“Pokemon is way up this year,” a Big Five distributor told us.  “They have a special product every month, and their normal sets are way up too.  With allocations, it’s hardly worth putting in orders.  It’s kind of like Wizards:  ‘this is what you can have.’” 

At the consumer level, Pokemon TCG interest is driven both by consumers that have been buying for long periods of time and by kids, in some cases the children of the first group.  “There’s increased interest in Pokemon among younger kids,” Bryan Winter of I’m Board! Games & Family Fun in Middleton, Wisconsin, said.  “Now there are second generation players, and Pokemon has always been a good gateway product.” 

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