Cardass

 So in Japan there still exists a relic from a bygone era.

Vending machines that sell collectible trading cards.

Specifically I'm referring to "Cardass" brand vending machine cards.

Cardass is both famous for being a reliable source of collectibles for lots of intellectual properties, and also infamous in the west because it has ass in the name.

You can find that a lot of familiar titles and brands had, at one point, distributed licensed merchandise/cards through these machines. Names like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, Gundam, among so many others.

The name itself is simple in Japanese. Phonetically it's Card Dasu, which roughly translates to card dispensing. True to its name you put the coins in, spin the knob and blam, you get cards.

These types of machines have since become modernized or integrated into an video arcade game you use the cards you just got to play with, but you can still find these old machines from the 90's in certain shops. I find those to be the most fun.

Especially since I would've been the type of kid who'd dump a bunch of spare pocket change on these for my favorite shows at my local Jusco on my way back from school.

Pulled what I wanted, yippee

Because of that I just find it really quaint how even after the collectible card boom (which Japan's gone through infinity times just like in the US in the past few years for sports and non-sports alike) you have these old machines dispensing cards that are virtually unprotected (no packaging) and have a tendency to get jammed even without said packaging.

It happened to me just this year and I had to call over someone who works for the store. Their reaction and how nonchalantly they dealt with it made it clear to me that the old dispensers jam up a lot and they probably have to deal with it semi-regularly.

Relevant scan, a Calbee card, context to follow

In the post-COVID bubble, cards are seen (or rather marketed) as rare collectibles that could be worth fortunes. I don't have much of a problem with that side of the card hobby but I do have a problem with being told that cards are somehow luxury items that are worth the high prices they command.

Reminds me too much of the "luxury" items marketed to commoners like Gucci handbags or Lamborghini sports cars.

In reality they're just objects for upper lower class people who want to flex to their peers. Even then it's usually just one specific card and everything else is "trash".

I know this because the long running joke for trading cards is that nobody actually plays the games or cares about what's topping tournaments. It's all about who can whip out the Charizard card selling for the most on eBay right now. In the sports world it's all consolidated to autograph cards of whoever's the most popular athlete at the time anyway.

So given that, anything that puts into perspective that, really, every card ever is a novelty item that isn't worth the resources it took to print is good with me. Any value given to these is solely on whether there's a person willing to find something worthwhile in them and nothing more.

It's the same reason I like the baseball cards that come with Calbee chips even though I don't collect them and quickly regift them.

Related scan, a Machu card from the Gundam Arsenal Base video arcade game

Even though I've largely shat on cards this post please just know that I do find value in cards. I've been a collector for years and I totally understand why there are lots of other collectors with their own reasons to find enjoyment in the hobby (no matter which realm of cards they're dabbling in).

It's just that every now and then when cards are seen as big ticket items, it's good to hit the contrarian button and snap oneself back to reality that they are infact mostly worthless monetarily. One of the more convenient ways to do that is to remember artifacts from a time when cards were seen as worthless.

A more modern machine designed to reduce damage

As I said before, the way I see it the real "value" comes from whether you find a card worthwhile for whatever reason. In a day and age where everyone feels like they own nothing and feel sad, having something to hold is surprisingly underrated and appreciated. A sense of community that comes from being around other people who want to share in those feelings is also appreciated (although I can't tell if people just want to brag to others now because that's as close as people can come towards being in a "community").

Seems like that's more of an issue with the current state of the world and the people who live within it but whatever, that's too philosophy brained for me to care about.

I've got shiny (and kinda dented) cards to occupy my time.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.