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 on our own tape.
Desk data as of 2026-09-08 · Invest Alternative radar
Sports Cards sub-index · accruing history
Target weight 3% of the IA Composite · accruing history — basket live
Pokémon / TCG sub-index · accruing history
Target weight 2.1% of the IA Composite · accruing history — both 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
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Articles
6 on cards · free to read
Guide·
Card Grading Explained
The digit on the label sets the price, and five private companies decide what that digit is.
42 min read
Guide·
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
Guide·
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
Guide·
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
Guide·
Investing in Pokémon and Trading Card Games
One card sold for $16.5 million. The company printed ten billion more.
61 min read
Guide·
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 2026-09-08
Recent sales
Pokémon Dark Gengar Holo Neo Destiny #6 1st Edition PSA 10 Gem Mint
eBay · 2026-09-06
$34,200
$43,000
2009 Topps Chrome #101 Stephen Curry (576/999) PSA 10
eBay · 2026-08-29
$60,100
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 listings10 obs | 142,884 | +0.92% | Collector Crypt | 2026-09-08 | |
| Collector Crypt median ask10 obs | $85.98 | -20.51% | Collector Crypt | 2026-09-08 | |
| 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.
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