I come from a trading background. I'm in and out coins usually within 1-3 days. The most I'll hold is maybe a month if I get stuck in a bad move. I'm very versed with scam coins. You just gota know how to play the right side of it. I've bought PutinCoin and other scams like that. The goal is to make quick money and hope you're not the one that gets screwed in the end.
I'll be honest, when I first saw the Pepe Graph almost two months ago I thought this was the case. An uptrend fad coin that I could make a quick buck off of. After reading up on it I was actually quite impressed, but still wasn't thinking more than my normal play. I even created a Rare Pepe and sold it all to someone. I thought I beat the system and made an extra chunk of change selling some fake card.
A few days later after hanging out in the Telegram chat I realized something. This isn't just some copy of a coin with a new name. It's not someone quick pump and dump orchestrated by a few individuals. There is a real genuine community behind this project who are interested in collecting these cards. People are interested in developing games and other solutions for this coin. This was the real deal. I instantly made another card and regretting selling the full supply of my first one. I even ended up developing an auction site for the community to sell their cards on.
I've been trading crypto for over 5+ years now and have never come across a project with an idea and community like this. I'm proud to say that I've set aside a nice chunk of my trading funds to become an active member of the Pepe community. I see great things for this project down the road. It's just getting started.
If this guy just took a day or two and hung out in the Telegram chat with the other 900+ active members I'm sure he would have a different opinion. It's not that easy to understand without diving into it head first. It's especially hard to grasp from such an outside view. I encourage everyone to not judge this project without doing some research, joining the chat, asking questions, and trying it out. This is something special.
I understand everything you say above, and I fully appreciate there are hundreds of people in the Pepe community having a great time, and I think that's really cool, I honestly mean that. For people who like making cards, and like Pepe meme, and so get enjoyment from collecting Pepe cards, joining the pepe 'thing' makes complete sense, and is NOT a waste of time or money. It's a hobby, and you might make some cash, cool.
BUT, there's plenty of people who don't give a shit about Pepe cards, or a possible game, or how cool the meme is,, they're traders who'll buy and pump anything. Some of those guys might be like you and develop an appreciation for the meme etc, but I think the majority are cynical pumpers, like some who post here claiming Pepecash is some revolutionary financial product that's going to change the world permanently in some way. That's crap, pump talk from people trying to entice speculators who don't care about the pepe cards, future games, community. That's why Pepecash is bad investment, but might be a great hobby for a small niche of people.
I know a guy who started collecting Pokemon cards when he was a kid, and one day out of the blue he sold half his collection and bought a large house, with cash. That guy started collecting pokemon cards because he loved pokemon, like millions of people all around the world love pokemon. Pokemon has sustained interest from millions of people, for decades, that's where the value comes from, it's a byproduct of 'real' devotion from millions of people, like Star Trek etc I don't doubt that there might be a few cynical pokemon card collectors who trade for profit but have no interest in pokemon, but I'd say over 90% of pokemon collectors love pokemon. I'd say 90% of people buying pepecash are speculators, same as with doge, so there'll be a pump, then a crash, and the die hard hobbyists wont be effected too much, same as the people who still think doge is cool, but people who were looking for a long term investment will have their pants pulled down by the greater fool scammers.
See, I get very suspicious of guys who pump pepecash, but don't seem to actually like pepe meme that much, they spin the financial asset hype jargon, and neglect that the whole ecosystem is a hobby for pepe meme lovers, or should be.