New study reveals the most profitable trading card games

Ten Thousand Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh! sells for a whopping £421.20 per card –

– Pokémon has grossed the most sales and has the highest average sale price per card –

From fantasy to science fiction and even sports, card game enthusiasts have encountered many different collectables card games which enable them to interact with others.

When the COVID-19 pandemic ensued a global lockdown, the world of collectable trading cards went wild. Surprisingly, a series of record-breaking auctions took place, including that of the ‘Shadowless Charizard’ Pokémon card, which sold for US $369,000 (£300,600.32).

The trend was more than a few big sales too: eBay reported a 500 percent increase in trading card sales volume in 2020 and across all types of cards, sales in Europe have more than doubled, and in the UK they’ve tripled.

Considering these findings, online gaming company Solitaired.com produced research to reveal the top ten anime cards with the highest average selling prices.

The company identified the five most popular trading card games based on Google searches and found game databases containing all their characters. These were subsequently vetted to identify the top 100 most popular characters in each. Each of the 100 characters were then input into eBay’s market research tool to identify average price, total sales, and top card data.*

So, if you have any collectors’ cards at home, now might be the time to look through them, as they could be worth A LOT…

RANK
CHARACTER
GAME
TOTAL GROSSED
AVERAGE PRICE
1
Ten Thousand Dragon
Yu-Gi-Oh!
£163,721.25
£421.20
2
Frieza
Dragon Ball Z
£2,208.06
£110.16
3
Lugia
Pokémon
£1,494,515.61
£106.11
4
Pot of Prosperity
Yu-Gi-Oh!
£205,407.90
£98.82
5
Elemental HERO Air Neos
Yu-Gi-Oh!
£29,381.94
£92.34
6
Forbidden Droplet
Yu-Gi-Oh!
£283,912.29
£91.53
7
Son Goku
Dragon Ball Z
£291,524.67
£89.91
8
Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon
Yu-Gi-Oh!
£286,502.67
£85.05
9
Goku Black/Zamasu
Dragon Ball Z
£2,783.97
£81.81
10
Charizard
Pokémon
£34,052,444.55
£79.38

In first position, the card with the highest average selling price is Ten Thousand Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh!, a monster printed in commemoration of the 10,000-card made by Konami. The total grossed from sales of this card is £163,721.25 with an average price of £421.20 per card.

Yu-Gi-Oh!, followed the success of Pokémon, with a multi-pronged approach of combining a card game with an anime series, which helped it sell over 35 billion cards since the game launched in Japan in 1999. According to Google Trends, the game has finally exceeded Magic: The Gathering as the most-searched game, in the United States.

In second position with the highest average card sale price is the Frieza character card from Dragon Ball Z. Despite the total sales of this card being relatively low at £2,208.06, the average sale price is a respectable £110.16 per card. Dragon Ball Z is the long-running sequel to the anime Dragon Ball. The series is a close reworking of the second part of the Dragon Ball manga.

In third place, is the Lugia character card from the Pokémon franchise. While the Pokémon world has around 900 Pokémon characters, some are rarer than others, like Legendary Pokémon. This niche group contains some of the most powerful and difficult-to-find monsters in the series.

One of these Legendries is Lugia, with the character card grossing £1,494,515.61, with an average price of £106.11 per card.

Pot of Prosperity (£98.82 average) and Elemental HERO Air Neos (£92.34) both from the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise complete the top five cards with the highest average selling price per card.

The highest-grossing character card overall is Charizard (£34,052,444.55), from the Pokémon franchise, but the average selling price is only £79.38 dollars per card.

It’s been 22 years since Pokémon the card game was launched, and in that time more than 34 billion cards have been printed and sold in 13 languages and 76 global territories.

This helps to explain why Pokémon has grossed both the most sales overall and the highest overall average price per card ($38.06). This is followed by Magic the Gathering, which has an average card price of $20.91 overall.

Game
Total Grossed
Avg. Price
Pokémon
£138,173,446.09
£30.83
Magic the Gathering
£9,508,746.84
£16.94
Yu-Gi-Oh!
£4,770,391.55
£17.23
Dragon Ball Z
£2,411,780.98
£15.46
Digimon
£652,937.82
£11.88

Neal Taparia, CEO, Solitaired.com commented on the findings saying:

“It’s great to see the popularity of anime trading cards continue to rise, especially Yu-Gi-Oh! Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z with its cards becoming an enduring, advantageous commodity for the 21st century.

“These cards create a sense of nostalgia for many of us, which means fans of the games can enjoy childhood memories, with a community of like-minded enthusiasts to this very day.”