Collectors graded more than 26 million cards in 2025, a 32 percent jump from roughly 20 million in 2024 (GemRate). That single figure captures a hobby that has moved from bedroom binders to a logged, financialized asset class. Buyers spent 2.62 billion dollars on trading card singles on eBay alone in 2025, a PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator changed hands for 16.49 million dollars in February 2026, and The Pokemon Company printed about 10 billion cards in its latest fiscal year and still could not keep up. This analysis consolidates data from GemRate, PSA, eBay’s Collected report, Circana, The Pokemon Company, Fanatics, Card Ladder, and 13 other primary sources to size the collectibles side of the trading card market: grading volumes, secondary sales, auction records, production, fraud, and who is actually buying.
TL;DR
- More than 26 million cards were graded in 2025, up 32 percent year over year (GemRate).
- PSA graded 19.26 million cards in 2025, up 26 percent; CGC grew fastest at 121 percent (GemRate).
- TCG and non-sports cards (16.8 million) outgraded sports cards (10 million) for the first time (GemRate).
- Trading card singles topped 2.62 billion dollars on eBay in 2025 (eBay Collected).
- A PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator sold for 16.49 million dollars in February 2026, a world record (Guinness World Records).
- The Pokemon Company printed about 10 billion cards in FY ending March 2026; 85 billion-plus lifetime (The Pokemon Company).
- Trading cards drove 67 percent of all gains in the US toy industry in 2025 (Circana).
- PSA intercepted more than 200 million dollars in counterfeit and altered collectibles in 2025 (PSA 2025 Fraud Report).
- The average Pokemon card rose nearly 46 percent in the past year, versus about 12 percent for the S&P 500 (Card Ladder).
- 19 percent of US adults bought Pokemon cards for themselves in the past six months; only a quarter play the game (Circana).
- Fanatics Collectibles posted roughly 1.6 billion dollars in revenue in 2024, up 40 percent (Sportico).
1. Market Size and Growth
The headline market number depends entirely on where you draw the boundary, which is why published estimates span more than an order of magnitude. Firms that count only sports cards land near 13.5 billion dollars; those that fold in memorabilia reach 33 billion dollars; those that measure all collectibles report north of 300 billion dollars. The more reliable signal is direction, not level. Circana found trading cards drove 67 percent of all gains in the US toy industry in 2025, and named Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, and Fanatics-owned Topps as the properties powering a collectibles category that grew 34 percent in dollar sales.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sports trading cards market size, 2025 | $13.5 billion | Grand View Research |
| Sports memorabilia + trading cards market, 2024 | $33 billion | Market Decipher |
| Trading card game market size, 2025 | ~$14.1 billion | Custom Market Insights |
| US collectibles category growth, 2025 | +34% dollar sales | Circana |
| Trading cards’ share of US toy industry gains, 2025 | 67% | Circana |
| Total US toy industry sales, 2025 | $45 billion+ | Circana |
| Global collectibles market, 2025 | $320.3 billion | Global Growth Insights |
Divergence note: treat the market-firm totals as scenario ranges, not consensus. The broadest (Grand View Research and Global Growth Insights) and narrowest definitions do not agree because “trading card market,” “trading card game market,” and “collectibles market” measure different baskets. The ecommerce data behind these sales tells a cleaner directional story than any single top-line figure.
2. The Grading Boom
Grading is the clearest proxy for hobby activity because every slab is a logged, dated, third-party-verified transaction. The category has roughly tripled since GemRate began tracking in 2022. For the first time, TCG and non-sports cards (16.8 million graded) outstripped sports cards (10 million) in 2025, driven almost entirely by Pokemon, while sports grading actually contracted 12 percent. That inversion, not the raw growth, is the structural story of the year.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total cards graded, 2025 | 26.8 million (+32% YoY) | GemRate |
| PSA cards graded, 2025 | 19.26 million (+26%) | GemRate |
| CGC cards graded, 2025 | 4.92 million (+121%) | GemRate |
| SGC / Beckett cards graded, 2025 | 1.42M / 824,000+ | GemRate |
| Pokemon cards graded, 2025 | 16.1 million+ | GemRate |
| PSA grading rate | ~90,000 cards/day | PSA |
| PSA 10 gem rate, first half 2025 | 43% (vs 45% in 2024) | GemRate |
| Sports vs TCG category change, 2025 | Sports -12%, TCG +97% | GemRate |
Outlier: the 2025 Japanese Pikachu McDonald’s promo was graded 58,000 times in December alone, more than every TCG card Beckett graded that month, per GemRate data reported by Sports Illustrated. PSA now grades roughly 90,000 cards a day, up from about 15,000 a day in 2021.
