Gary Vaynerchuk believes the collectibles market is sitting at the same inflection point that social media occupied around 2005, and he is betting his reputation on it. The serial entrepreneur, who famously rode early YouTube adoption to grow his family wine business from $3 million to $60 million, has stated plainly: “I feel as confident in cards as I did while betting my professional life on social media back in 2005…As always, there will be dips but I am excited about what’s ahead. The macro opportunity is clear.” For Pokemon card collectors who have watched their hobby swing between mainstream acceptance and niche obsession over the past decade, Vaynerchuk’s thesis offers a framework for understanding where the market might be heading. His argument is not just cheerleading.
In a November 2025 Bloomberg interview, Vaynerchuk told hosts Romaine Bostick and Katie Greifeld that he would buy a baseball card before a share of Tesla. He has said he was happier earning a 30 to 40 percent return on sports cards than the same return on Tesla or Apple, citing both financial performance and personal enjoyment as factors. Whether you agree with that calculus or not, Vaynerchuk’s track record of spotting cultural adoption curves before they go mainstream deserves serious examination. This article breaks down his core thesis, what it means for the Pokemon collecting space specifically, the platforms driving change, the limitations of his argument, and what collectors should actually do with this information.
Table of Contents
- Why Does Gary Vaynerchuk Compare Collectibles to the Early Days of Social Media?
- What Is Driving the Collectibles Boom and Where Could It Stall?
- VeeFriends and the Blueprint for Collectibles as a Business
- How Should Pokemon Collectors Think About Collectibles as an Investment?
- The Limits of the Social Media Comparison
- Brands Are Coming for the Collectibles Space
- Where Does This Leave Pokemon Collectors in 2026 and Beyond?
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
Why Does Gary Vaynerchuk Compare Collectibles to the Early Days of Social Media?
The comparison rests on pattern recognition. In the mid-2000s, Vaynerchuk saw that social media platforms like YouTube were going to fundamentally change how businesses reached consumers. Most people dismissed it. He launched Wine Library TV anyway, built an audience, and eventually co-founded VaynerMedia in 2009, a social-media-focused agency that now serves Fortune 500 clients. He sees collectibles following the same adoption curve: a category that insiders already understand but that the broader market still underestimates. Vaynerchuk views collecting as becoming a mainstream lifestyle category on par with fashion, music, and sports, and expects the trend to accelerate over the next five to ten years. The parallel to social media is specific.
Just as brands in 2006 thought Facebook was a fad for college students, Vaynerchuk argues that major companies today still treat collectibles as a novelty rather than a serious consumer engagement channel. He points to Hershey’s integration with pokemon as an early example of Fortune 500 companies beginning to use collectibles to drive business. For Pokemon collectors, this kind of corporate adoption is a double-edged sword: it brings new money and attention into the hobby, but it also raises questions about whether mass-market partnerships dilute the authenticity that makes collecting meaningful in the first place. The key distinction in Vaynerchuk’s argument is timing. He is not saying collectibles are a sure bet right now. He is saying the infrastructure, cultural interest, and generational momentum are aligning in a way that mirrors the early social media window. Whether that window stays open for five years or fifteen is something nobody can predict with certainty.
What Is Driving the Collectibles Boom and Where Could It Stall?
Several forces are converging to push collectibles into broader relevance. Around 2018, Vaynerchuk noticed his own son getting into trading cards with friends, and he recognized a generational loop that toy franchises have followed for decades. Parents reconnect with collectibles through their kids, the same way Star Wars, Transformers, and Pokemon have cycled every 25 to 30 years. The current generation of parents who grew up with Base Set Charizards and first-edition Fossil holos are now buying cards with their children, creating a feedback loop of nostalgia and new demand. Technology is accelerating this cycle in ways that previous generations never had access to. Vaynerchuk points to platforms like StockX, Whatnot, Fanatics Live, eBay Live, and YouTube as transforming how collectibles are bought and sold. Live-stream selling in particular has created an entirely new consumption format where opening packs becomes entertainment, community, and commerce all at once.
For Pokemon specifically, Whatnot and YouTube pack-opening channels have brought thousands of new collectors into the hobby who might never have walked into a local card shop. However, if you are treating this as a simple “prices only go up” narrative, you are misreading Vaynerchuk’s own position. He has explicitly acknowledged that there will be dips. The collectibles market crashed hard after the pandemic-era spike, with many modern Pokemon sets losing significant value once the hype cooled. The macro thesis about cultural adoption does not protect individual buyers from overpaying for product at the peak of a cycle. A collector who bought sealed Evolving Skies booster boxes at $250 in 2021 experienced a very different reality than someone who waited and bought at $130. Timing and selectivity still matter enormously, regardless of how bullish the long-term outlook may be.
