for your business information Today’s Card Collectors are Serious Players The value of Pokemon collectors’ cards skyrocketed in 2020. Over the course of a year, the price of one first edition card of the fire-fighting character Charizard, for instance, increased 800 percent with auction prices this February of close to $300,000, reports Reuters. Who’s bidding? Amateur investors, says the global news agency, often armed with lockdown-era savings. Apps like Robinhood are letting them dabble in collectibles with as little as $20. “They’re seeking high returns beyond conventional markets where rocketing prices are prompting warnings of bubbles,” says Reuters. “In turn, they have driven prices on some alternative assets – ranging from vintage handbags to shares in fine art – up several-hundred-percent higher.” Zack Browning, a Pokemon fan from Chicago, purchased four cards in 2016 for less than $5,000 each. Today, he estimates that his overall Pokemon collection is worth between $3 and $5 million, he told Reuters. Zack began his Pokemon investing career after studying finance in college. He says he felt that parts of the Pokemon market were more predictable than stock markets. The market for limited-edition sports trading cards is also
22 May 2021 — edplay.com
soaring, reports The New York Times. Its article pointed to an ultra-rare LeBron James rookie card purchased for $312,000 at auction five years ago that’s reportedly worth more than $5 million today, according to the auction house that sold it. “This is the art of the future for sport enthusiasts who have money and don’t want to buy art,” the card owner, investment manager Aaron Davis, told The Times.
U.S. Demand Fuels Globalization of Shows and Movies Content from abroad constitutes a heaping helping of the American entertainment diet, according to data provided to Axios from demand measurement firm Parrot Analytic. In 2020, demand in the U.S. for non-U.S. content was higher each quarter in 2020 than in the two previous years. The trend started in mid-2019, predating COVID, but the pandemic, streaming and the creator economy fueled its growth. By the fourth quarter of 2020, non-U.S. shows accounted for nearly 30 percent of demand in the U.S. as audiences were introduced to shows and movies from countries that included India, Spain and Turkey. Netflix has been the main catalyst for bringing content across borders, says Brad Grossman, founder and CEO of
