Card Lounge Podcast

A FedEx truck outside PSA was hit for nearly $1M in customer slabs, and the FBI is reportedly involved. Jake and Rob break down why it looks like an inside job, why theft and scams are spiking across the hobby, and what it means for your collection.This episode is sponsored by Chance, Ketchum All Collectibles and Collectr.Also in this episode: Delta Reign first impressions, the RGB Mew, the Ohtani card selloff, the modern rebound, 30th Celebrations' November waves, Trick or Trade going from $20 to $80, the One Piece dip, Riftbound Radiance, and whether Jarchomp is wrong about 2027.

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Jarchomp bought a Pop 1 Garchomp for $1,400 and sold it for $130K weeks before Fanatics tightened its bidding rules and vintage Pokémon started correcting hard. He breaks down the $70K Gyarados he overpaid for, what he's selling now, and what's still underrated.Round 3 with Jarchomp Collectibles on the Card Lounge podcast. We get into:• The $70K Skyridge Gyarados he bought near the peak — and why he's keeping it• Why vendors never pay full comp, even on a $100K card• How Fanatics' new bidder rules hit vintage auction prices• Why the Gold Star Torchic sold for $2.7M at auction instead of privately• 16 cards to auction: ~$350K on a ~$100K cost basis• The Sword & Shield cards he thinks are still too cheap• Can the Pokémon market top 2026 next year?• Too many vendors? What 400-table shows mean for the hobby• Jarchomp responds to the course backlash• The ~$1M PSA truck heist — and why you should always check the cert

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A collector spent $60K on GameStop Pokémon packs, kept every card, and it's now worth $200K. Meanwhile a Crown Zenith Mew jumped from ~$600 to $3,000 in a few months. Is the market being pumped?Rob (Roboskillz) and Jake (TwiceBakedJake) break down Pokémon card market manipulation, how fake eBay sales get made, and why rip companies and big money are soaking up slabs. Plus: why the cheapest card in a set can be the rarest, the John Pokémon slab toss, the Boosters and Bangers $25K Lugia EX trade dispute, and whether CT scanning can really see what's inside your packs.

Pokémon card prices are breaking records: Prism Star cards that sell for $10 raw now go for $2,000 to $10,000+ in a PSA 10, and a Team Plasma Lugia-EX is listed near $4 million. Rob (Roboskillz) and Jake (TwiceBakedJake) debate whether this is real collector demand or market manipulation, and who ends up holding the bag.Jake's take: collectors are buying the label, not the card. Most of these cards are easy to find raw. The scarce part is the PSA 10. Rob's take: too many low-pop cards are spiking at once for it to be organic, so he's sending low-pop Black & White holos to auction as a live experiment.Sign up to Chance for Free Slabs from Us! https://chance.live/?referralCode=cardloungeArizona TCG: https://www.arizonatcg.com/Collectr App: https://app.getcollectr.com/Chance giveaway! Enter your Chance username below for free graded cards!https://forms.gle/aPeRC5cugB9fEy798

Elestrals creator Adrive joins the Card Lounge to break down the Pokémon market, why most new TCGs will fail, and what it really takes to build a trading card game from scratch. From selling a $50K sealed EX Deoxys box to overprinting 25,000 boxes of his own set, Adrive shares the mistakes, the wins, and the 1 of 10 serialized card that has never been pulled.We cover the Black Label Mega Gengar crash ($80K to $16K), whether The Pokémon Company controls supply on purpose, collector boosters in Lorcana, One Piece Pandaman gate, the hidden Mew debate, and how Elestrals serialized cards, divine packs, and the spirit deck system work. Plus an Elestrals booster box opening and Adrive's top Pokémon grails, including the Neo Discovery 1st Edition Yanma.LOUNGE5 for 5% Back w/ Arizona TCG! https://www.arizonatcg.com/Collectr App to Track Cards! https://app.getcollectr.com/A huge thanks to Adrive for coming on the pod!https://www.youtube.com/@Elestralshttps://www.shopelestrals.com/?ref=CardLounge

Pokémon cards are setting new records every week: a 1st Edition Base Set Charizard passed $1M, a $3M Art Academy Mudkip, and Level X, Gold Star and Legendary Collection reverse holo slabs jumping to six figures. Rob (Roboskillz) and Jake (TwiceBakedJake) debate the money laundering theories, lay out how a low-pop market manipulation play would actually work, and explain why "last sold" is misleading so many collectors.We also rip 30th Celebration packs (Gengar Prime Classic Collection pull), rank the Pikachu illustration rares, check whether scalpers are finally feeling it (Prismatic Evolutions and Ascended Heroes ETB prices), cover PSA's new grading minimum, and share what we'd buy and sell right now.
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The first Pokemon card ever released came out of a 1996 Japanese manga magazine — and almost nobody kept a copy. John from Cardbound joins us to break down CoroCoro issue 223, the glossy Ivy Pikachu and Jigglypuff, and the variant card that became the second-highest Pokemon card sale of all time.John spent two years buying up nearly every known copy of CoroCoro 223 when they were selling for $5 and $10 apiece. That obsession turned into the Cardbound documentary, a $400,000 gamble on a card that might have been worthless, and a $3.3 million sale. We get into all of it: how he found the books, why the marketing variation exists, what the wrong illustrator credit tells us about Pokemon's earliest days, and where the real hidden gems still are for collectors willing to dig past 2025.We also cover Buyee and the Japanese marketplaces most collectors never touch, why there is no PSA 10 Ivy Pikachu, the KFC cards that were actually the first English Pokemon cards, Wizards of the Coast demo packs and shadowless, the Keshi figures that were the first Pokemon toys, and John's 151 master set in twelve languages.

