Mizkif Lost An Insane Amount Of Money On Pokemon Cards

Pokémon cards are selling like it's the '90s again. Target has had to pull cards off the shelves in order to regulate scalping and McDonalds introduced some 25th Anniversary trading cards that were quickly bought up by adult collectors and scalpers. A number of YouTubers and Twitch streamers have embraced the trend of opening Pokémon cards on stream and then sending them out for grading. Logan Paul has pulled some really great cards (and worn them in the boxing ring) and Logic spent over $220,000 in order to get his hands on an extremely rare Charizard.

Mizkif has been an important part of this trend as well. In fact, he claims to have been one of the key reasons that the practice became so popular. In a YouTube video from one of his streams, he claimed, "I started this craze in November and it blew the f**k up."

The streamer recently spent a lot of money on boxes of Pokémon cards in the hopes of pulling a rare Lugia that would make the whole enterprise worthwhile. In a recent video where he revealed the grading of some of the cards, he stated, "if you guys want to know how much money I spent on Pokémon cards in general, it's well over $100,000. Well over. Probably like $150,000."

Mizkif recently sent 20 rare cards out to CGC Trading Cards for grading in the hopes that at least a few of them would be valued at a "10," meaning that they are virtually flawless. According to CGC's website, a "10" is "the highest grade assigned. The collectible must have no evidence of any manufacturing or handling defects." That means even a card pulled straight out of an undamaged pack and placed directly into a protective sleeve still might not make the cut. Being printed slightly off-center or bearing minor scratches in the hollow foil are often reason enough for a card not to make the grade.

None of the cards which Mizkif sent away were tens. This was a huge blow, especially given the cost of the cards, the cost of grading and the fact that Pokémon cards lose massive amounts of value with every drop in the grade they receive. After looking at all the cards, Mizkif said to fellow streamer Nmplol, "I spent $100,000 on these cards. (...) This is worth maybe $3,000 in total. And you know what Nick? I spent $3,000 getting these graded."

Unfortunately, even when you catch 'em all, your investment might not pay off.