The World Cup starts today, Collectors, and we know many of you will have a non-country related rooting interest in the tournament: your PC. Personally I’m hoping France’s Michael Olise has a big tournament, so my Olise card collection can benefit. But my big pre-tournament bet was England’s Adam Wharton, who ended up not making the squad, and like me, will be watching the action from the sofa…
Reminder to self: stop prospecting!
The Athletic: $100M Revenues for Sports Card Sellers? Inside the Race to Own the Live-Selling Market
Live selling continues to reshape the sports and TCG card market as platforms like Whatnot, Fanatics Live, and eBay Live compete for the hobby’s biggest personalities. Per this fascinating article from The Athletic’s Ben Burrows, multiple sellers estimated that the largest breaking and live-selling businesses now generate more than $100M annually, a staggering figure, especially given how nascent the industry is. As cards, Pokémon, and other collectibles move further into social commerce, seller loyalty and audience ownership appear to be becoming as valuable as the inventory itself. Maybe we picked the wrong side of sports cards to be working in…
Michael Rubin was the lone collectibles-related figure included on Time’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Sports. The recognition centered on Fanatics’ expansion beyond apparel into collectibles, sports betting, prediction markets, and media, alongside the rapid growth of Fanatics Fest. The list also included plenty of big name athletes and execs with an impact on collecting, from Victor Wembanyama and Caitlin Clark to Roger Goodell and Dick Sporting Goods’ Ed Stack… Also on the list, economist Claudia Goldin, who might have a familiar Hobby surname, but is unlikely to show up at a Goldin Elite auction selling a 7-figure Pokemon card.
via David Choe
A nearly $700K trade completed at Los Angeles hobby destination RWT Collective blended sports cards, fine art, and luxury hospitality into a single transaction. At the center was a one-of-one David Choe-painted Shohei Ohtani card, exchanged for roughly $200K in cards and collectibles and $500K in destination-property experiences (like stays in Joshua Tree’s Invisible House). It’s impossible to evaluate who won the trade, but the 1:1 Choe-painted Ohtani card would certainly stand out in any collection.
StockX is entering the live-selling arena with the launch of StockX Live this summer. The new feature will focus on real-time auctions across sneakers, apparel, collectibles, trading cards, and vintage fashion, with many auctions starting at $1. The move adds another major player to the growing live-commerce market, giving StockX’s existing audience a new way to discover, bid on, and interact around collectible products. The move for StockX isn’t surprising, but you have to wonder why it took them so long to enter the live shopping fray, where they could have been a leader had they made the jump to live earlier.
via Great Western Auction
This was one of those headlines we knew had to be clicked, even though we’d never heard of Anita Manning before… A Glasgow auction house withdrew a lot containing a human skull and other bones that had been expected to sell for £500-£800 (sorta cheap, yeah?) after criticism from anthropologists and anatomy experts. The sale alerted us to a little-known corner of the collectibles world, where human remains can still be legally bought and sold in the UK under certain circumstances, despite ongoing ethical concerns about provenance, consent, and commercializing the dead. Imagine a PSA-slabbed human skull?
Collectors searching for the next overlooked rookie may want to keep an eye on Pauline Astier. The undrafted New York Liberty guard has become an early-season fan favorite while shooting 60% from the field and 50% from three, yet her cardboard footprint remains limited to a handful of Panini Instant cards and a 2023 Slam Deck release. The combination of on-court momentum and scarce early collectibles has started to attract attention, and Mantel’s own J.R. Fickle, always on the hunt for an edge, is predicting big things for Astier… if her likeness ever makes it into a true WNBA card set.
A Jaguar XJ40 once used by Princess Diana, including on the night she famously wore the “revenge dress” in 1994, sold for £66,250 (about $88K) at auction. The car attracted more than 100 bids, and the auction house described the result as a world record for a Jaguar XJ. The vehicle remained in private hands after leaving the royal fleet in 1997 and had just 45,331 miles on the odometer.
