Pokemon cards are no longer just a childhood collection.
Some owners are increasingly treating popular trading cards from the 1990s and 2000s like alternative assets, with some of the rarest cards outperforming traditional benchmarks. S&P500 In recent years.
During key moments, including the pandemic boom and another surge in 2025, the Trading Card Index, which tracks Pokemon sales, rose far more than the S&P 500’s long-term average annual return of 10% to 12%, according to Card Ladder, a trading card evaluation tool. This comparison is not perfect. While stock price data spans decades, trends in trading card values are more volatile over a shorter period of time. However, the outperformance in certain windows is still significant.
The surge in prices is being driven by a surge in deep-pocketed buyers chasing top-tier assets with scarcity, ratings and limited supply.
At the high end, the dynamics are obvious. A rare Pikachu Illustrator card owned by influencer and wrestler Logan Paul sold for more than $16 million in February, setting a record for the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction.
“There are certain people who are trying to get the rarest, finest cards and take them off the market as much as possible,” auctioneer Ken Goldin said. eBayPaul’s rare Pokemon cards were sold on consignment. “We may never see that card come up for sale again in our lifetimes.”
A rare Pokemon card designed by Atsuko Nishida.
Provided by: Goldin
This tight supply helps explain why prices are soaring and why one part of the market is bringing in most of the profits.
Goldin added that a card’s condition, in particular, can affect its grade on a scale of up to 10, which can affect its value.
“No one cares if a card is rated a 10 (out of 10) and the underlying card isn’t important,” Goldin says. “But when you have the right cards, especially in Pokemon, where there’s a huge premium on a 10, that status matters.”
That premium can be extreme, Goldin said. A $100,000 card in perfect condition graded by Pro Sports Authenticator, a top authentication and grading company, might only get you 1% or 2% of its value if it’s in much lower condition.
Outside of the rarest handful of cards, individual investors and collectors are flipping open dusty collectible books that are more than 20 years old and hoping to strike gold. The boom in card sales accelerated during the pandemic amid increased interest in economic stimulus and alternative assets. Spending on non-sports trading cards, including Pokemon, jumped 350% between 2020 and 2025, according to market research firm Sarkana. At the same time, celebrities such as Post Malone, Steve Aoki, and Kevin O’Leary gained mainstream attention.
“We’re seeing people using this as an alternative asset and wealth allocation,” Goldin said. “Whether it becomes more institutionalized over time remains to be seen.”
But risks remain for hopeful market investors. The same forces that create profit also create risk. Prices are volatile and heavily influenced by hype, and card prices don’t have the stability or track record of traditional markets.
Still, some extremely popular Pokemon cards still outperform the market.