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Rob showed up to record this one with no voice after SF Collect a con, and we still don't have a single 30th Celebrations booster pack in hand the night before release. We break down why product is locked down tighter than any set launch in memory, why Natalie's early 30th Celebrations leak blew up the way it did (and why we think it's the smaller story), and dig into the real question: are collectors and dealers rigging six-figure Pokemon card sales to set price points?In this episode:

• Why GameStop, Best Buy, and Target lines are already forming for the September 16 release, and why we're heading to GameStop right after this recording
• How some TikTok and Whatnot sellers are getting 30th Celebrations product weeks before street date, and where the line between "leaked" and "stolen" actually sits
• The "one in 20 chance" scam some live-sale platforms use to sell a $30 chance instead of the card you think you're bidding on — banned on Whatnot, still running on TikTok
• Why a Gold Star Torchic sold for $2.5 million and a Level X Arceus sold for a quarter million days after the same card sold for $2,000 — and whether these prices are being manipulated
• Our top 5 predictions for the biggest 30th Celebrations chase cards by artwork and pull rate
• Is the hobby splitting into two separate markets: ultra-rare vintage chasers and everyone else buying modern for fun

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Pokémon content creator Alex Ketchum joins Card Lounge LIVE at Card Party to break down 7 years of content creation lessons going viral with "I was minding my own business," chasing Team Up as prices skyrocket, and why he still won't call Pokémon Worlds better than a small card show.Alex Ketchum (advertising by day, 500M+ views by night) sits down with Rob and Jake for a live Q&A covering how he got started as a faceless TikTok creator, the daily-posting habit that changed everything, his favorite Pokémon card of all time (Ancient Mew), his Magic: The Gathering side quest, and the story behind his most unhinged viral hit — a McDonald's Happy Meal breakdown that got McDonald's UK to mail him apples. Then the crowd takes over with questions on trading, standing out as a new creator, and dream TCG crossovers.

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Jake and Rob are back from Pokémon Worlds in San Francisco with a full recap, the good, the bad, and the lines to get into lines to get into lines. Plus: a Rayquaza Gold Star just became a $1,000,000 card, Pokémon teased a brand new TCG movie and the EX Star mechanic, and the guys go to war over Buzz Lightyear vs. Luffy.

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Every TCG out there is scrambling for the same thing: rarity. Yu-Gi-Oh, Riftbound, Union Arena, and Lorcana are all leaning on serialized cards to create chases but Pokemon just dropped the RGB Mew, and it didn't need a single number stamped on it to break the internet.Check out Slab Lab to Display Your Cards Like a Pro!https://amzn.to/4x0wz4mCheck out the Collectr App for all your collecting tracking needs! https://app.getcollectr.com/Please use the Youtube video description to enter the giveaway and to purchase a Card Lounge pack, thank you Spotify listeners!

Pokemon cards are officially caught in a money laundering crackdown and right as Japan tightens the rules, a mysterious new RED Mew card has surfaced with almost no verification. In this episode of Card Lounge, Rob and Jake break down what the crackdown actually says, unbox a $500 Ace Trainer mystery slab box live, dig into PSA vs Beckett grading trends (centering is the new #1 dealback), and debate why the $130K One Piece Event Finalist Luffy (only 52 copies exist) has outpaced cheaper versions of the same card 4-5x. Plus: a first look at Card Lounge's own 30th Anniversary mystery box, a Hobbit MTG collector box check-in, and a free Ace Trainer box giveaway!

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The trading card hobby just split: a $713K One Piece Luffy card broke Pokémon's own sale record, PSA and BGS both jumped grading prices to $80, and vintage Pokémon keeps climbing while modern singles crash. Jake and Rob break down what's actually happening in the market right now.On this episode of Card Lounge: Logan Paul's National Box Break and the first 1st edition Charizard pulled live in years, why niche collectors chasing cards like Squirtle or Kabuto can move the market, the "hobby split" between soaring vintage prices and a modern price dip, a $10K bounty on the mystery RGB Mew and the Cooper Flag rookie auto, the One Piece trophy card that sold for $713,000 and beat Pokémon's own $700K record, rumors of 300 new Pokémon coming in Wind and Waves, why PSA and BGS both hitting $80 for grading is flooding the raw singles market, the debate over the Gen Con Naruto chakra card's real value, and what a 1-of-52 event finalist Pointer Luffy card is actually worth.

