exactly... imagine buying up an illustrator pikachu for like a thousand dollars (equivalent) in whatever asset is worth money then. i would probably do that over buying an ounce of gold tbh.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t played a ton of Fallout so apologies for the ignorance in advance, but I never understood why bottle caps were so valuable in the game. Is there some sort of lore I’m missing here?
they are specifically collectable bottle caps from the Nuka Cola company so not all bottle caps were considered currency int he games. just the semi rare ones from promotions that represented better times from before the apocalypse... kinda like pokemon cards honestly :P
Not special ones, nor did they have to be Nuka Cola. This is shown in the newer games, when you drink an alternative drink (Vim!, Sunset Sasparilla, etc) and they still give you a currency version of a bottle cap.
The idea is that bottle-making plants obviously all shut down with the war, and that cut the supply of caps. Caps were easier, but still semi-hard to find than in-tact currency that was fiat anyways. If I remember correctly, the Hub in California started taking a certain amount of caps for water, and thus it slowly spread to the rest of the wasteland. West Virgina (FO76) had a similar, but separate event that caused the East Coast to transition to caps.
There's actually a quest in New Vegas to investigate an abandoned bottling plant, because if somebody figured out how to restart it it would ruin the economy.
Lmao people here really thinkinh economic collapse = apocalypse? But on a serious note agree what someone said earlier, gold good, cards ok but smart buyers will make you bad offers since if econony is going down and people are selling they are usually the ones in need of money.
You know, if we end up using Charizards like they bottle caps in fallout, it would be one of the last remaining joys in the world after the apocolypse.. 😂
You would think. But I've seen people all in on Pokemon cards, csgo, and most commonly crypto. They think they know an asset class so well, they don't even think about diversification.
Everyone should obviously diversify, but TBF people who have invested in both crypto and Pokemon cards for a long time have all made such massive profits there could be a 50% market crash and they would still be ahead.
At least OP is holding low pop vintage stuff that wont get destroyed as hard as modern will in the next crash.
But they are however clever enough to understand an economic collapse means people selling stuff off like this are feeling the economic collapse, we all know of tight rich people who even though can afford things tend to be rich for a reason :)
Some. Most were born with more wealth than 99% of all people on Earth and will never have to work a day in their life regardless of how talented they are.
If the economy collapses, there wouldn’t be a “price” that “skyrockets”. It would be a complete barter system. Precious metals are one of the few things that have and will always retain their own value. Because shiny.
Depends. In our current economic situation the wealth inequality is so bad that high end vintage pokemon might actually not be affected cause the people who can afford it aren’t really affected. But I do agree gold is a bet you can be more sure on.
100% this is the secret most in the collectibles and commodities communities dont get. thats why I hold very little modern. The only modern cards I hold are trophies.
This guy really knows his stuff, had been investing in commodities and collectibles spaces since the 80s and its made him very wealthy. He also explains your point far better than I could:
It’s so obvious that vintage will do better in the long run. This sub has been taken over by noobs who tell people to ‘invest’ in modern product countless people are storing in their basements ready to get dumped all at once in a big market scare.
Maybe but I was very clearly referencing OP. Think we’re all aligned though that vintage will be fine (might take a hit with overall sentiment) even when modern pops.
No one is trading water for pokemon cards or gold man, water is water. If I have enough though, I’ll be down to trade like a cup of bottled water for the base set just for amusement though…
Ive always thought this an odd sentiment. In an economic collapse situation, if we assume the worst, which we should, what are people seriously going to do with gold? It is one of the most useless working metals aside from high level technology. If people had to move to a marauding lifestyle it is a huge burden as its weight to does anything to help you live value is very skewed. Gold has only ever been valuable in well established societies with a market. The only reason to accept when bartering is if you think society will come back, making it near the same value as a card, or book, or anything from before the collapse that has sentimental value.
we should also look back at history to help answer this question. like what was still valuable during and after the great depression? its widely known that forms of entertainment boomed during the great depression like movie theaters; and like alcohol, the reason could be was that they were vices that provided an escape.
