The World Cup kicks off, do you play star cards?Some of the three Messi cards were sold for 1 million yuan, and some were fired for a million yuan. The final price fell to 70,000 yuan.
Beware of the risk of backlash after the original niche collections are stir-fried
In the past one or two weeks, a lot of new soccer cards have been put on the cross-border platform eBay.
In the past two days, the 2022 Qatar World Cup is in full swing. Like the World Cup, which attracts the attention of the majority of fans and is lively, as the competition becomes more and more popular, the originally niche star cards have gradually entered the public eye. According to a Hangzhou player, roughly calculated, there are as many as thousands of live broadcast rooms newly opened on Douyin. On the cross-border e-commerce platform eBay, in the first quarter of 2022 alone, an average of 2 cards will be sold every second. The star cards ushered in the active trading period, and their value has also “increased”. In the past three months or so, someone sold three Messicards and sold them for about 1 million yuan.
“A piece of paper with people drawn on it, the most expensive autograph card can sell for millions of dollars.” The joke said by talk show actor Hu Lan is now reflected in reality. What kind of card is a star card? Why would such an unremarkable little card be sold for a sky-high price?
The World Cup started, this kind of small card became popular
Mr. Lai, a senior football fan, runs an offline experience store of star cards called Bangka in Hangzhou. It only took four years for Mr. Lai to become a practitioner from a young player. “What really made me decide to invest in opening a store this year is because the domestic star card sales business has entered a period of rapid growth since 2019.”
Unlike in China, which has only become more popular in recent years, the history of star cards can be traced back to around 1880. At that time, American tobacco manufacturers attached player cards to cigarette boxes as a gift for buying cigarettes. Later, star cards gradually became part of fan culture. This kind of card made with the image of top athletes in basketball, baseball, football, ice hockey, tennis and other sports is used as a collection by some fans.
In the 1990s, star cards became popular among domestic overseas students and foreign trade practitioners. According to Mr. Lai, at that time, there may not have been more than 1,000 people playing star cards in the whole country. Since 2010, with the emergence of “regular troops” such as Shanghai Rui Card authorized by the official signature, the star card has also changed from a rare item that needs to be purchased by human flesh to an ordinary card that domestic fans can buy immediately.
He introduced that there are currently two ways to purchase and circulate star cards: one is to buy unopened “blind boxes” through topps, PANINI, Upper Deck and other star card issuers with exclusive distribution rights, and the other is to buy opened boxes. A clear card with clear content on the box and card surface. In recent years, thanks to the rise of online live broadcast rooms and the maturity of secondary trading markets such as Katao, Xianyu, and eBay, the original niche player cards have gradually broken the circle.
“In the recent World Cup, I can clearly feel in my online live broadcast room that, unlike the old players who collect cards, the number of novices who are dismantling cards has doubled several times compared to the original.” Form a team on the spot in the live broadcast room, and join the team to open the card.