3. The Secondary Market and eBay
eBay remains the price-discovery engine for the hobby, and its year-end Collected report is the closest thing to an audited secondary-market ledger. Trading card singles topped 2.62 billion dollars on eBay in 2025, across more than 61 million tracked transactions (42 million sports plus 19.5 million TCG and non-sports, per GemRate). Sports and TCG now sell at comparable scale: Michael Jordan led all athletes at 70.5 million dollars, while Charizard led all Pokemon characters at 74 million dollars.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Trading card singles sold on eBay, 2025 | $2.62 billion | eBay Collected |
| Sports card singles | $1.78 billion | eBay Collected |
| TCG + non-sports singles | $837 million | eBay Collected |
| Sports card single transactions, 2025 | 42 million+ | GemRate / eBay |
| Top athlete by sales (Michael Jordan) | $70.5 million | eBay Collected |
| Top Pokemon character (Charizard) | $74 million | eBay Collected |
| WNBA card avg sale price growth vs 5 yrs ago | +130% | eBay Collected |
| PSA cards sold via eBay storefront since Q3 2024 | 500,000 | Sportico |
Context: emerging categories are compounding fastest. Against a five-year baseline, average sale prices climbed 130 percent for WNBA, 125 percent for WWE, 40 percent for NHL, and 35 percent for F1, per eBay’s 2025 Collected report.
4. Record-Breaking Auctions
The top of the market keeps resetting its own ceiling, and the records have shifted from sports to Pokemon. A PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator sold for 16,492,000 dollars in February 2026, roughly tripling the 5.275 million dollars Logan Paul paid for it in 2022 and eclipsing every sports card ever sold. The most expensive sports card remains the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle at 12.6 million dollars, a mark set in 2022 (most recent record available).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Pikachu Illustrator PSA 10 (most expensive card ever) | $16,492,000 (Feb 2026) | Guinness World Records |
| Its 2022 purchase price (Logan Paul) | $5.275 million | Guinness World Records |
| 1952 Topps Mantle SGC 9.5 (most expensive sports card) | $12.6 million (2022) | Heritage Auctions |
| Prior sports card record (T206 Honus Wagner) | $6.6 million | Heritage Auctions |
| Caitlin Clark 1/1 (most expensive women’s sports card) | $660,000 (Jul 2025) | Fortune |
| Prior women’s record (Clark 2024 Prizm 1/1) | $366,000 (Mar 2024) | Fortune |
| Ken Goldin lifetime memorabilia sales | $1.5 billion+ | Auction Report |
Context: the women’s-sports segment is repricing fastest at the high end. Caitlin Clark’s Rookie Royalty Flawless Logowoman 1/1 sold for 660,000 dollars in July 2025, nearly doubling her own 366,000 dollar record from March 2024, per ESPN and Heritage reporting on the broader auction market.
5. Publishers, Production, and the Fanatics Machine
Supply data tells its own story, and it is a story of a manufacturer running flat out. The Pokemon Company printed about 10 billion cards in the fiscal year ending March 2026 and still reported that demand outpaced production capacity, after printing 10.2 billion the prior year. Meanwhile Fanatics has turned its 500 million dollar Topps acquisition into a multibillion-dollar collectibles engine and locked up exclusive long-term card rights with the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Pokemon TCG cards printed, FY ending Mar 2026 | ~10 billion | The Pokemon Company |
| Pokemon TCG cards printed, FY 2024-25 | 10.2 billion (-14% YoY) | The Pokemon Company |
| Lifetime Pokemon cards printed since 1996 | 85 billion+ | The Pokemon Company |
| Fanatics Collectibles revenue, 2024 | ~$1.6 billion (+40%) | Sportico / CNBC |
| Topps acquisition price, 2022 | $500 million | CNBC |
| Pokemon US toy sales through Nov 2025 | $2.1 billion+ | Circana |
| Bandai global TCG market-share rank, Mar 2025 | #3 | Bandai Namco |
Outlier: Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said the collectibles division was on track for roughly 5 billion dollars in 2025 revenue, up sharply from 1.6 billion dollars in 2024 (treat the 2025 figure as a company projection, not audited). For the franchise-level view see our Pokemon statistics roundup; for the game economics behind Wizards of the Coast’s card line, see Magic: The Gathering statistics. Details on Pokemon production come from The Pokemon Company’s fiscal disclosures.
6. Counterfeits and Fraud
Scale attracts fraud, and the grading firms are the front line. PSA intercepted more than 200 million dollars in counterfeit and altered collectibles in 2025, a figure its president called conservative. Counterfeits are gaining share faster than legitimate submissions grow, and fraudsters have shifted from chasing only six-figure cards to flooding the mid-market where scrutiny is lighter.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Counterfeit collectibles intercepted, 2025 | $200 million+ | PSA 2025 Fraud Report |
| Counterfeit submissions growth, YoY | +45.3% | PSA |
| Pokemon counterfeit submissions growth | +125% | PSA |
| Counterfeit share of submissions growth | +250% | PSA |
| 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle counterfeit rate | ~62% | PSA |
| 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan counterfeit rate | ~25% | PSA |
| T206 Honus Wagner counterfeit rate | 92.3% (12 of 13) | PSA |
Context: the most iconic cards are the most faked. Of 13 T206 Honus Wagners submitted, 12 were counterfeit, per PSA’s 2025 Fraud Report, and Pokemon counterfeit submissions rose 125 percent as the category boomed.
