Trading Warfare: Why Trading Cards Have Disappeared From Retail Shelves
With values soaring to the moon, card collectors are starting to get violent
In December 2020, a rare Charizard Pokémon card sold for $360,000. Early in 2021, a Michael Jordan rookie card sold for $215,000. Weeks later, the same card sold for $738,000.
During the pandemic last year, with people locked inside and looking for something to flip the mood, quarantiners turned to nostalgia and began collecting trading cards. Pokémon cards, basketball cards, baseball cards, and more.
Now the market is flaming hot.
Rare cards selling for a high price is not a phenomenon unique to 2020. In 2018, a rare Mike Trout baseball card sold for $400,000. Two years later, its market value was almost 10 times that. The increased demand for cards during the pandemic has driven values to extraordinary heights.
“There’s never been a time like this in the history of the business. I would bet that for every person who wanted a Michael Jordan rookie card in 2019, there’s 100 [now],” said Ken Goldin, founder and executive chairman of Goldin Auctions, which has participated in these high-dollar sales.
