It’s the middle of the 21st century. Global tensions have reached a boiling point. The world lives on rations, firestorms engulf forests across the globe, the ocean has swallowed entire coastlines, and climate disasters are reported on the news with the same casual indifference as tomorrow’s rain. Russia, meanwhile, is embroiled in direct war with NATO allies and, in a last-ditch effort to cement its legacy, launches a nuke. Catastrophe ensues. But fear not, because there’s a silver lining to this hypothetical apocalypse. From the rubble emerges an irradiated gamer, Meowth firmly in hand from his extensive Pokémon cache that miraculously survived the carnage. He approaches a shabby stall erected by one of the few remaining survivors, who is eking out a living among the debris.
“One can of beans,” he says, handing over the card.
That might sound ludicrous, but Peter Levin, financial expert and founder of Griffin Gaming Partners, believes that Pokémon trading cards would be the perfect “global currency” in a post-apocalyptic world. Not bottle caps, not ammunition, not even water. Shiny Luxray.
“Pokémon is a global phenomenon,” Levin said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m absolutely convinced that if the world suffered an apocalypse tomorrow, the following day the global currency would be Pokémon cards. Pokémon cards are beating the S&P 500 by 3,000 percent. Emanating from Japan, it really took hold around the world in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. It then had a zenith moment and then a nadir moment, and ever since then, it’s been on a parabolic growth curve. And that really has driven the international market expansion for trading cards.”
Levin is obviously being hyperbolic to highlight just how valuable Pokémon cards have become in the 21st century, but it’s nonetheless fun to imagine one of the most hotly sought-after collector’s items still causing shakedowns even as the world burns. Though, in fairness to our post-apocalyptic descendants, Pokémon cards would be even rarer when production abruptly ends, not to mention how much harder they would be to counterfeit than something like a bottle cap.
And who knows? Generations might go by and lose all semblance of what Pokémon was, and to the 12-year-old living in a 2100s post-apocalypse America, a shiny Pikachu card might simply be a lottery ticket reserved for the wealthiest of those unlucky enough to have inherited a radioactive Earth, not a trading card to play with. Maybe that same 12-year-old even thinks Pikachu is an extinct species of bizarre electric mice that we used to live alongside.
Pokemon has entertained both children and adults alike for several generations. Whether hit video games, anime series and movies, trading cards, or more, there's something for every budding trainer hoping to catch 'em all.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-tcg-cards-apocalypse-currency-expert/