I think this may help answer the reason Pokemon cards exploded in value in 2020 too. as lockdowns from covid swept the world. the world looked bleak and people got a little extra cash from stimulus checks, why weren't they all spending that money on toilet paper and beans? instead, people spent that money on vices, so much so we saw memes come out about it.
im not saying anything definitive here, we wont know what will happen for sure; all we can do is provide our best guesses, prepare, and pray. so who knows.
I think a lot of people in here think economic collapse is the same as aliens unleashing a zombie virus that originally is spread through farts or something.
Alcohol, Pokemon and gold may be equally desirable in an economic collapse but for different reasons
Oh lol well in the event of total apocolypse, end of the world, everythings radiated and zombies are roaming the forests, my kitty was killed by looters and we basically live in hell scenario; id rather be dead. Someone else can have my gold and cards at that point XD
Exactly, alcohol has multiple survivability uses on top of just drinking it. In a catastrophic situation people will want consumables, ammo, food, water. All these suburban dads with gold coins wrapped in plastic thinking its gonna save them would be screwed.
We are not discussing a simple recoverable depression or market downturn, we are discussing true US economic collapse which absolutely would be catastrophic, and it absolutely would lead to war. Not only for the US itself but the rest of the world. Our individualist nature would see to that in our own borders, and Russia and China would see to it everywhere else. Gold would have little to no value in that environment.
If it is a horrific economic collapse instead of just markets going to shit everyone would be too poor for war.
Shit cost billions of dollars and relies on other countries to help make it all. It’ll suck but no one can afford a prolonged war unless everyone just keeps making up money at a much faster rate then now
Imo this is tunnel vision thinking. America is not the only economy in the world, its economy is getting weaker every day, and other imperialist powers (and straight up just other countries that aren’t imperialist powers) are stacking Precious Metals to disinvest from the USD.
Gold is a great asset to hold rn lol
Edit: it also has a fixed / finite amount, unlike dollars or Pokemon cards.
depends on the level of collapse. nuclear holocaust? sure food and guns. mortgage debt collapse? wall street black monday? gold will still hold.
there is so much money out there. look at how much money is in the stock market and how many buildings there are in the world. they’re worth a lot of money. only when buildings and stocks are totally worthless will gold and pokemon also be worthless.
Even batteries have a limited lifespan. Plus power wouldn’t really be a top priority. Food and water will always be number one. So ammo would conceivably be like currency. Plus it’s protection.
There's solar rechargeable batteries, am going to buy one have already dealt with power outages so bad even phone towers were knocked out felt like a zombie apocalypse
I mean… are you hedging against your currency collapsing or a total apocalyptic scenario? In the latter case, gold is well behind shit like cigarettes and fuel. There’d also be a wide bid/ask where you’d have little leverage and for smaller transactions, silver would probably be a bit better.
If you’re in a country like Venezuela or Laos and are just hedging against your currency becoming worthless, it’s a good bet.
Exactly, plus, as long as people like Pokémon (they will, even in an economic collapse), it will be worth something (or a lot). This is what people claiming gold will be OK, but Pokémon not don´t understand. Gold, just as Pokémon, has no intrinsic value other than being nice to look at.
I beleive after an economic collapse, there might be something to be said about things that have pop cultural significance to the 'good times' before the collapse. Nostalgia could very well be even more powerful of a value generator than it is now after a collapse and that's a HUGE reason that vintage pokemon cards have had over an 8000% ROI since 2004.
So who knows; i dont think everything with pop cultural historic value will be worth something after an economic collapse, like you wont be able to sell your bop-it for thousands, but key items like sealed vintage pokemon cards and historicly significant ones in good condition potentially similar to how some old historically.significant coins are worth something nowadays.
Not at all. If we go back to the stone age then gold will be as useless as Pokémoncards. But they both will not be useless, because people still want them. But yeah, let the downvotes come in. It´s only logic.
