‘Pokémon cards are like drugs.’ Card-collecting frenzy sweeping through Fresno
From assaults to break-ins to reoccurring thefts, the craze for Pokémon cards has led some to the dark side of collecting.
Videos of Pokémon horror stories can be found all over the Internet, some taking place in Fresno.
In April, a Fresno man was arrested for armed robbery after attempting to steal 100 packs of Pokémon cards valued at roughly $1,000.
But it’s not just criminal activity that’s become rampant and reflective of the Pokémon frenzy to “catch em all,” as the Japanese cartoon’s theme song states.
Today’s demand for Pokémon cards has created Black Friday-like fever with scalpers and collectors going to extreme efforts each time a new or special set is released.
It goes beyond the wild collecting days of Cabbage Patch Kids and Bean Babies decades ago.
Even a Visalia car dealership, typically not a place people would associate Pokémon cards with, has entered the Poké-world.
With money a motivating factor, today’s marketplace has become flooded by adults who are willing to camp over night and clear store shelves. There also have been instances of folks making threats of physical violence and even committing crimes.
All for Pokemon cards — a hobby originally intended for children.
All the while, kids and casual collectors are getting pushed out, despite small efforts to keep that from happening.
“Pokémon cards are like drugs,” said Fresno native Adam Xiong, a longtime collector. “You get addicted to the rush of opening packs, seeing the value of your card collection go up. ...
“On top of that, there’s a lot of money to be made. Easy money.”
Xiong knows first hand. The 33-year-old said he turned his childhood collection of Pokémon cards into $30,000.
Return on investments
Collecting Pokémon cards today definitely is not like the yesteryear of getting baseball, basketball or football cards — then hoping your 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card becomes worth a lot of money in the future.
That Griffey Upper Deck rookie card that people held onto for 36 years later is valued at more than $2,600 if it’s in perfect condition (receiving a PSA 10 grade).
In the Pokémon market, meanwhile, the Umbreon EX #161 card from the “Prismatic Evolutions” set already is at around $2,600 when in PSA 10. It can be potentially obtained from opening a pack of cards printed just this year.
That possibility for monetary gains without waiting decades to mature has taken the Pokemon card market to different heights.
Even if it takes an average of 1 out of 1,440 packs for the chance to pull a specific “Special Illustration Rare” card such as that Umbreon.
“That’s the big chase card everyone’s after,” said Wes Tugade, who camped overnight at a GameStop in Clovis to buy a pair of Prismatic Evolutions Elite Trainer Boxes for a total of 18 packs. “It’s hard to get. If you get lucky and pull it, it’s worth all the trouble.”
Return on investment has long been part of the collectibles industry. But instead of holding onto cards for the long term, some Pokémon buyers of today flip the products in sealed condition immediately.
“There’s such a high demand,” said Fresno card store owner Thor Phoeung of TVN Sports Cards & Collectibles. “And Pokémon is very liquid. Some people take advantage of that and sell Pokémon at two, three, four times the cost of what they bought as soon as they leave the store.
“People don’t want to hear it: But that’s capitalism; the basics of supply and demand.”
There’s also a nostalgia factor for popular characters such as Charizard, Eevee and Pikachu. The Pokemon franchise dates to 1998 in North America (1996 in Japan).
Plus, it’s become generational, with Pokémon cards as a way to connect.
“My son is 26 years old, lives three hours away and hardly would visit me,” said Fresno resident Jason Garcia. “He told me one time over the phone he was collecting Pokémon cards.
“I started buying packs and told him how we should open packs together. And what’s funny is, he suddenly was driving back home more often and I got to see my son a lot more.
“But the other thing is,” Garcia said with a smile, “now I’m addicted to Pokémon.”
Challenges of buying cards
The Pokémon Company revealed in its latest figures that 10.2 billion Pokémon cards were produced from March 2024 to March 2025, according to pokebeach.com.
But good luck getting a pack of cards in the Fresno area.
Packs sold at big-box stores like Target and Walmart are snatched up sometimes in one or two hours. Those Pokémon cards are sold at manufactured suggested listed price (MSRP) rather than the higher prices often listed online or at local card stores.
Even local card stores that charge at market price will struggle to maintain Pokémon inventory.
“Never seen anything like it before,” said Mike Pazin, who has been in the card collecting business for 37 years and runs a shop in Fresno called the Bullpen. “The closest thing is maybe an exclusive shoe drop or concert tickets.”
When stores got ready to sell the highly anticipated Prismatic Evolution super premium collection boxes in mid-May, some enthusiasts arrived as early as 30 hours in advance.
Kai Miguel, 22, drove 90 minutes from his hometown in Porterville to begin camping out at the GameStop in Clovis at 7 a.m. — all while knowing the earliest he’d get to buy a the box of cards would be when the store opened at 11 a.m. the next day.
“I wasn’t even the first one,” Miguel said. “There were about six or seven people ahead of me. The guy at the front of the line got there about 5 a.m.”
This wait wasn’t for a free giveaway or a massive discount. It was for the simple opportunity to buy a limited Pokémon collectible at MSRP.
“It was just a highly-anticipated drop,” Miguel said. “Had to use my sick hours for this. Get the day off. It was high stakes. I had to do what I could to guarantee I’d get one.”
Sometimes, cards come in, and collectors and scalpers immediately buy the maximum a store will allow them to purchase.
