Sports Cards & Trading Cards
A hobby that became a market with an index, a grading oligopoly and a single licensor. Sports cards and the Pokémon and trading-card-game market, with the grade cliff measured in the sales we record ourselves.
Desk data as of 2026-11-06 · Invest Alternative radar
Sports Cards sub-index · accruing history
Target weight 3% of the IA Composite · accruing history — basket live
The guide
The guide
Investing in Sports Cards
A hobby-box pull sold for $11 million. The median card on eBay sold for $1.25.
Inside · 25 sections
The grading oligopoly · The grade cliff and the pop report · The honest track record · The worked example · The IA view
Download the full guide
Enter your email and we send the complete report, plus the free daily letter.
Articles & Guides
News·
Collector Crypt TCG median ask falls 11.5% to $63.75
The Pokémon and TCG median ask on Collector Crypt slipped to $63.75, down 11.5% on the day after a 43% run-up in a week. The swing likely reflects…
4 min read
News·
Pokémon median ask rebounds to $75.50, up 33.44% on the day
Pokémon / TCG median ask rose to $75.50, up 33.44% on the day but still down 11.18% in a week (Collector Crypt). Open question: one-off repricing after…
5 min read
News·
Pokémon median ask falls to $55.50, off 26.97% on the day
Collector-crypt’s Pokémon / TCG median ask fell to $55.50, down 26.97% on the day and 40.16% in a week. Panel points to broad repricing amid weaker demand…
4 min read
News·
Pokémon/TCG median ask falls to $89, off 17.71% in a week
Collector Crypt median ask dropped to $89 (-1.11% 1D, -17.71% 7D). The 90-day z-score is -0.15, pointing to a post-release cooldown and seller…
5 min read
News·
Pokémon card asks slip 7% on the week to a $90 median
The median ask for tokenized Pokémon cards on Collector Crypt was $90 on September 17, up 4.7% on the day but down 7.2% over seven days. A one-day bounce after a weak week leaves direction open.
4 min read
Card Grading Explained
The digit on the label sets the price, and five private companies decide what that digit is.
42 min read
Investing in Magic: The Gathering
The only card game whose maker promised never to reprint 572 cards; one sold for $3 million.
44 min read
Investing in Sealed Product
A sealed 1986-87 Fleer case sold for $1.79 million; a modern box must rise 27% to break even.
40 min read
Investing in Modern Basketball and Football Cards
One company prints every licensed NBA and NFL card; a 2019 rookie’s PSA 10 fell more than 80%.
38 min read
Investing in Pokémon and Trading Card Games
One card sold for $16.5 million. The company printed ten billion more.
61 min read
Investing in Vintage Baseball Cards
A T206 Wagner made $5.856 million in August 2026; the vintage category index rose 14% in 2025.
37 min read
Recent sales and data
As of 2026-11-06
Data we track
The observations the desk collects each day, unadjusted. Change is against the prior observation, so a monthly series shows a monthly move. Each row carries the date of its last observation.
| Series | Trend | Latest | Change | Source | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collector Crypt listings64 obs | 194,787 | -0.03% | Collector Crypt | 2026-11-06 | |
| Collector Crypt median ask64 obs | $48 | -6.80% | Collector Crypt | 2026-11-06 | |
| Pokémon basket, PSA 10 median7 obs | $5,257 | +61.14% | PriceCharting | 2026-09-08 | |
| Pokémon basket, ungraded median7 obs | $90.12 | +22.35% | PriceCharting | 2026-09-08 | |
| Sports-card basket, PSA 10 median6 obs | $5,849 | 0.00% | PriceCharting | 2026-09-08 | |
| Sports-card basket, PSA 9 median6 obs | $473.4 | +3.93% | PriceCharting | 2026-09-08 | |
| Sports-card basket, ungraded median6 obs | $295 | 0.00% | PriceCharting | 2026-09-08 | |
| eBay card sales, daily count12 obs | 84,928 | -1.53% | TheCardAPI | 2026-09-07 | |
| eBay card sales, daily value12 obs | $2.62M | -12.63% | TheCardAPI | 2026-09-07 | |
| eBay card sales, median price12 obs | $1.25 | -33.86% | TheCardAPI | 2026-09-07 |
Also in Cultural Assets
Objects whose value is scarcity plus attention: art, wine, cars, cards, luxury goods and watches, and NFTs.
Fine Art
The most spectacular prices in finance, and a real return of about 2.4% a year before costs.
Fine Wine
A €30B market whose supply shrinks every year and whose returns have trailed equities since 1900.
Collector Cars
Two cars sold for $25.9 million. The median car sold for $26,513.
Luxury Goods
One handbag sold for €8.6 million; almost everything else loses money once it leaves the boutique.
NFTs
A Bored Ape floored at $430,000 in April 2022. It floors at $16,935 today.
New to the field? Start with The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Investing — What the wealthy quietly own: fourteen markets, one guide.
The daily letter
Subscribe to Invest Alternative
Daily intelligence on sports cards & trading cards and the rest of the alternative markets. A five-minute read every morning. Free.
Free · Every morning · Unsubscribe any time