Probably not in the same way, and that’s the honest answer to whether Gen Z will develop the same attachment to Pokémon Base Set cards that Millennials have. While Gen Z is absolutely collecting Pokémon cards, their motivation, methods, and emotional connection to these particular cards diverge significantly from the Millennial experience. A 24-year-old who opened Base Set packs as a kid in 1999 has a completely different relationship with that product than a 16-year-old experiencing Pokémon TCG for the first time today—even if they’re both buying cards. The core reason isn’t that Gen Z doesn’t like Pokémon.
It’s that they missed the crucial window when Base Set cards represented your actual introduction to the franchise and the physical trading card game. For Millennials, especially those born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Base Set was foundational. You got these cards at recess, traded them on the playground, and built your first deck from them. For Gen Z, Base Set is already a 25-year-old product from before many of them were born—it’s historical, it’s expensive, and it’s not their entry point into collecting. They’re more likely to chase modern booster sets or digital Pokémon experiences entirely.
Table of Contents
- Why Do Millennials Treat Pokémon Base Set Cards as Generational Artifacts?
- How Gen Z’s Relationship with Pokémon Differs from Earlier Generations
- The Digital-First Generation and Physical Collectibles
- Investment Appeal Versus Nostalgia-Driven Collecting
- Authentication, Market Saturation, and Supply Chain Realities
- What Gen Z Is Actually Collecting from Modern Pokémon Sets
- The Future Market for Pokémon Collectibles and New Generational Attitudes
- Conclusion
Why Do Millennials Treat Pokémon Base Set Cards as Generational Artifacts?
Millennials’ attachment to Base Set cards is rooted in a very specific moment in late-1990s culture when physical trading cards were one of the main ways you interacted with game franchises. There was no app, no streaming, no digital alternative. If you wanted pokémon in your hands, you bought cards. Base Set dropped in 1999 and coincided perfectly with the peak of Pokémon’s initial craze—the TV show was running, the Game Boy games were everywhere, and every kid wanted to collect and trade. This created an enormous player base with strong memories attached to specific cards.
A Charizard from Base Set isn’t just a card to a Millennial collector; it’s connected to a time in their life when getting that card meant something socially. You either pulled it from a pack (rare, exciting, the pinnacle of collecting), or you traded for it (an achievement in playground economics). These cards became tied to specific relationships, specific moments, and a specific era of their childhood. That emotional weight doesn’t transfer to someone discovering Base Set at age 15 or 16 in 2024, looking at it as an investment or a historical collectible rather than as part of their lived experience. The scarcity and authenticity of those memories are what drive Millennial demand, not just the card’s in-game power level or rarity.
How Gen Z’s Relationship with Pokémon Differs from Earlier Generations
Gen Z was introduced to Pokémon in a completely different way. Some arrived via the rebooted TV series that aired throughout the 2010s, others through Pokémon Go (2016), and many through social media, YouTube, or streaming content. A significant portion of Gen Z’s Pokémon exposure has been digital—phone games, apps, online battles. When they do engage with the physical TCG, modern booster sets are far more accessible and represent current meta gameplay, unlike Base Set, which hasn’t been tournament-legal in a meaningful way since the early 2000s. Additionally, Gen Z’s collecting culture emphasizes different things than millennials did. They’re more likely to be interested in specific Pokémon they love (chasing particular art cards, for example) or in competitive tournament play with current-legal cards.
They’re also more influenced by social media aesthetics—how a collection looks on Instagram or TikTok matters to Gen Z collectors in ways that weren’t considerations for Millennials in 1999. Base Set cards, while visually iconic, represent a dated aesthetic. Modern card designs, alternative art treatments, and newly released chase cards align much better with what Gen Z collectors are actually seeking out. A significant limitation here is that most Gen Z collectors lack the purchasing power that Millennials have accumulated over decades. A PSA 9 Charizard from Base Set costs thousands of dollars. Most high school and early college-age Gen Z collectors simply aren’t buying these cards, even if they wanted to. They’re buying booster packs and modern cards instead, which is both more affordable and more directly tied to their personal experience with Pokémon.
The Digital-First Generation and Physical Collectibles
One of the biggest structural differences between Millennials and Gen Z is how they relate to digital versus physical. Millennials grew up in a transitional period when the internet existed but physical goods still dominated entertainment and collecting. Gen Z has never known a world without always-on digital connectivity. For this cohort, digital collectibles—whether that‘s Pokémon in the games themselves, NFTs (though that moment passed), or digital trading card games—feel more native than physical ones. Pokémon Sword and Shield, the Let’s Go remakes, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus gave Gen Z direct experience with Pokémon in formats that didn’t require buying pieces of cardboard.
The Pokémon Company has also invested heavily in digital TCG experiences, including the official Pokémon Trading Card Game Live app. For a Gen Z player, this offers the strategic depth of collecting and deck-building without needing a physical deck. This represents a genuine competing option for their time and money that simply didn’t exist for Millennials in the same way. That said, there has been a resurgence of interest in physical card collecting among younger Gen Z, particularly during the pandemic years (2020-2022) when it became a social and outdoor activity. However, this interest still primarily tracks modern sets or specific chase cards from those sets, not wholesale demand for 25-year-old cardboard. A collector who got into Pokémon TCG in 2021 might own hundreds of cards from 2021-2024 but zero from Base Set.
