Few things could better signal the dawn of a new collecting age than a rare Pokémon card, which belonged to Logan Paul and starred in a Netflix show, selling for $16.5 million on a livestream.
The sale made the PSA-10-graded Pikachu Illustrator card the most expensive trading card ever sold. More evidence supporting the arrival of a new era: It didn’t displace a Honus Wagner or a Mickey Mantle card atop the collecting pantheon. Instead, it toppled the months-old record set by a rare Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan card. That card, featuring jersey patches and autographs, famously sold for $12.9 million. In doing so, it ascended to poster child status for the artificial scarcity strategy leveraged by purveyors of collectibles worldwide.
Those landmark sales offer collectors one crucial takeaway: New tastes are emerging as younger generations accumulate wealth. Among other forces, the powerful grasp of nostalgia is pulling them toward different collectibles than their parents.
The rise of Pokémon is particularly illustrative.
First-edition Pokémon cards hit the market in 1999, rising to extreme popularity in the formative years of many Millennial collectors. Those same collectors are now in their 30s and 40s, and they’re rediscovering their old hobby. As a result, the category’s blue chips are rising sharply in price. An index of Pokémon cards compiled by trading card database Card Ladder is up nearly 200% over the last two years at the time of writing.
Pokémon cards have taken root in the interests of even younger collectors as well, ensuring that it’s not just the cards of yesteryear capturing attention. New releases are also surging in popularity. Gemrate, a company that compiles data on card grading, reports that in February 2026, PSA graded just under 1.2 million trading-card-game (TCG) cards. That’s nearly double the number of sports cards graded by the company.
Before the turn of the millennium, TCG barely registered as a collectible category. Properties like “Magic: The Gathering” were only beginning to blaze a trail. Now, its popularity is undeniable, and the money pouring into it is diverted not only from other discretionary spending but also from other potential collectible spending.
Shifts within the sports-card category are similarly striking. The rise of patch-laden cards, like the Bryant-Jordan Dual Logoman, illustrates a shift in the behavior of high-end collectors. Simultaneously, that ascent issues a warning that the more mortal stars of decades past may soon fade into obscurity. Data from Card Ladder shows that 28 cards sold for more than $1 million in 2025. Of those 28, 18 were produced after the turn of the millennium, and 16 of those 18 were patch cards.
When the market booms, FOMO invites younger collectors into the fray, and they chase the stars that matter to them. While the immortals—Ruth, Mantle, Mays and others—have apparently unyielding endurance, younger collectors may not show the same deference to the lesser stars of those eras, opting instead for stars from their youth or speculation on contemporary, emerging talents.
These trends are more marginal shifts in preference, though. What if younger generations lose their taste for a category entirely?
That’s the troublesome development facing aging collectors sitting above an expansive cellar of rare wine and spirits, as the buying pool of younger collectors appears to be drying up. There’s a wealth of research suggesting that Gen Z is materially less interested in drinking alcohol than prior generations. According to Gallup, in the early 2000s, more than 70% of young adults (aged 18 to 34) reported drinking alcohol. In 2025, that figure fell to 50%. Of course, collecting rare wines and spirits does not require consumption, but it stands to reason that collecting demand will largely follow the path of consumption demand.
These trends are only just emerging in many categories, but in fine art, they’ve been in motion for longer. In recent decades, the performance of older oeuvres (Modern Art, Impressionism and Old Masters) has lagged behind more contemporary counterparts. However, these observations aren’t meant to scaremonger or to suggest that everything that’s old is going to zero. Those older eras haven’t eroded materially in value in absolute terms, and their most celebrated artists continue to command top dollar at auction, even as Contemporary speculation takes a back seat.
In sports cards, when the post-Covid hype receded, it was vintage eras that offered more resilient performance relative to their cratering modern peers. Categories like comic books continue to see the oldest grails command record prices, with no rebuttals from contemporary offerings.
Still, allow the emergence of new and different tastes to act as a nudge. Aging collectors would be bold to assume with certainty that their items are of the immortal-icon variety. There are steps they can take today to better prepare themselves, their heirs and their collections for the changing face of collecting.
First, collectors should consider the importance of their collections’ financial status relative to the legacy and personal passions that drove their assembly. This is initially an introspective conversation and, subsequently, one that should involve heirs. Collectors may decide that they’re unconcerned with a potential decline in demand, especially if heirs are interested in stewarding their collections in the future.
However, if heirs respect a collector’s passion but are uninterested in stewardship, the decision-making process becomes more complex. Collectors must confront demographic realities if they are concerned with extracting maximum value from their items. Do their collections appeal to younger generations, or are they liable to fall out of vogue as the years pass? Waning interest may motivate a collector to entertain selling or gifting items sooner rather than later.
Financially minded collectors must take note of these shifts and consider where demand is heading, not where it has been. Pikachu won’t plunge all other collectibles into obsolescence, but even its passing visual resemblance to a “canary in the coal mine” shouldn’t be wholly ignored.
Investment advisory services offered through Destiny Family Office, LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Rankings and/or recognition by unaffiliated rating services and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if Destiny Family Office or its firms are engaged, nor should it be construed as a current or past endorsement of Destiny Family Office.
