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Chen Guanyuan, owner of a Chinese card store in San Gabriel Valley, shared that the Pokemon card market has become hot in recent years, with high-priced cards once selling for 18,000 yuan. Nowadays, buyers have a mentality of collection and promotion, and the store recommends that high-priced Target cards be purchased individually.
How much can a card with a cartoon character sell for?san gabriel valleySugar Card shop owner Chen Guanyuan once sold a Pokémon card to a regular customer for NT$18,000. He said the store also has customers who spend thousands of yuan or even more than 10,000 yuan a day. The childhood pastime of opening card packs and collecting favorite characters is now attracting another group of buyers: some collecting memories, while others are waiting for prices to rise for resale.
The card store run by Chen Guanyuan sells products such as Pokémon, One Piece and Magic: The Gathering, of which Pokémon is the most popular. He observed that the store has customers who appreciate the cards and enjoy collecting them, as well as buyers who are interested in making a profit, about half of which is divided equally. However, the boundary between accumulation and investment is not clear. Many people not only like cards, but also hope to have collection value in their hands.
“When something becomes valuable, people who originally weren’t interested will suddenly become interested,” he said.
This fad presents different shopping patterns among different age groups. Chen Guanyuan said that the main customer group in the store is about 17 to 35 years old.Asian Make a majority. Some young buyers will choose cards that are recently issued and affordable, intending to hold them for a few years in hopes of future appreciation. Some buyers ages 35 to 55 are willing to invest larger amounts to purchase older, more expensive cards.
For these customers, purchasing cards is not only about current consumption, but also involves imagining future prices with them. However, being willing to wait a few years doesn’t mean you’ll be profitable by then. Chen Guanyuan bluntly said that the Pokémon card market has ups and downs, “it rises too fast and falls too fast.”
The transaction that most impressed him was the sale of a crystal Lugia card graded by PSA 10 for NT$18,000 to a long-time regular customer. According to PSA standards, a score of 10 means the card is in perfect condition. The evaluation includes pattern corners, brightness, stains, and centralization. Cards that look similar to normal ones still need to be carefully examined for preservation condition and grade in the collecting market.
However, Chen Guanyuan’s relationship with the card did not initially start with a 10,000-yuan transaction. He loved opening card packages since childhood and his habit of collecting them always remained. Remembering back to around 2016, he could still purchase his favorite Pokémon products relatively easily at Target, Walmart, and other retail stores. He enjoyed opening packages and seeing what cards would appear inside.
In memory of him, Pokémon cards gradually became popular around 2018. During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, popularity increased significantly, and products became increasingly difficult to find in large chain retail stores. Over the past year or two, they realized that the price and threshold for obtaining the product was still high.
The tight supply has also been officially recognized. An update to Pokémon’s official website a month ago stated that some card products were having difficulty purchasing due to high demand, and the company was printing at maximum production capacity.
Chen Guanyuan believes that among the people rushing to shop, some people hope to buy their favorite products at a lower price, while others are concerned about resale. The same purchase in a box of cards may have a completely different purpose behind it.
When cards get expensive, one thing that beginners overlook is that “opening the card pack” and “buying those cards”, are actually two different purchases.
Chen Guanyuan said that you can enjoy the surprise when opening the card pack, but you may not be able to take out the cards you want or think are valuable. Especially the current price of card packs is at a high level. If the goal is to collect a specific card, he recommends purchasing a card outright instead; Occasionally opening a few packs can be used as a form of entertainment.
Chen Guanyuan said that one of the reasons for opening the store was to share his childhood experience of collecting cards with the next generation. He understands buyers’ focus on value and sees resale demand in the market, but “sometimes it’s not just about money, it’s about enjoying what you have right now.”
Summary FAQ
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He once sold a crystal Lugia Pokémon card certified by PSA 10 for NT$18,000 to a regular customer. This transaction also became their most impressive high-value transaction.
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He believes customers can be broadly divided into two categories: collectors and profit seekers, each accounting for about half. The boundary between the two is not really clear, as many people not only like the cards themselves, but also hope that the collection in their hands can retain or increase in value in the future.
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Because although there is a feeling of surprise when opening the card pack, there is no guarantee that you will get the card you want, especially when the price of the card pack is high, it is not cost-effective. If the goal is to collect a specific card, he suggests that purchasing a card outright is more practical.
