# Student vs. School Over Lost Pokemon Cards

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-vs-school-over-lost-pokemon-cards/17613>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 2, 2000, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-vs-school-over-lost-pokemon-cards/17613 "2000-03-02T20:11:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-vs-school-over-lost-pokemon-cards/17613/21 "2000-03-04T21:40:00Z")

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**David B** says:

> [@](#):
>
> On the issue of creating rarity, yes, the rarity affects the price of the card on the secondary market. But the company doesn’t benefit directly from that.

You left off “Except by the increased demand/sales created by the “need” to collect them all.”

- Sue

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**Author:** ![RoboDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@RoboDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoboDude)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2000, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-vs-school-over-lost-pokemon-cards/17613/22 "2000-03-05T04:19:00Z")

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Some time ago, I heard about a court case where it was ruled that all confiscated items must be returned at the end of the day.( I don’t know if it applies to contraband) But the object confiscated from the plantiff, if I remember correctly, was an ordinary paper cup. From what I heard, the kid was playing with it, and the teacher took it and threw it in the trash. How something like that could result in a lawsuit is beyond me.

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Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.

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**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2000, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-vs-school-over-lost-pokemon-cards/17613/23 "2000-03-05T15:28:00Z")

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Sue: That “need” has been around forever, in _any_ collectible. And, frankly, having been a Magic player, I found it generally ended up being cheaper to buy the individual singles (from which the company makes no money) than to buy the packs (from which the company does). Don’t get me wrong – I still bought the packs, but not enough to get all the singles I wanted (thus the reason there is a singles market at all). So, like I said, they don’t benefit directly from cards becoming more valuable – especially since (and perhaps I should have noted this in my first message) the most valuable cards are generally out of print, meaning there is no possible way the card company could make money on it.

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