Why Pokémon Cards Are Outperforming the S&P 500

NEW YORK — The Pokémon Trading Card Game debuted in Japan in October 1996, alongside the franchise’s first video games. Nearly three decades later, Pokémon has become the highest-grossing media property in global history, while its trading cards have developed into a sophisticated financial market.

That market is drawing investors as persistent macroeconomic headwinds unsettle traditional financial markets. The U.S. national debt is projected to surpass $40 trillion, real wage growth remains stagnant, grocery prices are rising, and volatility in the bond market is pushing the 10-year Treasury yield toward 5%. Traditional safe havens are facing unprecedented pressure.

Historical market data compiled by *The Washington Post* estimates that Pokémon trading cards generated a return of approximately 3,821% between 2004 and 2025. The benchmark S&P 500 index grew by 483% over the same period. Venture capitalists and institutional investors have taken notice of the difference.

Peter Levin, 55, has collected sports cards, comic books, and memorabilia since childhood. As co-founder and managing director of Griffin Gaming Partners, a venture capital firm with over $1 billion in assets under management, he views trading cards through both a personal and professional lens.

“There has been a trend for people—while expanding at the same time with all these bleeding-edge technologies—to also kind of circle back to real-life experiences,” Levin said. “More tangible things, and trading cards are very much that. There’s a stickiness to it. There’s a community to it.”

The movement toward physical collectibles comes as digital alternatives such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have experienced severe market corrections. Trading cards, meanwhile, have shifted from a nostalgic hobby into a highly lucrative asset class and part of a broader migration toward tangible assets.

The industry’s professionalization depends heavily on third-party authentication and grading companies, including Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), Beckett Grading Services (BGS), and Certified Guaranty Company (CGC). These institutions assess centering, surface wear, edges, and corners, then grade a card on a strict 1-to-10 scale.

Standardized grading has commoditized trading cards. Buyers and sellers can use global digital marketplaces and auction houses to establish transparent, standardized prices, giving the market a liquidity structure that helped drive its expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Locked-down consumers returned to childhood hobbies en masse, while digital influencers and speculative investors began treating rare cards as liquid securities. eBay reported that its domestic trading card sales rose by 142% in 2020, and sales of Pokémon cards alone increased by more than 574% during the same period.

A 1999 first-edition, shadowless holographic Charizard card sold at auction for $369,000 in 2020. Widely considered the holy grail of the base set, it was surpassed the following year when digital creator Logan Paul acquired a pristine, PSA Grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card for $5.275 million.

The Pikachu Illustrator card was awarded to winners of an illustration contest in Japan in 1998 and is exceptionally rare. In a subsequent transaction in February, it was valued at approximately $16.5 million.

Levin attributes the market’s current strength partly to a predictable generational wealth transfer. People who played with and collected trading cards in the late 1990s and early 2000s have reached their peak earning years, giving them significant disposable income for alternative investments with deep personal resonance.

“Perhaps modern art or bobbleheads or watches isn’t their thing, but trading cards are,” Levin said. His own collection includes half a million trading cards, roughly 100,000 of them Pokémon cards, along with baseball, basketball, and cross-promotional collectibles such as a Los Angeles Dodgers and *One Piece* anime collaboration card. He also owns over 25,000 comic books and an exhaustive collection of Shohei Ohtani bobbleheads.

The market’s reach extends beyond Pokémon. Hasbro continues to expand its *Magic: The Gathering* franchise, which pioneered the trading card game genre in 1993. German games publisher Ravensburger has experienced massive demand for its Disney-licensed *Lorcana* trading card game, while Disney has partnered with major card manufacturer Topps to produce collectible card products spanning its media properties.

The global trading card market is estimated to be worth as much as $50 billion annually. For Levin, the sector’s longevity is also tied to its low barrier to entry and cross-border appeal.

Unlike fine art, classic cars, or commercial real estate, which require substantial capital outlays that exclude the average retail investor, trading cards operate on a level playing field. Anyone buying a standard booster pack has an equal statistical opportunity to pull a high-value, rare card.

Levin previously joked to *The Hollywood Reporter* that Pokémon cards could serve as a viable global currency in a post-apocalyptic society because of their universal recognition and intrinsic value. Speaking to the broader economic reality, he said the franchise offers a uniquely democratic investment landscape.

“As a global currency, everybody knows Pokémon, it’s big everywhere,” Levin said. “It’s accepted by all cultures and societies, and it’s celebrated and it’s cross-generational.”

“If you can combine your passion with an investment strategy, or at least a sub-vertical within your investment strategy,” Levin said, “why not?”