VeeFriends and the Blueprint for Collectibles as a Business
Vaynerchuk is not just talking about collectibles from the sidelines. In 2021, he launched VeeFriends, an entertainment and collectibles company he has described as “Pokemon meets Sesame Street.” The venture has produced partnerships with Crocs, Fanatics, Macy’s and Toys “R” Us, Mattel’s UNO, Mattel’s Masters of the Universe, Squishmallows, and Topps. This is not a side project. It is a full-scale attempt to build an intellectual property empire rooted in collectible characters. What makes VeeFriends instructive for the Pokemon world is how it illustrates the mechanics Vaynerchuk is betting on.
The company treats collectibility as the core product rather than an afterthought. Each character has specific traits, rarity tiers exist by design, and the physical products are positioned as display-worthy items rather than disposable merchandise. Whether VeeFriends itself succeeds long-term is an open question, but the model mirrors exactly what The Pokemon Company has done for nearly three decades: build characters people care about, create scarcity through print runs and set rotations, and foster a community that assigns social value to ownership. The difference is that Pokemon has 25-plus years of brand equity behind it, while VeeFriends is still establishing cultural relevance. For Pokemon collectors, VeeFriends is less a competitor and more a proof of concept. If a brand-new IP can secure partnerships with Mattel and Fanatics on the strength of collectibility alone, it reinforces just how seriously the business world is taking this category.
How Should Pokemon Collectors Think About Collectibles as an Investment?
Vaynerchuk’s willingness to choose a baseball card over a share of Tesla makes for a great headline, but collectors need to understand what that comparison actually means in practice. Stocks are liquid. You can sell a share of Tesla in seconds during market hours at a transparent, publicly quoted price. A Pokemon card, even a graded one, requires finding a buyer, agreeing on condition and authenticity, and often waiting days or weeks for a sale to complete. The emotional satisfaction Vaynerchuk describes is real, but liquidity risk is the tradeoff that never makes it into the motivational clips. That said, Vaynerchuk’s broader point about diversification has merit.
For collectors who already own Pokemon cards they enjoy, understanding the investment dimension adds a layer of intentionality. The key distinction is between collecting with financial awareness and speculating on cardboard. A collector who buys a PSA 10 Base Set Blastoise because they love the card and recognize its long-term cultural significance is making a different decision than someone buying a case of the latest set hoping to flip it in six months. Vaynerchuk’s thesis supports the former far more than the latter. His emphasis on authenticity, storytelling, and genuine emotional connection to what you collect is actually a warning against pure speculation, even if it does not always get framed that way. The practical takeaway for Pokemon collectors is straightforward: collect what you genuinely care about, focus on items with lasting cultural relevance rather than short-term hype, and treat any financial appreciation as a bonus rather than the primary motivation. That approach aligns with both Vaynerchuk’s stated philosophy and the historical performance of vintage Pokemon cards, which have rewarded patient holders far more consistently than short-term flippers.
The Limits of the Social Media Comparison
Vaynerchuk’s analogy between collectibles and early social media is compelling, but it has structural limits that collectors should think about honestly. Social media platforms benefit from network effects. Every new user makes the platform more valuable for every existing user. Collectibles do not work the same way. A flood of new collectors can drive prices up in the short term, but it also encourages overproduction by manufacturers, which dilutes the scarcity that underpins long-term value. Pokemon has navigated this tension for years, with modern print runs dwarfing what was produced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. There is also a survivorship bias in Vaynerchuk’s narrative.
He was right about social media, so the comparison feels authoritative. But he also has significant financial interests in the collectibles space through VeeFriends and his personal collection, which means his public statements serve a dual purpose. This does not make his analysis wrong, but collectors should weigh it the same way they would weigh any recommendation from someone who stands to benefit from the trend they are promoting. The most honest reading of Vaynerchuk’s thesis is probably this: the collectibles market is maturing as a category, infrastructure is improving, cultural acceptance is growing, and certain segments will reward early participants. But “early social media” also produced Myspace, Friendster, and dozens of platforms that went to zero. Not every collectible, not every set, and not every category will be a winner. The macro trend can be real while individual outcomes remain wildly uneven.