Other times, a restock never occurs and people end up wasting hours in line with no Pokemon cards to show.
“Pokémon isn’t just cards and it isn’t just for kids,” said Brandon Yang, a 30-year-old Fresno resident. “Pokémon is a collectible. It’s a lifestyle.
“People are willing to do a lot more when they’re trying to maintain a lifestyle.”
Unfortunately for those who don’t wait in line for restocks and new releases, they either need to have a connection with a local card store or be willing to pay a higher price for items.
Or somehow get lucky.
“Sadly,” Crazy Squirrel card store owner Jax Ward said, “the people who lose when Pokémon is like this are the kids.”
Pokecrimes
Since Memorial Day weekend, two Fresno card stores had incidents in which Pokémon products were stolen.
Two masked people broke into the Health Points card store during the middle of the night Saturday and stole thousands of dollars worth of Pokémon card products.
Three days later, two men walked into Bird Dog Cards and Comix store and pretended to be customers before robbing the place of two large, acrylic card pack dispensers filled with cards, including Pokémon packs.
Pazin, the longtime owner of the Bullpen card store, said his shop was burglarized six times during a two-week stretch.
He wasn’t sure if the thieves targeted any particular items, but they cleared out two display cases filled with Pokémon cards.
“They steal it and flip it online or to people in person who may or may not know it was stolen,” Pazin said. “It’s really sad.”
Ward, whose Crazy Squirrel store carries a variety of collectibles and games, strives to sell Pokémon cards at MSRP to make customers happy and potentially help children.
Having affordable Pokémon card products has led to quick sell-outs, which Ward sees as good and bad.
“It’s a liability to keep Pokémon cards in your store,” Ward said.
Ward said the store has had 38 break-ins over the past few years, with an uptick especially the past two years.
During one incident two years ago, Ward said a man tried to steal Pokémon cards. The would-be thief charged at Ward, who ended up with a broken wrist.
“Just so he could steal Pokémon cards,” Ward said. “It’s gotten super bad.”
The Fresno Police Department said from May 1, 2024, to May 17, 2025, it investigated at least five thefts from vehicles and another five thefts from residences in which Pokémon cards were stolen, along with other items.
In addition, there were at least 24 thefts of Pokémon cards from businesses throughout the city, with Target stores hit 13 times.
To wait or not wait in line
Beyond the criminal activity, there’s also been threats of violence among customers.
During one Pokémon restock at a local Walmart in late March when the “Journey Together” set was first released, one man in line threatened aloud to “hurt” people if he didn’t “get what I came here for.”
Another man near the front of a line approximately 30 people deep proclaimed he was going to buy a lot of Pokémon products to help out his friends who weren’t present — reducing the opportunity for those in line.
Then when a Walmart employee announced customers could start to pick and choose which Pokémon items they wanted, some people near the back of the long line rushed in.
While no fights broke out, people yelled at each other as the scene got intense.
“One of the problems is when stores don’t limit how much someone can buy,” Garcia said. “People get upset. There’s massive FOMO (fear of missing out).
“But I also think the stores share some responsibility when they don’t pass out the product and take control of the situation.”
Phoeung implemented a lottery system to avoid having long lines formed outside of his TVN store for the Prismatic Evolutions super premium collection, as well as the new Destined Rivals set that released in May.
With a prior purchase of at least $10, customers were entered into a raffle and Phoeung said he randomly drew names to determine who could buy the highly coveted products that he sold for just above MSRP.
“Pokemon is just so universal these days,” Phoeung said. “You get little kids to grandpas coming in to buy cards.”
And these days, you never know where you might find a set to buy.
“Most dealerships will have an area where they have tire shine or other auto products that may or may not sell; we have Pokémon cards,” said Nick Martinez, General Manager at Visalia Hyundai, which has been selling Pokémon cards since November. “And they’ve been popular.
“I’ve been in car sales pretty much my whole life. From what I’ve seen with Pokémon cards, if I said I don’t see Pokémon growing, I would be lying.”
Not just about money
Is the innocence of Pokémon cards dying?
Popular YouTube influencers who talk about Pokémon have criticized the scalping and hoarding with some people treating the cards as a form of cryptocurrency.
Local card store owners have complained about outside retailers suddenly entering the Pokémon business just as a money grab.
They’ve also said they often refuse to sell off Pokémon products in bulk to a single person.
“At least I made 10 people happy and not just one guy,” Pazin said. “If I sell it all to one person, I probably have a good idea he’s going to sell it piece by piece to try to make money and not actually enjoy the cards.”
In other cities, card store owners have tried to discourage scalping by either cutting the seal of Pokemon products before customers take possession or charge them more for keeping the cards sealed.
To help children in the hobby, some card store owners will gift kids with a pack of Pokémon cards or some type of collectible. Many also make sure to trade fairly with children when swapping cards.
In addition, those running popular card shows have tried to make their events more family friendly and passed out free packs of cards to children in attendance.
These small efforts have all helped.
Because if kids today rarely get Pokémon cards because of the crazy lines and the wiped-out supply, how can they be drawn to the hobby later in life when the nostalgia hits?
Then, what will the future of Pokémon look like?
This story was originally published June 22, 2025 at 5:45 AM with the headline "‘Pokémon cards are like drugs.’ Card-collecting frenzy sweeping through Fresno."