2025 Hobby Year in Review: Deals, Scandals, and Record Card Sales
This was a banner year for the collectibles space, with record-setting prices for sports cards, comics, and more. It was also a year marred by scandal, especially the shill bidding stories that rocked the hobby. Below we take a look back at the biggest stories from 2025.
RELATED: Why Panini Kaboom Cards Are So Expensive
Record Highs for Sports Cards
The sports card market reached new heights in 2025, with two sales hitting or exceeding $10 million. In September there was a $10M sale of the one-of-one ungraded 2006-07 Exquisite Collection Michael Jordan and LeBron James Dual Autograph Logoman card. That sale flew under the radar, because just a month earlier was the record-setting $12.9 million Dual Autograph Logoman card featuring Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. The $12.9 million sale topped the 2022 sale of a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card (#311) that sold for $12.6 million.
This year we also witnessed the explosive demand of the Kaboom insert. Prior to 2025, no Kaboom insert had crossed the $250K mark, but 2025 produced the 5-highest Kaboom sales. The biggest ones of the year included a Caitlin Clark Green for $342K, a LeBron James Gold for $354K, a Lionel Messi Gold for $385K, and the record-setting Tom Brady Green Kaboom, which sold for $660K in November.
Shill bidding scandals
Shill bidding, the act of bidding on your own auction to inflate prices, took center stage in 2025.
RELATED: Hobby U: What is 'Shill Bidding' ?
Earlier this year Alt filed a lawsuit against PWCC alleging fraud in multiple card auctions, including those featuring Kobe Bryant and Patrick Mahomes. Alt is asking for nearly $14 million in damages due to PWCC's fraudulent bids.
Then in October a high-end collector named Patrick Ryan was banned from Fanatics Collect after admitting to bidding on his own auction. This led to an outcry on social media channels and a 160% spike in the topic "Shill bidder" on Google, according to Google Trends data.
Trust took a hit in 2025, and the next phase will be defined by whether stronger disclosure and enforcement can restore collector confidence.
Rebirth of Topps as the sun sets for Panini
Panini saw the writing on the wall back in 2023 when they filed a lawsuit against Fanatics, alleging the company created a collectibles monopoly that spans multiple leagues, including the NBA, NFL, and the English Premier League. Topps, which was purchased by Fanatics in 2022, has already started making licensed Topps Chrome basketball cards again, featuring players in team uniforms.
2026 marks the first year of a 20-year deal Fanatics has in place with the NFL Players Association, which means starting in a few months Topps will be one-stop shop for nearly all sports card needs as well as non-sports cards like Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, and more.
Card Grading Consolidation
PSA's parent company Collectors has been busy recently, buying out long-time grading rival Beckett. The Beckett buyout is still hot off the press. The announcement was shared publicly on Monday, December 15.
RELATED: Beckett acquired by PSA parent company
According to the recent announcement, Beckett “will remain an independent brand.” Beckett's prices and processing will also remain unchanged. In 2024 Collectors added SGC to their grading portfolio, leaving CGC and newcomer C3 as the only grading companies not owned by Collectors.
Tom Brady acquires major stake in CardVault
In February, Tom Brady became a 50% owner of the brick-and-mortar sports card and memorabilia retailer CardVault. Under the terms of the deal, the retailer changed its official name to "CardVault by Tom Brady" as well as outlined plans to rapidly expand.
Before Brady's involvement, the retailer's primary footprint was in Massachusetts and New York. However, they've since expanded to Texas, Minnesota, Illinois, and their newest location in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Comic book character demand skyrockets
The demand for comic books and the characters featured in them rose faster than a speeding bullet. Last month we saw the record setting sale of a near-perfect copy of Superman #1, which sold for $9.12 million.
Right on the heels of the Superman comic was the sale of a PSA 9 1966 "The Batman" rookie card, selling for $131K on December 11th. This recent Batman rookie card sale more than tripled the prior record sale of $45K set just last year.
RELATED: Batman rookie card set new record amid hot market
Pokémon card values double
There were some huge Pokémon card stories over the course of 2025, including recent sales of a PSA 10 Charizard 1st Edition and a PSA 8.5 Japanese Promo Pikachu Illustrator.
Generally speaking, Pokémon card collectors were some of the biggest winners in 2025 with year-to-date valuations by December 19th up 100.4%, according to Card Ladder.
What to expect in 2026
As we wind down for the holidays and look ahead to the new year, its the perfect time to make a couple easy predictions for 2026.
First and foremost, look for soccer cards, especially the legends like Messi, Ronaldo, and Mbappé to continue their surge in price and popularity, especially the closer we get to the World Cup. Also keep an eye on sports cards like boxing that have been quiet for the past few years to start to make headlines again. Pokémon cards and collectibles featuring popular comic heroes are also likely to continue to perform well, especially around movie release dates.
In closing, 2025 was truly a breakout year for the hobby and it's unlikely 2026 will be as strong, but we may just as easily be in the early innings of a strong collectibles bull market. We'll know soon enough.
Conor is a life long sports card enthusiast who started collecting in the early ’90s, inspired by hometown heroes like Larry Bird, Paul Pierce, Tom Brady, and David Ortiz. Like many ’90s hoops fans, he also started building (and continues to build) a modest Michael Jordan collection.