- June 4, 2026
-
-
Loading
Loading
It wasn’t long ago that Josh Stacy knew very little about Pokémon.
His main line of business is used cars. But after his 7-year-old son Silas Stacy became interested in the mobile game “Pokémon Go,” it opened up a new market.
For a little over the past two months, rows of Pokémon trading cards and card packages have joined the products on offer from his automobile business Trade Guru, which he established after moving to Sarasota in 2018.
“I'm in the car business,” he said. “I love to buy, sell, and trade, that's what I do. And so we went to a card show, and I thought I'm on the wrong side of the table—I want to be on that side of the table.”
It’s a project he and Silas Stacy are managing together, and one that he also plans to involve the community, hosting games and tournaments.
The inventory the two have currently acquired, Josh Stacy estimates, is now at thousands of cards and hundreds of sealed products.
He had always been what he describes as “somewhat of an investor,” with experience in assets like Bitcoin and exchange-traded funds.
“I started doing research and seeing, Pokémon actually has long-term potential for investing,” he said.
The Japanese brand, centering on the eponymous creatures, is estimated as the world’s highest-grossing media franchise.
Launched in 1996 through a pair of games for the Game Boy, the franchise also includes other video games, animated series, films and the trading card game.
According to the latest figures from The Pokémon Company, which manages the franchise, more than 85 billion cards have been produced over the last 30 years, with about 10 billion produced in 2025 alone.
“I sell depreciating assets in cars, and I got into Pokémon and thought, 'Wow, a lot of times, these products are appreciating, collectibles, and it was kind of a cool thing to think that you can buy something today and it'll be worth more next year,” said Josh.
He says the hope is that they can go on to obtain cards wholesale from a distributor. He also says he's open to ideas about creating deals that combine the cards with car purchases.
“So far people just have thought it's kind of cool. There hasn't been any crossover sales, where people come for cars," he said.
However, with over 1,000 different Pokémon species in the index, the venture wasn't something he could jump directly into without research.
“It’s a lot of learning when you come in fresh, and you know mainly who Charizard is, and that's about it," he said.
Due to his experience with the game, Silas brought a lot of knowledge of the Pokémon, including the individual species' special powers and what each one evolves into.
"Pokémon Go, I think it's the best game to learn about Pokémon," he said. "It has all the Pokémon, so it's really, really fun."
“It's not every day you can find a hobby that you can interact with a seven year old, so it's been fun,” Josh Stacy said.
The father and son pursue the business in addition to a lot of other commitments. Josh coaches Little League, and he says the family is very involved with their church. They also homeschool their children, including his daughter.
Josh is also a seminary student working on a master's degree in divinity, with the end goal of being a full-time pastor. He describes the business of Trade Guru as being based on Christian values and avoiding the deceptive practices associated with used car dealers.
However, he says working with the cards has been a new way for them to spend time together.
“We've always been besties, so this has been cool, but he pretty much just followed me around his whole life," he said. "He's always come to work with me and stuff, but this definitely increased more of our fellowship together."
Josh Stacy says knowing too little about the cards can be dangerous to a vendor, as there are valuable items that customers can bring.
Indeed, there is plenty that makes Pokémon a promising business venture right now, he says.
The Pokémon Company releases new sets regularly throughout the year, and the recent "Ascended Heroes" set was met with particularly high demand.
“The prices have skyrocketed, the lines have skyrocketed, the demand for 'Ascended Heroes' is through the roof," he said. "We got into the hobby a week before the release, and so our introduction into Pokémon has been this tidal wave, and we're just riding it. It's a bull market.”
Stacy also bought two of his friends’ vintage collections, which includes the first Pokémon set ever released in 1999.
One tool that's helpful to a collector is being able to pre-grade the cards.
He says this is necessary to find out which cards are worth sending out to be professionally graded for their value, which he says costs between $30 and $150.
That’s one area in which Silas has been able to help out.
Some kids have approached their vendor table asking Silas for advice on grading.
He'll take a look at their cards, checking features like the borders, to make sure the image on the card is perfectly centered, and ensuring there are no printing imperfections.
“The funnest thing about doing trading in card shows, is it feels good when you can do something big, like you can do something that some other people can do, but usually people your age can't really do it,” Silas said.
For Silas, one of the challenges right now comes with selling.
“That's been a fun little thing between us, deciding what he gets to keep in his personal collection, and what we need to put back out for others to purchase,” Josh said.
However, he has one card, featuring his favorite Pokémon Mega Lucario, he doesn't plan to part with.
"I'm never, I'm never giving that away,” he said.
Josh says he thought the business what be a great entry-level point for Silas to learn marketing, trading and assessing value so that he can take over the business one day when he's older.
He says in his teenage years, Silas could "maybe even develop this into something bigger than I could.”
Where it goes from here, Josh says, is still unfolding.
“I don't have to make rent at the end of the month by selling so many cars, and so it's nice to just have this kind of in the background and see where the Lord takes it,” he said. “We're grounded in our faith and everything we do, and so we firmly believe that this will go where He wants it to go.”
