For £12m, you possibly can purchase a seven-bedroom mansion in Hampstead, north London, or a Bugatti La Voiture Noire, one in every of the world’s most coveted sports activities vehicles, with a number of hundred thousand quid to spare. Alternatively, you possibly can blow all of it on a Pokémon card.
This is what AJ Scaramucci, son of financier and former White Home communications director Anthony Scaramucci, did earlier this month when he purchased the world’s solely Skilled Sports activities Authenticator (PSA) 10-graded Pikachu Illustrator card, one in every of the rarest and most coveted Pokémon playing cards ever, at public sale. The vendor, YouTuber, wrestler and occasional boxer Logan Paul, made a mighty revenue after flipping the card for about £8m greater than the £3.9m he initially paid for it in 2021.
However buying and selling playing cards aren’t only a passion for the ludicrously wealthy, they’re booming throughout the board. In the US, Walmart Market noticed trading card sales increase by 200% between February 2024 and June 2025, and eBay stated final July that buying and selling card gross sales had surged for 10 straight financial quarters. In the UK, Pokémon are such sizzling and precious tickets that they’ve turn out to be the target for a spate of thefts.
The Pokémon firm, which celebrated its thirtieth birthday on Friday, is now the world’s largest media franchise, with whole revenues of $147bn (£110bn), in accordance to Guinness World Information.
It’s not simply Pokémon buying and selling playing cards that are going stratospheric. Soccer playing cards are additionally massive enterprise. At Fanatics Collectibles in central London, “auto playing cards”, which function an actual autograph of a number one sports activities star, are on sale for hundreds of kilos, and a Lionel Messi card sold for nearly $9,500 final yr. There are additionally extra area of interest playing cards, corresponding to Labubu and SpongeBob units on sale for tons of of kilos. Rip tables are dotted about the store ground, the place clients can open their packet of playing cards there after which. Some days, when celebrities together with Lewis Hamilton, Roman Kemp and Rio Ferdinand host occasions, queues can stretch round the block.
However whereas the passion has made headlines for the vital sums the playing cards can yield, what does the common collector consider the current frenzy? Penny, from Stockholm in Sweden, has been gathering Pokémon playing cards since she was 15. Now 29, she reckons she owns about 16,000 playing cards.
Amongst her prized examples are a base set Charizard in “cherished situation”, which may promote from wherever between $300 (£222) to greater than $10,000 (£7,400), relying on the situation, an Eevee card from Legendary Assortment, which is price about $500, and not too long ago she pulled a Golden Dragonite valued at about $600. However she doesn’t maintain them sealed in a field to guarantee they’re in tip-top, resalable situation. “I’m a collector, not an investor,” she stated.
For Penny, it’s all about touching, having fun with and really taking part in with the playing cards. “The sport was to begin with made for youths, and I feel that’s the way it ought to nonetheless be,” she stated.
She collects grasp units, which implies she wants solely one in every of every card. “I donate duplicates to charity or I make little goodie baggage for Halloween as an alternative of sweet,” she stated.
As a YouTuber who shares her ardour on-line, there are some challenges. “I get so many feedback about being a faux nerd or individuals saying you’re solely doing it for the consideration,” she stated. However she has seen extra girls and ladies stepping into the passion. “Once I was a toddler, there weren’t that many women who loved Pokémon. It’s good to have the ability to encourage different little ladies to observe their hobbies and luxuriate in what they take pleasure in,” she stated.
Penny works in a toy store the place she has seen “an enormous enhance” in individuals shopping for Pokémon playing cards. However this additionally means she sees a few of the damaging elements of gathering. “It’s enjoyable to see so many extra individuals coming in. However it’s somewhat bit unhappy with the investing a part of it as a result of individuals are simply opening packs to open packs. They don’t actually care about what’s inside. It’s type of like playing, which is not actually the way it must be in my view,” she stated.
“I do know so many dad and mom are like: ‘If my child pulls this Charizard then I’m going to take it away from them right away as a result of it’s a precious card.’ It’s a bit of cardboard. I perceive the worth is excessive on them nevertheless it’s nonetheless supposed to be enjoyable,” she stated.
Ryan Again, 34, who runs a jams and chutneys companies together with his spouse, Abby, was eager on Pokémon as a toddler however moved away from the passion as he grew up. This modified in 2020, throughout Covid, when he rediscovered his love for the playing cards.
He believes the Pokémon firm has “shifted the age vary that they accommodate to”, specifically individuals of their late 20s to early 30s, to “recapture the nostalgia of their childhood”.
He owns a “few hundreds playing cards” which, he says, is not rather a lot in contrast with different collectors. “If you happen to’ve been gathering for a very long time, it simply provides up,” he stated.
He owns a number of precious examples, together with a Charizard from Pokémon 151, a rereleased set of playing cards that includes all the authentic characters, which has a coveted PSA 10 grade, the highest score indicating the card is in immaculate situation. Generally, a card will be knocked down a number of grades before it is even taken out of the packet due to the method it’s graded. “If the centring is off and one border is thicker than the different, that may instantly make it not a ten,” stated Again.
Additionally a YouTuber, he stated he “stands in opposition to a number of what the passion” is at the moment about, specifically chasing high-value playing cards. He stated scalping, the place individuals hoard packs of playing cards by clearing out outlets to promote on-line for a revenue, is an enormous downside.
Whereas the £12m Pokémon card sale has drawn eyes to the passion, Again thinks it could falsely skew individuals’s expectations. “I feel lots of people are getting into the passion pondering someway they’re going to make a great deal of cash or they’re going to pull a card that’s price silly loopy quantities of cash. That’s not actually the case.”
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