4 ms·

My kids never had any interest in Labubu, but have been caught up in other fads like Pokemon cards. My sense is that these kinds of trends are mostly driven by

My kids never had any interest in Labubu, but have been caught up in other fads like Pokemon cards. My sense is that these kinds of trends are mostly driven by scarcity. If you manage to get your hands on one, then you get the feeling of owning something rare, exclusive, and desirable amongst your peers - which is enough reason on its own to want something. You can also convince yourself that paying the normal MSRP is a smart buy, since normally they are sold by scalpers at inflated prices, even if you have no intention of reselling. I’m not immune either. They sell Pokemon cards at 7/11 here - typically a store will put out one or two boxes a day - and usually they sell out very quickly. When I see them in stock, I feel an urge to buy them even when I’m not with my kids. Just because I know they will sell out soon.

doctorpangloss 5mo ago
Haha what would Pokémon have to do to convince you it's more than a fad? It's already the world's biggest IP, it's been around for 30 years...
- john_strinlai 5mo ago
  indeed, i always understood a "fad" to mean some short-lived trend. meanwhile, pokemon is probably around the same age as the average HN user.
  - alephnerd 5mo ago
    > probably around the same age as the average HN user. Based on the references and speech patterns I've seen on HN, I think the average HNers is at least a decade older than Pokemon. The first Pokemon videogame only came out in 1996. Y'all are boomers - nothing wrong with that, but HN has become an older monoculture.
    - john_strinlai 5mo ago
      >Y'all are boomers. i am! but i see a fair amount of people just starting their careers, students, etc. as well. and, based on some of the comments ive seen, i think there is a lot of young folk. most of my students are active, or at least browse, HN. they are mostly 18-20. i took a wild guess that ~30 would be the average. maybe 35-40 is closer. either way, i think my point stands: 30 years seems too long to be classified as a fad.
      - alephnerd 5mo ago
        > i think my point stands: 30 years seems too long to be classified as a fad. Yep! Completely agree! I'm not that much older than Pokemon, and most of my peers have been influenced by it heavily and their kids will be influenced by it as well. If Pokemon is a fad, so are smartphones. In classic HN fashion, I decided to kvetch about something completely irrelevant to the larger convo ;)
        pretzellogician 5mo ago
        :-) In that case, I'll kvetch about the "boomer" term (Baby Boomers are ~61+ years old), as I think you're conflating it with Generation X (45 - 61 years old)
    - Karrot_Kream 5mo ago
      Agree with this FWIW. The music and movie references here are largely from the 80s. Nostalgia here tends to be rooted in the 80s to the early 90s. This place feels solidly GenX to me which makes sense as the first web-forward generation.
    - buildbot 5mo ago
      I don’t think this is true. HN was well known to CS people in my undergrad and I’m barely a millennial.
      - alephnerd 5mo ago
        I'm roughly the same age (maybe a bit older) as you and frankly, we are middle age. Yet by HN standards we skew young.
        tredre3 5mo ago
        Do you have a source for that? I'm likely the same age as you are and I usually feel like people on HN don't swing that widely away from our age group, but based on vibes alone I would have put the median HN poster closer to 25-30 than to 50.
        Karrot_Kream 5mo ago
        In 2007 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=63294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=63294 the median age was 25.5 and mean 27.3. In 2022 (15 years later) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30897468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30897468 the median age using midpoints was between 35.44 and mean age was 37.22. If we presume that older folks tend to not answer these (so polls skew young), then I think it's safe to say young-Gen-X to older-millenial is the core demographic here.
        alephnerd 5mo ago
        > Do you have a source for that Obviously not. HN is an anonymous forum that doesn't collect that kind of data. But given the fact that a large portion of childhood and early 20s references on HN tend to discuss life in the 1980s-2000s and don't reference the Great Recession highlights a large portion of HNers would have been born in the late 70s to at most early 90s.