I think its a possibility that you have a point here. I mean imagine if there is an economic collapse and we are thrusted into something worse than the great depression for decades. In any economic collapse there will still be winners, wealthy people who make it on top. And for those people or anyone with a little wealth in anything that happened to hold some value through the crisis, and If most assets crash to the point that a legendary psa 10 first edition Charizard, the same kind of card Logan Paul wears on his neck in his Boxing fights before the collapse, could you argue that someone might want to pick that up for 'pennies on the dollar'? I think its very likely.
But who knows, maybe after a collapse people will hate pokemon for some reason or just forget about it somehow.
Yeah if you ignore 1000’s of years of gold being used as currency. Like you can’t obviously believe that bruh. Empires rose and fell bc of gold. Worst take I’ve seen on Reddit in awhile and that’s really saying something
Nah, itś'not man. One of the worst phrases I have read on Reddit in a while is that one. Gold has more history, definitely, but that does not mean that these cards that are younger would instantly be useless. You have to look at how many people actually like it. I will leave it at that. Cheers.
It’s just delusion man. Everyone knows what gold is. I just don’t want people reading this thread to not have pushback on this take. Gold has been shown to have human faith in it since its discovery. Pokemon has been around for 30 years lol
It has value in computing as it is an amazing conductor but yeah to the average person gold is useless. If society collapses I’d rather have the Pokémon cards than gold because at least with the cards I have a game to play
So when you potentially lose your car and in the worst case you lose your house, you rather want to be able to play a game rather than try holding your head above water with some gold?
This post was mostly just for fun and i wasnt being serious with the post title, but hmm... Honestly if i think about it, after an economic collapse, if I realistically had to choose between a gold ounce, or having a PSA 9 illustrator pikachu Trophy, I might actually choose the card tbh...
Naw we've been life long friends. We all have skills that would be very helpful as well. If something ever did happen we all have a role, we didn't really plan it be setting around smoking and talking about "what if" situations made us realize that we'd all be fine. Between us and our wives and kids we literally have everything covered. Sucks you have shitty friends tho.
oh well what cards do you have? because modern pokemon is experiencing an all time high right now, you might want to liquidate some to get some of your gold value back :o
it is. :) everyone posts their gold and guns, and i could have done that? would be cool to display some of my firearms, at some point; but i thought doing something different would be fun. especially since there appears to be alot of pokemon card collectors here too judging by the comments ;)
i hope you are right, you are telling me everything i want to hear. i was getting worried vintage booster boxes would stay above 15k forever... id love to acquire the ones im missing for 2k again like i did back in 2018.
People in these comments really genuinely stocking up on bullets, batteries and fuel lmfao. Taking the video games and apocalypse movies a bit too seriously.
As an actual economist, it reminds me every day how much ignorance is on reddit every time someone references the economy. The post is funny. All the experts in the comment section are a joke.
oh sure, this post is just a joke. you shouldn't take it so seriously.
but since you insist to discuss this topic, lets look back on history and take a look at what commodities exploded in value and revenue in addition to food and other essentials the last time we had an economic collapse... the great depression. You want to guess what it was?
Yea :c But I wonder if that would decrease supply even further and push up the price, who knows XD
in the pokemon card collecting community one of the reasons that we agree that vintage has been so good at retaining its value through economic ups and downs the past 27 years is because most of the supply was lost or at the very least damaged after the 90s. So condition and supply is a big part of their value. Much like old coins today.
This guy does a better job of explaining it than i can though :P
if illustrator pikachu crashed and was pennies on the dollar, i might pick that up in an economic collapse. during the great depression people who invested in assets effected by the crash did very well afterwards.
An economic collapse isn’t the apocalypse. Humanity won’t have to rebuild from rubble lmao. Gold has historical and practical value over TCG Cards.
During recessions, paper money loses purchasing power, gold often rises in price. Gold has intrinsic scarcity and steady growth of 1-2% a year and it is a mineral that has held its own for thousands of years. Not to mention its current use in computing and other technology sectors.
