Maybe it was the overwhelming nostalgia or the momentary lapse of judgment, but I made an extravagant purchase this month. In terms of cost, it’s less than the time I bought a new (unneeded) work bag, or Frye boots. However, it’s more than my monthly transportation costs and a sizable chunk of my miscellaneous expenses budget. What did I do? I spent $127 last week to relieve the nostalgia of Pokémon.
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The background to this extravagant purchase
I was in elementary school at the height of the Pokémon era. My brother and I collected the playing cards, watched the TV show, and would beg our parents to go to Toys R Us on the weekends to watch people play in tournaments. While most of my friends started with Pokémon Red or Blue, my first experience was Pokémon Silver on the Game Boy Advance.
As a kid, the character rivalry in Pokemon Silver felt so intense 😂
Sharing a console with my brother was tough; we squabbled over whose turn it was to play constantly. Years later, we found a sweet spot with the Sapphire/Ruby games; I played the heck out of those games. When my brother moved onto the original Nintendo DS and other games, I would borrow his console when he wasn’t using it to relieve Sapphire/Ruby. Inevitably, the internal battery of the game cartridges died out. The batteries can be replaced, but doing so felt like such a hassle.
What did the $127 get?
What did I get? A nostalgia starter pack. The console: this sweet electric blue Nintendo 2DS with Mario Kart pre-installed. For $80, it’s not a bad deal, especially since I’ve dropped more money on other purchases without a second thought.
I have no interest in playing anything other than Pokémon, but Mario Kart seemed like something I could maybe play, especially when compared to the other pre-installed options of Super Mario Bros and Zelda (which also have different color schemes). There’s also a Pikachu edition of the 2DS XL console, but it’s double the price and I couldn’t justify the additional cost.
Alpha Sapphire cost me $40. As reboots go, I’m incredibly pleased. It’s kept all my favorite aspects of the original game and added a ton of cool features that are fun to explore. My plan is to play through the entirety of the game and move my way up through the more recent Pokémon DS games. I’ve heard great things about Black 2 and White 2, but am incredibly intimidated by the new-fangled Pokémon generations that look like space aliens.
The Unexpected Consequence
When I told Ian about my exciting purchase, he laughed and started to get a little wistful about his gaming years. In a surprising twist, Ian went to Best Buy the day after I ordered the 2DS and got himself a Nintendo Switch to play the new Zelda. Watching him play for the past week, I can say that The Breath of the Wild is a fantastic and beautiful game, but I wouldn’t recommend it for the casual gamer – Ian spent $350, almost triple what I did for gaming entertainment.
I’ve been frivolous with my money before, but this is the first time that I feel like I’ve really purchased something that I associate with my childhood. It also won’t be the last – when I have kids, I’ve already decided that they’re going experience the joy of playing with Legos. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to catch all the Pokémon that eluded me as a child.
Have you ever made a purchase with similar reasoning? I’m gut-checking here to make sure I haven’t gone off the deep end. 😅
Edit: For my real life friend who shares my love of Pokemon and isn’t convinced this purchase is extravagant enough, I spent $200 on this air purifier from Amazon that has vastly improved my at-home breathing experience. If it’s considered an extravagant purchase, consider it one I also don’t regret.
Comments
As a fellow reformed Pokemon user, I understand this!! I think there is so much to be said for the non-money value of an item. So much of how we enjoy the things in our life doesn’t really have to do with the money value, but with how they make us feel. I’ve never purchased anything nostalgic that was a consumer product. But I do spend money on foods that remind me of my childhood. Like, the apple pie that reminds me of my great grandmother’s house, that sort of thing. Great post!
Mmmmm, apple pie 🙂
I feel like the flavors of my childhood were centered around baby bottle pops and warheads. When I see them in stores today, they just don’t have the same appeal. This is definitely a perfect example of money spent on an emotional purchase. But again, no regrets 😀
Fun article, I bought myself the Lego Ghostbusters car not long ago, which helped me support the article I wrote in investing in Legos. (Yeah right,… 🙂
Actually, I think there is a whole business for nostalgia people these days. when you were a kid you were fan of Start Wars, Street Fighter, Zelda, Batman,.. and now it is still a great business because we are all older and have enough money to pay for “relics of the past”.
Yes! Have you read Ready Player One? It’s like the perfect crossover of nostalgia and mainstream culture.
That also reminds me of how much I enjoyed the recent Lego movies, despite the fact that they’re for kids. Warner Bros really knows how to tap into the feeling and profit from it.
I for one don’t have a problem with the nostalgia business. I like the idea of being able to share the things I used to enjoy with people now, especially if they’re been “rebooted” in a way to still be relevant.
Ready Player One? No I´ll add it to my goodreads list then 🙂
Here is the article on Lego : https://joneytalks.com/2017/09/22/how-to-beat-the-stock-markets-invest-in-legos/
, it would have been nice to read your suggestion before , hehe .
I do not have a problem neither it just strikes me when I think of it. And I will keep those Legos and other stuff for my kids
I can’t hate. Been playing the same mmo since 1997. I also have no regrets.
Certain games have really managed to stand the test of time 👏
I’ve never been any kind of gamer, but I totally get this. We are currently reading the Magic Treehouse books with our son and it’s the best. And he’s starting to get into LEGO age!
Oh wow, I remember the Magic Treehouse books – I used pour over those when the Scholastic Book Fair came to town. My parents also have a large bin of LEGOs stored away that I’m sure my siblings and I will fight over when we all have children. I love when I see something from my childhood that’s still relevant today, and I can’t wait to pass down some of those things to my kids one day.
Is it nostalgia if I never truly let go of it? I grew up loving comics as a kid and got back into them in my late teens, and have carried on reading them and going to comic conventions ever since. That has cost a pretty penny over the years!
I write a recap every year to keep myself honest on how much my hobby and annual tradition costs. 🙂
As hobbies go, I guarantee yours is less expensive than many others! All the power to you. I think it’s great that you’ve cultivated an interest for so many years; that’s impressive. I don’t even know how much I’ve spent on various hobbies since my teenage years.