Spring brought a pair of distinctly nerdy pleasures. First, in late March, the much-trumpeted Pokémon takeover of the Natural History Museum in London. We had imagined a full exhibition; what we found was, in truth, a pop-up shop in the museum’s boutique, themed around “Pokécology” and defended by ticketed time slots and strict purchase limits, one of each item and ten per customer. I am pleased to report that we treated those limits as a target rather than a ceiling, raided the shelves to the permitted maximum, and came away with the oversized Pikachu promo card thrown in for good measure. Purchase limits, it turns out, are a rule that quietly rewards attending as a couple.
Having crossed the city for a gift shop, we then did the sensible thing and made a proper day of the museum itself, which needs no Pokémon to justify the trip: the blue whale diving through Hintze Hall, the dinosaurs, and a building that remains one of the great cathedrals of the natural world. If a franchise about collecting strange creatures brings people through those doors, the museum and Pokémon are rather better matched than the sceptics allow.
A fortnight later, closer to home, an Island collectors’ fair finished what London started, though this time we were on the other side of the tables, with a trade stand of our own. The mission was housekeeping: moving on the corners of the collection I no longer wanted to make room for what comes next, which is the collector’s version of a balanced budget. Trade was brisk, the haggling good-natured, and a few of the younger visitors went home with freebies, because every collector remembers the stallholder who once did the same for them. The Natural History Museum haul, I should make clear, was not for sale, and will not be. Some things one simply keeps.
I collect Pokémon cards with more enthusiasm than I generally admit in professional company, and the hobby has everything a collector wants: scarcity, condition sensitivity, a liquid market, and just enough nostalgia to make the spreadsheet feel like fun. I still left the fair lighter of stock and scarcely heavier of wallet, naturally. That is what fairs are for.
Charlton Krentz 