Making deals is all part of the joy (and sometimes trauma) of collecting Pokemon trading cards. Some fans travel a long way to be able to get their hands on some of the rarest and most expensive cards out there, but what happens when deals begin to take a weird turn? There have often been stories online about children trading cards without really knowing what they are trading for and fake cards being traded as genuine, but a recent incident saw a man doing something completely outlandish and attempting to trade his dog for the cards he wanted. This is the latest in an increasing number of strange stories to come out of the popular pastime, and it is one that has led to a large number of opinions being shared on social media – not many of which are in support of the man’s controversial trading strategy.
Captured on video by the collector who posts under the name of pickleqw33n. In a post she explained how she had heard stories about people attempting this unorthodox method of trading but this time saw it herself for the first time. In the footage, the man is offered a Snubbull card with a reference made to his French Bulldog, but then shockingly he offers up the dog as a trade for the card, saying, “It’s for sale. I’ll trade ’em for a card.” While the trade was laughed off by pickleqw33n, the man followed up by adding that the dog was for sale for $4,000. “I think it’s unethical. Like, selling a dog like that, how do you know that the person you’re giving the dog to is a good home?” she said a little while later. “You’re just trading cardboard for a living, breathing animal. Crazy.”
Naturally, this is exactly the kind of footage that is guaranteed to draw a huge reaction from social media users, and they did not hold back when sharing their views on the matter. While many were shocked that this type of trade is something that people genuinely go to shows with the idea of doing, others clearly had experienced similar offers in the past. “It breaks my heart,” one user commented on the post. Another added, “This is devastating.” A third said, “I hate this so much. Trading a living breathing creature for a card is absurdly morally wrong??” It goes without saying that these comments were the general consensus among fans who roundly condemned this type of activity among collectors. Just a week early, another trader was offered a French Bulldog as a trade with a $10,000 being applied by the breeder, who added that they always bring a puppy to shows.
Fans have now called on show organizers to ban dogs, or any animals, from being brought to the events as a way of guaranteeing this kind of behavior does not become a common scenario. As Pokemon card collecting continues to grow as a hobby, as the prices of some of the rarest cards keeps increasing, it is clear that some people are willing to go to extraordinary and questionable lengths in order to pick up the most expensive Pokemon cards they want. It should not need a set of explicit rules to be written down for someone to know that trading a live animal for Pokemon cards is just not the actions of a responsible dog owner or breeder, but many now believe that this is the only way to curb the trend now while it is still happening infrequently before it becomes some kind of norm at these events.