    - Nursie 5mo ago
      10 years older than pokemon isn’t even Gen X, it’s millennial…
      - RedNifre 5mo ago
        They probably meant "Boomer" in the colloquial sense of "somewhat old person" like how "Boomer Shooters" are for GenX and older Millenials.
        pretzellogician 5mo ago
        Thanks! I didn't know that. That's... really unfortunate that the slang has gone that direction.
    - marssaxman 5mo ago
      People born in 1986 aren't even Gen-X, much less boomers: you are talking about millenials! Even the youngest boomers are near retirement age now.
  - Gigachad 5mo ago
    Pokemon itself is not a trend but the current hype around the cards is and has only been around for a few years.
- freetime2 5mo ago
  I’m referring specifically to the cards, which exploded in popularity after Logan Paul paid $5 million for a rare card in 2021. The prices are completely driven by artificial scarcity - obviously they could easily print any card in unlimited numbers, but they intentionally print some cards in limited quantities that can only be obtained by getting lucky with a random pack. Most buyers don’t even play the card game. In February Paul resold the card for $16 million. [1] [1] https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/16/americas/pokemon-card-logan-paul-record-auction-intl-hnk https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/16/americas/pokemon-card-log...
  - buildbot 5mo ago
    This was true over 20 years ago when I was in elementary school - I don’t know anyone who really played the game, most people just collected the cards. Magic the Gathering was always both though, you collected good/rare cards & played the game with them!
    - resonious 5mo ago
      Yes I remember having a hard time finding other kids who wanted to actually play the pokemon card game. And even when I could find someone, they didn't care about the rules/energy costs. This was in elementary school though to be fair.
  - dvt 5mo ago
    > I’m referring specifically to the cards, which exploded in popularity after some YouTuber paid millions for a rare card Objectively untrue boomer take. Pokemon cards have been popular & have been traded since I was in middle school and I'm 40 now lol. Even without ever collecting them I know how cool having a Holo Charizard was.
    - freetime2 5mo ago
      If you look at Google Trends you can see that interest in Pokemon Cards was mostly flat until 2021 when Logan Paul made headlines for spending $5m on a card. It spiked again in late 2024 and has remained high when they released an app for trading cards digitally. Before 2019 they printed fewer than 2 billion cards per year [1]. Since 2021 they are printing 9 billion cards per year, and 12 billion in 2024 since they released the app. And release 7 new sets a year. And they are still selling out as soon as they hit store shelves [2]. The popularity you experienced in grade school is nothing like the revenous demand today. I suspect you might be the one who has fallen behind the times. [1] https://www.pokebeach.com/2021/06/pokemon-tcg-sold-3-7-billion-cards-during-pandemic https://www.pokebeach.com/2021/06/pokemon-tcg-sold-3-7-billi... [2] https://www.ign.com/articles/10-billion-pokemon-cards-were-printed-last-year-and-it-still-wasnt-enough-to-stop-shortages-and-scalping https://www.ign.com/articles/10-billion-pokemon-cards-were-p...
- coldtea 5mo ago
  Well, they have all the characteristics of a fad (driven by imitation, viral adoption, unserious, novelty over substance) aside from short lifespan. There are fad diets that have been around for 50 years after all...
teaearlgraycold 5mo ago
All of these gambling box toys are a way to simulate a reality where you can actually afford meaningful and expensive things - like real estate, nice cars, etc. When those are entirely out of budget for someone they might cope with a $30 toy they purchased for $200, which then can get milked by installing onto your belt.
- HoldOnAMinute 5mo ago
  I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time.
parpfish 5mo ago
from what i remember about toy trends as a kid, it wasn't about wanting to have the thing. it was about not wanting to be the one that didn't have the thing.
- prettyblocks 4mo ago
  Mostly yes, but I think it's both, because some people become life long fans, like the adult Pokemon card collectors.

