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Trading Pokémon cards remains as popular as ever and now fans can get cards from vending machines in the North East for the first time.
Karen and Gavan Hindmarsh, who own vending company K G Distributors Ltd, have started to install the Pokémon Trading Card vending machines at various locations in the region.
The machines can be found at the Beacon Centre, North Shields; The Forum, Wallsend; Hillstreet Shopping Centre, Middlesbrough; and one is due to be installed at the The Cleveland Centre, Middlesbrough.
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Karen, from Whitley Bay, said: “We started installing them at the end of last month. They have been trialled down south in the middle to end of last year and they are so popular. Pokémon is still a huge thing.
“When we got the opportunity for Pokémon I did my research and it is still a big thing and not just for children but for a huge age range.”
Becoming popular in the 90s, the Pokémon franchise has included video games, cartoons and the trading card game which has proved to be a lucrative market.
The cards have grown in value and popularity in recent years and some cards have sold for thousands of pounds.
Karen said: “People don’t just get the cards to play with, so there is a huge game you play with the cards having different values, and then you have the people who collect them.
“Every three months a new collection comes out with about 200 cards and some are very common and others are rare, people want to collect the whole set. There are some which are very valuable and one from 15 to 20 years ago sold for millions. Even newer ones that are very rare can sell for a couple of hundred pounds.
“When you get a pack you don’t know what is in them so it is quite a huge phenomenon.”
Karen said the machines have been in America and Japan for years but are only now appearing in the UK.
She added: “They are quite difficult to get hold of. The company is quite strict on who gets them. We do it through a franchise and we are their contact in the North East.”
Karen said more locations will get the vending machines in the future and will be shared on the company’s social media page.
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