27,000 euros for a Charizard: this is the profitable business of collecting cards and toys

Collecting objects has always been a human characteristic. Most of the time, these collections do not have a monetary value, but are more sentimental or made for the adventure of obtaining the object, since not all of them are easy to find. From old coins to soft drink caps, any object can be collected.

Likewise, it is true that in recent times many people have entered this world to earn some extra money or even hit the ground running. And it is that, many old and not so old objects have been revalued, either because there are very few or because they have become fashionable. This situation has made people from all over the world start collecting with the aim of getting a return on their initial investment in the future.

Toys

Percival Lugue holds the Guinness World Record for the most toys collected from fast food chains. Lugue started collecting these types of toys since he was 5 years old in the Philippines. Between Burger King, McDonald's or the Philippine Jollibee chain, it has about 20,000 toys.

As Lugue tells Reuters, he had to build a three-story house to store his toys, since he had no more space in his previous house. He got the toys in various ways: buying directly from the restaurant menu or through gifts or donations from friends.

Victoria Dobrynskaya and Julia Kishilova, authors of the study LEGO: the toy of intelligent investors, explain that, in the period from 1987 to 2015, a total of 28 years, the average annual return of LEGO is 11%. Figures that are not usually seen in other assets such as sovereign bonds or even the stock market.

Adolfo Saro, better known as Kromic Bruck on Twitter and on his other social networks, is a great toy collector. He defines himself as "Freak, collector and reader". His collection is based on the figures from the famous series The Power of the 80s: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

In the past, these toys could cost around 50 euros, right now, they can be sold for around 300/400 euros, multiplying their value in a very short time. "The Masters of the Universe figures that only came out in Italy and Spain can reach 2,000 euros in bids. Sometimes higher amounts. There are others from the same year, such as Titus and Megator, for which up to 15,000 euros are requested. "I have seen paying 5,000 euros for those two figures. They have the price of luxury items," said Saro in El Confidencial.

Letters

Cards are another highly collectible item. There are all kinds: soccer, basketball, baseball, television series like Pokémon or made to play, like Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic the Gathering.

Magic The Gathering is a popular card game, designed by a math teacher, that has been ranked as the most difficult game. As reported by the MIT Technology Review, The Gathering is so difficult that a computer would be unable to figure out the winner, which has lasting implications for the field of game theory.

This game has various cards. Most of them are usually worth pennies, but then there are really expensive cards, especially those of the first editions, which are the ones that are usually revalued the most.

The most expensive card is the Black Lotus and the most expensive edition is the "Alpha". Right now, the reference site to find out the prices of the cards in this game is Card Market, where the cheapest price of this edition is being sold for 40,000 euros and the most expensive for 400,000 euros. There are different editions of this letter, but the cheapest is the "International Edition", the cheapest costs 3,610 euros and the most expensive 14,990 euros.

The cards of the nostalgic Pokémon series became very popular in the year 2020, when great youtubers and streamers began to buy boxes of the first edition.

The box of the first edition of these Pokémon cards is from 1999. As they are not made new and there is a shortage, their price has increased considerably. The price will also depend on what language the cards are in or how well preserved the box is. Currently, according to prices on Ebay, they are between 30,000 and 60,000 euros. Inside these boxes, there are various cards that can come out. Some are worth more and others less.

The one who partly popularized these cards was the famous and controversial youtuber Logan Paul, who is currently also dedicated to boxing. Logan Paul in a fight against the considered best boxer of the last two decades, Floyd Mayweather, carried a Pokémon card hanging with him. This was the Charizard. This Charizard is also special, since there are only three in the world. The previous one was sold in December 2020 for $369,000 (331,626 euros).

After going out in this fight his value was revalued. Experts say that it can be around half a million dollars (449,357 euros), although the same youtuber has said that it is worth a million dollars (898,7145 euros).

Other youtubers have also been encouraged to open this type of card, such as El Rubius. This youtuber opened a total of two boxes in different videos. In the first, he got a Holographic Dark Charizard, which was previously valued at about 10,000 dollars (8,979 euros) and is currently at 20,000 (17,958 euros) and has even been seen for up to 40,000 dollars (35,916 euros).

In another box, in which the envelopes were sold to different youtubers and streamers for 1,000 euros per envelope, he opened a first edition Holographic Charizard, which at the time was for about 30,000 dollars (26,942 euros). Now it is around $50,000 (44,903 euros) and has even been seen for $100,000 (89,807 euros). This touched the youtuber Folagor.