Ross Cooper, 33, got into trading Pokémon cards in 2018, but he's less interested in making money than he is in building the community. He finds joy in simply giving the cards away, mostly to kids.“I’m going to give you both of them,” Ross “Coop” Cooper says as he gifts yet another Pokémon to a child who was planning to buy one of the colorful trading cards.
“And then in 2018, I don't know why or how, a YouTuber — his name is MaxmoefoePokemon — one of his videos got recommended to me, and I watched it and I was like, 'Oh, that's interesting,'” Coop says. At these conventions, Coop goes in with the intention of buying and trading cards with other collectors, but more often than not, he winds up gifting cards to curious onlookers — oftentimes children — who are growing their own love for the game of trading.
While trading cards and recording for YouTube is his main hobby and a fun side hustle, Coop works a regular 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job as a data and analytics strategist in financial services. In fact, it wasn’t until recently that Coop was able to start making any real money from the venture. Because of YouTube’s strict monetization policy, his videos only became eligible for ad revenue in mid-May when one of his short videos went viral.“I'm able to really lean into just the joy of collecting and the hobby without worrying about if I go to this card show and if I don't sell $5,000 worth of cards, we're going to have trouble paying our mortgage,” Coop says.