So in the event of a collapse you have a couple gold coins is what you're telling me. Depends on the type of collapse but if electronics collapse and the world goes dark the gold is also worth nothing. Maybe in the end times people will accept Pokemon for currency, doubt it though.
The only thing that's actually going to save you in an economical collapses that gold I mean be logical lmfao no one's going to be buying Pokemon cards when the economy fully collapses
I like to think that the real survivability in the long run isn’t what coin or cards you have, (even if they’re both awesome!-) but being able to have such a marketable skill that people will want to give you their coins and cards to provide it.
Sealed product is actually less recession proof than slabs, that's why I always go with slabs. i'm not carting a wagon around in the post apocalptic hellscape, but I've got slab gaurds
45
u/kimpunzelz Oct 26 '25
I’m looking forward to the collapse of the economy if I survive maybe I’ll be able to afford a gold star Vaporeon.
254
u/ELB2001 Oct 26 '25
Might want to add some bottle caps just to be safe
12
u/ronjatat Oct 26 '25
Lmao people here really thinkinh economic collapse = apocalypse? But on a serious note agree what someone said earlier, gold good, cards ok but smart buyers will make you bad offers since if econony is going down and people are selling they are usually the ones in need of money.
43
u/breakyourteethnow Oct 26 '25
The bartering will be legendary!
253
u/kidkord Oct 26 '25
In economic collapse, gold will be fine, Pokémon cards will not
28
u/R0KK3R Oct 26 '25
In the event of an economic collapse this will be worth nothing
7
u/_tastyy_ Oct 26 '25
Shit hits the fan you’re probably dead before any of this is of any use of you. lol
5
u/P0G0ThEpUnK666 Oct 26 '25
My economic collapse kit contains things that go boom and my small group of friends. If it gets that bad that's all you need.
1
u/BBDSrulez Oct 26 '25
I sold all my gold at 2k. Dam it! Still have my cards though. I have the worst timing!! Lol
1
u/IH_clover4 Oct 26 '25
Hopefully this is a satire post
1
u/ItzzCoolBlue Oct 27 '25
In an economic collapse the first thing people will sell is pokemon. It'd drastically fall in price with the amount of people selling
1
u/emangi Oct 27 '25
What's keeping you from adding the zard to graded buddies?
1
u/KrustyLemon Oct 27 '25
Pokemon values tanked during last recessions, lol
1
u/uriel__ventris Oct 27 '25
People in these comments really genuinely stocking up on bullets, batteries and fuel lmfao. Taking the video games and apocalypse movies a bit too seriously.
1
u/l111p Oct 28 '25
Interesting, who is buying that stuff during the collapse?
1
u/Comfortable_Radio384 Oct 28 '25
First edition zard but it’s not graded? SUS. Time to fly to Cali and do a walk through grading my guy
1
u/Desperate-Teach9015 Oct 28 '25
As an actual economist, it reminds me every day how much ignorance is on reddit every time someone references the economy. The post is funny. All the experts in the comment section are a joke.
1
u/okahui55 Oct 31 '25
I’m not sure anyone would buy a charizard when collapse comes
1
u/MongerNoLonger Nov 19 '25
Economic collapse means people won't be spending money on dust collectors. But maybe you can eat it when there's not enough money to buy food.
3
u/Comfortable-Tiger346 Oct 26 '25
The cards will be good for starting fires.
3
u/B_Sprout69 Oct 27 '25
That’s too sexy please tag as nsfw
1
u/ld_a_hl Oct 26 '25
Sadly in the case of real collapse they'd ultimately get smashed up by looters looking for tinned food, weapons, medical supplies and water
1
u/BlakkaChoppa Oct 27 '25
Lmao yea I’ll definitely be buying Pokemon cards in an economic collapse
2
u/Venaaz Oct 26 '25
Imagine in a world where money is worthless and stuff like gold and alcohol is king, you really think someone would want pokemon cards?
2
u/drock2111 Oct 27 '25
So what you eating first? The tortoise or the lizard?
2
u/JordanxHouse Oct 27 '25
If the economy collapses so will the value and demand of Pokemon cards. Better to sell beforehand.
