With more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, people have a lot more free time on their hands than they know what to do with. For some that freedom was used to get into a hobby, they never had time for, for others, it was used to get back into a lone forgotten hobby.
Right now the nostalgia-fuelled collectable market is booming, according to StockX‘s Big Facts March 2021 report. The online bidding marketplace has seen a rise in purchases for collectables that have ties to gaming like Pokémon and even ‘retro’ Nintendo game consoles like the SNES classic edition, which is seeing an over 50 percent surge in the average premium price of the device.
Everything from sports trading cards to Pokemon is at an all-time high with trading card sales increasing by 4,000 percent in 2020. The year-over-year median price for Pokemon cards has seen a 300 percent increase in 2021 compared to 2020 during the same time. They are not alone in the increased price in the trading card market – basketball card (250 percent), football (200 percent) and baseball (130 percent) – but trading card for the pocket monster catching series is the most sought-after trading card.
The platform, Pokemon Pandemonium in the last 30 days saw a 100 percent increase in sales of Pokemon products on StockX. It doesn’t stop there, on National Pokemon Day the site also saw more Pokemon trades than any other weekend in StockX’s history.
The focus on collectables sales in 2020 has led StockX sellers to adjust and diversify their wares with 77 percent of them selling at minimum one collectable and one pair of sneakers.
The reason behind the surge is possibly motivated for millennial and gen z buyers to rekindle the flame of childhood memories. After a year of uncertainty, working from home (for those who can), safety measures and change it’s not surprising to see consumers want to reconnect back to an earlier part of their lives as a form of escapism.
