By: Ray Wu

While the trading of video game cards has existed for quite some time, the trading of video game cards is a more recent phenomenon. Trading cards may sound like a game, but it’s not—it’s a gamble of money. From Pokémon to Yu-Gi-Oh, every card has a value, determined by its age, condition, and rarity. People often make collections so they can sell their cards years later. In fact, Logan Paul recently bought a brand-new card, “golden ring” from the Lord of the Rings trilogy for a whopping $2 million!

Although this cost seems extremely high for a single card, its determined price was approximately as much as it was sold.

Trading cards are a billion-dollar industry, the global size being nearly $14 billion! Every year, 1 to 2 million baseball cards are manufactured. The Pokémon industry mass-produces 1 to 2 billion in the same amount of time! EBay has also reported 4 million card purchases in 2020!

“It’s kind of like the first time a baseball card ever sold for a million dollars. To all the tens of millions of collectors in the world who collect Magic: The gathering, it basically has solidified their collections and says ‘hey, this is serious business.’” Says Ken Goldin, a sports memorabilia collector (NPR).

“If something is being produced for the sole purpose of being a collectible, it’s less likely that it is going to be valuable over the years, as opposed to something that wasn’t intended to be a collectible and just happened to be,” explained Goldin (NPR).

Although still relatively young, the video game card trading industry is growing and likely has a successful future. This teaches others who think it may just be their peers who own a collection that it’s something relevant worldwide.