cool enough that I might get a tattoo some day.
But most of all, are you an anime character? Dude you have the same hair in the flashbacks as you do in the current episodes?

so no one is gonna mention that the beanie babies he dug through for the cards are genuinely expensive now and he could sell those for hundreds of dollars

Wow. When you said that the first two seasons of Digimon were one of the best children TV series of all time. Man, that connected with me.
These seasons are so important to me.

Kurtis. Great video just started watching. I'm glad you are a digimon enthusiast also. There is a new digimon card game out now and its acctually a lot of fun to play. Also they rebooted the old show in 2020. Check it out. It's really good.!

I'm enjoying all new people coming into the game. I actually play the TCG than just collect so it helped me a lot come out of my shell teaching them and made some new friends along way.

This video is so relatable, I didn't know how to play the game with the cards but had binders full of them💀💀 Japanese ones and everything

If the “Meat Card” doesn’t become a running joke on this channel I’m going to RIOT

Honestly the conclusion of this video being that joy is more important than cash is pretty great. Sometimes we adults need a good reminder of that

As someone also born in 1994, I agree that Digimom is by far the superior cartoon. It's pretty clear as an adult that Pokémon is more aimed at a kindergarten/young elementary age group with formulaic episodes and little overall plot/character development while Digimon is aimed at a slightly older audience. However I do think the Pokémon characters have cuter designs than the Digimon.

And if that part of Digimon made you almost cry, wait till you rewatch the finale of season 3. You’ll be balling your eyes out

I cant believe that when I was in middle school my mom convinced me to sell all of my Pokémon cards for only $100 at a garage sale

do i know anything about pokemon? no. will i still watch and enjoy this whole video? yes. Kurtis’s deep dive videos are always so amazing and well thought out!!

I could not agree with you more about the first two seasons of Digimon! I rewatch them every few years

I remember when everyone was obsessed with these and brought their books full of cards to school and I had no idea what they were. Never watched the shows or played the games

I collect Magic The Gathering cards and open the pre-release boxes. I just love doing it, and play the TCG, as it's just a fun thing to do with friends.

All I got to say is when you started talking about digimon that definitely brought back memories. Digimon was the shit. We had digvices we could connect with magnets to battle and train. Like plus max and his harmonica got me into playing instruments. Definitely a childhood memory I'll never forget

Dude the fuckin "UH OH" when he almost cried talking about digimon depression (digipression)??? *I felt that*

This made me feel my heartbeat again man 💖 thank u 😂

This was really interesting as a PC collector !!

The situation you described literally happened to me exactly. All the kids that came to my birthday party got a little goodie bag with a pack of cards in it. One of my friends got the holographic Charizard at my birthday and didn't even consider gifting it to me.

dang, this video gives me so much nostalgia. Me and my brother are mid 2000's kids (me 14 and him 16) and we grew up with pokemon, beyblade, we both had the original DS and an original WII console and all the original games (wii sports, mario cart, smash bros brawl, super mario galaxy, etc) and i flipping loved it. I miss those days where I would play pokemon on my DS literaly 24/7.

The story arc of this video is like the trading card equivalent of a teen movie where the girl spends most of the movie simping for the popular guy only to realise she should actually be with her nerdy best guy-friend who’s been in love with her all along.

Dude there were soo many Uniqe Digimon cards. Taco Bell sold Metal one's Where everytime you got a tacobell Kids meal you would get a digivice platic holder and some tins. I think you might like those. They were super cool!! They had different pictures from the seires. You can get them preatty cheap. If you ever buy them I'd love to see a video of it :D Yourock Kurtis! Thanks for the smiles

Ugh, I know everyone had a collection they beat themselves up for for not keeping, myself included, but I actually kept a deck container filled with my favorite rare cards including a Charizard and Shining Gyarados with the intention of keeping it forever. Eventually it must have just gotten lost in one of my moves and I don't know if its worse I set aside cards I knew would be valuable (even though they'd probably be 7s) and lost them anyway.

As a kid I always told myself I would never be one of those adults who always look back at better times. Now it’s all I do…

4:06 made me laugh unreasonably hard and I would like to sue Kurtistown for the injuries I sustained during the aforementioned gigglefit.

when you’re used to listening to Kurtis’ podcast his videos feel like speedruns

there are new digimon cards out, probably to go with the newest tv series (im still pretty new to the franchise so i don’t know too much 😅); but i picked some up and they’re super cool! watching you pull cards is interesting, it’d be cool to see you with this new series of cards!

I had an old Reshiram ex card, it was my favorite. But I gave it to my friend and he threw it away 😐. So that’s fun.

I remember being the hoarder of 200+ cards but not trading or playing them.

I fell for that Mew shit and spent two hours looking for it under the truck.

This was such a sweet video. While I was just out of the age group for really getting into pokemon/digimon (I was a Magic The Gathering nerd), I totally relate to the nostalgia and excitement. My previous boyfriend was a bit younger and introduced me to pokemon, love the games now and the first couple of seasons of the TV show were way better than I expected. Can totally relate to tearing up over a moment from a kids TV show. Totally with you on the love and human nature of collecting things.

'im setting trends' had me laughing more than what is reasonable

i used to love pulling pokemon cards but now the thing that has me shaking excited to pull is genshin characters lol it’s so much fun

Nice video Didnt saw time pass at all. My response to your conclusion:
I do have PTCG, MtG, Stamps And All over the world currency
collections and even if all those collections have a no value, each
of them have a great one for me. Its not about the money: true.
Man its such a great hobby and a blast like you said I totally agree!

Kurtis hasn't done an extra greeting for three videos... His power is overtaking him.

dude I'm missing so many of my old pokemon cards including most of my best ones and I'm so sad about it
on the bright side, I found at least a part of my old collection and one of those cards was a first edition ninetales or whatever its called

16:39 THATS THE SAME DAMN BOOK I HAD!!! I did the same thing where I tried to find it two decades later with no luck. It was FILLED with cards smhhh. And recently I lost all my cards (charizards included) in a car wreck because I had them in my binders inthe trunk to put new cards in that i bought

Hell yes! I’ve got a ton of my ol digimon cards at home! Even a few metal ones that were in a Taco Bell kids meal for a while 😁 apart from the ones I have, and ones of my buddy from elementary school, I’ve honestly never seen any other ones hehe 😁👽

I have my, and my brothers collections from back in the day. A good collection.
I guess it's the time to send them to PSA.