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People are paying $1,000 for a Naruto energy card from a game that doesn't release until summer 2027.On this episode of Card Lounge, Jake and Robo break down the Gen Con chakra card, why the Naruto TCG plays almost exactly like Yu-Gi-Oh, and whether Bandai just built a Konami killer — plus why baking ten years of value into a card with no set 1 is exactly how people get burned.They also recap the National: why Pokemon and One Piece transactions were happening at double and triple the rate of sports cards, why 70% of all graded cards are now TCG when it used to be 90% sports, and what sports card recency bias gets wrong about basic supply and demand.Check out Kanto Shark for the rarest cards in the hobby!https://kantoshark.com/Check out the Collectr App for all your collecting tracking needs! https://app.getcollectr.com/

The card market is moving at record speed. On this episode of Card Lounge, Robo and Jake break down West Coast Card Show, why booster box prices are crashing within hours of release, and the story of a kid who tried to flip One Piece cards he'd bought three days earlier. They dig into PSA's stricter grading standards, why repackers are driving down prices on cheap illustration rares, the new Round One One Piece promo cards and the pack-searching controversy behind them, and why "buy the card, not the label" still matters when nines and nines are outselling tens. Plus: underrated grails (Alakazam EX, Gold Star Celebi), a Lorcana/Riftbound/Power World TCG market update, and why instant gratification is reshaping how collectors buy and sell.Check out the Collectr App for all your collecting tracking needs! https://app.getcollectr.com/

The Pokemon crash videos flooding your feed right now are wrong, and the people making them benefit when you panic sell. In this episode we break down why the "mini crash" is cherry-picked data, why sets like Phantasmal Flames and Ascended Heroes dropping is normal set-cycle behavior, and who's actually buying when fair weather fans dump their collections.We also cover the full Pokemon 30th Anniversary Celebrations leaks including every Pikachu illustration rare and all the leaked SIRs (Mewtwo, Mew, Sylveon, Gengar, Salamence, Greninja), the Charizard VMAX alt art that doubled a week after we covered it, the new first Pokemon card documentary and the $400,000 alpha Pikachu, and why Magic The Gathering adding signature cards is a break glass move.
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There's a version of this hobby running in the background that most collectors never see, and by the time you notice it, the play is already gone. In this episode, Roboskillz and TwicebakedJake open with real numbers: a card bought for $4,300 in February now valued at $12,500, and a $2,250 alt art Umbreon now sitting at $7,500, both in under a year. From there they break down the "hive mind" effect that makes undervalued Pokémon and One Piece TCG cards correct in days instead of months, why playability adds real value to a collectible, a pitch for the collecting platform this hobby doesn't have yet, and a deep dive into why the Charizard V-Max promo might be the most underpriced card in the entire Charizard UPC lineup. Plus: One Piece's naming problem that's quietly hurting long-term collectors, the Pokémon Worlds vs. Pokémon XP split for this year, and a pop-1 PSA 10 trophy card most people have never heard of.

GameStop is pre-ordering the Pokemon 30th anniversary UPC at $600, triple MSRP, and the ETB at 3-4x retail. Jake and Rob break down whether any of it is worth it: the new ETB configuration with only nine packs and five cards each, the 128-card main set plus 30 secret rares, and why the booster bundle is the best pack-to-cost ratio in the entire product lineup. They also cover the One Piece x LA Dodgers batting Luffy promo hitting $1,000, the Round One collab sellout, the upcoming Naruto TCG, and the crash vs. correction debate: why a 20-30% pullback in Pokemon prices is normal market behavior, not a crash, and what an actual crash looks like (Metazoo). Plus Lorcana tag teams and whether collabs are diluting promo card value.Check out the Collectr App for all your collecting tracking needs! https://app.getcollectr.com/

GameStop just posted its best operating quarter ever and collectibles beat video games for the first time. Jake and Rob break down the Q1 FY2026 numbers, why they couldn't buy a single Pokemon card across five Japan Pokemon Centers, why imported Japanese product is somehow cheaper in the US, the Jarchomp and Oyama vending course debate, and why the hobby still has years of room to run.Check out the Collectr App for all your collecting tracking needs! https://app.getcollectr.com/

Twitch IRL streamer Mr Keem joins the Card Lounge to break down the viral Target ghost chair moment, why he waited overnight for Pokemon, and how he hit top 150 sub count on all of Twitch chasing a single Charizard. We get into hunting product in the wild, the broken retail line system, his English Lugia master set, a brutal PSA take, and why Pokemon is the easiest icebreaker in any room.