Many factors have driven the popularity of trading card collecting over the past decade. The ease of online trading has given birth to a new industry of Internet-based trading platforms. With the advent of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the late 2010s, investment in digital cards ballooned to further buoy the collectible card market. During the COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020s, interest in trading card collecting experienced another boom as people dove deeply into new hobbies.
For all these reasons, trading cards have become big business. This is evidenced by the June 2024 announcement that the global trading card platform Fanatics and the venerable auction house Sotheby’s have a new partnership that promises to, in the words of Fanatics, “redefine the trading card industry.” This venture builds on Sotheby’s award-winning sports and modern collectibles department, which the auction house launched in 2022. Early Fanatics/Sotheby’s live auctions featured treasures such as a 1948 Leaf #79 Jackie Robinson card.
