31-year-old quits her job to make a living with Pokémon cards: “I’ve traveled the world”

The fever for Pokémon cards is in full swing, and it has reached such an extreme that many people are making a living out of it. Such is the case of Chloe Webb, a 31-year-old British woman known on social media as @PokiChloe, who quit her job in an office to devote herself entirely to her passion: buying and selling Pokémon Trading Card Game cards. Webb decided to go into business for herself by opening a store specializing in this hobby, and her shop has become a meeting place for collectors from all over the world.

She quit her job and now lives off Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic cards

Chloe Webb began her journey into the world of collectible cards as a simple hobbyist, but what started as a hobby ended up becoming her way of life, she told the BBC. She and her husband started an online business buying and selling cards just before the pandemic, and the boom in collecting during the lockdown boosted their success. Seizing the moment, Webb decided to go one step further and open her own physical store, Collector’s Cardhouse, in the British town of Chorleywood. Since then, her store has attracted collectors from all over the world and has become a point of reference within the vast community of card game enthusiasts. She also acts as an influencer, creating a great synergy between her various social networks - such as her YouTube channel - and store.

Her store does not exclusively sell Pokémon cards, but it is a store that specializes in the hobby in general, so it also sells cards from other popular games such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering. One of the services he offers is the appraisal and valuation of collections, a skill required to be successful in the field and one that can take years of experience to acquire. Throughout her career, Webb has traded cards worth astronomical sums, such as one she recently sold for £40,000.

However, not everything that collectors treasure is valuable, and one of the most common misconceptions is that old cards can have great value when there are other factors at play, such as rarity, condition, or edition. The sum of these aspects can make the difference between an object of no commercial value and a collector’s item.

To determine their price, many cards go through a grading process where specialized companies analyze them and give them a score based on their condition. Webb has seen everything from tattered cards with no value to real gems that are graded at the highest level in mint condition, as if they had just been printed, making them real treasures for collectors. In her shop, playing cards have been valued at more than $105,000, although she admits that after years in the business, those numbers no longer surprise her.

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