This Pokemon Collector's Impossible Find Is Blowing Fans' Minds
One lucky Pokémon fan stumbled across the find of a lifetime in an Oklahoma Target when he discovered a dozen factory-sealed vintage tins of collectible cards.
Lee Brigs, who goes by @pokelee21 on social media, posted a photo of his incredible find to Twitter before he even truly knew what he had uncovered. His only clue to the age of the tins was a coupon attached to the front of each box — which had expired in April 2013. Despite not being sure of what he had found, Brigs took the initiative to grab all 12 packs and pay their full retail price, which a photo of his receipt noted was $17.99 per pack, leading to a total of a little over $200.
Brigs didn't know the actual value of his find until after he had purchased them and had a chance to open one. After doing so, he tweeted the contents of the tins, which included packs from Plasma Storm, an expansion to the Black & White Series of Pokémon trading cards. While the prices of these packs can vary wildly on different aftermarket trading sites, fellow Pokémon fans on Twitter estimated that each tin could fetch as much as $300.
As with any significant Pokémon find, fans on social media had plenty of opinions on the discovery, including how it's even possible. Here is what fans think led to this Pokémon collector's incredible find.
Pokemon fans weigh in on the rare trading card tins
The discovery of the vintage Pokémon sets inspired a wave of speculation on Twitter as to where the cards might have come from, as well as why Target might have stocked such a valuable cache of cards.
As described in a series of tweets between card collector @CashBridges and Brigs, one theory was that a distributor in the Oklahoma area might have uncovered a stash of Pokémon in a warehouse and simply began shipping them to stores to clear out leftover inventory. However, other Twitter users were skeptical that the cards were legitimate, referencing a recent post from noted collector @Leonhart, which featured similar cards that were simply reprints. Thankfully, the coupon attached to each pack (which expired over eight years ago) seemed to be pretty solid proof.
Others, like Twitter user @EpictubeHd, wondered how Brigs had gotten around rules that Target had put in place to crack down on Pokémon scalpers, such as limits on how many packs could be purchased at once. Once again, Brigs had a convincing answer to that issue, tweeting that the tins were so old that the SKU didn't even register in the system, allowing him to purchase as many as he pleased.
All in all, the find was a pretty heartwarming story, which has been a rarer occurrence since the market for the cards exploded and scalpers largely began completely ruining Pokémon.