A University of North Georgia biology pre-med student sold some cards from his Pokémon collection to raise about $80,000 for graduate school.
The junior year student, Caleb King, had begun purchasing the cards since his teenage years, FOX 29 reported. (RELATED: Logic Spends $226,000 On A Pokémon Card)
“A lot of people tried to discourage me from doing it at the beginning, especially my parents,” King told FOX 29, recollecting the initial reactions people had towards his hobby. “They said, ‘Hey you shouldn’t be spending that kind of money on these cards, that’s ridiculous.’ I didn’t listen, and it paid off,” he added.
Caleb King loved collecting Pokémon cards. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UNG junior started selling his collection to help pay for graduate school.
— UNG (@UNG_News) December 13, 2020
Read the full story about his efforts and collection on the @forsythnews website.https://t.co/j37k4m7jmO#UNGstudent #Pokémon
Since buying those cards, King had kept a close eye on the market prices, according to Forsyth County News, capitalizing when prices spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I bought them to resell as an investment,” King told Forsyth County News. “I felt like [Pokémon] was an area that I was really knowledgeable on … and with prices exploding, I’ve been trying to sell them because I don’t know if the prices will go down again.”
As of now, he has earned $80,000 from selling cards that he had initially bought a few years earlier for $4,000, FOX 29 reported.
He has not yet sold his most-valuable card: a first edition Red Cheeks Pikachu, which King says have been sold for up to $20,000, according to FOX 29.
He has a set of 21 cards he believes would sell for more $50,000 and more, bringing him closer to his goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon FOX29 reported.
“If something means a lot to you, and you love it, and you’re passionate about it, you can always make money doing anything,” King told Forsyth County News. “That was always special to me — the whole Pokémon thing —growing up. Being able to invest that much time into [the cards] and then have it feel like it was investing back in me, it was really, really cool.”