7. Collectors, Demographics, and Returns
The demographic shift is the real engine: adults, not children, now drive the hobby. 19 percent of US adults bought Pokemon cards for themselves in the past six months, and only about a quarter of them play the game (Circana), which reframes trading cards as a collecting-and-flipping asset rather than a toy. That behavior shows up in returns: Card Ladder data shared with Fortune puts the average Pokemon card up nearly 46 percent over the past year, far above the S&P 500’s typical 12 percent.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Adult (18+) share of US toy sales, 2025 | ~$9.1 billion | Circana |
| US adults who bought Pokemon cards for themselves (6 mo) | 19% | Circana |
| Non-sports card spending growth, 2020-2025 | +350% | Circana |
| Avg Pokemon card 1-year return | +46% | Card Ladder |
| Avg Pokemon card 20-year return | +3,261% | Card Ladder |
| Card Ladder historical sales tracked | 100 million+ | Card Ladder |
| North America share of sports card market, 2025 | 41.6% | Grand View Research |
| Japan TCG market, FY ending Mar 2025 | Y319.7 billion (+11.7%) | Bandai Namco |
Outlier: the retail channel is bending toward cards too. GameStop reported collectibles made up 29 percent of its Q1 2025 sales, surpassing new video game software, per Circana and retail reporting. This adult-collector wave overlaps with the same nostalgia economics driving board game growth.
Summary: Trading Cards by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Cards graded, 2025 | 26.8 million (+32% YoY) | GemRate |
| PSA cards graded, 2025 | 19.26 million (+26%) | GemRate |
| CGC cards graded, 2025 | 4.92 million (+121%) | GemRate |
| Pokemon cards graded, 2025 | 16.1 million+ | GemRate |
| TCG vs sports grading split, 2025 | 16.8M vs 10M | GemRate |
| PSA 10 gem rate, first half 2025 | 43% | GemRate |
| Trading card singles sold on eBay, 2025 | $2.62 billion | eBay Collected |
| eBay sports card transactions, 2025 | 42 million+ | GemRate / eBay |
| Top eBay athlete (Michael Jordan) | $70.5 million | eBay Collected |
| Most expensive card ever (Pikachu Illustrator) | $16,492,000 | Guinness World Records |
| Most expensive sports card (1952 Mantle) | $12.6 million | Heritage Auctions |
| Pokemon TCG cards printed, FY ending Mar 2026 | ~10 billion | The Pokemon Company |
| Lifetime Pokemon cards printed | 85 billion+ | The Pokemon Company |
| Fanatics Collectibles revenue, 2024 | ~$1.6 billion | Sportico |
| Pokemon US toy sales through Nov 2025 | $2.1 billion+ | Circana |
| Trading cards’ share of US toy gains, 2025 | 67% | Circana |
| Counterfeits intercepted by PSA, 2025 | $200 million+ | PSA 2025 Fraud Report |
| Non-sports card spending growth, 2020-2025 | +350% | Circana |
| Avg Pokemon card 1-year return | +46% | Card Ladder |
| US adults buying Pokemon cards for themselves | 19% | Circana |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by aggregating figures from primary industry reports, grading-company disclosures, marketplace year-end reports, corporate financial filings, and auction-house records published during 2024, 2025, and the first half of 2026, prioritizing 2025 and 2026 data and cross-referencing market-size figures across multiple firms.
Sources cited:
- GemRate - Universal Pop Report and 2025 annual grading data (2026)
- PSA - Grading data and 2025 Fraud Report (2026)
- eBay Inc. - eBay Collected 2025 report (2025-2026)
- Sportico - eBay and Fanatics revenue reporting (2025)
- CNBC - Fanatics collectibles reporting (2026)
- Circana - US Toy Industry Retail Tracking Service (2025-2026)
- The Toy Association - Circana toy industry press releases (2025)
- The Pokemon Company - TCG production figures, FY2024-25 and FY2025-26
- Bandai Namco Holdings - Integrated Report 2025, card games segment
- Card Ladder - trading card market indexes, via Fortune (2025)
- Grand View Research - Sports Trading Cards Market Report (2026)
- Market Decipher - Sports Memorabilia and Trading Cards Market, via PR Newswire (2025)
- Custom Market Insights - Trading Card Games Market (2026)
- Global Growth Insights - Collectibles Market Report (2026)
- Guinness World Records - most expensive Pokemon card at auction
- Heritage Auctions / ESPN - 1952 Topps Mantle record sale
- Fortune - Caitlin Clark card records and Card Ladder returns (2025)
- Auction Report - Goldin Auctions results (2024)
- Statista - trading card game and MLB collector demographic data
Data watch: GemRate publishes rolling monthly and annual grading data, with its 2026 full-year report expected in early 2027. PSA’s next annual Fraud Report is expected in H1 2027. eBay’s Collected report is an annual December release, so the 2026 edition is due late 2026. Circana issues quarterly US toy industry updates through The Toy Association, and The Pokemon Company’s next fiscal-year production figure typically publishes in May. Fanatics reports collectibles revenue on an irregular basis via executive disclosures.
Last updated: July 14, 2026. We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.