They say every Pokémon is someone’s favorite, and the Kabuto King is a prime example. He’s on a quest to collect every first edition of the fossil monster’s Pokémon trading card, and he’s spent thousands of dollars to that end. So far, Kabuto King has gathered 1,783 cards and counting. But as word gets out, the demand for Kabuto cards is going up — and new obstacles emerge from every corner.
As veteran fans know, Kabuto is an old-school monster introduced in the original Game Boy Pokémon games. It’s a unique Pokémon in that players must first collect a fossil item that is then brought back to life. Kabuto’s arthropodic design houses a sturdy rock/water type monster who is widely considered to be extinct. Kabuto is also one of two possible choices in Pokémon Red and Blue, the other being the mollusk called Omanyte.
Though it’s arguably special, Kabuto is probably not a common pick when it comes to favorite Pokémon. It’s a brown horseshoe crab that eventually evolves into a fiercer monster, Kabutops, at level 40. There are probably more people out there who love Kabutops than its teeny precursor. In that way, the Kabuto King’s goal comes across as earnest. This isn’t some meme card that easily lends itself to jokes, nor is it a widely accepted “cool” monster, like Charizard.
Beyond the unusual choice, part of what makes Kabuto King’s collection incredible is that he actually hasn’t been at it for very long. Kabuto King started chronicling his collection on social media site X in early August. At the time, he only had 69 Kabuto cards to his name. Then, in a single day, he added another 80 Kabuto cards to his hoard. And he just kept going like this, with a daily announcement of the dozens of new Kabuto cards he had acquired the next day. Most of these early posts barely have any interactions on them. It wasn’t until late August, when he amassed 737 cards in a post that went viral, that the world started catching wind of what Kabuto King was up to. The box housing the Kabuto cards was largely empty, but it still looked impressive.
“Starting to get harder to find…” Kabuto King wrote at the time.
Since then, the size of the Kabuto pile has become exponential. So, too, has the attention. By September, Kabuto King was sharing fan art and donations from onlookers who wanted to help him embiggen his collection. Many of these cards would be signed by fans, which theoretically lessens their value. But Kabuto King doesn’t seem to care — not if it meant more Kabuto cards.
Seemingly, all the Kabuto fans were coming out of the woodwork to voice support. Undoubtedly, Kabuto King minted new fans with his loud enthusiasm for the prehistoric monster. Attracting lovers also meant, unfortunately, falling victim to haters. On Sept. 11, Kabuto King started noticing other people trying to scoop up all the available Kabuto card stock before he could. Kabuto King called it a war, but one he was determined to win.
Some opponents have had a sense of humor. On Sept. 12, someone else crowned themselves the Omanyte Overlord. The nascent collection appears to have dozens of Omanytes, as well as plenty of pledges ready to pick a side.
“I am building an army to contest the Kabuto Kings rule of the primordial sea,” Omanyte Overlord declared a couple of months ago.
Meanwhile, Kabuto King was starting to spot vultures. Comments on his posts now saw some people offering Kabuto cards that once cost only a few dollars for $100 or more, confident that the Kabuto King would do anything to increase his collection. The naysayers came next. By some estimates, there are possibly around 100,000 Kabuto cards out in the wild. As Kabuto King tells it, folks were telling him that he couldn’t possibly get them all. Others informed Kabuto King that, after learning of his endeavor, they would never get rid of their own Kabuto cards. Not because they loved Kabuto as ardently as the King, mind you — I’m guessing Kabuto King, who by all accounts is pure of heart, would approve of that. Instead, these detractors solely seemed interested in stopping Kabuto King from catching ’em all out of hatred. Kabuto King claims he’s even had cards stolen from his mail.
Though some of the opposition is mean-spirited, others are perfectly rational. Kabuto King is in it for the love of the game, but the hobby is plagued with people who see nothing but dollar signs. High-profile first-edition collections like those of the Kabuto King can and do inspire others to take an interest in first-edition cards. By their nature, first-edition cards have always been desirable — but mostly, people are interested in popular picks. If even esoteric monsters come into demand, the chances of higher prices seem unavoidable. eBay sellers are catching on to this and reportedly relisting cards like first-edition Kabuto at more expensive rates.
Kabuto King welcomes the price hikes, even if they get in the way of his objective. Kabuto King just as often encourages people to sell him their unwanted Kabuto cards as he tells fans that they’d do well to invest in Kabuto before everyone joins the bandwagon.
Even as skeptics and haters rise up against him or tell him his favorite monster is worthless, Kabuto King does not waver. If anything, his adoration of Kabuto keeps deepening over time.
“The same people who hate me now were laughing in my face in the beginning,” Kabuto King wrote in late November. “Funny how that works.”
