OCTOBER 7 — I am an unabashed Pokémon fan.

While I don’t watch the cartoons as they’re not for me (that’s OK, kids deserve kids’ media), I do enjoy the video games and keep up with the franchise.

What I do find annoying is other adults who treat the franchise like a gold mine.

Today while I was at work I saw online adults queuing at the Ombak KLCC Pokémon popup to buy the latest Pokémon trading card drop.

These aren’t fans.

They’re grown adults who probably don’t even know how to play Pokémon but are hoping to resell the cards for profit.

In the old days, kids could just stop by the local game store or LGS as they’re called and buy a random pack.

Nowadays to even get a chance at buying packs, they have to try and pre-order sets because otherwise they will end up paying ridiculous prices.

Right now, the average pack of a US pack of Pokémon cards in Malaysia is RM70 to RM100 ringgit for a pack with fewer than 10 cards.

It’s not just Pokémon.

The other day I passed by a Beyblade competition.

If you haven’t heard of Beyblade, it’s something like spinning tops or gasing but with plastic devices that look like jagged yo-yos.

There were kids and adults both playing and spectating, which I think is healthy and wholesome.

Less wholesome is adults buying up all of Toys R Us’ Beyblade stock to resell.

It upsets me because many kids into things like Pokémon or Beyblades either save up or hope to be gifted them during birthdays or as rewards.

When these things that are specifically made for children become entirely inaccessible to them because of adult greed, it’s reprehensible.

I do think the only solution to the current Pokémon card madness is to sell only to children because adults cannot be trusted not to try and make a buck.

Recently I’ve picked up Magic: The Gathering (MTG) after attending an event promoting it.

Like other trading card games, there is the gambling element in opening random packs but these days, you can play with your friends without spending money by using “proxy” cards.

Basically you look up good decks and then make or print cards to stand in for them, and play with your friends as though you have said cards.

Magic these days is also more flexible a game than it used to be. There is a “Pauper” format where rare or expensive/hard to get cards are disallowed, instead you make a deck from the cheapest, most common cards available.

There will always be speculators who are obsessed with card values and trying to get obnoxious sums via auctions but you can play your games without making it about expendable income.

To be able to afford to game in times like ours, I trade in my Nintendo Switch games after I’ve finished them for in-store credit at CEX.

I was excited to get the latest Fire Emblem game in the mail, without needing to spend more money but I’ll probably only get to play it when I go on a long break at the end of the year.

Thing is, people like me, adults, we have options.

Kids don’t.

Some things like Roblox and Pokémon cards really should just be for children and not wannabe speculators.

I personally can’t wait for the Pokémon card market to crash or at least normalise so we can see kids playing the games like they should, instead of being mind warped into acts of real violence.

That’s a whole other story to think about some other time.

In the meantime I will be mulling over whether I should sell my priciest MTG pulls…to bankroll more pulls.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.