Save It For Pikachu

For this shift Rob finally gets the floor, and he's using it to talk about the manliest thing a guy can do: collect Pokémon cards. After preloading his masculine credentials (football, wrestling, hunting, shooting — you're welcome), Rob breaks down his first big TCG expo at State Farm Stadium, the rabbit hole of Elite Trainer Boxes, Super Illustration Rares, and a Pokémon Center Evolving Skies ETB worth a thousand dollars. Then it's a rip sesh in the car with Brian, a Charizard EX Auto vs. a Charles Barkley auto, and a brief detour into whether RJ's Kevin Johnson autograph is ever going to be worth anything. Spoiler: that ship sailed.

Meanwhile RJ and Rob find the through line connecting Pokémon cards, analog film photography, and astrophotography — turns out the crackhead aspect of opening packs and the slowness of a 35mm roll have more in common than you'd think.

• Rob's first card show — as big as a Texas gun show, held on an NFL field
• The Pokémon Center stamp and why it makes a card worth 11x more
• Chase cards, SIRs, and why "buying hope and a dream" eventually gives way to buying singles
• Wemby's card values, the 29-point blown lead, and the ebbs and flows of sports card season
• Why tangible hobbies are having a moment — and the crackhead aspect of all of them

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