Cardboard is Back!

The price of sports cards is skyrocketing and the value of some cards is almost unimaginable. Recently, I visited a card store and the prices of some of the items there reached as high as seven thousand dollars! The reason for this is because during the  COVID-19 pandemic, many people rediscovered their childhood hobby and many started buying extremely large quantities of cards, packs, and boxes. According to Sports Collectors Daily, eBay’s sports card sales were 92% higher in March through May of 2020 than the final three months of 2019.

According to Deseret News “Card value is spiking at unprecedented levels. This past February, a Michael Jordan rookie card sold at auction for $738,000, according to CNN. Two weeks earlier, the same card sold for $215,000. That’s a 243% value increase in only 14 days. That is an insane amount of increase, which means the value for cards is only going up. Not long ago, a LeBron James autograph card smashed the record for the highest-selling sports card ever at auction with a price of 5.2 million dollars. As the value of sports cards increases, their popularity increases with them. According to the BBC, “On TikTok alone, videos featuring #sportscards have had more than 330 million views.” Finally, you would think that all of this value increase would be good for the sports card industry. Yes and no. They are getting tons of money, but in December 2020, the Topps UK website crashed because of all the demand for trading cards.

Even with all of the newfound popularity during the pandemic, there is nothing like the thrill and excitement of ripping open a pack of cards and seeing what is between the layers of silver foil.

Works Cited

Brooks, Christian. “Sports Trading Cards: Why ‘Blockbuster’ Cards Have Boomed in Lockdown.” BBC Sport, BBC, 2 May 2021, https://www.bbc.com/sport/56903823.

Mueller, Rich. “Notes: COVID vs Shows; eBay Sales; Robitaille Collection Auction; Fleer Case 

Update, More.” Sports Collectors Daily, Sports Collectors Daily, 9 Apr. 2021, https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/notes-covid-vs-shows-ebay-sales-robitaille-collection-auction-fleer-case-update-more/.

Schwartz, Nate. “Sports Card Collecting Is Having a Historic Boom Right Now and Here’s 

Why.” Deseret News, Deseret News, 17 May 2021, https://www.deseret.com/entertainment/2021/5/16/22334507/sports-card-collecting-boom-explained-nft-future.