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The power of Pokemon Photo by Drew Fleming Aaron Beckwith, 9, of Ashland, thumbs through a Pokemon magazine at More Fun Comics. Aaron says most of his classmates share his enthusiasm for collecting the cards. Kids' trading-card fad has more tenacity than most By JOHN DARLING Children still love toys and games, but now they also seem to need something bigger, something like Pokemon, whose collectibility and supposed investment value makes them behave like frenzied day traders. "Please, Dad, please," pleaded Aaron Beckwith, 9, both hands urgently extended. "Two packs. I need two. OK, just one then." "It's almost the only thing on his mind," said Aaron's dad, Wallace Beckwith, who coughed up $3.29 so his son might buy another pack of the cartoonish Japanese game cards at More Fun Comics in Ashland. "He's constantly on the phone trading with friends, and every time we leave the house, he begs to stop here or at Amazing Tales (another comic and card shop in Ashland)." A year after the Pokemon phenomenon hit the United States, its popularity shows no signs of slacking in the Rogue Valley, local dealers say. Kids watch the Pokemon cartoon on TV, incessantly organize their cards into plastic pages of three-ring binders and sometimes use them to play the Pokemon game, said More Fun owner Scott Hutchins. Creatures have enchanting names like Mew, Dragonite and Ninetails. The most valued ones are holographic "shinybacks." "The kids are amazingly excited about it," he said. "It's theirs. No one else gets it. Grownups aren't involved in it and can't tell them what to do." Maybe a third of kids even know how to play the Pokemon game, he noted. Another More Fun shopper, Josh Jeske, scooped up some Pokemon packs for his brother Trevor. "He had a Christmas list and everything on it was Pokemon," he said. "I've been home visiting for a day now, and he's only spoken to me twice. The rest of the time he's on the phone trading or playing his Pokemon Game Boy or organizing cards in his binder." Lisa Santee, the mother of 7-year-old twins, said their school, Bellview, banned the cards from class in the first week of fall term because of the disruption they caused. "I was concerned at first, but now I see them doing other things. They're not overboard," she said. All fads must pass, but some, like Monopoly, become permanent parts of the culture, said Shawn Gately, owner of the Invincible Wargames Shop in Medford. "Pokemon is huge. It's weird. Don't think it's just another craze. It has a remarkable amount of staying power." Pokemon started in the United States a year ago, but supply only really kicked in about October, Gately said. Because of its established following elsewhere in the world, publicity from the TV show and well-financed corporate backing, Pokemon looks like it will stay in high gear for some time, he added. "The nature of the Pokemon concept appeals to kids," Gately said. "There's something about it -- collecting and taming little magical animals to duel in nonviolent ways. It plays on the imagination that kids have." Dash Hillgarten, 10, called Pokemon "challenging" and said he considered the cards valuable investments he could sell in a few years "when something else pops up." His sister Skye, 8, said the cards are "nice to look at," and added, "It's exciting because you never know what cards you're going to get." The Pokemon craze has been a big boost to sales, reported both Hutchins and Gately. About a third of his income for the past two quarters has come from Pokemon cards, Hutchins noted. Gately said he's concerned that recent corporate buyouts might lead to Pokemon retailing only in large chains, with smaller, independent shops being cut out of the loop. Pokemon has been printing cards 24 hours a day and doubling production every month, but still can't keep up with demand, said Hutchins. "It's already peaked and faded in Japan, but it's just being introduced in Europe. "In 50 years of mass consumer production, it's pretty unusual" that a company can't keep up with demand for a product like Pokemon, he said. "But there are limits," Hutchins said. "There's no way it can stay at this level." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA