Creating and building businesses. Current Passion Project: explaining why 500+ great companies failed (120 videos so far).
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NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why the Pokémon card market is heading for a crash
On September 28, 2026, a rare Pikachu Pokémon card sold at auction for an astonishing $8.4 million. But just eight weeks earlier, another card with the exact same grade sold for around $80,000, a tiny fraction of that price.
What's even more surprising is that neither card was entirely unique. Grading companies have identified at least 57 other examples with the same grade, while the Pokémon Company printed roughly 10 billion cards in the previous year alone.
Despite the massive supply, certain Pokémon cards continue to sell for extraordinary amounts of money. But behind these prices is a market driven by three major players, and only one of them truly needs prices to stay high.
So how did collectible Pokémon cards become a multimillion-dollar market, and what happens when the hype finally starts to fade?
This is the rise and inevitable fall of Pokémon cards.
Congrats and this'll be great, @EricJorgenson!
Building in public is fine. Just understand that it gives jerks a lot of surface area to attack you.
I once went to a fancy restaurant. Their music was so loud that my wife and I couldn't hold a conversation.
We asked the waiter to turn down the music. He said, "The owners won't let us."
I said, "Why?"
He said, "Because when it gets crowded later and everyone is talking loudly, they want everyone to hear the music still."
We never went back. It's incredible how hard hospitality is to do at a high level.
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1 minute business stories + tactical takeaways.
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Michael Girdley retweeted
I once went to a fancy restaurant. Their music was so loud that my wife and I couldn't hold a conversation.
We asked the waiter to turn down the music. He said, "The owners won't let us."
I said, "Why?"
He said, "Because when it gets crowded later and everyone is talking loudly, they want everyone to hear the music still."
We never went back. It's incredible how hard hospitality is to do at a high level.
PSA: Voting is the best way to stop door-knockers, spam texts, and political ads.
Here in Texas, sophisticated campaigns see when you've voted and remove you from their lists.
For now.
Fascinating to watch this happen to so many young people now:
1) Go to college
2) See that the job market sucks
3) Become entrepreneurial
Published data says 6-8% unemployment for recent grads. Feels way low versus reality.
The internet reminds you constantly why everything you read should be considered false until proven true.
Michael Girdley retweeted
Great video
NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Why the Pokémon card market is heading for a crash
On September 28, 2026, a rare Pikachu Pokémon card sold at auction for an astonishing $8.4 million. But just eight weeks earlier, another card with the exact same grade sold for around $80,000, a tiny fraction of that price.
What's even more surprising is that neither card was entirely unique. Grading companies have identified at least 57 other examples with the same grade, while the Pokémon Company printed roughly 10 billion cards in the previous year alone.
Despite the massive supply, certain Pokémon cards continue to sell for extraordinary amounts of money. But behind these prices is a market driven by three major players, and only one of them truly needs prices to stay high.
So how did collectible Pokémon cards become a multimillion-dollar market, and what happens when the hype finally starts to fade?
This is the rise and inevitable fall of Pokémon cards.
Want a deeper dive?
I wrote up the key principles and builder takeaways from this story in a 1-page digest. Download it free (and 80+ more) here.
newsletter.girdley.com/1page…
I love when a business finds an efficiency that seems crazy.
Like Waffle House arranging condiments on the plate instead of using a POS for orders.
Then their cooks turn out 4 meals in 3 minutes.
What else is like this?
Get on my email list.
1 minute business stories + tactical takeaways.
girdley.com/subscribe
Everyone should have a "bro-level" of investment.
Your buddy calls up. Asks you to be in their deal.
But you know you'll hate it.
You say, "Look, I'm in for $XYZ dollars. I promise to sign everything you send me instantly and never question anything."
You get to support your friend without doing deals you don't want to do.
It’s a great example of a process moat. My thoughts:
newsletter.girdley.com/p/why…
This is the most creative email scam I’ve seen.
Read it and see if you can guess how they do it.
I’ll post the answer shortly.
