The Playground Underground

The coachies have banned trading on the playground, but there is a whole underground of trading that goes on behind their backs. At the beginning of the year, the thing to trade was Japanese erasers. Spencer and James would take all of their money to 2nd Street to buy the latest and greatest. These tiny little treasures are $1 a piece. I don't even want to think of what we spent on these erasers. Alas, they didn't last forever and by December they were replaced by...

Bakugans.
These are more annoying than erasers. The higher the power of the Bakugan the better trading power. I don't know how many fights I had to break up over who had which Bakugan that was better than so and so's. The greatest Target break-down in the history of my mothering career happened over these stupid things I can't even pronounce. By April, they were out and taken over by...

Pokemon Cards.
Now the boys take any money they get to go buy these things. I have a few questions. First of all, who is the great trading guru who now decides one thing is out and the kids should start collecting something else? And why do they all come from Japan? I see conspiracy written all over this.