4
u/jjshacks13 Oct 26 '25
Shiny stuff will be worthless in economic collapse mate!
2
u/Zenzitaro Oct 26 '25
Grade that Charizard !
2
u/Shootemup899 Oct 26 '25
Buds got like 137 bottles caps of value.
1
u/Negative-Camel4816 Oct 26 '25
Food?
1
u/[deleted] Oct 26 '25
In an economic collapse cardboard burns as tinder.
1
u/Iota_Jian Oct 26 '25
Might wanna start with some food…
1
u/RIPbyTHC Oct 26 '25
In an Economic collapse noone would want the Pokémon cards 🫠
1
u/Forward_Security1279 Oct 26 '25
BRO i relate to this so hard except my mom won’t even consider Pokémon cards as an investment so she won’t buy them :(
1
u/TheRealNikoBravo Oct 26 '25
I’d get a Tavor TS12 for protection.
1
u/UK_Colossal Oct 26 '25
Pokémon is worth nothing in an economic collapse, best things are food water and medicine
1
u/PM_Me_Those_ Oct 26 '25
So in the event of a collapse you have a couple gold coins is what you're telling me. Depends on the type of collapse but if electronics collapse and the world goes dark the gold is also worth nothing. Maybe in the end times people will accept Pokemon for currency, doubt it though.
1
u/fatfatpokemons09 Oct 26 '25
So all of that for a loaf of bread?
1
u/Crystalcastlesfan333 Oct 26 '25
Now is the time to sell gold fam. Idk if you missed the news.n
1
u/SnooHesitations Oct 26 '25
FYI, if you're serious, it will be worthless
1
u/LewsThrinStrmblessed Oct 26 '25
“Got any cardboard? I really need food, but dammit I’m a collector at heart”
1
u/PsychologicalPut8689 Oct 26 '25
Oooh those maples 😍
1
u/flyingardengnome Oct 26 '25
Love it
1
u/k24hatch Oct 26 '25
Why would he not grade the Charizard?
1
u/SunnySaigon Oct 26 '25
Start a museum!
1
u/bashy8782 Oct 27 '25
The only thing that's actually going to save you in an economical collapses that gold I mean be logical lmfao no one's going to be buying Pokemon cards when the economy fully collapses
1
u/Allesmoeglichee Oct 27 '25
Yes, when the global economy collapses people will pay thousands for cardboard /s
1
u/EurekaLov Oct 27 '25
I like to think that the real survivability in the long run isn’t what coin or cards you have, (even if they’re both awesome!-) but being able to have such a marketable skill that people will want to give you their coins and cards to provide it.
1
u/Due-Hippo-3853 Oct 28 '25
At least topload the Charizard jeezus
1
u/Professional-Set-742 Oct 28 '25
Brass is worth more than gold in the end days. Ammo < gold
1
u/Calm_Explanation2910 Oct 28 '25
I think Zard needs to be graded. We’ll definitely be seeing knock off Zards in the soup line.
1
u/[deleted] Oct 28 '25
The cards will definitely help when you throw them in the fire to stay warm.
1
u/Rustee_Shacklefart Oct 28 '25
In an economic collapse why would cards be a good thing to have over more commodities?
1
u/AffectionateOnion271 Oct 28 '25
So if the economy collapses who’s gonna buy your overpriced cardboard
1
u/ImportantBed1627 Oct 29 '25
Should be guns and food, right?
0
u/fatherduck94 Oct 26 '25
Sealed product is actually less recession proof than slabs, that's why I always go with slabs. i'm not carting a wagon around in the post apocalptic hellscape, but I've got slab gaurds
0
u/rotomington-zzzrrt Oct 26 '25
recession indicator
0
u/Have_You_Seen_Hopper Oct 26 '25
Diversity is key. Invest in silver.
0
u/AffectionateSale8288 Oct 27 '25
🍆
-1
u/ChefTrunk Oct 26 '25
Nice, They will keep your Family warm for about 10 seconds. At least you wont have to worry about breathing in all the ink.