doctorpangloss 5mo ago

Haha what would Pokémon have to do to convince you it's more than a fad? It's already the world's biggest IP, it's been around for 30 years...

john_strinlai 5mo ago
indeed, i always understood a "fad" to mean some short-lived trend. meanwhile, pokemon is probably around the same age as the average HN user.
- alephnerd 5mo ago
  > probably around the same age as the average HN user. Based on the references and speech patterns I've seen on HN, I think the average HNers is at least a decade older than Pokemon. The first Pokemon videogame only came out in 1996. Y'all are boomers - nothing wrong with that, but HN has become an older monoculture.
  - john_strinlai 5mo ago
    >Y'all are boomers. i am! but i see a fair amount of people just starting their careers, students, etc. as well. and, based on some of the comments ive seen, i think there is a lot of young folk. most of my students are active, or at least browse, HN. they are mostly 18-20. i took a wild guess that ~30 would be the average. maybe 35-40 is closer. either way, i think my point stands: 30 years seems too long to be classified as a fad.
    - alephnerd 5mo ago
      > i think my point stands: 30 years seems too long to be classified as a fad. Yep! Completely agree! I'm not that much older than Pokemon, and most of my peers have been influenced by it heavily and their kids will be influenced by it as well. If Pokemon is a fad, so are smartphones. In classic HN fashion, I decided to kvetch about something completely irrelevant to the larger convo ;)
      - pretzellogician 5mo ago
        :-) In that case, I'll kvetch about the "boomer" term (Baby Boomers are ~61+ years old), as I think you're conflating it with Generation X (45 - 61 years old)
  - Karrot_Kream 5mo ago
    Agree with this FWIW. The music and movie references here are largely from the 80s. Nostalgia here tends to be rooted in the 80s to the early 90s. This place feels solidly GenX to me which makes sense as the first web-forward generation.
  - buildbot 5mo ago
    I don’t think this is true. HN was well known to CS people in my undergrad and I’m barely a millennial.
    - alephnerd 5mo ago
      I'm roughly the same age (maybe a bit older) as you and frankly, we are middle age. Yet by HN standards we skew young.
      - tredre3 5mo ago
        Do you have a source for that? I'm likely the same age as you are and I usually feel like people on HN don't swing that widely away from our age group, but based on vibes alone I would have put the median HN poster closer to 25-30 than to 50.
        Karrot_Kream 5mo ago
        In 2007 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=63294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=63294 the median age was 25.5 and mean 27.3. In 2022 (15 years later) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30897468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30897468 the median age using midpoints was between 35.44 and mean age was 37.22. If we presume that older folks tend to not answer these (so polls skew young), then I think it's safe to say young-Gen-X to older-millenial is the core demographic here.
        alephnerd 5mo ago
        > Do you have a source for that Obviously not. HN is an anonymous forum that doesn't collect that kind of data. But given the fact that a large portion of childhood and early 20s references on HN tend to discuss life in the 1980s-2000s and don't reference the Great Recession highlights a large portion of HNers would have been born in the late 70s to at most early 90s.
  - Nursie 5mo ago
    10 years older than pokemon isn’t even Gen X, it’s millennial…
    - RedNifre 5mo ago
      They probably meant "Boomer" in the colloquial sense of "somewhat old person" like how "Boomer Shooters" are for GenX and older Millenials.
      - pretzellogician 5mo ago
        Thanks! I didn't know that. That's... really unfortunate that the slang has gone that direction.
  - marssaxman 5mo ago
    People born in 1986 aren't even Gen-X, much less boomers: you are talking about millenials! Even the youngest boomers are near retirement age now.
- Gigachad 5mo ago
  Pokemon itself is not a trend but the current hype around the cards is and has only been around for a few years.
freetime2 5mo ago
I’m referring specifically to the cards, which exploded in popularity after Logan Paul paid $5 million for a rare card in 2021. The prices are completely driven by artificial scarcity - obviously they could easily print any card in unlimited numbers, but they intentionally print some cards in limited quantities that can only be obtained by getting lucky with a random pack. Most buyers don’t even play the card game. In February Paul resold the card for $16 million. [1] [1] https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/16/americas/pokemon-card-logan-paul-record-auction-intl-hnk https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/16/americas/pokemon-card-log...
- buildbot 5mo ago
  This was true over 20 years ago when I was in elementary school - I don’t know anyone who really played the game, most people just collected the cards. Magic the Gathering was always both though, you collected good/rare cards & played the game with them!
  - resonious 5mo ago
    Yes I remember having a hard time finding other kids who wanted to actually play the pokemon card game. And even when I could find someone, they didn't care about the rules/energy costs. This was in elementary school though to be fair.
- dvt 5mo ago
  > I’m referring specifically to the cards, which exploded in popularity after some YouTuber paid millions for a rare card Objectively untrue boomer take. Pokemon cards have been popular & have been traded since I was in middle school and I'm 40 now lol. Even without ever collecting them I know how cool having a Holo Charizard was.
  - freetime2 5mo ago
    If you look at Google Trends you can see that interest in Pokemon Cards was mostly flat until 2021 when Logan Paul made headlines for spending $5m on a card. It spiked again in late 2024 and has remained high when they released an app for trading cards digitally. Before 2019 they printed fewer than 2 billion cards per year [1]. Since 2021 they are printing 9 billion cards per year, and 12 billion in 2024 since they released the app. And release 7 new sets a year. And they are still selling out as soon as they hit store shelves [2]. The popularity you experienced in grade school is nothing like the revenous demand today. I suspect you might be the one who has fallen behind the times. [1] https://www.pokebeach.com/2021/06/pokemon-tcg-sold-3-7-billion-cards-during-pandemic https://www.pokebeach.com/2021/06/pokemon-tcg-sold-3-7-billi... [2] https://www.ign.com/articles/10-billion-pokemon-cards-were-printed-last-year-and-it-still-wasnt-enough-to-stop-shortages-and-scalping https://www.ign.com/articles/10-billion-pokemon-cards-were-p...
coldtea 5mo ago
Well, they have all the characteristics of a fad (driven by imitation, viral adoption, unserious, novelty over substance) aside from short lifespan. There are fad diets that have been around for 50 years after all...

teaearlgraycold 5mo ago

All of these gambling box toys are a way to simulate a reality where you can actually afford meaningful and expensive things - like real estate, nice cars, etc. When those are entirely out of budget for someone they might cope with a $30 toy they purchased for $200, which then can get milked by installing onto your belt.

HoldOnAMinute 5mo ago
I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time.

parpfish 5mo ago

from what i remember about toy trends as a kid, it wasn't about wanting to have the thing. it was about not wanting to be the one that didn't have the thing.

prettyblocks 4mo ago
Mostly yes, but I think it's both, because some people become life long fans, like the adult Pokemon card collectors.