Investment Appeal Versus Nostalgia-Driven Collecting
One critical difference in how Millennials and Gen Z approach Base Set cards comes down to motivation. For many Millennials, Base Set cards became an investment partly by accident—they bought or opened these cards as kids, forgot about them, and discovered decades later that they were worth significant money. The investment appeal came secondary to the nostalgic, emotional connection. For Gen Z entering the market today, the investment angle is often primary. They’re aware that cards cost money, they see the PSA grading market, and they understand that rare Pokémon cards are assets. This creates a fundamentally different relationship. A Millennial might keep a Base Set Blastoise because of the memory, even if it’s not perfectly graded.
A Gen Z investor might avoid it entirely because they can get a better financial return from other collectibles or investments. The problem with this calculus is that investment demand alone isn’t stable. Base Set prices are high largely because of Millennial demand, which is tied to nostalgia. Once that generation stops being the primary buyers (20-30 years from now), the floor could drop significantly unless Gen Z or Gen Alpha have developed comparable emotional attachment—which seems unlikely given their different formative experiences. Additionally, there’s a tradeoff: by treating Base Set cards primarily as investments rather than collectibles, Gen Z collectors miss out on the engagement and community aspects that Millennials experience. The value of a card also includes the stories people tell about getting it, the joy of collecting, and the cultural meaning. Strip all that away and you’re left with asking “Is this a good store of value?” and the answer becomes much shakier.
Authentication, Market Saturation, and Supply Chain Realities
A major warning for Gen Z collectors interested in Base Set cards: the market has become saturated with counterfeits, especially for high-value cards. Charizards, Blastoise, and other chase cards from Base Set have been counterfeited extensively, sometimes so well that even experienced collectors struggle to identify fakes without professional authentication. This wasn’t a significant problem in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but it’s a real concern today. Gen Z entering this market needs to understand that a “deal” on a high-value Base Set card is probably not a deal—it’s probably not authentic. The professional grading market (PSA, BGS, CGC) has also changed the collecting landscape in ways that affect Gen Z more than Millennials. To achieve high valuations, cards need to be graded and encased in tamper-evident slabs. This adds cost, reduces the ability to actually use or read the cards, and creates a different kind of collectibility.
A Millennial might enjoy holding and examining their childhood cards. A Gen Z investor is more likely to keep their purchases sealed in grading slabs, making them less engaging as physical objects and more purely as assets. There’s also a limitation in the supply reality: plenty of Base Set cards exist. It wasn’t a limited print run in the way that some early Magic: The Gathering sets were. Commons and uncommons are abundant, and even some rares are relatively easy to find in moderate grades. The real scarcity is in high-grade versions of specific chase cards, which is why prices are so stratified. This means a Gen Z collector shopping for Base Set has to accept that unless they’re spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on key cards, they’re likely to own bulk commons and uncommons—which is less exciting than the social media aesthetic of a high-value collection.
What Gen Z Is Actually Collecting from Modern Pokémon Sets
To understand why Base Set cards don’t resonate with Gen Z the way they do with Millennials, look at what Gen Z is actively collecting: modern sets like Scarlet & Violet, Crown Zenith, and other recent releases. They’re chasing alternative art cards, full-art Pokémon, and cards featuring their favorite creatures in styles that align with contemporary design. They’re attending release events at local card shops, participating in sealed tournaments, and building communities around current-legal formats.
Vivid Voltage, Sword & Shield, Battle Styles—these sets from roughly 2020-2022 are the Gen Z equivalents of Base Set for Millennials. They have similar characteristics: they were the sets many Gen Z players opened as their introduction to the hobby, they have modern playability, and they’re significantly more affordable than Base Set. A Gen Z collector with $200 to spend is getting much more engaging cards from modern sets than from Base Set, where that same $200 might buy a single mid-grade card of a common chase card.
The Future Market for Pokémon Collectibles and New Generational Attitudes
As the market matures, it’s likely that Gen Z’s modern sets will follow a similar arc to Base Set—they’ll become older, more expensive in graded condition, and potentially nostalgic for Gen Z in the 2040s and 2050s. However, this process won’t be identical. The supply of cards has only increased over time, as has the grading and authentication infrastructure.
Gen Z’s children might feel some nostalgia for Crown Zenith or Battle Styles, but they’ll be evaluating them in a completely different economic and technological context than we can predict today. What seems clear is that Gen Z will not develop the same market-moving attachment to Base Set that Millennials have. Different formative experiences, different entry points into the franchise, different technological contexts, and different economic realities all push in the same direction: Base Set is a Millennial-specific phenomenon, not a universal truth about Pokémon card collecting. The TCG will likely thrive regardless, but its drivers and enthusiasts will change generationally.
Conclusion
Gen Z won’t care about Pokémon Base Set cards the way Millennials do because they didn’t live through Base Set’s moment as a foundational cultural artifact. They’re coming to Pokémon through different media, collecting for different reasons (investment, specific favorites, social aesthetics), and have access to better entry points into the hobby through modern booster sets and digital experiences. The attachment Millennials feel to these cards is rooted in specific memories and a specific era—something that can’t be artificially recreated for a generation that experienced Pokémon differently.
That doesn’t mean Gen Z won’t be important to the Pokémon TCG market; they absolutely will be. But their influence and passion will likely center on sets from their own formative years—modern products with designs, mechanics, and availability that actually align with their experience. If you’re collecting Base Set cards today, understand that you’re banking on sustained Millennial demand and the hope that Gen Z develops investment interest despite lacking emotional attachment. For Gen Z collectors themselves, the smarter play is likely to focus on modern sets, current playable cards, and the communities you’re actually part of, rather than chasing decades-old cardboard at premium prices.
