OP-ED FROM THE CERTIFIED TRADING CARD ASSOCIATION
The Trading Card Industry Is Entering a New Economic Era — And the Numbers Are Hard to Ignore
From $231 million in October 2024 to more than $1 billion in October 2026, the trading card market is demonstrating extraordinary momentum.
By Nick Jarman, Founder & CEO of Certified Trading Card Association
From $231 million in October 2024 to more than $1 billion in October 2026, the trading card market is demonstrating extraordinary momentum, expanding economic opportunity, and the potential for a historic period of industry development.
For decades, trading cards have represented something special. They connect generations, preserve history, celebrate athletes and characters, and create communities built around a shared passion for collecting.
But something much bigger is happening.
The trading card industry is experiencing an economic transformation that deserves serious attention from business leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, technology companies, and the broader financial community.
What was once frequently viewed as a niche hobby has evolved into a dynamic commercial ecosystem with increasingly sophisticated infrastructure, global participation, and substantial economic activity.
And the numbers are beginning to tell an extraordinary story.
Three Octobers. One Remarkable Growth Story.
Reported sales data from Card Ladder illustrates the momentum behind the trading card secondary market.
| Period | Reported Sales Volume | Year-Over-Year Growth |
|---|---|---|
| October 2024 | $231 million+ | Baseline |
| October 2025 | $392 million+ | Approximately 70% |
| October 2026 | $1.07 billion | Approximately 173% |
Source: Reported Card Ladder marketplace sales figures. Figures are rounded, and differences in marketplace coverage and tracking methodologies may affect direct comparisons.
In just 24 months, reported October trading card sales volume increased from approximately $231 million to $1.07 billion.
That represents a staggering 363% increase in reported sales volume, with October 2026 reaching approximately 4.6 times the October 2024 level.
Even more compelling is the acceleration in the reported figures.
The increase between October 2024 and October 2025 was approximately $161 million. Between October 2025 and October 2026, the increase was approximately $678 million.
The second year's absolute increase was more than four times the first.
While these figures should not be interpreted as a complete measurement of the entire trading card economy, they offer a powerful indication of the scale of activity occurring within tracked secondary-market channels.
The larger question is no longer whether trading cards represent a meaningful economic marketplace.
It is how much larger, more connected, and more sophisticated this marketplace can become.
A Market That Is Growing Up, Not Simply Growing Bigger
Perhaps the most important development in the trading card industry is not the increase in transaction volume alone.
It is the transformation of the industry's underlying business structure.
Today's trading card ecosystem extends far beyond collectors exchanging cardboard.
It includes manufacturers, distributors, hobby shops, grading and authentication companies, auction houses, marketplaces, breakers, show promoters, content creators, technology developers, payment processors, insurers, logistics providers, and specialized service businesses.
Each segment creates economic activity. Each creates opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, investment, and innovation.
And increasingly, these segments are becoming interconnected.
A collector purchasing a card may generate revenue for a marketplace, payment provider, grading company, shipping service, retailer, and technology platform.
That is an economic multiplier effect worth recognizing.
The trading card industry is no longer simply a collection of individual transactions. It is developing into an interconnected commercial infrastructure supporting an expanding marketplace.
Five Economic Forces Driving the Next Chapter
1. Technology Is Removing Traditional Barriers
Technology has fundamentally changed how trading cards are discovered, purchased, authenticated, valued, and sold.
Collectors now have access to marketplaces, pricing information, population reports, digital inventories, and live commerce experiences that would have been unimaginable a generation ago.
Artificial intelligence, computer vision, digital ownership tools, and integrated marketplace technology have the potential to make participation even more efficient.
As transaction friction decreases and access improves, the potential customer base expands.
The next major technological breakthrough may not simply help collectors find better cards.
It may make the entire marketplace more transparent, efficient, and accessible.
2. The Global Marketplace Is Still Developing
Trading cards have passionate communities across North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond.
Yet the industry remains fragmented across countries, platforms, distribution networks, and collecting categories.
The opportunity to connect these markets through improved technology, common standards, education, and international commerce is substantial.
The next generation of growth may increasingly come from collectors who previously lacked convenient access to the broader hobby economy.
A more connected global marketplace creates opportunities for everyone, from small hobby shops to international manufacturers.
3. The Hobby Is Becoming a Serious Entrepreneurial Economy
One of the industry's greatest strengths is its accessibility to entrepreneurs.
A collector can become a seller. A seller can establish a business. A business can grow into a retail operation, technology company, media platform, or regional marketplace.
This entrepreneurial pipeline is creating economic opportunities across the country.
Local card shops can become community destinations. Breakers can build media-driven commerce businesses. Technology startups can develop tools that improve the experience for millions of collectors.
The industry has the ingredients of a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem: passionate customers, specialized expertise, active communities, and constant innovation.
4. Trust and Transparency Can Unlock Additional Growth
Every growing marketplace eventually reaches a point where trust infrastructure becomes essential to its next stage of development.
Trading cards are no exception.