Brands Are Coming for the Collectibles Space
In a February 2026 Substack post titled “The Most Underrated Marketing Move of 2026: Physical Collectibles,” Vaynerchuk argued that brands, creators, and businesses of every size can use collectibles strategy to enhance relationships with consumers, open new audiences, and create new revenue streams. He specifically warned that brands cannot just create cheap tchotchkes. Without authenticity, rarity, and good storytelling, it is nearly impossible to create something people want to display. For Pokemon collectors, this brand migration into collectibles is already visible.
The Hershey’s and Pokemon collaboration is one example, but fast food promotions, cereal box inserts, and retail-exclusive products have been part of the Pokemon ecosystem for years. What Vaynerchuk is predicting is an acceleration of this trend, with more Fortune 500 companies treating collectibles not as promotional gimmicks but as serious marketing channels. The risk for existing collectors is market fatigue. When everything becomes a collectible, the word starts to lose meaning. The cards and items that will hold value are the ones backed by genuine community interest and limited supply, not corporate marketing budgets alone.
Where Does This Leave Pokemon Collectors in 2026 and Beyond?
Vaynerchuk’s NRF 2026 keynote in January challenged the retail industry to rethink brand-building in the attention economy, emphasizing that every business has a profound opportunity to create viral content on social media. That message connects directly to how Pokemon cards are discovered and valued today. A single viral TikTok or YouTube video can move the market on a specific card overnight, something that was impossible even five years ago. The attention infrastructure that Vaynerchuk helped build through VaynerMedia is now the same infrastructure driving demand in the collectibles space.
For Pokemon collectors, the practical outlook is cautiously optimistic. The hobby has survived multiple boom-and-bust cycles, the brand has multi-generational appeal, and the secondary market infrastructure is better than it has ever been. Vaynerchuk’s comparison to early social media may be partly self-serving, but the underlying observation about cultural momentum is hard to dismiss. The collectors who will benefit most are those who combine genuine passion for the hobby with a clear-eyed understanding of market dynamics, buying smart during dips, focusing on quality over quantity, and recognizing that not every product released is worth collecting.
Conclusion
Gary Vaynerchuk’s thesis that collectibles mirror the early social media opportunity is built on a legitimate observation about cultural adoption and improving market infrastructure. His track record with social media lends credibility to the pattern recognition, and the growing involvement of major brands, improved selling platforms, and generational interest cycles all support the idea that collecting is becoming a more mainstream and financially relevant pursuit. For Pokemon collectors specifically, the thesis aligns with what the market has already demonstrated: cards with genuine cultural significance and limited supply have appreciated meaningfully over the long term. The important caveat is that macro trends do not guarantee individual outcomes.
Just as early social media produced both Facebook and Friendster, the collectibles boom will create winners and losers. Pokemon collectors are well-positioned because the brand has proven staying power, but that advantage only holds if you collect with intention rather than speculation. Focus on cards and sets that matter to you personally, understand that dips are part of the cycle, and treat any financial return as a welcome byproduct of a hobby you would pursue regardless. That approach is, ironically, the closest thing to what Vaynerchuk himself actually practices.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has Gary Vaynerchuk specifically mentioned Pokemon cards in his collectibles thesis?
Yes. He has cited Hershey’s integration with Pokemon as an example of Fortune 500 companies beginning to use collectibles to drive business, and his VeeFriends company has been described as “Pokemon meets Sesame Street,” indicating he views Pokemon as a benchmark in the collectibles space.
Did Gary Vaynerchuk really say he would buy a baseball card over Tesla stock?
Yes. In a November 2025 Bloomberg interview with Romaine Bostick and Katie Greifeld, Vaynerchuk stated he would buy a baseball card before a share of Tesla. He has also said he was happier with a 30 to 40 percent return on sports cards than the same return on Tesla or Apple.
What platforms does Vaynerchuk recommend for buying and selling collectibles?
He has pointed to StockX, Whatnot, Fanatics Live, eBay Live, and YouTube as platforms transforming how collectibles are bought and sold. Each has different strengths depending on whether you are buying, selling, or looking for entertainment-driven commerce.
Is Vaynerchuk’s collectibles advice unbiased?
Not entirely. He owns VeeFriends, an entertainment and collectibles company with partnerships across major brands including Topps, Mattel, Fanatics, and Crocs. His public advocacy for collectibles aligns with his business interests, which does not make his analysis wrong but should be factored into how you weigh his recommendations.
What is the timeline for Vaynerchuk’s collectibles prediction?
He has said he expects collecting to become a mainstream lifestyle category and that the trend will accelerate over the next five to ten years. He views the current moment as early in a longer adoption curve, similar to where social media was around 2005.
