Sports cards have been around since the 1800s and people of all ages have been collecting them till the present time. As more and more sports cards come through, baseball cards have become the primary investment. Baseball cards have been the key selling point of sports cards for the older generation. With sports cards, the more famous the player, the higher the card’s value is. Players like Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez and Mike Trout sell for a higher amount than others because they are better than everyone. An autographed Mike Trout 2009 card sold in an online auction for a record 3.9 million. “I have traded with baseball cards for a very long time and it has made me tons of money and the business keeps growing,” freshman Jeremie Tsouck said.

Actors like Bryan Cranston and Charlie Sheen have been collecting sports cards for 30 plus years and have collections that are worth more than $1million. Grading has become a huge factor in the selling of sports cards. Grading cards is when you send a card to companies like PSA and BGS and they send your card back with a grade on how well the card was maintained. The highest you can get is a grade of 10, and the higher the grading, the more valuable the card becomes. eBay is the main website where people sell their cards and packs. Baseball cards are not the only trading cards out there. Soccer cards are just as valuable.  The soccer trading card business works the same as baseball with major companies making the cards like Panini and Topps. Panini Prizm’s are the higher value packs that you can make a profit from. Everyday investors wait outside stores like Target and Walmart for sports cards to be restocked so that they can buy the whole stock and resell the packs on eBay to make double the profit.  Players like Ronaldo and Messi are valuable because they are the two best players in the world right now. “ As I play soccer my friends introduced me to the soccer card business and it is super fun to open packs and to be able to sell them on eBay for profit,” freshman Rishi Bandyopadhyay said.

Every four years the Fifa World Cup happens and this is when Panini comes out with Prizm cards and stickers. During the 2014 world cup, Panini came out with a dual card of Messi and Ronaldo, which is selling right now on eBay for $24,000. Investors go to great lengths just to get these cards, no matter the price.  As time goes on, not only do adults start collecting cards, but kids get interested too.  Now that the sports card business has risen during the pandemic, more sports like basketball and hockey have risen in price with high demand.