Dig out your old Pokemon cards – they could be worth a lot more than you think, thanks to the pandemic, boredom and an increased feeling of isolation

A man who ‘had nothing to do’ when Los Angeles shut down started selling Pokemon cards for fun – now his Instagram Live events regularly clear US$6,000 per show

Cards are not the only collectible causing chaos. The pandemic has inspired a surge in the buying and selling of art, coins, currency – even street art and NFTs

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If you have old Pokemon cards lying around, you could be sitting on some serious cash. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 4:15am, 1 Sep 2021Updated: 4:56am, 1 Sep 2021

Anthony Jimenez hadn’t thought much about his Pokemon cards since middle school, when girls had suddenly seemed more interesting.

But with time on his hands during the coronavirus pandemic, Jimenez dug out his old collection and found that the cards were in pristine condition, a fact that would change his life and financial outlook.

“When I found my old Pokemon cards, it was like, ‘Oh my God, these are skyrocketing in value. I should try to sell some of them,’” Jimenez says. “So we decided, just for fun, to try this out because Los Angeles was shut down, and we literally had nothing to do.”

Jimenez, 27, has kept his day job in marketing for a tech giant on the west coast of the United States. But he’s sold enough new cards, and some of his old collection, to fuel a lucrative side gig – Tony’s Collectibles – that he runs live on Instagram on some nights with two childhood friends. It’s been clearing an average of US$6,000 per show.

Anthony Jimenez (left) and friends sell Pokemon cards on Tony’s Collectibles on Instagram Live. Photo: TNS

The pandemic inspired a surge in the buying and selling of all manner of collectibles, from the traditional – fine art, rare coins and currency – to newer crazes such as Pokemon cards and street art.

It’s the kind of commerce that used to rely on bricks-and-mortar stores and large, in-person events, but it has managed a relatively smooth transition to online events run by newcomers like Jimenez and venerable firms like Stack’s Bowers Galleries, founded in 1933.