8-year-old Bryson Kliemann loves collecting Pokémon cards. He also has a little puppy that he cares for very much. However, when the dog fell ill with a deadly disease, the boy had no choice but to sell his cards to pay for the expensive treatment for the puppy. But things turned out better than expected.
What happened? The boy Bryson Kliemann from West Virginia has a loyal dog named Bruce. Although the 8-year-old boy has two older siblings, they only play together and not with him. Therefore, the dog is his only constant playmate. Besides the dog, Bryson also enjoys his steadily growing collection of Pokémon cards.
But then Bruce suddenly got sick, and the dreaded parvovirus (via Wikipedia) was diagnosed in the dog. This disease is especially dangerous for puppies and often leads to death.
Treatment is, however, possible but very expensive. The treatment to save the dog would cost around 700 US dollars. Bryson did not have that much money, and his family could not raise that sum either.
The title image of this article comes from the US news site Wcyb.
Boy Sells Pokémon Cards Out of Necessity, but the Community Supports Him
What did the boy do? In his time of need, Bryson remembered that Pokémon cards have experienced an absurd increase in value since 2020. There have been cases where cards and even unpackaged displays went for absurd prices:
- Someone bought 396 Pokémon cards for 400,000 dollars
- YouTuber buys Pokémon cards for 2 million dollars
- Streamer opens boosters and gets super rare card
Therefore, Bryson reluctantly decided to part with his cards to enable the life-saving treatment for his dog.
I know everyone likes Pokémon cards, so I decided to sell them.
The boy then set up an improvised stand by the roadside. A sign reading “Pokémon 4Sale” was meant to attract potential customers, while the boy stoically waited and managed to sell a few cards.
Mother Sets Up Online Campaign: Bryson’s mother decided to help her son and spread the word online. This led to a GoFundMe campaign, where only 800 US dollars were actually requested. In the end, more than double that amount was raised, and over 1,800 dollars ended up in the pot. With this, Bryson was able to save his beloved puppy, and there was still enough money left for further vaccinations and treatments for the dog.
Furthermore, the boy now does not have to sell all his cards. He now has both cards and the dog and can enjoy both. That selling valuable cards can also go horribly wrong is shown by another example. There, someone sent a valuable Pokémon card worth 60,000 dollars and the card then disappeared into the package limbo during shipping!
