A documentary shares the history of card collecting, and its creator-led future

You may remember the story of your first Pokémon card, but you probably don’t know the story of the first Pokémon card. If that’s the case, a documentary called CardBound is here to enlighten you.

CardBound, which premieres July 10 across Plex, Amazon, and YouTube, is a feature-length film that dives into the world of collectible card games. With some help from Logan Paul, Duke Dennis, Deep Pocket Monster, and Olympic athlete Noah Lyles, CardBound  creator and executive producer John Nelson will deliver a Pokémon history lesson that also delves into the psychology of card collecting.

Nelson, who reps members of the creator group AMP as the SVP of Digital at Night, developed CardBound through ALP, the full-service production company that exists under the AMP umbrella. ALP hasn’t just produced content for AMP, but also for external clients like Sting, T-Pain, and Buffalo Wild Wings.

In this instance, Nelson is telling a story that connects to his personal interests. He told Tubefilter that he is a lifelong collector who uses the hobby to connect with others and summon cherished memories.

Given his penchant for collecting, Nelson’s curiosity was piqued when his friend PhillyBeatzu embarked on a quest to find the very first Pokémon card. “Once I realized there was still uncertainty about the origins of one of the world’s biggest franchises, I became fascinated and started researching and collecting the earliest Pokémon cards,” Nelson said.

Nelson then joined Rui Couto — known online as ThatMangaGuy 

— on a two-year mission to learn the true story of Pokémon’s origins. The research and interviews conducted during that time form the basis of CardBound.

The documentary, however, will not be stuck in Pokémon’s past. Present-day hobbyists have changed card collecting, turning it from a niche, nerdy pursuit into a powerful mainstream force. Paul, for example, wore a Pokémon card as bling during his Wrestlemania debut, while Lyles has been known to race with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards tucked into his jersey.

Those creators have revived the popularity of TCGs while also turning their markets into precarious, speculative bubbles. Nelson told Tubefilter that “large creators undeniably influence the markets they participate in,” but ultimately, CardBound is most concerned with the passion that causes card collectors to pursue rare finds.

“The documentary shows that whether someone owns a few cards or some of the rarest pieces in the hobby, the motivations are often the same: nostalgia, curiosity, community, and the thrill of the chase,” Nelson said. “The financial impact is real, but the film is ultimately more interested in why people collect than how much their collections are worth.”

Nelson concluded by reminding everyone that a massive community has sprung up from something that once seemed so small. “At the end of the day,” he said, “we’re all just a bunch of grownups collecting cardboard.”