For the third consecutive year, the Pokémon Mega Market took over downtown Montreal and the crowds showed up in force. An hour before doors opened Sunday morning, the line already wound around the block. As many as 5,000 Pokémon fans had streamed into the Centre Mont-Royal on Sherbrooke St. W. The floor was packed with hundreds of collectible cards representing characters from across the Pokémon universe — from common penny cards to rarities worth tens of thousands of dollars. Event co-organizer Marc Bouchard says the market fills a real gap for collectors. “There’s supply and demand, right? So for the expensive cards, most of the time they’re rare. People are looking to get them as well. Some are really hard to find. So that’s why we’re making a space like this where people can find those rare cards,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s for everyone. Even if you collect the $0.01 card, you can find it here. There’s also probably some $50,000 cards over there as well.” With that kind of money on the table, plain-clothes security guards were on hand, giving collectors like Chris Henny the confidence to bring in their inventory. “Looking at the condition to make sure that it’s actually, that he’ll be able to at least make a profit off of it. So, for example, if you have a damaged card, it’s not going to be worth as much as a pristine card,” Henny said. More tangible than crypto, cards have also become a legitimate investment vehicle. Rami Buhaisi of Turbo Pokeverse says plenty of adults are here with their portfolios in mind. “A lot of adults happen to just be people who want to be investing or they want to diversify their portfolio,” he said. Collector Phil Vidican sees it the same way: “Near a recession, people want small items to keep in their pockets because the big items are too expensive.” But the draw isn’t purely financial. Fans in costume mingled with fellow collectors across the floor, and Bouchard says community was always the point. “The reason why I started this event actually was to make new friends in the collecting space.” Henny puts it more simply: “It’s really fun.” As any Pokémon fan knows, the goal was never really to catch them all — the fun is in the chase.
