PriceSpot
Luis Romo's viral Pokémon card video: one more pack, and a look every collector knows
Luis Romo, the Chivas and Mexico midfielder, has gone viral for something plenty of us have done: trying to get one more deal done at a card show while someone waits for us to leave. According to Infobae, a clip shared on X shows him at a Pokémon card convention with his wife, María Fernanda Guadarrama, looking through cards at a display table and talking to the sellers. He was also recently spotted paying 3,500 pesos for three cards.
"Even I felt the pain of those eyes"
The scene is painfully familiar. Romo wanted to open some packs at the stand, Guadarrama seemed in a hurry to go, and the seller, who had clearly noticed, asked whether Romo could stay or whether the sale was off.
Carry on, said Romo, perfectly calm.
The seller's joke is what made the clip: "Even I felt the pain of those eyes" (our translation from the Spanish). One X user went with "those 'let's go now' eyes", and the comments took off from there.
We've stood on both sides of a card table and we know that moment. A customer with one eye on the exit can walk away halfway through a deal, so you read the room. Saying it out loud, on camera, to a Mexico international, takes some nerve. We rather admire it.
Reading a marriage off one clip
The video soon turned into a debate about the couple's relationship, on remarkably little evidence. There is no record of Guadarrama complaining publicly about her husband's hobby. She has no public profile of her own and hasn't commented on the video, and Romo hasn't said anything either. All of it comes from strangers reading a face.
Wanting to leave a convention is hardly a scandal. Plenty of people find a hall full of binders fascinating for about twenty minutes, and that's fine.
Even the person who first posted the video ended up defending Romo's hobby once the criticism started, with a blunt argument: at least he isn't in a dive bar at three in the morning. Other users agreed that the collecting didn't look like a real problem for the marriage. As defences of this hobby go, we've heard worse.
Three cards, 3,500 pesos and no names
Our one complaint as collectors: we get the total but not the cards. Without names, versions and condition, that figure tells us very little. It could be a sensible buy or a generous one.
Buying in person has its own trap, because the price at a table comes out of a conversation, and you rarely negotiate well with someone waiting for you. Before paying for anything that matters, look up what the card is actually worth and take a minute to go over the signs of a fake. Busy events are exactly where people rush that part.
It matters more when prices are moving quickly. Going by the prices we track at PriceSpot, these were the biggest climbers on Cardmarket in this week's market report:
- Umbreon VMAX (Alternate Art Secret), Evolving Skies: from 1514.74 € to 1995.01 €
- Gyarados, Legendary Collection: from 372.43 € to 775.72 €
- Alakazam (2), Skyridge: from 125.78 € to 468.82 €
Nobody is suggesting Romo was hunting any of these. But the price you remember from a few weeks ago can be badly out of date by the time you reach the table, and sellers tend to notice before buyers do.
He has crossed paths with Logan Paul too
This wasn't Romo's first brush with the hobby. Infobae says he has shown an interest in collecting on several occasions, and he even ran into Logan Paul at a related event. It's a nice image for anyone who has spent a Saturday queuing at a stall: a professional footballer in the same spot, keen to tear open a few packs while someone tries to get him out of the door.
As for those packs, the story doesn't say whether he got to open them, let alone what came out. That's the bit we'd have stayed to watch.
So what are yours worth?
Stories like this always send us back to the binder. If you want to know what you've got, PriceSpot lets you scan your cards for free, one after another, and see what they sell for on Cardmarket in each card's language. Every Monday we also publish the cards rising and falling most, if you like keeping an eye on the market.
News source: Infobae