As transaction volumes increase and high-value assets move between collectors, the importance of authentication, verification, professional standards, consumer education, and accountability becomes greater.
This is not simply about preventing misconduct.
It is about creating the conditions that allow more people and businesses to participate confidently.
The Certified Trading Card Association believes that stronger industry standards, education, certification, and independent trust infrastructure can support long-term economic development.
Programs such as the CTCA Certified Breaker Program, Trusted Retailer Program, and Global Trading Card Registry represent examples of efforts designed to strengthen confidence throughout the marketplace.
Trust is not an obstacle to growth.
Trust is infrastructure for growth.
5. Generational Demand Creates Long-Term Opportunity
Trading cards have a distinctive ability to connect generations.
Established collectors bring experience, nostalgia, and purchasing power. Younger collectors introduce new interests, collecting behaviors, technologies, and communities.
Sports, Pokémon, One Piece, entertainment, gaming, and other collecting categories create multiple entry points into the marketplace.
That diversity is an important economic advantage.
Rather than relying entirely on one product category or customer demographic, the trading card ecosystem benefits from overlapping communities with different interests and motivations.
The opportunity is to convert that broad enthusiasm into sustained, responsible participation over time.
Why the Next Five Years Could Be Transformational
The reported growth in trading card sales suggests an industry with meaningful momentum.
But the most exciting opportunities may lie in areas that current transaction figures do not fully capture.
Consider what happens when more hobby shops adopt sophisticated digital tools, when authentication and verification become more accessible, when collectors can participate across borders with greater confidence, and when technology companies build integrated services for the marketplace.
Consider the economic impact of new retail locations, industry events, employment opportunities, sponsorships, logistics services, software development, and professional education.
These activities are not all reflected in secondary-market sales data.
Yet they represent important dimensions of the industry's broader economic potential.
The next five years could bring greater professionalization, more sophisticated business models, improved industry coordination, and increased participation from companies that historically viewed trading cards as a niche opportunity.
The opportunity is not merely to sell more cards.
It is to build a stronger economic ecosystem around collecting.
An Important Distinction: Growth Must Be Sustainable
Extraordinary growth deserves celebration, but responsible industry leadership also requires perspective.
Reported transaction volume is not the same as industry revenue, business profitability, or collector investment returns.
A rapidly expanding marketplace can still experience pricing corrections, speculative excess, fraud, operational challenges, and periods of declining activity.
Not every card will appreciate in value. Not every business model will succeed. And recent growth rates should not be assumed to continue indefinitely.
The strongest long-term outlook is one grounded in sustainable demand, sound business practices, consumer confidence, and responsible innovation.
That distinction matters.
An industry does not become economically strong simply because transactions increase.
It becomes strong when businesses can operate sustainably, consumers can participate confidently, and the marketplace continues to create value through changing economic conditions.
This is why education, transparency, accountability, and industry-wide collaboration are so important.
The Bigger Picture: An Industry Worth Building Around
There is a tendency to evaluate the trading card industry solely through the prices of individual cards or the performance of particular products.
That perspective misses the bigger economic story.
The trading card industry is creating businesses, supporting jobs, encouraging technological innovation, attracting new participants, and connecting communities around the world.
The reported increase from $231 million in October 2024 to $1.07 billion in October 2026 is a striking illustration of that momentum.
But perhaps the most encouraging development is the expanding infrastructure being built around the marketplace.
We are seeing an industry with the potential to become more organized, more accessible, more technologically advanced, and more economically significant.
That is a positive outlook not just for collectors, but for the entrepreneurs and organizations investing their time, resources, and expertise into its future.
The CTCA Perspective: The Best Days of the Hobby May Still Be Ahead
At the Certified Trading Card Association, we believe the trading card industry's greatest opportunity is not simply its ability to grow.
It is its ability to grow responsibly, collaboratively, and sustainably.
The hobby has already demonstrated extraordinary resilience, creativity, and entrepreneurial energy.
Now it has an opportunity to build the standards, technology, education, and trust infrastructure necessary to support its next chapter.
The reported numbers are impressive.
The innovation is encouraging.
The entrepreneurial opportunities are substantial.
And the communities supporting this industry remain its greatest strength.
There is every reason to approach the future of the trading card marketplace with optimism—provided that growth is accompanied by the discipline and responsibility necessary to sustain it.
The next great chapter of the trading card industry will not be defined solely by how many cards are sold. It will be defined by the strength of the industry we build around them.
The momentum is real. The opportunities are expanding. And the future is worth investing in.
The Hobby Is Worth Protecting.
Data Note
The October figures above are previously reported Card Ladder marketplace totals, not independently reconciled estimates of the entire trading card economy. Before publication, the underlying Card Ladder reports should be checked for consistent marketplace coverage, transaction definitions, and October 2026 finalization. The growth calculations are arithmetic comparisons of the reported figures, not verified like-for-like industry growth rates.
Nick Jarman
Founder & CEO
Certified Trading Card Association (CTCA)