The coronavirus pandemic has been responsible for many new things, including a phenomena either you or someone you may know has experienced.
A frantic, near-panic call to a parent asking if they threw out the collection of sports trading cards that were in the basement or attic.
You might be sitting on a fortune! Here’s how you can find out…
The pandemic has created new forms of investing. There was the popularity of the Reddit-fueled frenzy that overtook GameStop and AMC in January that involved popular online forums that gave marching orders to millions of first-time investors who if nothing else got a crash course in day-trading through the experience.
Cryptocurrency, and NFT investing is a newer phenomena gaining popularity every day.
And then there’s something called “passion-aligned” investing which is exactly what it sounds like. Leading the charge in that is sports card trading, and it is turning an entire industry upside down with a tsunami of interest and action taking place in the past year.
The boom in trading card investing is at unprecedented heights. There’s never been anything remotely close to what we’re experiencing now.
What has been the fuel for this frenzy? Axios had a story that laid out an interesting possible theory.
Because of the lockdown, people had much more time on their hands because they couldn’t go anywhere. So, with extra hours in the day, they turned to cleaning and organizing, and sports card treasures were dug up from mountains of junk in the attics and basements and garages of a lot of people.
The next move for people that were wondering what that Gary Sheffield or Roger Clemens rookie card might be worth is to their computer, to see what cards were selling for on eBay.
So if that helped increase the interest in trading cards in general, something had to lead to the increased values of cards.
According to Axios, the main reason is rarity. The most valuable cards are the rarest, which seems to be obvious. Vintage cards obviously can be rare but so can modern cards now that companies produce what’s called micro-batches of special edition cards.
The fewer cards out there, the higher the value.
Another driving force is the ability to grade cards is more technical and easier to access. In the past, you almost had to take the sellers’ word face value, but now there is a cottage industry in grading cards.
If there’s money to be made in trading cards, you’re going to find smart and heavily-funded groups running to the opportunity. Wall Street investors who never would have gotten near trading cards have arrived.
On the opposite end of hedge funds investing in precious cards would be small-time collectors and investors, and there are new opportunities for the Average Joe who wants a piece of the action.
Fractionalization has become popular in cards, with companies like Rally and Collectable having shares of memorabilia worth millions of dollars available for investors to buy shares of.
Keep you eye out on what’s coming down the road, because the card business is in the process of morphing again, especially in the NBA world.
Block-chain based platforms that allow fans to buy and sell officially-licensed highlights from games are becoming very popular.
The interest has never been higher. The access has never been easier. The financial upside has never been more lucrative.
It’s why seven of the top-10 most expensive trading cards have been sold in the past eight months.
Here’s the top-10.
10. LeBron James
July 2020
$1.8 million
9. Honus Wagner
February 2021
$2.5 million
8. Honus Wagner
September 2007
$2.8 million
7. Mickey Mantle
April 2018
$2.9 million
6. Honus Wagner
October 2016
$3.1 million
5. Honus Wagner
October 2020
$3.2 million
4. Honus Wagner
December 2020
$3.7 million
3. Mike Trout
August 2020
$3.9 million
2. Luca Doncic
February 2021
$4.6 million
- 1. Mickey Mantle
January 2021
$5.2 million
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