The investment question

The trading card market produced spectacular returns between 2019 and 2021. The subsequent correction was significant and broad. The lesson most serious collectors drew was that the category rewards genuine expertise and long holding periods far more than momentum-chasing. The cards that have produced the best long-term returns share characteristics: they depict undeniably great players, they are from significant sets, they are in high grades from thin populations, and they were purchased by people who genuinely understood what they had

The speculative froth around modern breaks and short-print chasing has a poor long-term record. The honest advice for anyone considering trading cards as part of a collection strategy is to collect what you know deeply and buy quality over quantity at every price level.

CollectorGrade take

The trading card market rewards depth of knowledge more reliably than any other factor. The collectors who have done best over ten years are not the ones who bought the most expensive cards. They are the ones who knew their category well enough to find value the market had not yet priced.