By: David Yang
Post Malone, renowned for breaking music records and creating captivating tunes, is now elevating the realm of fantasy tabletop card games with Magic: The Gathering. The pop star, a devoted enthusiast of the game, recently acquired a unique card that not only set a record in terms of price but also fueled a surge in the game’s popularity, nearly rivaling that of sports cards.
A dedicated fan who unearthed a freshly released Magic card from a pack managed to sell it to Post Malone for an astounding $2 million. This unprecedented purchase marks a watershed moment for Magic, a trading card game that has not achieved the same level of prominence as counterparts like Pokémon, one of the best-selling card games ever. Post Malone’s fame as a musician has even spurred some fans to start buying Magic cards as well.
Ken Goldin, a seasoned collector of sports memorabilia and the proprietor of Goldin Auctions, likened the event to the first million-dollar sale of a baseball card. He highlighted the profound impact this transaction holds for the countless collectors in the Magic: The Gathering community, indicating a significant maturation of the industry.
Recent card sales signify a remarkable shift in the trading card landscape, with trading card games (TCGs) gaining substantial traction, thereby challenging the longstanding dominance of sports cards, which have held sway for over a century. This transformation is attributed, in part, to the influence of Generation Z and Millennials. These generations, shaped by the card-collecting craze of the 1990s and 2000s, are fostering the ascent of TCGs.
Several factors contribute to the burgeoning popularity of TCGs. The pandemic-induced downtime prompted individuals to rediscover the value of their old Pokémon, Yu-gi-oh!, and Magic cards, instigating a surge in trading and exchanges among players. Consequently, numerous companies expanded their foothold within the industry.
Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), a pivotal player in card grading, registered a staggering count of over 514,000 TCG cards graded in July alone. Comparatively, data compiled by GemRate, a company specializing in tracking grading activities, revealed that approximately 528,000 sports cards received grading during the same period. Impressively, the exchange of sports cards exceeded that of game cards by a factor of five, signifying an astonishing evolution in the card game sector.
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