A piece of printed paper in size of a traditional playing card, which can be worth up to 6 or 7 figures. Yes, you guessed right, we're talking about collectible cards, which are popular all over the world. While in Europe, hockey and soccer cards are the most popular, in the US, baseball and basketball cards have long been the top sellers. Asia is taking a completely different path and every year surprises with a new record for cards related to various games, fairy tales or film series (Pokémon, LOTR, Magic: The Gathering...).
Packs of cards that normally sell for a few dollars can, with a little luck, turn into a treasure of insane value. Looking at history's most expensive cards, many of us are at our wits' end - in 2022, baseball player Mickey Mantle's 1952 card was auctioned for a record $13,118,672, breaking the record set in 2021 when Honus Wagner's 1910 card sold for $7,427,795.
World celebrities have also shown interest
Even movie and game-themed cards have nothing to be ashamed of in terms of financial records, with the phenomenon called Pokémon reigning supreme for a long time. The most expensive card sold at an official auction was a 1998 Illustrator Pikachu card, which sold for $672,000 in October 2022. In the top 10 we find three Alpha Black Lotus cards from Magic: The Gathering, and the remaining 7 spots were taken by Pokémon.
But if we look at the private auctions from the official auctions, we get even higher numbers. Thanks to the world's celebrities who didn't hesitate to pull out 7-figure checks of their pockets. In 2023, American rapper Post Malone bought the world's only LOTR The One Ring card from collector Brooke Trafton for a $2 million. But the historic lead is held by YouTuber and boxer Logan Paul, who paid $5,275,000 for a Pikachu Illustrator card in 2022, making it into the Guinness Book of World Records. It is one of 39 cards from 1998, and the only one to receive the highest possible quality score of 10 in the evaluation.
Will poker jump on the bandwagon?
The poker community made significant inroads into the world of collectible cards in 2006, when the first signed cards with names like Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey appeared on the market. In 2011/12, Leaf Trading Cards brought the first official collection of collectible cards to the market featuring poker players such as Johnny Chan, Huck Seed, Maria Ho and Patrik Antonius. And LTC has just announced a new collection of celebrity poker cards for 2025.
The final names of the poker icons involved are not yet known, but according to the photos and information available, Espen Jorstad, Jared Bleznick, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Patrik Antonius, Scotty Nguyen and Alan Keating have all participated in the event. A set will be available for purchase on LTC's official website that will contain 3 autographed cards, two of which will be player cards and one will be a multi-card containing 4 autographs. Each of the cards is limited to a maximum of 25pcs, and well, one such set is expected to sell for $89.99.
Poker records
Poker cards are still miles away from the aforementioned sums, as the amounts of even the most valuable ones in the auctions hover in the hundreds of dollars at most. Just a few days ago (29.1.2025), the auction of a signed Doyle Brunson card from 2010 ended, with the 41st bidder bidding $1,603 for it. We have no data yet that any poker card has sold for a higher amount in the past, but two others may soon surpass it - the 2011 Johnny Chan signed card (current bid of $1,000) or the 2011 Greg "Fossilman" Raymer signed card, where the price is already at $1,564. Both of the aforementioned cards are just from the 2011 Leaf Metal Poker series, which gives a hint that investing in this year's 2025 series might not be a bad idea.
What is your opinion on such a hobby? Do you or have you collected any cards in your life? Would you buy such cards featuring poker players? Let us know in the comments on our social networks!
Source - Wikipedia, Ebay, Washingtonpost, Reddit, LeafTradingCards, PokerNews